Devv's 2014- Stick a fork in me, I'm done....

Time for the 2014 start...
 
Many of these plants were made possible by the generous people of the THP sending me seeds and pods Thanks!
 
I'm looking forward to warmer weather and dirt day!
 
I have a bunch of seeds started, and plants at all the stages.
 
Here's the grow bench, a T8 x4 on top and T5 x4 on the bottom, as you can see it's loaded.
 

 
Top rack:

 
Bottom rack:

 
I like starting the seeds in Jiffy Pellets, as soon as they stand up I trim the mesh off and plant them 1/2" proud in a pot, or in this case a cup.
 
Red Rocotto the lonely Pube..

 
A few plants living under the T5, I'm super impressed with this light!
 
Choc Hab
 

 
Bhut x Y7 x Choc Bhut Douglah-Spicegeist
 

 
 
Bhut x Y7 F2-Spicegeist

 
 
Yellow Cardi- Jamie

 
 
Choc Scorp-Ramon

 
Peach Bhut- Annie

 
 
 
Going to do some tilling will post more later

 

[meatfreak]

Man, those last pics are heavenly. You put a lot of work into your garden, and it shows. Pure excellence. What does the wire mesh do?

At first I was thinking about that as well, I guess it's for the cats and other critters to not dig up the ground? (speaking from experience).

 

[JJJessee]

The jungle keeps looking better and better. 
That clay amendment(that seems so strange for me to say) really seems to be doing it's job. 
And that mulch is also a big water saver.
Ground will be ready for worms in no time.
+1 on the ripe supers! Already!

 

[romy6]

 Green Acres is the place for me . Farm living is the life for Scotty.
 
 
As the others have said mighty fine garden you have there scotty . Very jealous indeed !

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

I'm liking it!!!!

 

[Devv]

Man, those last pics are heavenly. You put a lot of work into your garden, and it shows. Pure excellence. What does the wire mesh do?

Thanks Jim,
 
It keeps me sane after a brain day on the job doing IT.
 
The mesh is to stop the dogs from digging. The first morning after we filled and planted the Asparagus, I was drinking my coffee and saw dirt flying. Otis the big dog had already dug an 18' deep hole. I was not not happy! So I put some old cattle panels to use.

At first I was thinking about that as well, I guess it's for the cats and other critters to not dig up the ground? (speaking from experience).

You hit it on the head, but in this case dogsters...
 

The jungle keeps looking better and better. 
That clay amendment(that seems so strange for me to say) really seems to be doing it's job. 
And that mulch is also a big water saver.
Ground will be ready for worms in no time.
+1 on the ripe supers! Already!

Thanks JJJ!
 
We got 1.7"s of rain last night! fast and furious it was. Not a bit of erosion in the garden, so the mulch is really helping.
 
And yes the heavy top soil really helped with holding the moisture in. I'm going 3-4 times longer between watering. Which saves time and water. I'm a happy camper about that! I'm hoping to be able to leave the garden alone when we travel this summer. We have 3 trips planned to see the parents as they're getting older now. Each trip is a 4 day.
 
Worms, I would love worms! I don't think they will show, but after the next 4 loads of mulch get applied I'll buy some and see if they make it.
 

 Green Acres is the place for me . Farm living is the life for Scotty.
 
 
As the others have said mighty fine garden you have there scotty . Very jealous indeed !

Thanks Jamie!
 
We love it out here, a ton of work but I have to being doing something or I go nuts
 

I'm liking it!!!!

Thanks Jeff!
 
Can't wait for your dirt day!
 
Weird May weather, that front from Co. blew in, was 60° this morning, and a high of 63° as shown at school. Windy today, very windy. Low of 48° tonight and then it starts to warm again. Monday shows 90°.
 
The area got between 1.5-4"s of rain with us getting 1.7, I'll take it! I captured 75 gals off the roof. Wish I had a way to capture more.
 
Have a great week!

 

[stickman]

I'd rather start with clay than the sandy stuff we have here. I used to live in Magnolia, Texas and the soil was an iron ore clay. I was the guy scarfing leaf bags when people put them to the curb and just kept tilling them in. In a few years the soil was fantastic. I still scarf leaves, I'm working on composting 4 full pickup loads with cow manure from the fields.

 
That's a roger on that... we have sandy soil here too. This place used to be the bottom of a big lake caused when the terminal moraine left by the melting glaciers at the end of the ice age blocked the Connecticut river. Eventually the water backed up enough to go over the top of the moraine and cut through it, draining the valley, but the melting ice also dropped lots of sand and glacial erratics that washed into the lake.
   I add a truckload of leaves to my garden every fall to keep building the humus... otherwise it drains and dries out too fast.

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Cooler temps should help you out right? Staves off that superhot weather a little longer?

 

[Jamison]

Thanks for the tip on the pineapple!  Out of curiosity about how long does it take from the time you plant it till you can eat it?  Thanks again Scott!

 

[Devv]

 
That's a roger on that... we have sandy soil here too. This place used to be the bottom of a big lake caused when the terminal moraine left by the melting glaciers at the end of the ice age blocked the Connecticut river. Eventually the water backed up enough to go over the top of the moraine and cut through it, draining the valley, but the melting ice also dropped lots of sand and glacial erratics that washed into the lake.
   I add a truckload of leaves to my garden every fall to keep building the humus... otherwise it drains and dries out too fast.

I added and added to my garden plot, the heavy soil made the difference I was looking for. Now I have to add most composted materials again. I have around 10yds of leaves layered with cow manure from the pasture working now for fall tilling. That and adding RCW to the mix.
 

Cooler temps should help you out right? Staves off that superhot weather a little longer?

I believe they will Adam, tomorrow low of 48°. Yesterday set a record low for the high temp of the day which was 63°. I have my fingers crossed for pods setting before the heat.
 

Thanks for the tip on the pineapple!  Out of curiosity about how long does it take from the time you plant it till you can eat it?  Thanks again Scott!

Your welcome Jamison. It's a long process, it takes around 2 years to get a Pineapple. But they're easy to grow and require little attention. We pick them once they turn golden.
 
Once you get a few going, planted in different years you will get regular harvests if you keep planting.
 
So today I brought two pods to work, not sure what they were. I'll guess a Yellow Brain and a Fatalii
 

 
The Fatalii had not even hab heat, but great flavor. Several of us sampled this and really liked the taste of this pepper. Definite Chinense overtones, kind of sweet with floral overtones.
 
The Brain however packed quite a punch, the taste was kind of on par with the Fatalii, just stronger and not as sweet, but a good tasting pepper. Everyone liked it as well but said too hot. I ate a fingernail sized slice and chewed it thoroughly. As soon as I swallowed it, it hit the back of my throat. OK no problem, then the burn started, it ramped up slowly and lasted a full 10 minutes and kept building for 5 minutes. I must admit I'm out of shape, the last time I ate a fresh pepper was in Dec., so I guess I need to build back my tolerance. Both are keepers as far as my taste buds go.
 
So today I wanted to take some pics, but we're on day 2 of 20mph steady winds with gust in the 30's. It's going to roughen up the ladies some I'm sure. They seem to be a hangin'.
 
We got another .2" of rain last night, a bonus round! Even if it's just a bit.
 
So the only news I really have is LB picked the first cuke and zuke.
 

 
My question is why do the cukes grow smaller at the vine end? I'm sure it's a nute issue, but what? And this is the second year using local zuke seeds, they just don't do as well as the seeds we always bought from Gurneys in years past. They always went nuts and we're going back to them next season.
 
Have a great week!

 

[JJJessee]

Well everything there looks plenty edible to me.
 
That end swell , more noticed on the cuke, has to do with water uptake/availabilty. I think I heard that somewhere.

 

[Devv]

Well everything there looks plenty edible to me.
 
That end swell , more noticed on the cuke, has to do with water uptake/availabilty. I think I heard that somewhere.

Thanks for the info JJJ!
 
Last night after the dogs were in LB called me to the kitchen.
 
I snapped these through the windows, they would spook other wise.
 
Here's the gobbler, advancing on 4 hens.

 
You can only see 3 out of the 4 here. Hard to get a good shot with everything in the way.

 
Serenading the ladies.

 
 
And strutting his stuff.

 
They're always fun to watch. We may not see many deer but the turkey numbers have been on the rise around here.
 
Snapped a few in the garden, things are really taking off!

 
 
Jigsaw with smooth pods.

 
 
I'm finding more and more pods down low.

 

[Runescape]

I snapped these through the windows, they would spook other wise.

Are those wild turkeys? btw, your plants are huge, man.

 

[Devv]

Are those wild turkeys? btw, your plants are huge, man.

Yes they are!
 
Thanks!

 

[meatfreak]

Time to shoot some Turkey, can't be early enough for Thanksgiving and Christmas, right?

 

[stickman]

Nice pics of the pods Scott... It looks like your chiles are mostly working on enough leaf canopy to support mondo pod production in the near future! Good on ya!

 

[Jeff H]

Turkey>deer. Go find that shotgun.
 
Plants are looking huge

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Great pics Scott! Looks like the plants are very happy! Hope those pods ripen nice and quick for ya.
 
Turkeys will eat the grasshoppers right?

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Plants and pods are looking good Scott. Thanks for the pics.

 

[TrentL]

 
That's a roger on that... we have sandy soil here too. This place used to be the bottom of a big lake caused when the terminal moraine left by the melting glaciers at the end of the ice age blocked the Connecticut river. Eventually the water backed up enough to go over the top of the moraine and cut through it, draining the valley, but the melting ice also dropped lots of sand and glacial erratics that washed into the lake.
   I add a truckload of leaves to my garden every fall to keep building the humus... otherwise it drains and dries out too fast.

 
Interesting geography. I live on top of an end morraine (the hill the glacier pushed up). We have pretty rich soil here. Problem is when the house I'm living in was built, they brought in dozens upon dozens of truck loads of red clay to level out the building site. It's 15 foot deep in some places. So I have to do a lot of soil amendment to try to keep it from getting packed in (which is as non-scientific as you can get; just dump last year's used potting soil on top and till it in). Every year I till it until it's pulverized to a fine dust.
 
One big disadvantage of living in a glacial area is high radon counts in the home. Granite and other rocks is pulverized by the glaciers, which causes radon gas to be released faster in those areas, as trace radioactive elements in the rocks break down over time.
Devv;
 
Jealous you are already getting ripe pods and cucumbers.
 
My cucumber plants are a whopping 3" tall now and my peppers are just setting their first flowers (which they'll lose).
 
On the flip side my tomatoes are flowering (!!) and I don't think they'll lose those. We have a LOT of bees this year buzzing around, which is good, to see them spring back some after the "bee-holocaust" that hit the area the last few years. 

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

mmmm turkey....what you got down there?  Rio Grande Turkeys?  Peppers look good too btw