Highalt's 2012 Grow Log

stc3248 · Aug 5, 2012

Nice job on the vid! Didn't seem too long to me...watched it during Olympic commercials. Only took the 100m pre lims, 400m pre lims and one beach volleyball match. Your southern accent was definitely showing a bit, but it does that in the best of us! You pronunciation of pequin was classic!

KiNGDeNNiZ · Aug 5, 2012

highalt said:
It's been feeling a bit more like the PNW around here than the desert lately. We've had rain every couple days for the past 3 weeks. Not huge amounts, usually one to three tenths of an inch at a time, but enough to where I haven't ran the sprinkler system in two weeks! Plus, the humidity levels are up. We were at a whopping 41% earlier today, and it felt like a swamp to me! It's hard to believe I used to live in the south where the humidity levels were usually twice that high all the time.

So far no sign of any disease on the other plants, but both of my Big Jims, the one here at the house, and the one at the C.G. have had blossom end rot issues. I wonder if that variety is more prone to that than other types of peppers?

I'll have plenty of seeds to share once the pods start rolling in. Just let me know if there's something you're interested in.

I don't think I'm half the cook you, or Rick, or Pinoy are, but I'm pretty good with desserts, and canned stuff.

Hi Ken! Thanks for dropping by! I'm amazed at the numbers you have been harvesting these past few weeks, in spite of all the weather set backs.

It's going to be a while before I have any tomatoes to harvest. The one in the picture is only about the size of a ping pong ball right now. I'll be lucky to harvest enough for a batch of salsa before the final harvest when we have the first frost. The good news is they'll ripen off the vine eventually.

Hope you'll still check in occasionally while you are in seminary.

A few pics from today's community garden visit.

The Aji Chinchi Amarillos are getting going with some color now. Ate my first one last night with a taco, and it was crunchy, citrusy, and not as hot as the Aji Yellow.

Can't wait to try these Chile Hidalgo pods.

Serrano Huasteco is loading up. I've noticed the pods are much skinnier than the Serrano Tampiqueno I grew last year. I'm wondering how they'll compare heat wise.

A better shot of the first Tobago Seasoning pod.

Here's another one of the last minute plants I purchased, Cherry Bomb. It's trying it's best to make a come back.

... and the non pepper shot of the day. Blackberry Lily.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

beautiful!! is this bought or seeds.. next year im going to get my kids doing floral....love the video tour.. for a minute i thought u were doing a pod review... keep it up...

denniz.. whats up shane

stickman · Aug 5, 2012

Hi Bonnie
Loved the video! You've got some great looking plants in your community garden. No criticism implied when I say the way to pronounce Chiljuacle is chee HWAH lay... Just channeling my 7th grade Spanish teacher, lol.

roper2008 · Aug 5, 2012

Your community garden peppers are looking really good, especially the joloro. I have seeds but
haven't tried that one yet. If you want to try Ampius pepper that I bought from Sandhill Preservation,
let me know. It's a small bell type from france. The description says 'early to turn red'....
I think next year most of my peppers will be in the ground. I'm getting tired of watering all the
containers on my deck everyday.....
Oh, and that bread looks delicious!

highalt · Aug 5, 2012

stc3248 said:
Nice job on the vid! Didn't seem too long to me...watched it during Olympic commercials. Only took the 100m pre lims, 400m pre lims and one beach volleyball match. Your southern accent was definitely showing a bit, but it does that in the best of us! You pronunciation of pequin was classic!

KiNGDeNNiZ said:
beautiful!! is this bought or seeds.. next year im going to get my kids doing floral....love the video tour.. for a minute i thought u were doing a pod review... keep it up...

denniz.. whats up shane

I grew it from seed. It should start setting seed in the next couple of weeks. I'll harvest them, and send you some if you PM me your address.

stickman said:
Hi Bonnie
Loved the video! You've got some great looking plants in your community garden. No criticism implied when I say the way to pronounce Chiljuacle is chee HWAH lay... Just channeling my 7th grade Spanish teacher, lol.

Reminds me of an Abraham Lincoln quote, "[font=Times New Roman']Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."[/font]

roper2008 said:
Your community garden peppers are looking really good, especially the joloro. I have seeds but
haven't tried that one yet. If you want to try Ampius pepper that I bought from Sandhill Preservation,
let me know. It's a small bell type from france. The description says 'early to turn red'....
I think next year most of my peppers will be in the ground. I'm getting tired of watering all the
containers on my deck everyday.....
Oh, and that bread looks delicious!

That Ampuis sounds interesting! Then again, so does just about every pepper variety I haven't grown yet! :rofl:

I'm always up for a trade. Just let me know if there's something I'm growing that you're interested in.

roper2008 · Aug 5, 2012

If you're doing another pepper swap at the other forum next year. I can send you some
seeds then.

romy6 · Aug 5, 2012

Your garden looks great Bonnie. Loaded down with some tasty peppers and that bread looks really tasty. I love the shots of your hiking trip as well. Nice to see all your patience and hard work pay off :party:

highalt · Aug 5, 2012

roper2008 said:
If you're doing another pepper swap at the other forum next year. I can send you some
seeds then.

I'm planning on it, Linda. This year, I included THP in the swap too, and will probably do it that way again next year. I figure the more people in the swap, the better the odds that people will get back things that they want.

romy6 said:
Your garden looks great Bonnie. Loaded down with some tasty peppers and that bread looks really tasty. I love the shots of your hiking trip as well. Nice to see all your patience and hard work pay off

Thanks, Jamie! When I played the video back and realized how much my southern accent came through, I thought of you.

You'd think after 12 years of being away, I'd have gotten rid of it by now.

I enjoyed your vacation pics. It looked like you had a great time! Maybe I'll post some pics from the hikes next weekend ...

stickman · Aug 5, 2012

highalt said:
Reminds me of an Abraham Lincoln quote, "[font=Times New Roman']Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."[/font]

So true... that's All of us at one time or another... Me too now if I was hurtful. Not my intention I assure you.

highalt · Aug 6, 2012

No worries, Rick, I knew I was butchering the pronunciations. Probably should have taken the time to look some of them up before making a video, huh?

There's a lot of room for improvement in my video skills as well, but I like a good challenge, so my goal is to see how much better I can make the next one. Maybe once I can hold the camera steady, and not upside down, someone can explain to me how to add music ...

PaulG · Aug 6, 2012

Good grow going there, Bonnie; now for some random acts of ripening!
Waiting for the color can seem interminable!

Have a good week!

highalt · Aug 6, 2012

Thank you, Paul! I harvested a few more Aji Chinchi Amarillos today, and my first Fresno, so things are picking up slowly.

Ran into a setback today at the community garden. I noticed Saturday when I was doing the video that the non pepper stuff on the far side looked pretty sad and wilted. Well, today it was even worse, even though there was some cloud cover this afternoon. At the end of the second row of peppers, I've notice the walkway area and even into my neighbor's plot the soil was pretty saturated. On a hunch, I went over and turned the soaker hoses on, and found out that there was a 1/2" split in the soaker hose. I think maybe the sharp edge of the t-post may have cut it. So I had to hand water everything today. :mope:

Tomorrow I'll try to patch the hole. If that doesn't work, I'll have to rip up all the soaker hose, and put the good end down at the peppers, so I'll only have to hand water the other half of the garden. Kind of bummed out, but glad I caught it before stuff started dying on me.

stickman · Aug 6, 2012

highalt said:
Thank you, Paul! I harvested a few more Aji Chinchi Amarillos today, and my first Fresno, so things are picking up slowly.

Ran into a setback today at the community garden. I noticed Saturday when I was doing the video that the non pepper stuff on the far side looked pretty sad and wilted. Well, today it was even worse, even though there was some cloud cover this afternoon. At the end of the second row of peppers, I've notice the walkway area and even into my neighbor's plot the soil was pretty saturated. On a hunch, I went over and turned the soaker hoses on, and found out that there was a 1/2" split in the soaker hose. I think maybe the sharp edge of the t-post may have cut it. So I had to hand water everything today. Tomorrow I'll try to patch the hole. If that doesn't work, I'll have to rip up all the soaker hose, and put the good end down at the peppers, so I'll only have to hand water the other half of the garden. Kind of bummed out, but glad I caught it before stuff started dying on me.

Hi Bonnie
That kind of sucks, but you did find it before losing your babies, so it doesn't suck all that much. Aren't you glad it's just one thing after another instead of everything at once?

Sanarda · Aug 9, 2012

Loved the video. Well done and it wasn't too long. I love the variety that your growing. I hope you do a review video of some. I am very interested to see how the different varieties taste/heat.. all that. beautiful garden

highalt · Aug 10, 2012

Thanks, Sanarda! I'd be willing to do a review of anything I'm growing, but I'm not volunteering to eat any raw supers just yet, so don't anyone get any ideas, LOL!!!

Okay, no update today, I'm doing good to even have time to get things watered with my soaker hose malfunction.

So this is a non - pepper post. Took a hike with my kids and big (as in older) sis. These are from the Jess Weaver Trail in No Name, CO.

The kids doing a little rock climbing

Then the trail follows a creek for a while. This is Me.

The Boys

Me, My Sis, and the Little Peeps

And my favorite little monkey in a tree.

Hoping to hike tomorrow without the kids. I'll try and post more photos later. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

romy6 · Aug 10, 2012

Looks like you guys had a great time and the weather looked perfect. I can only imagine how hard it is to move around in that terrain. This Florida boy would not last long there

HillBilly Jeff · Aug 11, 2012

Loved working my way through your glog. Quite the collection of peppers. When your Jimmys get ripe, slice them into strips with strips of your Biker and some onion slivers and saute. Along with some chicken strips and cheese rolled into a tortilla, you have one heck of a sandwich. The sauteed Jimmys are the sweetest thing in the world if you haven't grown them before.

Congrats on the grow and wishing you continued success.

highalt · Aug 13, 2012

Sorry for another non-pepper related update. I promise a pepper update sometime this week!

Saturday, my sister and I hiked a trail called Avalanche Creek in the Maroon Bells/Snowmass Wilderness area. It goes 11 miles to a lake, but we only went about 3 miles in and turned back.

This is my sister among the ferns and aspens.

Our view during our lunch break.

Today, we took the two little ones and went on the Grizzly Creek Trail in the Glenwood Springs Canyon, but it was raining the whole time, so I didn't get any pictures. It's been years since I hiked in the rain, and it was beautiful, but once the kids feet were soaked, the party was over! We went home and had hot chocolate and popcorn.

Then, I made a batch of breakfast bars. Thought they were going to be apple walnut, but when I opened the unlabeled jars of jam, I realized they were Carrot Cake Jam, which is made from pears, pineapple and carrots. I'm sure they'll still be yummy.

My daughter's showing you that she lost her front tooth yesterday.

romy6 said:
Looks like you guys had a great time and the weather looked perfect. I can only imagine how hard it is to move around in that terrain. This Florida boy would not last long there

The weather held out until today. It's been raining since I got up this morning, which is rare here. Usually we get fast moving thunderstorms that only last a few minutes, or are all wind and lightning with no real precipitation.

Bodeen said:
Loved working my way through your glog. Quite the collection of peppers. When your Jimmys get ripe, slice them into strips with strips of your Biker and some onion slivers and saute. Along with some chicken strips and cheese rolled into a tortilla, you have one heck of a sandwich. The sauteed Jimmys are the sweetest thing in the world if you haven't grown them before.

Congrats on the grow and wishing you continued success.

Thank you, Bodeen, for your kind words!

I've harvested a couple of the Jimmy Nardellos, but used them in stuff like spaghetti sauce, so didn't get a sense of their flavor. Your idea sounds really delicious!

Melissa77754 · Aug 13, 2012

Bonnie pods galore girl! Like Shane I need to google some of those varieties! Impressive how well the community plot is doing for you! Looking forward to some harvest shots and more baked goodies!

highalt · Aug 14, 2012

Hi Melissa! So glad you stopped by! The harvests are trickling in, but no big ones yet.

Today I made a video here at the house. It's a little steadier than the first one, and I added labels for the peppers to compensate for my horrible pronunciation and Southern accent. :dance:

Let me know what you guys think.