BPWilly's 2014 grow

GA Growhead · May 18, 2014

Loosening the root ball is a good thing. I try to untangle the mass and stretch them out a bit when planting. If some break no worries. They will just branch out like underground topping.
Really nice garden space!
I am also no tilling my existing garden area. I tilled a side plot that was new last year and a few new rows, but going for it as is on the main pepper garden.

PaulG · May 18, 2014

+1 post #3 and #21!

You have an awesome grow going on there, Willy.
1600 sq. feet of garden space? How terrific is that!

OCD Chilehead · May 18, 2014

Looking good BP. Wish I lived a little closer so I could give you a hand. That's going to be a rewarding garden this Summer. Good luck and try to save the back for harvest. Thanks for the update.

bpwilly · May 19, 2014

Spicegeist said:
Wow, great list, plants, and setup... nice work!

Spicegeist, Thanks for the kind words The fun is just beginning. Looking forward to this fall, as well as the reduced weeding this summer.

GA Growhead said:
Loosening the root ball is a good thing. I try to untangle the mass and stretch them out a bit when planting. If some break no worries. They will just branch out like underground topping.
Really nice garden space!
I am also no tilling my existing garden area. I tilled a side plot that was new last year and a few new rows, but going for it as is on the main pepper garden.

GA - Well, so far about 50% of them seem to have been needing to have the roots loosened up a bit, but they are coming apart fairly easily, so no harm yet. As for the no-till, so far liking it, but it feels weird after always tilling my gardens for the past many years. We shall see how it works. Heck, I might get a few weekends back if all no-till and weed fabric helps reduce the work part of gardening! Tending the plants is just plain relaxing to me.

PaulG said:
+1 post #3 and #21!

You have an awesome grow going on there, Willy.
1600 sq. feet of garden space? How terrific is that!

PaulG - It is great, it was either a garden or more lawn to mow. Mowing is faster, but since I work in a office all day, doing something physical with my hands (and back) is a welcome change of pace after hours. Still debating what vegetables to plant this year, since I have hogged up most of the garden for my peppers. Probably just lettuce, basil and squash. Pretty easy to grow them here.

OCD Chilehead said:
Looking good BP. Wish I lived a little closer so I could give you a hand. That's going to be a rewarding garden this Summer. Good luck and try to save the back for harvest. Thanks for the update.

OCD - Thanks for the offer, but like I tell the wife, at ;least this way she knows what I am doing with my spare time! less trouble that other hobbies. The back does get sore, but I always figure that is because I have been sitting around to much over the winter. It is my bodies way of yelling at me!

Looking forward to harvests, that is the rewarding part of gardening.

Started to get some more plants in yesterday, but we had a gusher of a rainstorm move through, so only got about 12 more int he ground before I got rained out.

I did manage to meet up with another THP member yesterday (Turbo) who had lost some of his Fatali pepper plants to root rot, so I donated a few plants to him. Paying it forwards so to speak. I always over plant each year. Wife thinks I should be taking them down to the farmers markets and sell them. Not sure how many folks around here would recognize the pepper breeds we grow on this list. I know I had never heard of the majority of these before until I got involved with growing and reading these forums.

Someday I might try sell at the farmers market just to see how it goes. Will have to see what permits are needed.

Spicegeist · May 19, 2014

I've thought about farmer's market.. mostly i think it's just to chat with people more than to make money.. but who knows...

Jamison · May 19, 2014

What an awesome Glog so far man! Some beautiful plants no doubt. Huge garden space also. I'll stay tuned man cause I know it's just gonna get better from here. Can't wait to see that thing filled up with peppers!

turbo · May 19, 2014

bpwilly said:
I did manage to meet up with another THP member yesterday (Turbo) who had lost some of his Fatali pepper plants to root rot, so I donated a few plants to him. Paying it forwards so to speak.

bpwilly, I cant say thanks enough! I'm so excited about those plants you gave me, if not a little scared of the super hot

Somehow the rain missed me in Tukwila. Renton got dumped on and farther south did too, but it was nice all day around here.

GA Growhead · May 19, 2014

Not tilling feels weird to me too! Lol
Glad I'm not the only one!

OCD Chilehead · May 19, 2014

That's really cool sharing your plants. I did the same thing. Good luck.

bpwilly · Jun 2, 2014

Update time. I have had a heck of a time getting out to plant, but managed to talk my wife into helping this weekend and we managed to finish off getting almost all the started plants in the ground. After having a knee replacement late last year, kneeling is a bit of a problem, so I look pretty weird planting them. Glad the weed fabric is down so I will not need to do as much weeding this year. Sure heats the soil up

The front garden has all the peppers in the ground and the drip lines in place and tested out. Now to let them grow
Here are a few pictures of the front. The plants are spaced 24 inches apart, and 12-18 inches between the 2 rows per mound. Seemed to work OK last year as the held each other up for the busy ones
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Back by the garage I have some more with there waterlines in as well

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Continuing
Hereare all the ones around the green house. Some will get moved to the deck on the house so I can block them off, as one of my dogs seems to like to chew them down.

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Now some shots of my Manzano and Rocoto's. First time growing these, and I am getting some peppers. Small but they are growing.

Here are some peppers on the Rocotos. They are about the size of the end of my thumb.
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And last some small but truly there Manzano's
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Gave away 6 more plants yesterday, so only have 6 more to get into pots. Ran out of my soil mix, so will be stopping by the stores tonight to get fine bark to mix up some more. I found a 25 gallon pot back in the barn, so one of the Manzano or Rocoto's will be planted in there.

Runescape · Jun 2, 2014

Wow, you got a ton of healthy lookin plants, man...

bpwilly · Jun 2, 2014

Thanks, now to get them past the transplant shock and putting on some new growth. This gets to be the fun time!

OCD Chilehead · Jun 3, 2014

Looks great Bill. That's a very envious garden you have. Defiantly taking notes. Next year I would wish to have a garden half as nice. I wish you the best of luck. Thanks for sharing.

turbo · Jun 3, 2014

Wow, great looking garden Bill!

bpwilly · Jun 3, 2014

OCD Chilehead said:
Looks great Bill. That's a very envious garden you have. Defiantly taking notes. Next year I would wish to have a garden half as nice. I wish you the best of luck. Thanks for sharing.

OCD, Thanks for the kind words. Now the word from the boss (my better half) is that I need to be a bit more selective next year and reduce the number of plants. I agree, as I still have loads of pepers in the freezers from last year. Guess I need to start making up my favorites list.

turbo said:
Wow, great looking garden Bill!

Turbo, Thanks, Now to see what really happens this fall as they ripen and I can find out how well all these efforts panned out. Take care and will be watching your GLOG.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 8, 2014

Just checking in to see how the plants took to transplant? I see you guys are going to get some weather at the end of this week.

bpwilly · Jun 9, 2014

OCD
The plants seem to be doing OK. Seems like I always get a couple of week pause when I transplant, but they are all look OK and seem healthy.

With our wet weather, slugs are a real problem, and I notice I have some in the garden. Last year I ended up putting a handful of slug poison around each plant and that pretty much took care of the problem.

Did get a maddening suprise Saturday morning. Went down by the garage where I have some of the peppers growing, and found 6 of the plants dug up and one completely decapitated. I should have known better, as Friday evening when I turned on the drip watering system, the 2 male dogs got real interested in the garden. I think the air in the lines was making a lot of funny noises. Anyway, I guess they decided to check it out in the morning when I let them out. I have a 2.5 foot fence around them, but one or both of them jumped over it and made a mess out of the plants. I replanted all of them, and braced them up. They know they are on my &*%# list this weekend :mope:

Will have to get some pics, as the White Bhuts are podding up, and I think I have a couple small MOA Scotch Bonnets pods. So small I hate to check them yet, but it sure looked like it. I did spray them all with ACCT this morning before the sun came out to help give them a additional boost.

Will try to get some picture this week and post them here.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 9, 2014

bpwilly said:
OCD
The plants seem to be doing OK. Seems like I always get a couple of week pause when I transplant, but they are all look OK and seem healthy.

With our wet weather, slugs are a real problem, and I notice I have some in the garden. Last year I ended up putting a handful of slug poison around each plant and that pretty much took care of the problem.

Did get a maddening suprise Saturday morning. Went down by the garage where I have some of the peppers growing, and found 6 of the plants dug up and one completely decapitated. I should have known better, as Friday evening when I turned on the drip watering system, the 2 male dogs got real interested in the garden. I think the air in the lines was making a lot of funny noises. Anyway, I guess they decided to check it out in the morning when I let them out. I have a 2.5 foot fence around them, but one or both of them jumped over it and made a mess out of the plants. I replanted all of them, and braced them up. They know they are on my &*%# list this weekend

Will have to get some pics, as the White Bhuts are podding up, and I think I have a couple small MOA Scotch Bonnets pods. So small I hate to check them yet, but it sure looked like it. I did spray them all with ACCT this morning before the sun came out to help give them a additional boost.

Will try to get some picture this week and post them here.

Glad to here that most the plants are doing well. I noticed your SIP's don't have any plastic over the top. Do you use the plastic? I haven't put plastic on yet. I was letting them grow some roots first. My plants are paused for the moment as well. Got a bunch of rain yesterday and last night. Getting back to the 80s so they'll dry out. Thanks for the update.

bpwilly · Jun 9, 2014

OCD
No, I don't put plastic on my on my self watering buckets. Never had a issue with them getting weeds or to much rain, and around here, things don't get to dry easily. The only time I would want to cover up the dirt around here is in the green house, where I do get the gnats when the soil is wet. It seeme like when the plants are outside that is a non issue. Might be the wind?

As a side note, it does seem like the better my soil mixes get, the more interested my dogs seem to be about eating the dirt! I have a couple of pots on the front porch and I catch the dogs eating some of the dirt out of the posts on a regular basis. Not sure if it is a mineral issue, or they just like the chicken manure fertilizer that I added :party:

OCD Chilehead · Jun 12, 2014

bpwilly said:
OCD
No, I don't put plastic on my on my self watering buckets. Never had a issue with them getting weeds or to much rain, and around here, things don't get to dry easily. The only time I would want to cover up the dirt around here is in the green house, where I do get the gnats when the soil is wet. It seeme like when the plants are outside that is a non issue. Might be the wind?

As a side note, it does seem like the better my soil mixes get, the more interested my dogs seem to be about eating the dirt! I have a couple of pots on the front porch and I catch the dogs eating some of the dirt out of the posts on a regular basis. Not sure if it is a mineral issue, or they just like the chicken manure fertilizer that I added

Sorry do getting back to you so late. Didn't know you had replied. Thanks for the plastic tip. Read somewhere that the system works the best with the plastic on. I think it depends on the mix myself as mine are not having any issues. We shall see when it starts hitting upper 80s and 90s if I have evaporation issues. I think the dogs are going for the manure. Thanks again