Well, last year, i had a pretty successful grow, but an utter failure of a GLOG. I wasn't nearly as diligent with updates as i ought've been, and i never got good with the pictures while posting from my phone, which is downright pathetic. I have to confess, i was posting more on FB, i guess because it's so convenient to upload pictures whilst you're taking them. But, overall, the FB Pepper Ppl aren't as rad as THP Pepper Ppl, not by a mile. I guess there's lots of overlap, and lots of cool pepper ppl on FB that ain't here on THP, but there's just a zillion douches on FB and I'm sad to admit it, but the truth is.... FB turns me into a Douche, too.
One exception is a tiny and mostly inactive cabal of Scotch Bonnet Afficionados, populated by folks that are by and large great ppl, who promptly elected me as their Emperor (or maybe just their Mayor) so i sent then lots of cheap SFRBs and seeds and powder, all Scotch Bonnet stuff. It was fun.
But other than that, posting about Chiles on FB left me feeling unfulfilled. Posting on THP makes me happy, even if it seems to have slowed down.
There's a few variables involved with my 2020 grow that haven't been sorted out yet. I'm waiting on some specific seeds from generous THP Members, plus i gotta source some Guajillos locally. I need to figure out whether or not the City of Gloucester is going to sell our Community Garden to developers who plan to pave it so the residents of luxury apartments can park where Scotch Bonnets once grew. I need to convince my wife to not divorce me, and if she doesn't, i want to convince her to build more raised beds in the yard with me. If she does divorce me, i gotta convince her to let me keep the house, in which case i can plant every square inch of the yard, but if i gotta move, it will destroy my garden plans, for sure.
That kinda reads like I'm joking, and i guess it has a touch of jocularity, but alas, it's all based on truth. Paved parking lots replacing community gardens, marital strife, widespread uncertainty... There's trouble in paradise.
But, yeah, once i get a more realistic view of my square footage, I'll have a better plan in place as to what i intend to plant. I'm actually crystal-clear as to what i want to grow, but the quantity of plants repping each variety is kinda up in the air. . .
I've decided to grow slightly fewer plants altogether, but far fewer varieties, overall. I'm trying to keep it under two dozen types of peppers, and less than 150 plants. For obvious reasons, and also bc i barter lots of chiles to local eateries, i am pretty much obligated to grow tons of Yella Scotch Bonnets and Zapotec Jalapeños. This year, i don't plan on growing any Yella Scotch Bonnets other than TFMs. My Bonnet test panel determined that Dreadies are a tiny bit more delicious than TFMs, but my digital scale confirmed that my TFMs produced far more pods per plant, with the average pod size being far larger, plus the seeds just germinated more reliably and the plants grew more vigorously so, all around, the TFMs performed best for me, multiple years in a row...
So, here's the intended grow list, as of right now, as best as i can recall. I am sure I'm forgetting something, and I'm also sure that I'll end up changing my plans at some point. But, here's the list as of right now:
Chinense:
7Pot Brainstrain Red
7Pot Brainstrain Yellow
7Pot Primo (Red)
Aji Jobito
Bahama Goat
Bhut Orange Copenhagen (OR some weird Orange Super that came from (not)Red Brainstrain seeds that i got from JediSushi... Most likely, I'll grow both..?)
Big Black Mama
Jamaican Hot Chocolate
Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion
Naga Morich
Orange Habanero
Safi Red
TFM Scotch Bonnet
Yeller Fatalii
Annuums:
de Arbol
Guajillo
Jamaican Mushroom jawns
Mulatto
Pasilla Negra
Poblano
Serrano
Tien Tsin (?)
Zapotec Jalapeño
I've decided that i don't want to grow Baccatums this year bc i find them annoying to start indoors (sooooo xxxtra tall & leggy!) and annoying in my beds (soooooo vine-like and huge and prone to taking over) and annoyingly slow to ripen. But, even as i type this, i suspect I'm going to regret not growing any baccatums. So, maybe my resolve will weaken and I'll end up growing a few?
I also got a cool assortment of obscure (for a chump like me, anyway) pubescens seeds, from yet another very generous THP member. I'm actually scared to try to grow them, as i feel certain they'll fail in my Jersey climate. But i am fascinated by the idea, and the few Manzanos I've tried were among my favorites chiles of all time...
The idea is to grow more plants representing the usable "everyday" varieties, and fewer SuperHots. Yes, there are lots of Supers on my list, buy I'll be growing larger quantities of the annuums and hab-level chinense...and relatively few of each Super. I've found i like making big batches of sauce and jelly and powder when i can be more consistent with what chiles are being used, so having more pods of fewer varieties helps me plan consistent recipes better. (I made some killer sauce from all the shit i had left after using the Bonnets and Jalapeños before last frost. It was fantastic, but so frustrating that i could never replicate it in the future...)
I have got to remind myself that this hobby oughta be fun, so i can stop getting into my own head and just enjoy the grow instead. I had my best year so far last year, and my worst year the first year. So, if that trend continues, this year should be even better than my 2019 season...
Proposed timeline, just to keep me honest:
-all seeds started by February 15 (chinense by February 1)
-no more than 216 plants started to solo cup size
-find homes for culls before May 1
-plants all in the ground by May 1st, if the Almanac's final-frost date seems like it's gonna be accurate
-once i have true leaves on my seedlings, i WILL update this GLOG once a week, at minimum, until first-frost. Should i ever miss a week, i gotta do two posts the next week.
I guess i oughta spring for the premium membership, too, so i can upload pictures easily and reliably. Looking at this huge post, with no images, i realize that pics make or break a GLOG...
As always, thanks for reading. Unsolicited advice, impartial opinions, unwarranted heckling, and hassles are, of course, welcome. But i do rely on your support and encouragement to keep me growing and glogging properly.
-rob
One exception is a tiny and mostly inactive cabal of Scotch Bonnet Afficionados, populated by folks that are by and large great ppl, who promptly elected me as their Emperor (or maybe just their Mayor) so i sent then lots of cheap SFRBs and seeds and powder, all Scotch Bonnet stuff. It was fun.
But other than that, posting about Chiles on FB left me feeling unfulfilled. Posting on THP makes me happy, even if it seems to have slowed down.
There's a few variables involved with my 2020 grow that haven't been sorted out yet. I'm waiting on some specific seeds from generous THP Members, plus i gotta source some Guajillos locally. I need to figure out whether or not the City of Gloucester is going to sell our Community Garden to developers who plan to pave it so the residents of luxury apartments can park where Scotch Bonnets once grew. I need to convince my wife to not divorce me, and if she doesn't, i want to convince her to build more raised beds in the yard with me. If she does divorce me, i gotta convince her to let me keep the house, in which case i can plant every square inch of the yard, but if i gotta move, it will destroy my garden plans, for sure.
That kinda reads like I'm joking, and i guess it has a touch of jocularity, but alas, it's all based on truth. Paved parking lots replacing community gardens, marital strife, widespread uncertainty... There's trouble in paradise.
But, yeah, once i get a more realistic view of my square footage, I'll have a better plan in place as to what i intend to plant. I'm actually crystal-clear as to what i want to grow, but the quantity of plants repping each variety is kinda up in the air. . .
I've decided to grow slightly fewer plants altogether, but far fewer varieties, overall. I'm trying to keep it under two dozen types of peppers, and less than 150 plants. For obvious reasons, and also bc i barter lots of chiles to local eateries, i am pretty much obligated to grow tons of Yella Scotch Bonnets and Zapotec Jalapeños. This year, i don't plan on growing any Yella Scotch Bonnets other than TFMs. My Bonnet test panel determined that Dreadies are a tiny bit more delicious than TFMs, but my digital scale confirmed that my TFMs produced far more pods per plant, with the average pod size being far larger, plus the seeds just germinated more reliably and the plants grew more vigorously so, all around, the TFMs performed best for me, multiple years in a row...
So, here's the intended grow list, as of right now, as best as i can recall. I am sure I'm forgetting something, and I'm also sure that I'll end up changing my plans at some point. But, here's the list as of right now:
Chinense:
7Pot Brainstrain Red
7Pot Brainstrain Yellow
7Pot Primo (Red)
Aji Jobito
Bahama Goat
Bhut Orange Copenhagen (OR some weird Orange Super that came from (not)Red Brainstrain seeds that i got from JediSushi... Most likely, I'll grow both..?)
Big Black Mama
Jamaican Hot Chocolate
Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion
Naga Morich
Orange Habanero
Safi Red
TFM Scotch Bonnet
Yeller Fatalii
Annuums:
de Arbol
Guajillo
Jamaican Mushroom jawns
Mulatto
Pasilla Negra
Poblano
Serrano
Tien Tsin (?)
Zapotec Jalapeño
I've decided that i don't want to grow Baccatums this year bc i find them annoying to start indoors (sooooo xxxtra tall & leggy!) and annoying in my beds (soooooo vine-like and huge and prone to taking over) and annoyingly slow to ripen. But, even as i type this, i suspect I'm going to regret not growing any baccatums. So, maybe my resolve will weaken and I'll end up growing a few?
I also got a cool assortment of obscure (for a chump like me, anyway) pubescens seeds, from yet another very generous THP member. I'm actually scared to try to grow them, as i feel certain they'll fail in my Jersey climate. But i am fascinated by the idea, and the few Manzanos I've tried were among my favorites chiles of all time...
The idea is to grow more plants representing the usable "everyday" varieties, and fewer SuperHots. Yes, there are lots of Supers on my list, buy I'll be growing larger quantities of the annuums and hab-level chinense...and relatively few of each Super. I've found i like making big batches of sauce and jelly and powder when i can be more consistent with what chiles are being used, so having more pods of fewer varieties helps me plan consistent recipes better. (I made some killer sauce from all the shit i had left after using the Bonnets and Jalapeños before last frost. It was fantastic, but so frustrating that i could never replicate it in the future...)
I have got to remind myself that this hobby oughta be fun, so i can stop getting into my own head and just enjoy the grow instead. I had my best year so far last year, and my worst year the first year. So, if that trend continues, this year should be even better than my 2019 season...
Proposed timeline, just to keep me honest:
-all seeds started by February 15 (chinense by February 1)
-no more than 216 plants started to solo cup size
-find homes for culls before May 1
-plants all in the ground by May 1st, if the Almanac's final-frost date seems like it's gonna be accurate
-once i have true leaves on my seedlings, i WILL update this GLOG once a week, at minimum, until first-frost. Should i ever miss a week, i gotta do two posts the next week.
I guess i oughta spring for the premium membership, too, so i can upload pictures easily and reliably. Looking at this huge post, with no images, i realize that pics make or break a GLOG...
As always, thanks for reading. Unsolicited advice, impartial opinions, unwarranted heckling, and hassles are, of course, welcome. But i do rely on your support and encouragement to keep me growing and glogging properly.
-rob
)
