Fun and Cheap Hot Sauce Garden

[ZanderSpice]

Continued...

I had my mini greenhouse here for seedlings. Instead of throwing down grass seed I put in some maters and annuums. I believe it is Green Zebra, San Marzano, Moreton, Cherokee Purple and in the back, Yellow Hot Wax, Mesilla, Corno di Toro Giallo, and Poblano. I love growing in the ground.

The raised beds had some of the worst ant/aphid problems and for some reason my Trinidad types yellowed up really bad. With some TLC they'll give me plenty.

I rigged this thing up and I'm pretty happy with it. I used a 3x3 tray and I plug up the drain, fill by hand, then drain to feed/water my in ground plants nearby. I think with a good tea recipe you could really do some awesome organic hydroponics this way.

A wide shot of the container garden out back. Wost ant problems here because they were just running along the drip line. I cleaned up lower leaves, removes some stake and do other things to make their lives unpleasant, but NO POISONS ALLOWED.

 

[ZanderSpice]

My huge Orange Manzano in a 7gal bucket of coco coir fed by two tropf blumat watering devices. That's a 32 gallon trash can holding the hydroponic nutrients.

The Jalabanero from last year is packed with pods. They're small in size but pack a major punch and are mainly seedless. The burn is interesting, like the hottest Jalapeno concentrated with a bit of hab flavor at the top.

Here's a better shot of my drip rows. My hand watered plants are doing better. Not sure if the watering is well distributed enough or if the ants and pests slowed them down too much. I'll probably leave 5 drip rows up for next year supporting ~57 plants.

That's it for now. Thanks again to EVERYONE who sent me seeds. I've got some great new plants this year. I've been reading more than posting lately and they're are some really great gardens out there.

 

[ZanderSpice]

It's taking my hottest a while to put on pods, but I've got plenty of tomatoes, eggplants and annuums ripening up. I've been spending time on my irrigation set up and had to take a break from much digging and transplanting. I was pruning some tomatoes and pruned my finger pretty bad too. KEEP YOUR TOOLS CLEAN. I had just wiped it down with alcohol and I keep my blades sharp. It was a deep cut and I've been extra careful to keep it clean and covered. It should be fully closed and healed soon and then I've got a bunch of late transplants to put in.

I'm really happy with this new Thai pepper I'm growing from Josh (greenman). The pods are big, flavor is great and the plant is super healthy. They make for a great prig nam pla sauce.

Some Jalabaneros. These are really hot this year.

Lemongrass:

A HUGE Orange Manzano. That's not a tiny apple either.

That's it for now. I have some sweet C. Chineses that will be ready soon and a really nice Bhut Jolokia and Naga Morich that will be producing soon. Time and time again the Bhuts grow better than the Trini super-hots for me. Oh well, I have plenty to be happy about and I'll just keep looking for that special Scorpion, Seven and Douglah that grow well for me.

 

[kentishman]

Zanderspice, the Orange Manzano got my attention. I'm mostly growing chinenses this year but want to try pubescens next year. I hope you save seeds from this one, and if you trade stuff I'd love to get some seeds. I'll be saving seeds from several heirloom tomatoes if that's of interest.

Thanks, Tom

 

[megamoo]

I've been following this thread and its looks like an awesome garden you have going there. You take some artistsic photos too. This one is pretty cool . Looking forward to seeing harvest shots.

 

[Dot Com]

Very nice. I see you got the Douglah's to sprout too

 

[ZanderSpice]

Kentishman, keep an eye out in the seed marketplace or in this journal come October/November. I'll send out plenty of Orange Manzano seeds again this year. I expect I will have some even bigger ones than that. Fair warning, I think my climate is perfect for this type and it may not grow as well for others. Let me know if there's anything else I'm growing that you would like seeds from. I'll probably send 50-100 envelopes out but it's always hard to plan for what will be in demand.

Thanks Megamoo, I liked that particular photo too. The backyard will never be that empty again.

Thanks Dot Com, there are a couple Douglahs in my raised bed that look pretty nice, and a few that I kept in tiny containers that have some pods.

Speaking of pods from tiny containers, check out this Red Rocoto plant:

And this Thai Long Green Eggplant:

Over a foot!

Those little 5 inch containers are amazing. I have to water every day, but they are a great way to keep a huge variety in a small area, and to my surprise they can grow full sized pods with the proper care. These are both in very nice organic potting mix. Some are in a local premium blend and some got Roots Organic brand potting soil. When I pulled out that Rocoto yesterday it convinced me to spend some $$$ and bring home a few bags of Roots to pot up the best. All my organic(ish) grown plants have the best spots in the garden and have been a pleasure to take care of, ants and all.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[kentishman]

Thanks Zanderspice. I'll be on the lookout in October. Tom

 

[Josh]

Very nice. That Orange Manzano is impressive.

 

[ZanderSpice]

Thanks Josh. Speaking of the Orange Manzano, I just lost 8+ ft2 of canopy and a few pounds of fruit. I set out some ladybugs and gave my plants a good misting. The weight of the water on the leaves caused a huge branch to break off the Manzano and I also lost a Corno di Toro Rosso that was huge. The Manzanos were all green, but not to far from ripe so it's not a total loss, they're pretty tasty. I saw how heavy the branch was and I should have added more support. Oh well, there's plenty left and they'll probably end up larger now that the plant has thinned up.

That's a 4X2 foot tray holding the broken stalk:

And the bull's horn:

I'm not upset really. I've got more plants than room so I can lose plenty more. I actually pulled up a Brain Strain, Trinidad Scorpion and a Bhut from the raised bed because they were shaded by the other superhots and much smaller. To many plants is a nice problem to have.

My finger is finally healed and I'll be transplanting again this weekend. My ant battle seems to be working. I've sprayed some beneficial nematodes that are supposed to help with ants, fungus gnat larvae and grubs. I also put out some green lacewing eggs, but so far haven't seen anything to convince me they are working. I have some plants with signs of mite damage, but overall I think things are balanced.

Lastly, I wanted to tell people about this tool called the weed hound. It's amazing for pulling up dandelions. I can fill a big bucket in less than a half hour. It's so much better than anything else I've tried. 95% of the time it get's the whole root and just a bit of soil.

 

[ZanderSpice]

I finally planted my community garden bed. It's really late in the season, but we don't get a freeze here so I hope to have a harvest or two. The transplants are already mature and have large pods. My experience has been that the plants will stall, ripen existing fruits, then a run of runts and back to full size peppers. Hopefully they love the organic soil bed and get back to growing quickly.

Just a random harvest shot w/ some of my neighbor's corn. I'll be getting C. Chinese's in bulk very soon.

16 of the transplants heading out:

Here's the list:

Planted bed:

I did a bit of an experiment. Six of the planting holes got mycorrhizae, but it was very old so I don't know if it is even active. Also, for my records I also planted a Brain Strain and a Yellow Scorpion SR in the bed, filling in all 18 spots.

That's about it. I sprayed some beneficial nematodes and released some more ladybugs. I'm going to order some predatory mites soon too. I'm looking into Neoseiulus fallacis on some bean leaves. They sound pretty great for my climate. Oh yeah, I also bumped up the size of my gravity reservoir. I added in another brute trashcan and a food grade drum connected via siphon. It's working great so far.

 

[JungleRain]

Hey Zzzzzzzzzzz,

your got a great setup there, I don't know how I totally missed it.
I really loved how you did your cut back for your overwintering,
what size pots did you start out with? I'll have to give this way a try !!!! any tips?
Can't wait to see your ripe pods

 

[ZanderSpice]

Hey Zzzzzzzzzzz,

your got a great setup there, I don't know how I totally missed it.
I really loved how you did your cut back for your overwintering,
what size pots did you start out with? I'll have to give this way a try !!!! any tips?
Can't wait to see your ripe pods

Thanks JungleRain,
Those containers are about 2.5 inches square and 4 inches tall. Before that most were in 2 gallon coco smart pots or 5 gallon pro-mix containers. I'd say about 80% of the plants came back nicely, but I can't say they've been better than my new starts from seed. I'm seriously considering starting everything fresh next season.

Speaking of ripe pods, harvesting has begun! I've got a very busy weekend ahead of me and I'm very short on counter space. Here are some photos of Naga Morich, Yellow Scorpion, Orange Manzano and some other mixed stuff. I was able to unload those 5 sandwich bags today in a nice swap. That's it for now. I'll probably post up my next harvest Friday.

 

[ZanderSpice]

Things are growing nicely and I'm finally seeing a bunch of brown pods ripening. I'm busy watering and harvesting and don't have a ton of time for photos and posting. Here's a dump of some various harvest pictures. I took some seeds from some pods and made sauce with the rest. Black Nagas and Yellow Scorpions are really producing right now. I also have a secret pepper bred for flavor, but with plenty of heat growing. I'm keeping the lineage a secret. Maybe next year I'll let some out.

 

[ZanderSpice]

More spice!

That's it for now.

 

[Josh]

Very nice. Those orange manzanos look pretty big.
What is the story with the Costa Mosta?

 

[patrick]

Getting a nice number of good looking pods there ZS, congrats.

 

[ZanderSpice]

Thanks guys,
I've been so busy picking, saucing and delivering these things that I haven't done the best job with the photos. I have some really cool plants and pods outside. I hope I can take some nicer photos to show off some of the better plants. The raised beds are working nicely especially the large, deep organic bed at the community garden. Every time I come to water I go home with a big bag of awesome pods. I have a bunch of really weird C. frutescens that are just now starting to ripen and I should have a huge flush of C. pubes soon if my Red Rocoto doesn't fall over.

Josh, the Costa Mosta is an unintentional cross that turned out awesome. I'm going to keep the parents secret for now. I think I know the daddy and mommy was also super delicious. The big surprise is that the heat of the cross is more than either parent, but still not super hot, and the flavor is great. I still have both parents around so I may try to produce more seed. Even if that doesn't work, this may be my #1 keeper and I'll really try to keep it around for next year.

 

[ZanderSpice]

I have pictures to add soon, but since I use this as a log, I need to get my sauce notes down

9/27: Trinidad Venom. Douglah, Red and Yellow Scorpion, bulb+ garlic, bit of white onion. Extremely hot and thick. 3 processed jars.
9/28: CCTH. Carrot, Cayenne, Tomato, Habanero (and Manzano). I used Mesilla Cayenne and a mix of Yellow Scorpion and Douglah/Naga/Bhut runts. Tomatoes were San Marzano, Nyagous and Green Zebra. Bulb garlic, whole onion. Delicious, perfect for wings, appetite stimulant, nice consistency. 4 processed jars.

I have about 32oz left of unprocessed CCTH that I plan to strain for a thin sauce. I was just trying to use up the tomatoes and peppers I had left on the counter and make something a little milder, but CCTH is my best sauce yet. Mesilla Cayenne is back this year for sauce purposes and it really works. Douglah, Naga, Yellow Scorpion with Cayenne and Manzano makes for an all over, sustained burn and a flavor explosion. I might experiment with some Thai, pequin or some frutescens for the tip of the tongue bite.

Last thing to post is that I need a new blender that can handle larger batches. I'll never stay ahead of my harvest with the 5 cup at a time Oster, at least not if I want to keep the batches consistent. Maybe a handheld blender in the pot for the last step... I'll see if I can borrow one.

 

[ZanderSpice]

Some more sauce logging and finally some photos:

9/30: CCTH without the Manzano and pure Naga Morich for heat. Nice and red.
10/3: CCTH to clear the counter, mix of everything I had left. Not yet blended.
10/4: Strained out 12oz of the first CCTH batch, looks nice an pourable

I'll keep researching, but it looks like I need a better way to strain. Anyone use a food mill? Will peeling the tomatoes first help?

Now onto some photos. I sold a couple boxes of pods last week. Here's one: