Cayennemist's 2021 from SCRATCH! New property

Peppers in the Trees 2021 ​

A Grow Log​

 
  I'm back! I joined in 2015-16-17 and had a fantastic run. I got a new job in 2017 as a Commercial Construction Superintendent. I was working a lot and just didn't have time to for gardening. Stress was high but the pay was great. At the time we were living in San Diego with our 4 kids and I had to put my hobbies on the backburner just to LIFE.
 
Fast forward to Jan, 2021, we are living in Northern California in the ultra rural area that I grew up in, Quincy CA. Life has slowed WAY down. We have horses and a few acres to call our own. Horses have become a big part of our life, especially with my 11yr old daughter. Horse manures was stacking up quick, we produce about 20yds of manure a year. 
 
The first paddock we built went neglected for about a month and then it rained. It was bad, we were left with area that had about 12" deep of mushy mud and poop. The horses cant be in that for too long or they will start having issues with their feet. We quickly moved them to a new area with better drainage and where left with a large flat mud pit.

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When life gives you poop, grow a garden!​

 
  So I had a chat with the wife and kids and they are all in! We do have one major problem in this area when it comes to gardens, deer are overly abundant! So I'm going to have build a deer fence. The local deer are quite athletic and can easily clear a 4ft fence. I'm going to need to BUILD A WALL, and I'm going to make the deer pay for it.   Jokes aside, this is for real. At around 120ft @ $6.00/1ft = $720 not including posts, concrete, screws, stringers. so this wall would quickly exceed $1200...
Nah, I'm good. I decided to used recycled materials and see what I can do that was cheap but looks okay. The  answer was Pallets and some old 2x6 I had laying around.
 

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We have a source for FREE pallets. A local feed store gives them away. SCORE!​

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  I started building "The Wall" on 1/19/2021. The plan is to screw 2 pallets together side by side and make panels. Each panel with sandwich a 2x6 that is 6' 6" tall. These posts will hold 28" wire fence on top of the wall making the total Hight of the entire wall 6' 6" tall. Can a deer clear that? I'm sure some can yes. Will they do it? I doubt it.

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The wall is secured to the ground with a 6' T-post on every 2x6 and the corners will be 6" round posts sunk in to the ground about 24"​

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[HeatMiser]

Looks like things are about to get the good kind of busy for you!
 
It's always exciting to see hooks pop up.

 

[Cayennemist]

Things are heating up!!!​

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I got impatient and  systematically cracked open every single Jiffy Puck.​

Anything that had a hook was put in to a solo cup.​

Too my surprise, around 60% of everything was starting.​

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Anything that looked dead or wasn't moving I prepped a new jiffy and doubled down!!!​

Early on I had some damping off problems, mostly with tomatoes. I came to the conclusion that coco holds more water than I like.​

I switched to peat moss base and I have not had any more issues with damping off.​

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My soil mix is roughly ​

60% Peat moss​

10% Pearlite​

10% worm castings This one is vital to soil health. I am a firm believer in "Feed the Soil"​

10% composted cow manure​

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These are all starts that graduated from Jiffy's​

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Yellow 7​

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White Thai​

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Red Hab​

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Still don't know what this guy is that snuck in with my Pepperoncini​

 

[PaulG]

Looking good, Andrew! True leaves coming soon!

 

[ahayastani]

Soil indeed is important... I don't believe that, I see it as the truth I applied no-dig in my garden when I was in Europe with great success. 

 

[Cayennemist]

Lots of new babies ​

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[Cayennemist]

Little Update​

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Everything is almost uncovered! For now anyway, I have some backups and other varieties in the Jiffy warmer.​

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[PaulG]

Into cups already!
Good work, Andrew!

 

[Cayennemist]

Updates and Stuff​

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Today my oldest boy and I went on a little hike on our property and collected some forest humis.​

We found a decomposing pine with a nice layer of decomposed pine bark underneath.​

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We just filled up a 5g bucket and brought it home.​

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Definitely full of life! I just hope its all friendly to peppers.​

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[PaulG]

Purple true leaves on the TT White Lightening
are looking great! Those cotys in the last image
are super dark!

 

[Cayennemist]

Purple true leaves on the TT White Lightening
are looking great! Those cotys in the last image
are super dark!

The back-up is quite a bit darker. I think I added the additional light after the first WL had sprouted. The additional light might have something to do with it.

 

[Mr.joe]

Plants are coming along nicely. I am wondering if your mystery pepponcini is an eggplant?

 

[Cayennemist]

Plants are coming along nicely. I am wondering if your mystery pepponcini is an eggplant?

I may have snipped it and fed it to the worms
 

 

[Cayennemist]

Work between storms!​

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All the snow has melted for now. We are still getting good rain, but we had enough of a break today to get some work done.​

Two years ago we purchased a ShelterLogic shed to put our hay in. This year the snow finally won. about 2' of snow fell in a day or so and was enough to tear the tarp and deem it useless. Well not entirely, I jumped on the opportunity to use the frame for a new green house!​

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I ordered some 6m, 4 year greenhouse plastic to recover it. It should get here in a few days! Now I need some lumber to frame up some front and rear walls and maybe some shelves.​

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Flattened out a pad​

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I dont know why but it wont let me remove that picture at the bottom left or why it says attached thumbnails.​

 

[CaneDog]

Pretty cool about the foraged composting pine bark.  Hopefully lots of good things for your soil composition and none of the bad.

 

[CaneDog]

I dont know why but it wont let me remove that picture at the bottom left or why it says attached thumbnails.

 
Usually that's because of attaching it, but not adding it into your post.  The picture then displays at the end of the post with the "Attached Thumbnails" notice.  You should be able to edit and delete the attached file using the buttons below the text box.
 
I don't remember that I actually posted in your glog yet, but it's really cool to see all you're doing.  What a great space to work with and good climate too up in NoCal.

 

[PaulG]

Really taking shape, Andrew. Anticipating some
great results; I hope your deer fence is effective,
it looks great.

 

[Cayennemist]

Conjoined Twins? IDK but its freaky and I dig it!​

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This is my Faria​

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Anyway, more work on the greenhouse.​

We added some reinforcement to go under the plastic for snow load.​

We aren't going to do the entire GH, just the top area. the rest should slide off.​

I do plan on going over it with a fine tooth comb for sharp edges and such before we put the plastic on.​

If tracking is correct I should get the plastic tomorrow 2-17. I want to get the tomato plants out of my house before the bugs find them!​

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[ahayastani]

I see two pairs of cotyledons and two conjoined stems; a pair of cotyledons on each stem. It would be nice to see - upon transplantation - whether they have a shared or separated root system.
 
I did a very quick-and-dirty search and found a few hits; I wouldn't say it is a common phenomenon. In the 1950s, Morgan identified 291 twins and 3 triplets out of 78005 germinated C. frutescens seeds. He provides results from other experiments by other authors (other peppers as well), but nothing more than 0.65%.
 
DT Morgan, Jr. e.a.
Twin and Triplet Pepper Seedlings: A Study of Polyembryony in Capsicum frutescens
Journal of Heredity 41(4) 1950 p.91-95
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a106099
 
View attachment morgan1950.pdf
 
There are a few photos on the second page of the PDF.
 
 
 
 

 

[Cayennemist]

I see two pairs of cotyledons and two conjoined stems; a pair of cotyledons on each stem. It would be nice to see - upon transplantation - whether they have a shared or separated root system.
 
I did a very quick-and-dirty search and found a few hits; I wouldn't say it is a common phenomenon. In the 1950s, Morgan identified 291 twins and 3 triplets out of 78005 germinated C. frutescens seeds. He provides results from other experiments by other authors (other peppers as well), but nothing more than 0.65%.
 
DT Morgan, Jr. e.a.
Twin and Triplet Pepper Seedlings: A Study of Polyembryony in Capsicum frutescens
Journal of Heredity 41(4) 1950 p.91-95
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a106099
 

morgan1950.pdf
 
There are a few photos on the second page of the PDF.

 
 
Thanks for the research, interesting stuff. I didn't realize that cotyledons were 2 different sets for some reason. Now that I look at my pictures it is clear that the top 2 are a set and the bottom 2 are a set. Weird, I cant wait to see how the structure develops.
 
I mixed in some Homedepot steer manure in to the first batch of soil I made. I read that it has a herbicide left over in it that causes deformation of plants. At first I thought it might be from that, but now I don't think that is the case at all. It is clear, this is a case of TWINS!

 

[ahayastani]

I mixed in some Homedepot steer manure in to the first batch of soil I made. I read that it has a herbicide left over in it that causes deformation of plants. At first I thought it might be from that, but now I don't think that is the case at all. It is clear, this is a case of TWINS!

 
I believe the herbicide you refer to is aminopyralid. Google for images with "plant deformation" - or something similar - so you see what you can expect. The images you have posted so far show me perfectly healthy plants