CMPMAN1974 - 2012 Grow Log - Started 2/26/12

cmpman1974 · Jul 12, 2012

It's a Sunpak 383 unit. It has been discontinued for several years, but reasonably priced on the used market via Ebay.

ChrisCouple of other pictures:HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS TOMATO - THOMPSON & MORGAN

WHITE ROCOTO - VILLARTA (C. PUBESCENS)

patrick · Jul 12, 2012

All those plants and you still have room for the dog to run. Very nice.

As usual you have some new things that got me drooling. I can feel the pod pics getting closer all the time.

Best of luck to you're grow Chris.

915river · Jul 16, 2012

Nice like allways Chris great variety nice looking garden keep rolling.

Barley-pop57 · Jul 16, 2012

Chris, Beyond words...awesome grow. How many different flavors of peppers have you tasted? It seems you always grow new ones all the time. How long does if take AISPES peppers to make it to non-Aispes members--whether from THP or commercially if at all? Sorry for 20 questions but have one more--I like how you laid out your plants, I just want to know why some are raised beds, others in mounds and others in a conventional garden setting?

Congrats on your grow glog--very impressive

MGOLD86 · Jul 16, 2012

Lookin great Chris! Quick question for ya, do you have a pic of your Brain Strains from last season?? I got a few seeds from ya and I wanted to compare.

Thanks!
Matt

buddy · Jul 16, 2012

very nice! as always, great looking plants.

cmpman1974 · Jul 18, 2012

I would guess I've grown out maybe 750+ varieties over the years now. I don't have a formal count, but I've done a LOT.

AISPES wants to stablize varieties before releasing I believe. They typically share seeds with members of the organization. Since they are 'relatively new', I don't think any of their crosses have been grown for enough generations to be stable yet. I can't speak for them though.

I have my plants in different setting (raised beds, mounded beds, flat ground) simply due to resources and space and funds. I used to have all boxed raised beds, which I truly like. However, since I used untreated pine for the borders, they rotted fast. It got to be too labor intensive to build new ones all the time and the expense was more than what I wanted to drop. It was also hard to transport 12' long planks as I don't have a truck! I decided mounded beds are more economical in the long run.

Barley-pop57 said:
Chris, Beyond words...awesome grow. How many different flavors of peppers have you tasted? It seems you always grow new ones all the time. How long does if take AISPES peppers to make it to non-Aispes members--whether from THP or commercially if at all? Sorry for 20 questions but have one more--I like how you laid out your plants, I just want to know why some are raised beds, others in mounds and others in a conventional garden setting?

Congrats on your grow glog--very impressive

Mgold88, as you wish:

MGOLD86 · Jul 18, 2012

Thanks Chris, I appreciate it!

Pr0digal_son · Jul 19, 2012

The seeds I got from you are producing pods that are shaped exactly like the bottom two pods in that photo. They aren't showing the "hemispheres" like my other red 7 brainy things are. Do you know how long the red 7 sr were being grown before they hit the states? How does the original red7 sr look compared to the ones that are floating around now? Thanks in advance for any answers.

Barley-pop57 · Jul 20, 2012

Thanks Chris. Glad you shared your insight. Well buddy keep kickin'butt...hope I get as good as at pepper growing. As I said before "awesome" !!!

cmpman1974 · Jul 21, 2012

I have to say this year is not turning out well at all in the garden when it comes to super hots.

Out of 200+ plants in the yard, there has to be less than 75 pods on ALL the plants. I'm pretty bummed so far. Some of my annuums are putting on a fair number of pods, but the C. chinense look terrible. Some of my plants just sat there and didn't grow barely at all. I have some plants no bigger than 6" tall after 1.5 months in the ground. NOT good.

I put a lot of sand in the soil last Fall. I probably regret it. I think something is off in the soil. Probably need soil testing done. Nothing sucks more than busting your ass starting tons of seedlings, the electricity bill to grow them indoors, etc. just to get little yield. I still have 2 months growing season left for sure - maybe even 3 months the way our temps have been, but given they have no pods on many, it's not encouraging. I see plenty of MI and OH growers with loaded plants so I know it's my garden - NOT climate.

The life of a farmer, right?

I should have plenty of pods for cooking at least which will be nice. I am very happy with some varieties like Black Thai. Gotta take the good and relish it.

Chris

Spicegeist · Jul 21, 2012

That's too bad, sorry to hear. Hope you figure out what it was before 2013 rolls around...

cmpman1974 · Jul 21, 2012

We hardly had any rain for a month. That didn't help at all. We have had two days with decent rainfall in 1.5 months. I don't think it's the full reason at all, but it didn't help.

PIC 1 · Jul 21, 2012

Chris,
I know actually how you feel. My plants are well behind last years mark. My fault for the late outdoor start and some other weather related issues (Hail Storms), but the worst of it has been the lack of rain. We had the best start for an early spring/summer. But the minut amount of rain has played a main factor. Recently we finally had a good amount and my plants have started to take off.
As far as adding sand, one would think that it would add to the drainage. But if your base is heavy clay weighted, the soil can become hard like concrete even with the addition of sand. I use a torpedo sand mix its construction grade coarse. That helps but its also mixed with a good share of home and mushroom compost.
I hope the 2nd half of the season fares off for us folks in the midwest. I felt bummed out today when my wife mentioned about stringing the Christmas lights up earlier this year..........Ba Humbug.............ha

Greg

Greg.

PepperJam · Jul 22, 2012

Sorry to hear that Chris. Even using a rudimentary soil ph meter would be better than nothing when building your soil. It could also be just the crazy drought and heat that is going on that is preventing the flowers from setting. How are the kashmiri mirch doing? Any pods off those?

BigCedar · Jul 22, 2012

Im sorry to hear that man. Just like Greg, I feel for ya buddy. I have the exact opposite problem you guys are having, weve had maybe 2 weeks worth of full sun all summer, it's been overcast, partly sunny, and It has rained way too much(even for the PNW which is known for it), weve had maybe 2weeks worth of 75+ degree weather(our highest temp only being 81 so far) It's been pretty crazy to say the least.

Soil problems? Me too. For the second time this season lol.. I could tell the local soil I was using that grew 4ft tall plants 3 years ago had an issue. Plants were not responding at all, even after the bacteria spot problem left. Found out the company is now reusing old beauty bark to make more potting soil for a cheaper cost. So there I was a month ago, repotting 150 5 gallons into homemade soil. It wasn't until then that I started seeing them to pull through.. I'm just now seeing them start to pod up, which means for them to ripen, I'm going to need to bring them inside come fall frost..

I guess I'm telling you this story for some inspiration, to let you know that your not alone, and don't forget, the season isn't over yet buddy!

Best of luck to you Chris.

Brandon

midwestchilehead · Jul 22, 2012

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. When I moved to the Midwest from sandy New Mexico, I often thought, "if just my soil were a little more sandy, my New Mexico chiles would thrive!" But after reading several sources, I decided that adding sand to my Kansas clay would be the worst thing I could do. Those sources said that adding sand to a mostly clay soil would turn it into something resembling concrete, and instead recommended adding organic stuff to help break down the clay.

I've been amending for about 12 years now (not every bed, every year) with compost, wood chips and this past fall, horse manure. My beds still get hard as a rock, but are looser than they use to be. It takes a long time to build a great soil. Get it tested and go from there!

cmpman1974 said:
I put a lot of sand in the soil last Fall. I probably regret it. I think something is off in the soil.

PaulG · Jul 22, 2012

Soil is a bugger, for sure! One thing that's good about container
gardening is the increased control over the media you plant in.

Big Cedar is right - has been a wacky grow season so far.
I'm hoping for a nice second half finish!

Good luck to you, Chris, hope you can get a handle on this,
and we see pods spilling out over your whle garden!

meatfreak · Jul 22, 2012

I know the feeling, Chris. Had a bad season also so far, like you put a lot of effort in the seedlings but just didn't go as planned. Instead of a lot of sun we have almost rain every day and hardly decent temperatures. Had too remove all of my tomato plants (over 40 plants) due too bad leaf spot this week before the peppers got sick also... not a great season so far. Best of luck with the rest of your season, hopefully things will turn around for you!

cmpman1974 · Jul 26, 2012

Happily, I'm starting to see some hope in the garden. We've had two nice rainfalls in the last week.

Also, I started applying a fertilizer product Butch T recommended called Veggie Maker that is a mix of calcium and kelp. I use it via foliar feeding. I'm not sure what is doing it, but the plants seemed like they put some size on in a week!! I've got some African varieties loaded down with annuum pods. Many are probably not of much interest to the super hot lovers, but I'm looking forward to tasting them. I'm finally starting to see some plants explode with flowers too, which is encouraging. I also used a product called Bud Blaster on the plants that may have helped. Not sure.

It's nice to have a positive update for once.

However, on the negative side, I seem to have the most resistant pepper maggots on the face of this Earth. NOTHING stops these bastards. I just don't know any way to eliminate them from the garden. Fortunately, they leave the C. chinense alone mostly. and all smaller pods. They love the cherry bomb types and jalapenos. I don't know how any pest can be this destructive w/no way to eliminate them.

Chris