• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

Bob's 2019/2020 season GLOG - Thunder Downunder

I had a great season last summer. Plants all over the place. I think I had about 28 varieties and 60 or so plants.
 
All of them were great producers after I got the fruit fly under control. I didn't get any fruit fly the previous year so they took me by surprise and devastated my plants early in the season. I was ready to give up at one point.
 
Some of them are even still giving me fresh pods now in the middle of our winter. Amazing considering we are regularly getting temps down to 0°c overnight.
 
Anyway,
 
This year I am cutting it back a few notches, and will be better prepared for the ff.
 
I am going to rip out all the plants from last season and grow all new varieties this time (except the ones that are in the ground, if they overwinter then they can stay).
 
So I have set myself a goal of 10 varieties. One of each, maybe two of some. All grown in pots. All grown under fruit fly netting.
 
This years grow list
 
Ghost Bhut Jolokia
Yellow Reaper
Thor's Thunderbolt
Aleppo
Bonda Mahala
Pink Tiger
Ma Wartryx
Bad Brains
Lombok
Peach Bhut Jolokia
 
 
 
Tonight I planted the first seeds in the grow tent.
 
A month later than last year, but I had a few trips away planned which would have left them unattended and I doubt they would have survived.
 
 I haven't planted all of them yet because I didn't have enough jiffy pods to start them, but the rest won't be long.
 
Starting off with 5 seeds of each to see how that goes.
 
Fingers crossed.
 
20190723_191806.jpg
 
Click to expand...
Thanks Paul. I think it is mainly eucalyptus forests, but fire is indiscriminate in what it takes, everything is so dry at the moment. That plus the politicians have refused to allow any back burning over the last few years so the fuel load is enormous.
 
We are currently in the worst drought in recorded history. Next Tuesday (the 10th) level 2 water restrictions are being introduced, which means we can no longer use the garden hose to water the garden. Not sure how that will affect my season, but I do have a rainwater tank that is mainly full and I am going to set up a drip irrigation system from that, so should be ok for a while at least.
 
 
The area is actually outdoors under shade cloth. Last season my plants were being being devastated by Queensland Fruit Fly, so I set up the exclusion netting under the shade cloth to keep them away (worked exceptionally well too). This year I am putting as much as I can under the netting from the start.
 
bob65 said:
Well, it is a start. It is beer o'clock. At least most of them are in there now.
Click to expand...
 
My favorite time of a work day!  Congrats on the great start Bob!  I'm looking forward to seeing things really take off outside.  Hopefully it won't be as bad a year for the fruit fly as last year was - might everything fit under the net or will you definitely be growing plants in the open air too?
 
Good call getting under the bug netting early!
Hope that minimizes the problem this season.
 
Thanks CD.
 
I am not growing as many different varieties as last season (held myself back a bit). I am hoping to fit all the new ones in the tent, plus maybe another 2 or 3 that I decided to keep from last season. At this point I am thinking that all that I have growing in containers is going under the net, what doesn't fit will be rehomed.
 
Other than that, there are still some from last season growing in the ground. They are not under netting and will have to take their chances. I was to a large degree successful at controlling the fruit fly last year using traps and sprays (changed the season from 99% loss to 90% saved) so I hope that is the same this year.
 
PaulG said:
Good call getting under the bug netting early!
Hope that minimizes the problem this season.
Click to expand...
 
 
It should do.
 
Last season I had zero fruit fly inside the net so I hope this year is the same
 
Hey Bob, just wondering what's going on down in Oz
as far as pepper growing season.  I don't see a lot of
our southern hemisphere bros and sisters in the grow
logs this season. Wondering if the terrible fires down
there this summer are impacting the 2019-2020 growing
weather.
 
Hope all is well there. Your plants still fruit fly free?
 
Hope you are having a good holiday season.
:cheers: Happy New Year!
 
Thanks for asking Paul.

The weather has been unusually hot already and that I am sure is having an impact. The drought is bad. I think they are calling it level 2 water restrictions at the moment, meaning we can't even use a hose to water the plants. Watering can only. I have a rain water tank which is helping.

The fires are bad at the moment. Not too close to me so no danger from them, but smoke in the air is kind of normal now days so that must be impacting as well.

My plants are doing ok, but seem a bit slower than last year. I am getting a few ripe pods here and there but not a lot yet.

So far fruit fly free. But not expecting any inside the net. Touch wood.

I am at work right now but will go out and take some photos when I get home and post them up, I have been neglecting my glog lately.

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk
 
Glad to hear all is well there, more or less.
I hope you get some relief from the heat
and smoke.
 
Good luck pulling in some more pods. You
should be coming into prime pod season
about now.
 
Here are a couple of pics from inside the netting
 
20191228_185401.jpg

 
20191228_185430.jpg

 
Only a few pods here and there at this point.
 
Aleppo ripening nicely
 
20191228_185411.jpg

 
I have 2 Aji Cito plants growing outside the net that over wintered from last year. One is about 5 foot tall, and covered in smallish (compared with what it gave last year) green pods, this one was my 2018 Southern Hemisphere growdown plant. The other one is smaller an bushier and only gave a dozen or so pods last season, it is in a different part of the yard and copped a lot of heat and sun reflecting from a wall. This year it has shade cloth over it and is full of big juicy looking (but still green) pods.
 
Photos of them will follow when I get a chance.
 
Some days are smokier than others, this was just the other day when it was particularly bad
 
20191210_123102.jpg
 
Mr.joe said:
That smoke is bad. I have seen smoke like that here, but usually only a day or two. I hope they can get a handle on the fire soon.
Click to expand...
 
Given the weather forecast, that doesn't look too likely.
It's going to take mother nature to put those out with
widespread rain.
 
My heart goes out to folk in Oz - and to other places
where devastating wildfires have ravaged the environment.
 
Thanks for the thoughts.
 
Fortunately, the fires aren't too close to me to be worried.
 
Unfortunately, long range forecast says no significant rain in NSW until late February. And the hottest part of summer is yet to come.
 
 
I have it lucky though, there has been widespread emergency evacuations all over the country today because weather conditions have kicked the fires up a notch.
 
Screenshot (62).png

 
To put this fire map into perpective, 7.5 million acres have burnt in the state of NSW - so far.
 
 
Edit to add: According to this link https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50951043 9.9 million acres.
 
Yesterday (New Years Eve) it got to 45°c (113°f) in Sydney with the humidity of 8% and strong winds, recipe for fire disaster.
 
It was hotter elsewhere in the country.
 
bob65 said:
Yesterday (New Years Eve) it got to 45°c (113°f) in Sydney with the humidity of 8% and strong winds, recipe for fire disaster.
 
It was hotter elsewhere in the country.
Click to expand...
 
That is really discouraging news.
 
Plants are looking good Bob. All the best for the new year and everyone's safety. Hopefully you get the cooler spell of weather that we have just had.
We had a big fire 15mins up the road from us the other week, it travelled away from us though. Bit scary.
 
Those kind of remind me of the Aji Amarillo
leaves on the plants I have grown.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top