HabaneroHead's 2014 Glog - Nuclear Destruction

HabaneroHead · Apr 1, 2014

Hi Everyone,

Update time with some pics.
Today I managed to give some Calcium Nitrate to the first wave (50 plants in total), and to strip 16 of them. I was able to fit the bald ones into my grow box, so hopefully they will develop side branches.

Thanks for watching!

Balázs

stickman · Apr 1, 2014

Good luck with the stripping experiment Balázs... I just let my plants grow out to the 8th node and pinched the tops. It'll be interesting to see if there's any difference in the outcome between the two methods. Cheers!

Devv · Apr 1, 2014

Ouch that had to hurt to do, so you're looking to make them grow more branches?

I know they will come back really bushy and full of leaves.

GA Growhead · Apr 1, 2014

That will make them bushy for sure!

HabaneroHead · Apr 2, 2014

stickman said:
Good luck with the stripping experiment Balázs... I just let my plants grow out to the 8th node and pinched the tops. It'll be interesting to see if there's any difference in the outcome between the two methods. Cheers!

Hi Rick,

I was doing the same in the last year, but after topping them (due to the lack of light), the top side branches were growing only, which practically resulted a fork, what I always have without topping them :crazy:

I guess this was resulted by the fact that they were not getting any strong artificial or natural light. As I saw it, after planting them out it took them at least a month to realize that they can now grow side branches... I still have more than 1 month till plantout, and I assume I can see the results within the next 1-2 weeks, so if it works, I will might do the same with the other plants as well.

Devv said:
Ouch that had to hurt to do, so you're looking to make them grow more branches?

I know they will come back really bushy and full of leaves.

Yeah, that's the plan :-)

GA Growhead said:
That will make them bushy for sure!

Let's cross out fingers! :-)

HabaneroHead · Apr 14, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Update time! :onfire:

Peppers are growing like weed... I now have space issues, and some of the biggest plants even forked, and formed buds.
I stripped 16 plants on the 1st of April, which did not show the sign of life for almost 10 days, then I topped them, and the side branches started to grow out immediately. Hopefully this trend is going to continue, and they will become real beasts :-)

Thanks for watching!

Balázs

Devv · Apr 14, 2014

Looking good Balázs!

Yesterday I trimmed all the plants I cut back to just a fork at the cut. Trying to see if they put more early energy into pods.

You should be real close to dirt day, can't wait to see that!

stickman · Apr 15, 2014

+1 on that Balázs! I've started stripping my Chinense varieties this week in preparation for plant-out... but the actual day is gonna have to be delayed at least another week. Overnight low temperatures are supposed to be at or below freezing for the whole time... :doh:

HabaneroHead · Apr 17, 2014

Devv said:
Looking good Balázs!

Yesterday I trimmed all the plants I cut back to just a fork at the cut. Trying to see if they put more early energy into pods.

You should be real close to dirt day, can't wait to see that!

stickman said:
+1 on that Balázs! I've started stripping my Chinense varieties this week in preparation for plant-out... but the actual day is gonna have to be delayed at least another week. Overnight low temperatures are supposed to be at or below freezing for the whole time...

Thanks guys. I can't wait to see your results with the trimmed plants! (and also mine :-))
I am planning to take them home on the 1st of May, and to plant them out somewhere the 7th of May, depending on the weather. We had light frosts in the last days, and who knows what will come in the next 3 weeks, so we will see.
Now, let's see some pics :-)

Thanks for watching!

Balázs

HabaneroHead · Apr 19, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Plantout day is near here, but until then let's see some indoor pics :-)

Red Naga was already setting buds...poor little guy...I topped it...

Most of the plants are in a 3 liter pot...and the roots are already coming out from the bottom:

A couple of weeks ago I was building a small raised bed... It turned out that there was a small pond at that place before, but it just got covered with some soil. The only issue I had with it was that it was full of with stones. I removed like 200 liter small rock and other stuff from it, which resulted a big hole. I had to fill the hole with soil.... I was doing it with my own hands...was not funny at all, but I believe the result looks eal good.

I sowed mostly radish, also some pea, garlic and onion. I even planted some strawberries there. I had a big bush of rosemary, sage, and oregano which also went there together with some dill.

Thanks for watching,

Balázs

Devv · Apr 19, 2014

Very nice Balázs!

A lot of work but always a good thing

It looks like you have nice soil, I wish I did, I have to make my own.

Rosemary here takes over, I love growing it as it needs little care or water. I need to find a buyer and plant 4-5 acres in it.

GA Growhead · Apr 19, 2014

Raised bed looks good. I just turned and added leaves and some amendments two new raised beds today. Serious work for sure!
Glad I didn't have to move rocks first! That sounds like a task in its self!
I'm planting radishes along with the other direct sow veggies tomorrow.
Gotta also say the room full of plants looks awesome! Getting big there!

stickman · Apr 20, 2014

What a pain having to dig out all the stones, but necessary for soil preparation... good job Balázs! That's a nice looking corner garden. The chiles you have waiting in the wings are waiting impatiently it looks like... There's nothing as tasty as fresh vegetables from your own garden, and it must feel great knowing it's your own!

Come on spring!

HabaneroHead · Apr 20, 2014

Devv said:
Very nice Balázs!

A lot of work but always a good thing

It looks like you have nice soil, I wish I did, I have to make my own.

Rosemary here takes over, I love growing it as it needs little care or water. I need to find a buyer and plant 4-5 acres in it.

Thanks, Scott!
Indeed, but there are certain levels in that. After finishing the corner I was barely able to move my right wrist for 3 days... I know, I am too soft for this work :onfire:

Rosemary is a real miracle...I bought it at the beginning of 2013, it almost died, then we moved into the house and I put it into the dirt before autumn. Not it is quite big, and doing pretty well. I will might take cuttings from it and give them to the family.

GA Growhead said:
Raised bed looks good. I just turned and added leaves and some amendments two new raised beds today. Serious work for sure!
Glad I didn't have to move rocks first! That sounds like a task in its self!
I'm planting radishes along with the other direct sow veggies tomorrow.
Gotta also say the room full of plants looks awesome! Getting big there!

Thanks for the good vibes! Well, indeed it was a good way of spending my time.

You can imagine, the foil which was at the bottom of the pond was also left there...I wanted to remove it, but when I was standing in the 90 cm hole I created, and saw that the foil is going down under...I just got fed up with that, and cut the part what I have already reached and buried the rest...I do not think that the root of the radish or onion would go 90 cm (3 feet ) deep, I believe everything would do pretty well. Since the soil is a clay one, I had to amend it as well, added a bag of used potting soil and 5 gallons of cow manure to it. Growing radish is a pretty easy, and I was considering the fact that they have a very short growing season. After they are consumpted by us, I will plant tomatoes (end of May) replacing them.

stickman said:
What a pain having to dig out all the stones, but necessary for soil preparation... good job Balázs! That's a nice looking corner garden. The chiles you have waiting in the wings are waiting impatiently it looks like... There's nothing as tasty as fresh vegetables from your own garden, and it must feel great knowing it's your own!
Come on spring!

Thanks, Rick! There were certain moments, when I almost stopped doing it, but it will definately worth to have my own veggies! The peppers are in crazy mode... out of the 111, more than 60 is taller than 30 cm (1 feet), so I am now trying to force them to bush out with removing the top crown. I am going to take them home to my parents on the 1st of May, and will prepare the shading net on that weekend with my father (3-4th of May), and hopefully I can travel home on the following weekend (10-11th) to help out with the planting. My parents have started to collect plastic bottles, so I can cut them in half and bury them next to the peppers. It is the easiest way for watering or just adding fertilizers to them. So far we have more than 50 bottles, which would do the watering job with at least 50 plants.
I was having a walk in the garden and discovered some May bugs:

Since the chickens at the backyard are loving them, I gave them a handful to have some protein...just like Bear Grylls would do (well he would probably eat them before the chickens :crazy:

)
Look at the king of the backyard:

he was not really happy about me touching him:

Look at these weapons

My father was building two from these warm beds. We have lots of things sown there: Gochu, Hungarian Paprika, various types of tomato, cabbage etc.

This is my own yard, It took days to dig it...it was untouched for 5 years...it was stone-hard... my plan is to prepare some nice lawn

Thanks for watching,

Balázs

stickman · Apr 20, 2014

Wow! Lots going on at your place and your folks too... Do you have the same clay soil in your backyard that your folks have at their place? If so, you might want to add as much humus as you can to the soil before sowing the grass seed. It'll lighten the soil and let the water and air penetrate deeper than it would otherwise.

That rooster must be a mature specimen judging by the size of its spurs.

Continued success brother! And please give my best wishes to your folks.

HabaneroHead · Apr 23, 2014

stickman said:
Wow! Lots going on at your place and your folks too... Do you have the same clay soil in your backyard that your folks have at their place? If so, you might want to add as much humus as you can to the soil before sowing the grass seed. It'll lighten the soil and let the water and air penetrate deeper than it would otherwise.

That rooster must be a mature specimen judging by the size of its spurs.

Continued success brother! And please give my best wishes to your folks.

Unfortunately I have the same clay soil in my garden...I was trying to get some humus, but it was a joke... 1 cubic meter (35 cubic feet) humus costs 18 USD, but the freight cost is 100-150 USD...so I did not order it at the end. I have two bags of composted cow manure, what I can sacrifice for the grass. It was interesting to see how compacted the soil was. There were not too many worms in it, and it was almost completely dry even in 2 feet depth. We are having some serious rains here, and it is funny to see all of the worms on the surface. I believe it means that the water now can penetrate the soil. (at least now)
Thank you for all the wishes, and give ours to your family! :-)

I was making some crappy pics with my phone, but hopefully you can see what is worth to see :-)
After spending 3 days away from my plants, I can now see the difference on the stripped plants.

I topped the biggest plants in the last week, now there are side branches appearing. Interesting to see that these are appearing only at the top 4-6 nodes, and not at the base ones. So far this is the only difference compared to the stripped ones where the whole 'stick' exploded. I am continuously topping the biggest plants (at around 1 feet height)

Almost all of them (minus 25 :-)

Thanks for watching,

Balázs

PaulG · Apr 23, 2014

Just outstanding, Balázs! Your plants all look so healthy. I think the topping
of the 16 plants was the key. That really forces growth out to the sides.
Later in the summer I'll post some pics of bushes that were naturally pinched
and have developed into short, bushy monsters. Should make great looking
plants, as will yours. They look great - way to go.

Devv · Apr 23, 2014

Very nice Balázs!

You're going to have a fantastic grow this season with all of those beautiful plants!

Getting a lawn going from dirt is a chore. I've mostly given up here until it starts to rain again. 9 dry years now...

HabaneroHead · May 2, 2014

PaulG said:
Just outstanding, Balázs! Your plants all look so healthy. I think the topping
of the 16 plants was the key. That really forces growth out to the sides.
Later in the summer I'll post some pics of bushes that were naturally pinched
and have developed into short, bushy monsters. Should make great looking
plants, as will yours. They look great - way to go.

Thanks, Paul! Indeed, topping was the key. I am not really satisfied with the speed they came back with side branches, but I guess that is due to the weak artificial light they were getting over the weeks. Hopefully they will explode in the dirt!

Devv said:
Very nice Balázs!

You're going to have a fantastic grow this season with all of those beautiful plants!

Getting a lawn going from dirt is a chore. I've mostly given up here until it starts to rain again. 9 dry years now...

Thanks, Scott! Lawn is the desire of my fiancee...believe me, if I could do, I'd plant only peppers and veggies there :party:

I was happy to remove all the stones and roots from it, so hopefully I can keep it clean for 2-3 years from weeds. Since the baby is due in July, I would like to have nice garden till then. Not to mention how the heck I am going to separate the roses from him... :rofl:

9 dry years...ehhh...my parents are having something similar...I had rains for two weeks every single day, they had only clouds, wind, but no rain...and it is pretty much the same for the rest of the year.
.
.
.
.
I managed to take my babies home, to my parents. :onfire:

I was leaving 11 plants at my house (Red Naga, Black Naga, 7 Pot Savannah, Jay's Peach Ghost, 7 Pot Barrackpore, Alphanerds Douglah, Chockolate Habanero, TS Brainstrain Red, and 3 other what I don't really remember now) :drooling:

One of the last picture before the big day

The ones left behind

Side branches due to topping

Sitting at their destination

We were preparing the place of the peppers today...rototiller was really helping in this. Then I was sprinkling some beneficial bacteria on the ground with approx 1.5 pound Epsom salt to this area, then we tilled it with the machine. Could not harm, for sure

It is 330 cm (approx 10 feet) wide and 10 meters (32 feet) long. If I put the rows 70 cm (2.3 feet) from each other, I can fit 4 rows inside. Planting them also 70 cm far from each other would give 60 plants in total out of the 99.
The reason we were making this frame is that I would like to put shading net above my plants, which would protect them from the summer sunshine, and also from the hailstorms. According to the producer it gives 25% shading, which should be enough.

Another 15 plants would go to where we are having the cucumbers and beans with supporting wires and net, and with drip irrigation system in place. Those ones will be covered with shade net as well.
The remaining 24 plants should go naked into the dirt

Thanks for watching
Balázs

romy6 · May 2, 2014

Looking very nice Balazs!