Coach's 2015 Overwhelming Grow

coachspencerxc · Jun 1, 2015

Pulpiteer said:
Wow that's looking great!
I've had Aji Lemons get sunburned too - they'll have dark purpleish spots on them over the yellow. It didn't really affect the pod as far as taste or anything at all.

Thanks. Still only have it on a few pods & the plants are loaded with green ones. I've been keeping up with your glog. Looking good!

tsurrie said:
You sir, are having a huge garden and fine looking plants. Good for you they're pushing out pods already.
Keep posting, it's good to see pods while my plants are still slowly preparing to bloom...

Huge indeed. Hard for one person to keep up with. I just finished planting the final seed today- pumpkins & squashes from THP member Serrano in Poland. It took way longer than expected, but it's awfully big. BTW, I've seen you're in Slovenia. I was for a few hours in 2003- Bled Castle. I attempted to do Ironman Austria around Klagenfurt and quit due to heat related issues (famous heat wave throughout Europe that summer). Decided to go to Slovenia rather than run.

Here's what's planted. All heirloom varieties except for pepper crosses & a few hobbyist tomato crosses:
* 280 pepper plants (171 varieties)
* 510 row feet of beans (24 varieties including limas & crowders- big thanks to fiogga for 10 of these & downriver for a couple)
* 65 tomato plants (39 varieties including a couple of tomatillos & ground cherries)
* 111 row feet of corn (3 varieties)
* 45 squash & pumpkin hills (30 varieties)
* 20 watermelon & cantaloupe hills (14 varieties)
* 78 row feet of okra (5 varieties)
* 30 row feet (trellised) of cucumbers (7 varieties)

* Smaller amounts of potatoes, onions, eggplants, herbs, flowers
* Knowing it might be bitter because of the late start I was forced to get (moved the last week of March & had to start a 1/4 acre garden from scratch in addition to all that goes with moving), I planted the following anyway: lettuce, collards, kale, mustard greens, chard, broccoli, cauliflower & cabbage. Lettuce I ate was pretty bitter but 88 degree days will do that. I'll have better luck with those in the fall & will add carrots, radishes, arugula...

A lot more baby pods popped out this week- most in the habanero range, but also some Black Nagas, Yellow CARDI, Peach Bhuts...

Thanks for stopping by.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 1, 2015

Dang Coach. You must be tired. Maybe not. Someone who can run 100 mile's, planting a few hundred plants is a walk in the park. Looking good. Don't over do it. LOL

coachspencerxc · Jun 1, 2015

OCD Chilehead said:
Dang Coach. You must be tired. Maybe not. Someone who can run 100 mile's, planting a few hundred plants is a walk in the park. Looking good. Don't over do it. LOL

Thanks but already overdone.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 1, 2015

I guess it's time to sit back, drink some tea and watch it prosper. Good luck and have a great week.

coachspencerxc · Jun 1, 2015

Some non-pepper pics.

Part of dinner picked from backyard (not pictured: basil, oregano, Ancient Sweet pepper):

Saturday's last bean planted- Tiger Eye from Fiogga.

Paul Robeson tomato:

OCD Chilehead · Jun 1, 2015

Nice pics. That bean is nature's work of art. Awesome! I need to start thinking of some vegetables to grow next year. My girlfriend is vegetarian and it would by nice to grow some food for us.

Congrats on harvesting your own goods.

PaulS · Jun 2, 2015

Awesome garden dude. Good job.
I admire the work go into this, I can't wait to see it loaded with fruit

coachspencerxc · Jun 3, 2015

OCD Chilehead said:
Nice pics. That bean is nature's work of art. Awesome! I need to start thinking of some vegetables to grow next year. My girlfriend is vegetarian and it would by nice to grow some food for us.

Congrats on harvesting your own goods.

PaulS said:
Awesome garden dude. Good job.
I admire the work go into this, I can't wait to see it loaded with fruit

Thanks a lot to both of you.

Some people were asking---
Picked the first Yellow Jalapeno x Bubblegum 7 Pot pod today & it wasn't what I was expecting. This is an F1 cross from Wes Lane that I was pretty excited to get. I asked about the Bad Brains & he sent some extras including this one. As an F1, there's a certain level of rolling the dice. I don't believe Wes has been on THP in a few months but I communicated with him on Facebook a little. As I recall, he said his pods of this cross were hotter than Jalapeno level but that's about all he said. I was expecting 7-15K SHU. The two plants I have set pods quite awhile ago & it's been a long process to ripen- or maybe the anticipation just makes it seem that way. This one finally ripened & got to a orange-yellow- darker than I expected from the few other pictures I've seen. Bigger than I expected too- close to 4" long. I cut into it & immediately noticed the very thick flesh. Bit a small sliver. Only a hint of heat. Cut another piece. Still not much heat. There was a very good sweet pepper taste & it was extremely juicy. I know peppers are fruits, but really felt like I was eating a more prototypical fruit. Heat though, was no hotter than 1,000 SHU. I suspect this will change as this was the first pod of the year from this plant & it'll heat up more as the season goes on. It does have a great taste going for it so I am optimistic. I could've also overwatered it. As I planted out in waves & we've had very unseasonably hot, dry weather (until yesterday), the plants really struggled the first 10 days they were planted & needed a lot of water to perk up. I didn't lose any. As I watered those wilted ones everyday, I also watered the older ones that didn't need it, including this Yellow Jalapeno x Bubblegum.

As stated before, Wes wrote in big letters on the seed pack "DO NOT SHARE." As it's his cross, I have to respect that. I don't have any F1 seeds anymore, but now I guess I have F2 & I think I'll start them this week & see how they do. Wes will be incommunicado for a few months & I'm sure there are TONS of people here who are closer to him than me, but gotta do right by the seed provider/crosser, you know?

Incidentally, I also ate a black Goat's Weed today. No lack of heat there for a little unripe annuum. Nice little burn caught me off guard. Picked my first squashes today- squash squash- not squash peppers.

Anyway, pictures of the cross... I was very pleased with the macro on the camera on my old Droid. My newer one is terrible. Any suggestions?

juanitos · Jun 4, 2015

that does look pretty thick.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 6, 2015

Very nice color. Maybe wait for some pods later on to see if they pickup the traits you desire. Then you could keep those seeds for the F2 plants. You might find some pods with heat and maybe different shape as well. Do you think they were fully ripened? Any ways they look good. Congrats!

coachspencerxc · Jun 7, 2015

OCD Chilehead said:
Very nice color. Maybe wait for some pods later on to see if they pickup the traits you desire. Then you could keep those seeds for the F2 plants. You might find some pods with heat and maybe different shape as well. Do you think they were fully ripened? Any ways they look good. Congrats!

I think so. Went from green to yellow very quickly & then stayed that color for about 5 days. I may test others out to see if they change. I posted the picture on a Facebook group & it was suggested that the cross didn't take- that it was all yellow jalapeno. Having never grown the yellow jalapeno, I have nothing to compare to.

Here are a couple of pictures. Nothing amazing to report. Have a long day of garden work ahead of me Sunday.

Yalova Charleston:

CGN 21500:

PaulS · Jun 7, 2015

coachspencerxc said:
I think so. Went from green to yellow very quickly & then stayed that color for about 5 days. I may test others out to see if they change. I posted the picture on a Facebook group & it was suggested that the cross didn't take- that it was all yellow jalapeno. Having never grown the yellow jalapeno, I have nothing to compare to.

Here are a couple of pictures. Nothing amazing to report. Have a long day of garden work ahead of me Sunday.

Yalova Charleston:
CGN 21500:

Good luck with your garden work today.
Thanks for the pic of the cgn 21500, I'm growing a cross of that with scarlet lantern peru so it will be interesting to compare

coachspencerxc · Jun 8, 2015

Lots of green chinense pods popped up in the past week. Excited.

Two very different Brown Morugas from the same plant. Neither pheno is like the pod I took the seeds from (standard bonnet-like shape):

Tepin x Lemon Drop on top, 7 Pot Burgundy on bottom:

Xalapas from CAPCOM & Yellow 7 Pot x Bhut Indian Carbon:

7 Pot Chaguanas & Red Bhut:

Peach Bhut & Bolivian Bumpy Habanero:

Peach Wasp & Chocolate Fatalii:

CARDI Trinidad Scorpion & Yellow & Fatalii x TSMB from HotToddy:

1433812927024_zpswloalyjy_edit_1433814034697_zpsvdky30ex.jpg

jcw10tc · Jun 8, 2015

Those brown morugas definitely don't look like what I had last year either but sure look like they might be interesting. That 7 Pot Burgundy looks a little different also, shape and color doesn't look right. Nice looking pods though, I finally am getting some but most are still too small to get an idea of what they will be. Keep up the good work.

coachspencerxc · Jun 9, 2015

jcw10tc said:
Those brown morugas definitely don't look like what I had last year either but sure look like they might be interesting. That 7 Pot Burgundy looks a little different also, shape and color doesn't look right. Nice looking pods though, I finally am getting some but most are still too small to get an idea of what they will be. Keep up the good work.

I wondered what % of what I grew (mostly OP seed) was going to produce funky unintentional crossed pods. I'm realizing maybe a lot. Nothing too special about the elongated bhut like "moruga" pod here but I'm pretty fond of the one with the stinger & there are several like that. Maybe it's worth combing through my seeds next year & planting the isolated stuff. Then again, the mystery crosses can be fun too. We'll see how the pods mature.

Thanks.

tctenten · Jun 9, 2015

Great looking pods Coach. I am growing the Xalapas from Capcom also. They seem like they will be pretty prolific plants.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 9, 2015

Nice podage Rick. Tepin x Lemondrop is a great pepper. The other crosses luck good as well. It won't be long before you get some color.

Thanks for sharing

Pulpiteer · Jun 10, 2015

Wow, I'm blown away by how much you planted. Great pod shots too!
I just planted beans today. Looking through the catalog, I realized there are a lot of cool types of beans and you could really get into growing those out too.

coachspencerxc · Jun 10, 2015

Thanks.

Yeah, I ended up with 280ish (180 varieties) pepper plants, 60 (about 50 varieties) tomatoes, 510' (28 varieties) of beans, 30 different types of squash & pumpkins... Now it feels like I'm putting out fires all over the garden. Stake this, weed there, look up how to deal with Japanese beetles on beans, take care of cabbage moths on greens, mulch that, etc, etc. Keeps me off the streets, I guess. With today being the last day of school, I have a lot of free time coming up.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 10, 2015

Dang! I assumed school was out, with all the work you've been getting done. How did the schools garden turn out?