• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

JJJ 2013 Glog- C'est fini. -awmost.

So,I may as well grow them, eh?

I started back gardening last year, but I left it to my co-gardener mostly to come up with pepper plants. We had some Bells, and Cayenne, a Carrot pepper, a black Jap, Hungarian sweet, maybe a Bullnose, Then I bought a 4 pack each of Anaheims and Jimmy Nardellos. I set out a little Shoshito start in July and it had a lot of fruit considering. Nothing here to write home about. The Jimmy's did ok. 2 of the Anaheims weren't true (and a cow at half of one of them), one did ok. The last one I planted in a new asparagus bed and the first week some sucky bug drilled it right in forehead and wilted the top. I started to pull it out, but thought, "no harm to leave it to see what would happen". I pinched the wilt off. That pepper forked an by frost it had held its own with the asparagus which hit about 6 foot. I pulled the whole plant day before frost, and it had about 50 nice peppers on it. I blistered and smoked them all.
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But this year I'm gonna be pepper pro-active. Thanks to Durham Bull, I have a treasure house of Capscium genes -Bhuts, Scorpions, and the likes -none of which I'd ever heard of a year ago. The generosity of this community seems to only be matched by it passion for peppers. I dig it. Plus I was in at another site with an online seed blind swap and ended up with some mildly hot goodies.

Well I've never grown a pepper from seed. Never. So yet another new door. Bought a heat mat, I've got onions about to come off it now. After Spicy Chicken's glog, I liked his grow station and thought I'd buy some shelves and put overhead fluorescent on them. I had a domestic conversation about where to put the shelves and lost amicably. So I guess I'll have to finally clean out my toolshed after only 4 years to make room.

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It has a skylight about, 30" x 96", but no heat, no electricity. But I think I can get by with an extension cord, and will have to pick up a little propane heater to knock the chill off. Peppers aren't safe outside here until mid-May.

Yesterday, I got my shelves assembled with one light installed - a 4x4' T8 fixture w/ 6500ks.

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Plan is to wire them on to a gang of light switches, maybe a timer, cover it with Reflectrix movable curtains, some small fans.

I'd appreciate any advice, especially since I'm in the early build phase.

I'm shooting for about 100-150 plants if there's room -some to wind up in rows, some in beds, some into containers, some to share

A friend is sending me some more seeds today I believe, so I'll be closer to a final grow list when I see what that brings.

Thanks for reading and for any words of wisdom you can share.
 
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Carl great idea on testing MG VS your soil, did you sift/grate yours first before mixing up? Looking forward to following your tests myself as I am now using some MG on a few plants. I liked the way both Shane & Steve’s plants were looking so I thought I’d give it a go. I find that MG very light and fluffy, if you can get yours similar you should be way ahead of the game.

Everything looking great mon, the babies will eventually take off but it looks like some already have. Nice pictures and great updates, keep up dat killer work!

Something is not right, 7:21AM, I’ve barely been online and I’m out of “Like This” maybe THP needs some MG :D
Edit: Back now 12:10PM and I got some to dish out, you've been served \o/
 
Sweet play by play...liking it. I have some side by side comparisons from last year with several other soils too...I'll try to dig up the before and afters. Sometimes I sound like a MG commercial. The stuff doesn't work for everyone though. A lot has to do with knowing how to use whatever you choose.
 
stc3248 said:
Sweet play by play...liking it. I have some side by side comparisons from last year with several other soils too...I'll try to dig up the before and afters. Sometimes I sound like a MG commercial. The stuff doesn't work for everyone though. A lot has to do with knowing how to use whatever you choose.
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Shane two things; one you need to check your signature out, look at my screen capture below. You could try it like this, just copy paste what I put inside the code screen below:
Code: 
[url=http://thehotpepper.com/topic/36599-stc3248-2013-grow-logsuper-flowers/]stc3248, 2013 Grow log...Super Flowers!!!![/url]
Once you do that ^ is will look like this --> stc3248, 2013 Grow log...Super Flowers!!!! or you could shorten it like stc3248, 2013 Grow log ... unfortunately I can't do it with my sig as you have to run with one of dem paid accounts :/

Two, I’m all out of “like this” again and only hit 3 times for Carl or I would have hit on your post here … next time mi brethren, respect/
 
Thanks, guys.

Walksgood, I did not sift or grate which is a bit of regret. I just kneaded like bread. I did run a chunk of old locust bark through our old Vitamix.


IMAG1313.jpg


At that point I was looking for some 1/4" chips, but all I got was powder. I just didn't know when to quite maybe :rolleyes:

But you're absolutely right that stuff is fluffy. First thing I noticed when I stuck my hand in it. I'd love to see how they mill it because that may be one of their strong points. That is, catching their bark at just the right stage of decomposition and then milling it down to the level of fineness they want. That way it still has some spring or fluffiness in it.

Come to think of it, I have a cousin who has a environment consulting business across the state and also makes "bag dirt". I should pick her brain on this question. She probably has a full size tug mill. I only need a little one. But bigger than a Vitamix.

Bull, Did you recognize any of your chilins, pretty fair number are yours :D
Thanks again.


[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] The stuff doesn't work for everyone though. A lot has to do with knowing how to use whatever you choose.[/background]
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True Dat, Shane. Learning the water retention and wetting characteristic of any blend -MG or homemade is job one. Somebody did a lot of homework at MG getting that Moisture Control as foolproof as possible. I accept their challenge :)
 
Started reading your glog last night and finished this AM.

This is your first year? Well done!

You're way ahead of me, I just stuck my seeds in jiffy peat pots in a South window with a cheapo grow light, but that was before I found THP. Next year will be different, I can see the wife's already getting nervous about losing a room :rolleyes:

Good luck! Can't wait to see how it turned out!

Happy Easter,

Scott
 
Hey, Scott thanks for reading. I'm throughly enjoying my first full pepper grow.
You'll have fun at it. This is a great crowd to chat with and bounce around ideas with.
You should be just about able to direct sow out doors now if you're in south TX. Do ya think so?

First real spring-ish day here. March has been a bear. I thought it was February's job to give everybody the blues.

I puttered about the grow shack and potted up some rhubarb and bee balm.
My main tomato wave is starting to pop. Probably be potting them up on Tuesday.

Gave almost all the trays a few minutes in the sun.

Here's the mostly chocolate tray. 15 Chocolate Bhuts at the top, 6 Choc. Habs in the middle and 7 Sante Fe Grande in the bottom two rows (partially hidden) These were potted up ten days ago.

IMAG1331.jpg
 
JJJessee said:
Hey, Scott thanks for reading. I'm throughly enjoying my first full pepper grow.
You'll have fun at it. This is a great crowd to chat with and bounce around ideas with.
You should be just about able to direct sow out doors now if you're in south TX. Do ya think so?
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This IS a great crowd, and I'm learning a lot.

I used to just buy starter plants and stick em in the ground, did that for years. This year I sowed tomatoes and the Annuum's in early Jan., the Chinense in Feb, then I ordered more heh.

Our average last frost is 3-15, I gamble if the 10 day forecast looks OK and plant 3-1. Skated by again this year ;)

The soil on top of the clay, is that natural or did you build it up? It looks great!

Keep up the good work JJ!

Scott
 
JJJessee said:
Remember this hole?
IMAG1231.jpg
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I finally got around to filling it.


IMAG1338.jpg


Very fresh horse manure & urine (and a little aged for a starter effect) on tossed sawdust bedding with a hay garnish, sprinkled with aged coffee grounds and drowsed with 20 gals of an unfiltered alfalfa infusion.
Tomorrow, if I can remember, I'd like to dowse it again with some AACT with an extra bump of azomite.

I'll let it sit until Tuesday to see if it might get a little warm

If it does, I 'll wait for the temp to climax over the next couple of weeks. Then I'll either turn it and cap it with a soil /aged compost mixture,or just cap it.

The goal is to put a little hoop house over it when the enviroment is stable and cool enough for nightshades.
Hope it warms the ground to move a few plants out up by a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.

Peppers are doing meh

IMAG1340.jpg


They got a little too much sun I think
Tomatoes and eggplants are taking away some of their attention.
Could be a little solanaceaen jealousy at work.

Thanks for reading
jjj


.....
 
If it were a horse race, I'd say its over.
But I'll hang on to my wager reciept. ;)

Miracle grow vs. Homemade


IMAG1345.jpg


Top Row left to right
MG - Yellow Scorpion
MG - Yellow Scorpion
JJ Blend - Bhut
MG - Bhut

Bottom Row left to right
JJ Blend - Yellow Scorpion
JJ Blend - Yellow Scorpion
Forest Compost 50% -Coir 50% - Bhut
Forest Compost 100% - Bhut

Could my concoction catch-up? Maybe.
Is it likely? Nope.

The closest challenger is the 100%, sifted straight off the forest floor soil.

The only possible hurdle, how every slight, I could foresee for the MG is for the plant to adapt to garden conditions and pod production.

So do I give up as an organic soil mixer?

Hell, no!

This challenge has just started. Lord willin', I have 20+ years of research in front of me, experimenting, tinkering, pondering, and the possibility of divine revelation to buttress my pursuit.

But until then, I will be using more Miracle Grow Moisture Control potting mix for raising baby plants.
And me, a practically dye-in-the -wool, granola-eatin', Prius-drivin', organic gardener.

What can I say?



Thanks for reading,
JJJ
 
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