Bold Badger 2018 grow log

So I have about 200 plants this year, about the same as last year.  Here's the breakdown:

Pepper Quantity
Yellow 7 Pot 80
MOA Scotch Bonnet 39
White 7 Pot 9
Carolina Reaper 4
Yellow Devils Tongue 5
Moruga Scorpion 3
Tobago Seasoning Pepper 8
Red Bhut 24
Yellow Fatali 19
Yellow Bhut 2
Indian Carbon Bhut 1
Yellow TS Moruga 2
7 Pot Jonah 2
Choc Scotch Bonnet 1
Red Fatali 5

I started them on 3/12, then started a bunch more two weeks later to replace the ones that didn't sprout, so 40 or so of them are a bit behind the others.  After a couple of weeks of moving them around the yard to harden off, I got them in the ground last weekend, 5/20.  About a week later than last year, and about two weeks later than I really could have, given the better weather we've had this year.  These plants will all be used for my sauce.
 
 
The story so far:
 

 
3/12.  The bionic seed starter rack returns, now with an extra level.                                                                                     
 
 

 
Closeup, those are the curry trees on the left.
 
 

 
3/22.  We have liftoff!
 
 

 
4/8.  Aren't they adorable?
 
 

 
4/13   The two trays on the upper right are the ones I replanted on 3/30.
 
 

 
4/27   32 very snug Yellow 7 Pots.
 
 

 
5/11   The day I moved them outside to harden off.
 
 

 
5/13   A very healthy looking Yellow 7 Pot.  They started growing much faster once I got them outside.
 
 

 
5/20   Plant out day!
 
 

 
Roots.
 
 

 
5/25   Today.  This is site #2, 24 Ghosts in this spot.
 
 

 
Site #3, which is about 100 feet away from site #2.  19 Yellow Fatalis, 3 Yellow TS Morugas, and 3 7 Pot Jonahs.
 
 

 
The big spot, 152 plants here total, all of the following: Yellow 7 Pots, MOAs, Reapers, Yellow Devil's Tongues, Moruga Scorpions, Tobagos.
 
 

 
The two big curry trees doing well.
 
 

 
The baby curry trees, looking pretty scraggly.  I'm hoping recover and wind up producing a ton of leaves for me.
 
 
That's all for now folks!  I'll keep this updated as the season progresses.
 
 
Here's a link to my 2017 grow log for those interested:
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/64240-2017-grow-log-200-plants-30-varieties/

 

[Hybrid Mode 01]

     It's nice to see where that delicious hot sauce gets its start. Keep doin' what you're doin', man. Whatever it takes to keep that 7 pot yellow sauce on the shelves! That stuff is stupid, stupid good.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Thanks!  I'm almost out of that one so get it before it's gone.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Gave the plants a dose of fish fert today, about 3/4 of a gallon divided among all the plants.  I wasn't really measuring, I just filled up a 5 gallon bucket and added enough to make it look nice and chocolate milk like.  They were looking pretty weak for a while after transplanting but they seem to finally be recovering.    Planning to top them around the end of the month.  Last year I think I topped them too early, a bunch of branches ended up snapping under their own weight.  I think giving them more time to develop a stronger main stem will help prevent that.
 
These pics are from today.
 
 

 
The ghosts.
 
 

 
Fatalis.
 
 

 
The big spot.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Just a quick update.  The plants are growing, slowly but surely.  Something keeps digging them up at the big spot, I'll probably wind up losing at least 20 plants.  I suspect it's a groundhog.  I re-buried all the ones that weren't totally dead and sprinkled cinnamon all over the place.  I'm hoping that will deter the creature, whatever it is.  Now that they're a little bigger, I also went around to all of the plants and bunched straw up around the stems, which should help keep moisture locked in so I won't have to water them as much.  I've been topping a few plants here and there, trying to catch them right before the top splits into two.  At this point most of the plants at the smaller spot have been topped.
 
 

 
The big spot.
 
 
 

 
Closeup of a few plants at the big spot.
 
 
 

 
The ghosts.  There are people growing bell peppers nearby, so I'm just hoping they'll be flowering at different times.  I'm planning to save seeds from these, like I did with the scotch bonnets and yellow 7 pots I grew here over the past two years.  The bulk of the plants at the big spot are from those seeds, so I guess I'll find out for sure when they fruit if they are indeed true to type.  If they'd gotten crossed with an annuum they would have shot up a lot more by now though.
 
 
 

 
Fatalis.  In the front is an example of one I probably waited a little too long to top.  I was hoping to save seeds from these too, but I wound up with only 19 and I wanted to grow 25 plants here so I made up the difference with some other varieties.  I'll probably still save some but I'll put a question mark next to them until I can grow a few out next year and find out for sure if they're crossed or not.  Both the yellow fatalis and the ghosts at the other spot here were seeds ordered from pepperlover so they should be legit.  I used to have this awesome gigantic ghost variety, but I have a bunch of packets labeled similarly and I'm not sure which ones were from the first year, when I know they weren't crossed, and from subsequent years, when some of them did get crossed.  I grew some from one packet last year and they definitely weren't the ghosts I was looking for.  I really need to grow one of each of them in separate spots to find the real one and then save tons of those seeds.  I can't find any pics of the originals, but they were freaking huge.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Things are kicking into high gear now.  Got little pods on a few plants.  I topped about half at the big spot and all at the small spot.  Should be an interesting comparison since last year I topped them all.  In fact I don't think I've ever not topped a pepper plant.
 
 

 
The big spot, in need of some weeding.
 
 

 
Plants at the big spot.
 
 

 
Ghosts.
 
 

 
Fatalis.  That big one is kicking ass.
 
 
So far so good on the groundhog problem, haven't lost any more plants.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Things are progressing nicely, but I think the plants are suffering a bit with the crazy heat lately.  It's been in the upper 90s constantly.  The plants at the big spot seem to be doing better, maybe because they have more shade.
 
 

 
The big spot.  After I took this pic I raked up all the grass clippings and mulched the plants with them.  I didn't do that last year but it's working out nicely.  The groundhog is to thank for that big spot with no plants.  I've seen it a couple of times, galloping away and crashing through the woods like the t-rex in Jurassic Park, it's huge.
 
 
 
 

 
Plants at the big spot.
 
 
 
 

 
Ghosts at the smaller spot, suffering from the heat.
 
 
 
 

 
Fatalis.  Suffering a bit more.
 
 
 
 
In other news, I got the go ahead from the food inspector to start turning my basement into a commercial kitchen.  At least enough of one for the fermentation phase, I'm still planning to do the cooking and bottling at the really nice one in Jackson county.  They have this awesome bottling machine that's worth the money alone.  Here's a video:

I always joke with people at the farmer's market, don't worry I used a certified commercial kitchen, I'm not just some guy making hot sauce in his basement.  I guess I'll have to retire that one, lol.  If I can't get it done in time I have some friends who are also working on building a commercial kitchen a lot closer than the other one I used, so I might wind up there.  And if that falls through I'll just use the same place as last year, not that I have any complaints there, it's just a longer drive.  Last year I would go pick a couple hundred pounds of peppers on Friday night, then drive about an hour to get there the next morning, chop up peppers for 12 hours, drive home, then go back up the next day for another long ass day of chopping peppers.  It would be a lot more convenient if I could go pick 50 pounds or so after work and do up one carboy every night of the week if I want to.  I'll also be able to monitor the fermentation much closer, regulate the temp better, and cap the carboys off when main fermentation is done, so I'm less likely to get kahm.
 
Now I just need to go buy a bunch of drywall and stuff and get to work.  If only I weren't such a lazy bastard, lol.

 

[karoo]

Looking great,
Best of luck with the sauce business, keep us updated.

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Tapatalk

 

[Trident chilli]

Even in the hot temperatures your plants look healthy... good luck with your sauce making with nearly forty MoA plants you have got a great base ingredient

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Update time!  The plants at the big spot are doing great.  The yellow 7 pots are loaded, the scotch bonnets less so, but I'm still not complaining.  I'm also noticing tons of volunteers popping up from pods that fell on the ground last year.  They're all tiny but I'm letting them go just for the hell of it.  Also comparing the bushiness of the topped plants to the un-topped ones, I see no difference whatsoever, thus proving beyond a reasonable doubt that topping isn't really necessary.  That's science yo.
 
 

 
The big spot.
 
 
 

 
Side view.
 
 
 

 
White 7 pots.  These were seeds I saved from last year so there's a good chance they got crossed, but they look about right so far.
 
 
 

 
Scotch bonnets, one mutant.
 
 
 

 
Yellow 7 pots.  So tasty.
 
 
 

 
Another view.  The groundhog was busy on this end too.
 
 
 

 
More scotch bonnets.
 
 
 

 
The ghosts are looking terrible.  I'm starting to think that maybe the problem isn't the high heat, but bad soil and/or bugs.
 
 
 

 
Fatalis at the smaller spot, doing a bit better than the ghosts at least.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Got some new pics today.  Things are coming along nicely.
 
 
 
 

 
Overall shot.
 
 
 
 

 
The white 7 pots still looking as they should.
 
 
 
 

 
One majestic yellow 7 pot, destined for a stir fry.
 
 
 
 

 
Side shot.  So bushy.

 

[alkhall]

Plants are looking great.

 

[bob65]

Big spot is looking fantastic.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

A few new pics.
 
 

 
The big spot, even more overgrown than last time, if such a thing is possible.  Several of the volunteers from last year are producing pods now, I've got a couple of loaded aji pineapples and turkish snakes.
 
 

 
Some morugas.
 
 

 
White 7 pots.
 
 
 

 
Side view, with a partially collapsed yellow 7 pot.
 
 

 
Plumbing is done in the kitchen.  The whole thing turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than I anticipated, as are most things in life.  I wasted a couple of weeks dealing with one plumber that kept jerking me around, not calling me back, etc.  Last week I called another guy, he came and looked at the place on Thursday, had the riser diagram done on Friday, had the permit on Monday, and did the work on Tuesday.  I was impressed.  Now I have to do the drywall and flooring, then get the plumbers back in to finish installing the sinks, THEN I'll be ready to start chopping peppers.  I just hope they don't suffer for being on the vine too long.
 
I've been cooking up my test batches over the last week, the apple pear turned out AMAZING.  Much tastier than the "regular" control jar and the plum jar.  They've all been going since last October, which is definitely the longest ferment I've done.
 
 

 
 

 
 
I had two that got funky, I posted these pics in another thread in the hot sauce forum, that second one is pretty gnarly looking.  Sucks but I'm just going to toss them, the first one was strawberry mango, the second was avocado.  RIP you poor bastards.
 

 

 
 
 
That's all for now!

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

A few more pics from the big spot, the plants seem to be doing better this year than last, some of them are about as tall as me.  I'm going to have a tough time picking them because they're so damn bushy.
 
 

 
 
 

 
Morugas, or "the devil's nutsacks" as I've taken to calling them.  Because they're bumpy like a nutsack.
 
 
 

 
White 7 pots.  I'm hoping I do have enough of these to do a batch by themselves.  I suspect they'll make a great sauce due to their sweetness and mellow flavor.
 
 
 

 
Not totally sure what these are, a volunteer that came up from last year.
 
 
 

 
A few MOAs.
 
 
 

 
Aji Pineapples, another volunteer from last year.
 
 
 

 
Yellow fatalis at the other spot, not doing as badly as I feared they would.
 
 
 

 
The ghosts on the other hand, still looking pretty terrible.
 
 
 
The kitchen is finally almost done, I have a few more things to do before I'll be ready for the inspection, but I'm hoping to start chopping peppers within a week.  Aside from the ghosts, which are starting to get kind of squishy, the rest are holding up pretty well, they definitely need to be picked soon though.
 
 

 
Sinks installed.  I put those mis-matched tiles in to replace a bunch of cracked ones.  It doesn't look great but oh well.
 
 
 

 
Floor drain.
 
 
 
 

 
I'm going to put the chopping table in that corner.

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Passed the inspection yesterday, immediately went and picked about 150 lbs of yellow 7 pots.  We have a cold front coming in so I'm probably going to be spending the next week doing nothing but picking and chopping peppers.  I figure this is about 1/4 of the total I'll wind up with this year.  They don't seem any worse for wear having stayed on the vine so long.
 
 

 

[karoo]

Congratulations.
Nice kitchen and great harvest.
I bet those pods will be even better after staying on the plants a bit longer.

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Tapatalk

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

I gotta say having my own dedicated space is freaking awesome.  This will be yellow 7 pot sauce, same recipe as last year except I used jalapenos as the annuums instead of bell peppers, and I added more of them.  Also I'm removing most of the seeds this year, which should make the sauce less bitter.
 
 

 
Mash.
 
 
 

 
Carboys started.
 
 
 

 
Anyone need any yellow 7 pot seeds?  Just let me know how many pounds you want, lol.

 

[Walchit]

Looking good! I gotta do a bunch of picking today. Snow in the foreast for tomorrow
C

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Picked about another 120 lbs yesterday, only got through 1/3 of them today, got a late start.
 
 
 

 
Yellow 7 pots and scotch bonnets, living together in harmony.  These plants all produced ridiculously well.
 
 

 
Super wide shot.
 
 
 

Made chili with these today.
 
 
 

 
Chopping station #1 in action.
 
 
 

 
The seed pile continues to grow.
 
 
 

 
Carboys done so far.
 
 
 

 
The rest of the stuff I picked yesterday.  Buried in there are most of my reapers and morugas.  I'm keeping aside the white 7 pots and superhots to see if I'll have enough of either to do a whole carboy with them.  Everything else will go into the plum recipe, going to do 2 carboys of that one.  After aging a bit I've decided it was definitely the best of last year's test batches.  It's really funky with a bright fruity undertone, the plums aren't as up front as the berries in my berry sauce.  It's seriously tasty.
 
 
 
 

 
Caught this little guy guarding my peppers.  I think it's a rat snake.