• 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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Do you have a meter or kit? I've used a cheap aquarium test kit. Take a sample of the dirt and shake it up with some distilled water. Let it settle 'til clear and then test it like aquarium water. Probably not the most accurate approach, but at least you get an idea.
 
I love the soil test, and the rain capturing, I would love to do that. I looked into that last year, for what I want to do is expensive. I first need gutters then a couple of 5k gal storage tanks and a pump. For now I decided to dig a tank, 'cept it don't hold water...and as the wife looking in just added "don't rain neither".

That MG soil is on sale this weekend, gonna load up as I have no other plans and the garden is full..

Take care,

Scott
 
Haven't posted on your glog before, but have been watching your grow. Awesome job!

Where I live, it's illegal to collect rainwater. It apparently belongs to those further down stream. :banghead: You'd think whatever fell on my own property would be mine wouldn't you?
 
Thanks Bonnie, a lot of those plants were from your seeds :) excellent germ rate too I might add.
What about mulching your garden with sponges? ;)

Scott, I came into several 55 gal barrels at 10 bucks each and you might even beat that price if you look around. It's hard to beat that price per gallon of storage.
I've seen some fairly extensive arrays of them plumbed together on the 'net.

Here's one I'll try to use as my temporary storage until I get the big one plumbed.
I hope it will have enough pressure to feed some drip tapes
It could use a coat of green paint, tablecloth, lampshade or something.



We've had a generous amount of precip this past winter, but a few days of 80° with sun and wind can real dry the top layer out quickly.
It's hard on sprouting seeds, and baby plants.
 
NICE! went threw your glog. Sir,, i like your style i like your plot and i like your beard! awesome what you doing :onfire: im lurking now. cant wait to see how all of this plays out.

the pork taco was very nice :dance: :dance: we eat quinoa by the pounds every month around this house.

glad i found your glog :fireball:
 
^5 on the quinoa, Sicman! It's my go-to "grain" these days.
It cooks quickly, more protein than rice, tastes great. It's easier to cook than rice. When backpacking I just boil it almost dry on an alcohol stove and it's a perfect texture. I had it for supper tonight. Chopped a little onion, ginger, flaked a carrot, wokked them up in some peanut oil until almost tender, Pushed it up on the sides and scrambled 2 eggs. Dumped in the quinoa, some finely chopped celery, seasoned with a touch of garim marsala and a good splash of tamari --a few final stirs.

D-lish.
 
Devv said:
...and as the wife looking in just added "don't rain neither".
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"It's hard to collect rain that don't never fall."

highalt said:
Where I live, it's illegal to collect rainwater. It apparently belongs to those further down stream. :banghead: You'd think whatever fell on my own property would be mine wouldn't you?
Click to expand...

Bonnie, it's illegal even to collect the rain off of your own roof? That's harsh. I knew it was illegal to construct catchment basins, but I thought it was at least legal to collect your own roof run-off. That crap ought to change.

JJJessee said:
What about mulching your garden with sponges? ;)


Here's one I'll try to use as my temporary storage until I get the big one plumbed.
I hope it will have enough pressure to feed some drip tapes
It could use a coat of green paint, tablecloth, lampshade or something.

Click to expand...

+1000 on mulching with sponges, or water retention crytals.

JJJ, you should dress up that barrel to look like an Easter Island head.

JJJessee said:
^5 on the quinoa, Sicman! It's my go-to "grain" these days.
It cooks quickly, more protein than rice, tastes great. It's easier to cook than rice. When backpacking I just boil it almost dry on an alcohol stove and it's a perfect texture. I had it for supper tonight. Chopped a little onion, ginger, flaked a carrot, wokked them up in some peanut oil until almost tender, Pushed it up on the sides and scrambled 2 eggs. Dumped in the quinoa, some finely chopped celery, seasoned with a touch of garim marsala and a good splash of tamari --a few final stirs.

D-lish.
Click to expand...

Somebody tell more about this quinoa. I've heard it has a good balance of amino acids. Is that right? What's it taste like, rice? I generally carry freeze-dried, vacuum-sealed pouches for backpacking, but would prefer to prepare my own food, if possible.
 
Sawyer, quinoa is a type of amaranth. It doesn't like heat or frost. It thrives at equatorial altitude -the Andes I think. It has a nuttier flavor than rice but still pretty bland. It's 3+ bucks a pound even at my collective, so it's a cost more than rice. It looks like cous cous (a pasta) in a jar on the shelf, but there's also red and black quinoa too.


Easter Island?
(wheels spinning)
 
I see your garden is on a slope like mine, I like how you have it terraced. That's got to help when heavy rains come. My son just moved and I scarfed his railroad ties. I'm hoping to put them to good use after the season ends.

Yeah, I think we might be at 2"s of rain since the first of the year, not a good start! But when it rains it usually pours, it's been a while since we had any really heavy rains, but I remember one instance where 4"s fell in 20 minutes. And some years ago we had 50"s in a week.

Perhaps over the winter I can start with gutters on the back side of the house and get some sort of collection system going. My goal is to bury the tanks if I can dig deep enough before hitting rock.

Bonnie, perhaps you could redirect that water?

Have a great weekend!

Scott
 
Carl great pic of your rain collection system, if I had that 55 gal barrel I could cut back on making so many 5 gal batches as my current yield is only 2 gallons out of my small drum. A few weeks ago I started sourcing a 30 gallon one but couldn’t find a price better than 30 bucks and like you, I know I can do better on price. Take care and have a good great weekend ^_^
 
Jamison, it is definitely deer country. They mowed a 100' row of sweet taters last year -twice. Ground hogs may have helped. I still managed a half bushel.
Scott, it is amazing how many gallons of water are in an inch of rain over a given area. So even if you only get an average of 1" per month, all the more reason to store it.

Well I left the plants unattended over the weekend and had a little mishap with a few plants.
Some baby maters fried, and my Miracle Gro experiment came to an abrupt and nearly inconclusive end.
It wasn't a Freudian slip ( I don't think) but my MG test subjects met their Maker, or nearly so.



Apparently, I didn't give the MG subjects enough water to compensate for their growth. My little mix plants didn't seem to suffer.
I really believe some experience with a particular soil mix is needed to know what it can and can not be trusted to do.
MG Moisture Control always seemed a little more hydrophobic than I'd anticipated and compensated for it seems.

Also found this guy prancing around the pepperage when I got home.



The leaf spot is just some sunburn I think.
He didn't seem that interested in pepper leaf salad.
I released him back into the wild on his own recognizance.


Picked a head of buttercrunch lettuce, a bag of spinach, a handful of scallions that survived the winter, PLUS
First picking of asparagus!!! I planted 90 crowns last year, so I won't be taking much this year and just a little more next year.

On the broiling pan waiting for a sprinkle of garlic, olive oil, and tamari.






I planted a mater plant in the hot bed last Thursday and left it in a milk jug cloch over my long weekend -a recipe for cooked mater plant feared.
But it survived and looked fiesty, so I planted another.
The temp at about 4" was less than 120° I think it is winding down.
I put some other soil in a hole with them and watered well as I planted to moderate the situation.

Tomorrow I'll stick in a couple of peppers. Guinea pigs for sure. I can spare a couple I guess.
Nothing on the really cold side in the 10 day forecast. Just need to keep a close watch on 'em.

Thanks for reading.
jjj
 
Am sorry about the plants, hon. But as you said, "inconclusive."

Carl, have you seen forecasts for Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon and maybe Tue. nights? According to NOAA, some Canadian thing or Plains trough, high, is moving in after rain. Lows here, they say, around 39 at lowest, but for those 3 nights, at least: bummer. Don't think will lose another round of onions, but maters going in Outback. Also some 26 mph winds Friday . . . along with nice chilly rain. (Glad I didn't spray garden with any Actinovate yet.) But you sound like you got temp thang covered with "the heat beds." Can you warm those back up with nitrogen or alfalfa or . . .?

+ 1 on quinoa!!!! Wish to heck it could make a cover-crop through winter, but not. Purty 'spargus too :party:!
 
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