Jeff's Glog- 2015 edition.--In the dirt

Jeff H · May 1, 2015

Pulpiteer said:
Where did you get the plastic for the hoop house? Very cool, looks like it works great.

Andy, they are cheapo 1/2" plastic conduit from Lowes or HD. I think they were 1.39 each. The outer plastic is 6 mil from Lowes. A 10 x25' roll wasn't very expensive.

gnslngr said:
Hey Jeff-
That stair railing turned out really nice-never that pattern "anglized" -looks cool.

That is 3rd aerogarden glog post tonight(finally stole some glog browsing time-though the bandwidth started to die off and the last page was just tops of pics), its got me hmmmmmmm'ing.....

Good luck on the plant out.

Thanks Dave. My wife is happy with the railing. That's all that matters after all. :rolleyes:

Aerogarden does work well, but I only use it to start peppers. I've stunted plants before by keeping them in hydro too long. Once they are 5-6" tall it is time to get them in soil. I switched to all herbs for the rest of the spring. I'm just about drowning in basil and thyme.

maximumcapsicum · May 2, 2015

Hey Jeff! Just got caught up. Your plants looks amazing. I am in aw of your work with the manzanos. They are persnickety little buggers and yours look great. I got a pair of rocottos going on my shady balcony. Fun to grow them just for the challenge. Thank goodness I haven't had to deal with any notes.

It's always momentous when you turn the lights off for the season. Congrats on getting to this point. How many tomatillos did you have going? How are your forecasts looking this year? When do you think you'll have everyone in the dirt?

You got a favorite new variety this year?

Jeff H · May 6, 2015

maximumcapsicum said:
Hey Jeff! Just got caught up. Your plants looks amazing. I am in aw of your work with the manzanos. They are persnickety little buggers and yours look great. I got a pair of rocottos going on my shady balcony. Fun to grow them just for the challenge. Thank goodness I haven't had to deal with any notes.

It's always momentous when you turn the lights off for the season. Congrats on getting to this point. How many tomatillos did you have going? How are your forecasts looking this year? When do you think you'll have everyone in the dirt?

You got a favorite new variety this year?

Glad to see you stopping by Adam. I think I planted 5 tomatillos. The forecast seems milder than normal this year so I got a week head start on plants in teh ground. Usually it is mother's day but everything is in the dirt as of yesterday. No new favorites, but I am trying a bunch of rocotos this year. Hoping for a big harvest.

In the dirt. 2015

O/w Rocoto in it's 25 gallon pouch.

3 year old red Ghost in a 15 gallon pouch.

Mystery plant from guru. Looks like a pube of some sort. I have 4 of them.

One of the Rocotos

Red ghost

Jigsaw got a bit sunburned, but he's pulling strongly.

Annuums, Baccys and a few pubes way at the end.

Anaheims, poblanos, and various jalapenos flanked by garlic right and onions left.

Another shot

That is 10. Need a bump.

tctenten · May 6, 2015

Looks great Jeff. How tall will the garlic get? When is it harvested?

maximumcapsicum · May 6, 2015

My favorites are definitely the rocotos and annums Jeff. They look fantastic. Makes me think about potting up the two rocotos I got going.

Jeff H · May 7, 2015

tctenten said:
Looks great Jeff. How tall will the garlic get? When is it harvested?

I have never grown garlic before but from what I understand, it is about full grown and I'll harvest it when the tops start to dry and turn brown in June or July.

maximumcapsicum said:
My favorites are definitely the rocotos and annums Jeff. They look fantastic. Makes me think about potting up the two rocotos I got going.

I agree Adam, the rocotos and the annuums have great flavor. I'm also partial to the couple of baccatums I have tried. I have a few of them growing too. I don't have very many chinense growing this year at all. I don't like the flavor of a lot of them.

maximumcapsicum · May 7, 2015

Oh yeah. I was enjoying the pics you posted. I of course love the chinenses too. My favorite is the BB7 and reaper. The morugas burn me up but have a lot of flavor going on, and the yellows of various shapes go well on tropical recipes. Still experimenting.

I haven't tasted a rocoto yet, but man the plant sure is majestic. I have em in five gallons and they're almost 3' tall and sprawling quite a bit. Can't imagine how big they'd get in a 15 gallon. Can't wait to try the pods.

Pulpiteer · May 10, 2015

Garlic is supposed to deter some pests too, so I wonder if that will help the peppers by being there. It's a good use of space.

Trident chilli · May 10, 2015

Also heard that garlic deters pests ..... moles or voles digging nearby ( if you have them) will be put of by the garlic root as they have sensitive noses .... Garlic water helps keep the aphids at bay ... and rubbing garlic on yourself is supposed to keep the mosquito away from biting you or is that an old wife's tale ... thankfully the UK is not plagued by the mosquito however the Scotish midge is an awesome pest

stickman · May 11, 2015

Alright Jeff! Glad to see your babies in the dirt! Good luck with your grow this year, It looks like you have things well in hand. :dance:

Jeff H · May 11, 2015

maximumcapsicum said:
Oh yeah. I was enjoying the pics you posted. I of course love the chinenses too. My favorite is the BB7 and reaper. The morugas burn me up but have a lot of flavor going on, and the yellows of various shapes go well on tropical recipes. Still experimenting.

I haven't tasted a rocoto yet, but man the plant sure is majestic. I have em in five gallons and they're almost 3' tall and sprawling quite a bit. Can't imagine how big they'd get in a 15 gallon. Can't wait to try the pods.

You'll love the rocotos. For lack of a better description, they basically taste a lot like a bell pepper, but hot. I think they are perfect for pico salsas because they taste so good fresh.

Pulpiteer said:
Garlic is supposed to deter some pests too, so I wonder if that will help the peppers by being there. It's a good use of space.

Hmmm. Thanks for the info Andy. I hadn't heard that before. Yes, the use of space was planned so that the garlic and onions will be pulled before Aug when the peppers will get huge.

Trident chilli said:
Also heard that garlic deters pests ..... moles or voles digging nearby ( if you have them) will be put of by the garlic root as they have sensitive noses .... Garlic water helps keep the aphids at bay ... and rubbing garlic on yourself is supposed to keep the mosquito away from biting you or is that an old wife's tale ... thankfully the UK is not plagued by the mosquito however the Scotish midge is an awesome pest

Interesting- thanks for the confirmation. Garlic seems good for a lot of things. Good thing it tastes so good.

stickman said:
Alright Jeff! Glad to see your babies in the dirt! Good luck with your grow this year, It looks like you have things well in hand.

Thanks Rick. We're off to a good start, but we'll have to see how the rest of the year goes.

Small mother's day update.

The red rocoto in his 25 gallon root pouch. Loving life and growing more every day.

Jigsaw coming along nicely. Just about to start putting out buds.

Red ghost putting out tons of new growth to cover up those sun burned leaves.. :rolleyes:

I got the irrigation system all hooked in on Saturday. Mostly the same places as last year but I had to move some heads for the plant locations. Carribean reds, paper lanterns , MOAs in the foreground, rocotos way in the back.

Another shot of the peppers. While the superhots and habs all have dedicated drippers, most of the other plants all share a drip line with 3 drip lines in each bed. This worked out well last year and while I haven't turned it on, it is ready for the dry season.

Now, we had people over for Mother's day so what better to do in the spring than have a BBQ. :woohoo:

Spoiler pic because the boss doesn't like double posting, a fact I conveniently ignore some times:

All of the details are posted in my flog:

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/45376-jeffs-flog-now-were-smoking/page-4

JoynersHotPeppers · May 11, 2015

Looking good Jeff and digging the "q"!

HillBilly Jeff · May 11, 2015

Everything is looking great. Calling for 39 here tomorrow night. I still haven't started hardening off yet lol,.

Pulpiteer · May 11, 2015

Wow, that looked so good I had to check out your flog - and now I'm just hungry...

stickman · May 17, 2015

I'm glad to hear you could re-use last year's drip irrigation setup, that'll save you the expense this year. :party:

Great-looking plants and foodies... I made Cochinita Pibil in my slow cooker with some pork shoulder to take out to my Mom too. Guess we were on the same wavelength.

Jeff H · May 21, 2015

JoynersHotPeppers said:
Looking good Jeff and digging the "q"!

Thanks Chris, coming from you, that is a real compliment.

HillBilly Jeff said:
Everything is looking great. Calling for 39 here tomorrow night. I still haven't started hardening off yet lol,.

Thanks Jeff. Even now, we are still getting odd temp swings. Plants aren't loving it, but the seem to be doing fine with the lower than ideal temps.

Pulpiteer said:
Wow, that looked so good I had to check out your flog - and now I'm just hungry...

There is more where that came from Andy. Stay tuned.

stickman said:
I'm glad to hear you could re-use last year's drip irrigation setup, that'll save you the expense this year. Great-looking plants and foodies... I made Cochinita Pibil in my slow cooker with some pork shoulder to take out to my Mom too. Guess we were on the same wavelength.

Yes Rick, I was glad to see that the irrigation system survived the winter intact and was able to just be reinstalled. When I tested it for leaks I was astounded that there was only one minor one where a plug had popped loose. The dripper hoses that I bought are way easier to deal with then the individual drippers.

This weekend we are doing Jerk chicken.

Enough for a few dinners. I didn't HWB can these, I just hot packed them. They will live in the garage fridge next to the beer until I need them. Judging by the amount of vinegar in the recipe, they likely would need to be pressure canned and I didn't have time for that last night.

Got the recipe here: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/51386-jamaican-jerk-marinade-round-2/

I better treasure the few scotch bonnets in the freezer because I don't think mine are doing all that well this spring.

Still alive, but barely.

On the other hand, my rocotos seem to be doing much better than last year.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the rocotos.

Shot of the annuums. In this pic are poblanos and jals. Doing good but I suspect the soil might be a bit hot for them since the leaves refuse to flatten out.

That is all for this garden update. For those of you who remember when I bought this sauce, we finally had a chance to eat it earlier this week.

Heat was decent for a store bought sauce. Nothing drastic but not mild by any stretch. I wasn't a real fan of the flavor though. A bit too earthy for me, I've had and I've made much better curry sauces. My son liked it though.

maximumcapsicum · May 21, 2015

Nice update. Sorry to see the bonnets aren't cooperating... Looks like they got chewed on?

The jerk marinade looks great. I've seen that ghost pepper curry down here too bud never tried it. May give it a whirl sometime.

Blister · May 21, 2015

Oh jerk chicken. Loves me some jerk chicken! Going to have to do some in the smoker once I get a bit of time on my hands and the weather cooperates. Things are looking good here Jeff

Neil

Pulpiteer · May 22, 2015

That bonnet looks like slugs got it. Stupid, horrible slugs. I pretend I can hear them scream when I put table salt on them after they've been in the garden. I take it personally.

randyp · May 25, 2015

Everything looks good Jeff.This is my first year running a drip line and I think I am going to love it.Have a good Memorial Day.