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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.
 
Click to expand...
Temps remain moderate here with a continued drying trend. We had some rain over the weekend, but spotty.
I'm not as anxious to pull pods for immediate use so they are probably going to be closer to dead ripe from here on out.
 
The plants in this bed have been lush all summer with all the extra rain. They've set  a lot of pods, still less than 10% have ripen with the Dorset Naga producing the most early ripe pods. We still have 6 weeks to AVERAGE first frost. I might give them a little more space next year , but not much. A few pods are are getting nibbled, could be slugs could be grasshoppers. The foliage has pretty good color and next to nearly pest free. Considering that the baby plants were not the best, they've made pretty good.
I'm satisfied with the results but most of the credit goes to the generous, great pepper growers here on THP and a good growing season. The applaud goes to you guys. 

 
Naga Jungle

 
I set this Naga more  to itself  and it gets more sun on the fruit. It seems they ripen a bit faster.
It looks like two plants;one branch was leaning hard to the left.

 
This is by far the best of 3 Tabasco plants; just starting to redden

 
Also the the best  by far of 3 serrano plants, I may ferment these.

 
My Birgit's L may not quite make 6' by frost but it's well of 5', so it has a chance I guess. It really is an ornamental or will be when more pods are closer to ripe.

 
This is the best of 3 Black Nagas, but slower to turn. It was planted in average clay, with some soil conditioner  at the base. It's in the shadow of some 50' locust trees west of it. Another was container planted another in a raised bed with a compost imbalance; they are producing ripe fruit but not many.

 
Second batch of dried pods. I didn't smoke these. Also not sure if drying them whole the best way to go. I set the dehydrator to 95° and it took a few days to get them dry. I'll process these before I dry anymore whole. These are mostly nagas and habs.

 
Today's Hot Pick, plus some water logged tomatoes

 
 
This is my prettiest Goat's Weed, not as big as I'd hoped. The pods are going from black to red, but they can't seem to "stand up",

I hope it not contagious.
 
Thanks for reading.
JJJ
 
J mon da grow is looking steller, love their their size and color, plus your harvest is great!
 
How dried out did the whole pods come out? I’ve only dried very thin walled ones whole, heck at 115 it takes me 3 days to dry out MoA SB or JA Habs and they're cut in half or quaters.
 
There once was a beautiful pepper plant. Her name was Birgit Locoto.
 

 
 
 
She lived in the middle of the garden. There were other many other pepper plants around her but she was, by far, the most beautiful of them all. She was large and towered above her nearest pepper neighbors -a Tobasco, a Goat's Weed, and a Bishop's Cap. She broadly splayed her many branches, resting them on her neighbors so to support her many, many peppers that hung from her like pendulous jewels. The jewels' color changed slowing as she grew, starting as a glissening peridot, turning a deep citrine and finally a rich, ruby red.
 
As her beauty grew, and grew far beyond that of her neighbors, she began to think and occasionally exclaim aloud, "I am the most beautiful pepper in the garden. No. Not just this garden. I am the most beautiful pepper plant in the whole land." Her proclamations like this became more frequent with the passing days of summer and did not exactly endear her to her neighbors. Yet there was some truth in what she said. It's just that some truths wear better if left unspoken.
 
But one day as the summer began to wane, and the morning dew still laid  fresh on the garden, there came a grasshopper. A large, hungry, grasshopper.  The grasshopper had grown tired of eating the green carrot tops nearby. So, with a single hop, the large, hungry grasshopper jumped from the carrot tops and landed directly in the crown, among the top branches, of the beautiful Birgit Locoto.
 
 
 
 
"Get it off! Get it off!" , she cried. This grasshopper will ruin me. It will nibble my leaves and nibble my peppers. My beauty will be spoiled, spoiled beyond hope -even by a single nibble!"
 
The Tabasco, the Goat's Weed, and the Bishop's Cap were startled and frightened as well.
 
"Get it off!", she cried, "You  must help me. NOW!"
 
The Tabasco said, "I'm, I'm  afraid of grasshoppers. I, I even have bad dreams about them at night. They are a terror to me"
 
The Goat's Weed also said, "I'm afraid of grasshoppers too. Last year they ATE one of my cousins. They ate, and ate, and ate until there was only a stump left of him. I'm not touching that grasshopper. No, not by any means."
 
The Bishop's Cap said, "I and all pepper plants are afraid of grasshoppers. Regrettably, I think your situation may, in fact, be hopeless. It is...."
 
As the Bishop's Cap was speaking, Birgit Locato interrupted, "I dare you! Every one of you! To stand by, idly watching this travesty,  this grasshopper destroy the my beauty!"
 
But just then, she saw The Gardener coming though the field to look at his garden.
 
"The Gardener! The Gardener will save me!," she said. "No thanks to you, you fearful lot of peppers. No thanks indeed!"
 
This was true, The Gardener came daily to look at his pepper plants. Each day he looked for pests like, caterpillars, slugs, beetles, and grasshoppers that nibble by nibble ruined his pepper plants. As he came to the beautiful Birgit Locoto, sure enough, he spied the large, hungry grasshopper sitting among her branches. He reached with stealth to snatch the grasshopper and... and.... MISSED!
 
The grasshopper jumped a little further away.
 
The Gardener leaned a little  into the branches and slowly, slowly reached for the grasshopper and....and.... MISSED!
 
The grasshopper jumped still further away -almost out of reach. The Gardener leaned, and reaching, slowly, leaning deep into branches of the beautiful Birgit Locoto, slowly.... reaching.....leaning... and.....and....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CRASH!!!
 
The Gardener leaned so far, so far into the branches, he lost his balance and tumbled with a crash headlong into the beautiful Birgit Locoto. In an instant,  her branches were split, torn and crushed.
 
Her beauty spoiled beyond hope.
 
 
 
THE END
 
Thanks.
 
On a lighter note, I picked a bunch of supers today.
 

 
 A lot of Dorset Nagas, some yellow 7P, Black Nagas, red Bhut, some yellow somethinoranothers, red market bonnets.
I'm letting the fruit hang longer now that my  heat craving is sated a bit. ;)
 
Ramon, it doesn't seem to take three full days, but I may be drying them a little hot and hence losing some color too I'm afraid.
May dial it back a notch.
 
Sorry about your baby. Nice story ;)  Dang grasshoppers! I read they don't jump if you try to cut them in two with long bladed scissors, and I've snipped quite a few in two this way.
 
Nice haul on the supers!
 
I have the dehydrator set at 127 and get decent color on the reds but not the yellows, dry time when cut in half is usually 2 days.
 
Have a great week!
 
Grasshoppers can be a nuisance, but I used to spend hours playing with them when I was a kid.
My real problem this year other than flea beetles on eggplants, groundhogs and deer on almost everything else has been a little one inch black worm that eats a hole into the super hots and takes up residence (wants to fight when interrupted)  in a fog of capsicum gnawing bliss -5% loss maybe .
 
With my sweet red bell crop almost a wash, I resorted to buying a half bushel of carmens at the farmer's markets. I thought 33 cents each was almost stealing them. 
 

 
Stuffing those things, or any decent sized pepper with some tex-mex grub is a new treat our homestead.
 
I'm getting a small array of ferments going -peppers only so far.
I'm using a 6-10% by weight of sea salt on peppers pulped on my old Corona mill.
Chime in if you've got a better plan, it just seems so salty to me, but that is pretty much the low side of consensus on the internoodle.
 

 
That basket of nagas alone produced 1.7kg 
 
 
 
These bhuts made about 3/4 of a pint
 

 
 
Last night I fired up the smoker just for the habanero haul.
 

 
Those chocolates sliced fresh restored my faith in habs
 
 
 
Many many hanging green pods still to turn.
 

 
One the NON side.
 
Here's the raised beds over all shoot. 
 

 
I'm still building new beds, but slowing down some.
 
Out near my row garden I just prepped holes for 20 blueberry bushes.
 

 
In the row garden itself, my winter oats and peas have sprouted. I've sown around some pepper plants still producing strong.
 
Pia Alert
Gratuitous, un-redacted spider shot follows.
 

 
More around this year than last, earthworms too. ;)
 
Enjoy your peppers
Thanks for reading.
JJJ
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Great pics JJJ!
 
I'm guessing that when we plant in the rural areas we are inviting pests, it's almost like they sound a bell for all their buddies to come running. That's the main reason I plant so much, some them and hopefully some for me.
 
Have a great weekend!
 
Thanks, all.
 
There are a lot of pests out there, but as an old tymer told me, "It takes all kinds to make a world". So I try not to get too bent outta shape about things until it gets to plague stage. 
For instance, I know it's a pest, but look at this beautiful little varmit.
 

 
Before I had a good look at him, I thought it was a saddleback( a stinging caterpillar). I wasn't about to touch him to see if they were related.
 
I picked part of my pepper patch last Friday to work up over the weekend.
 

 
Top pile is Fatallis, Dorset Nagas and Black Nagas with Datils to them self on the right side.
The lower pile is Brainstains, 7 Pot Yellows, and Bhuts.
 
I made a big dent in them but have plenty left to figure out what to do with.
I smoked or blanched most to store in vinegar brine, some got dehydrated.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
There were also sweet and semi-sweets peppers
 

 

 
I made a simple sauce out of the smoked 7 Pot Yellows
 

 
Maybe the marketing department can come up with a better name for it  after it ages a little.
 
Plus there are non-pepper vittles to work up.
I bought  another 10 pounds of egglants, roasted and vacuum-sealed for the freezer -those nagas will make them into some mean Baingan Bharta this winter.
 
I fired up my bread oven
 

 
And packed it full of cushaw.
 

 
Mrs J, froze most of it. 
 
Didn't get 'round to pressing anymore cider this weekend, but last weekend's carboy is workin' good.
 

 
Last Thursday, a buddy and I picked 5 bushel of apples a piece from some wild and abandoned trees we know about. 
 

 
Harvest time is busy time.
Thanks for reading,
JJJ
 
I had to like the grasshopper story, JJJ, not for what happened, but for the story itself.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.  Or pride goeth before a fall.  Or something.
 
I've been losing color on some of my dried peppers, too.  I know the dehydrator is too hot, but it only has two settings, plugged in or not.  I need to wire a dimmer switch into the circuit, then I'll have better control.
 
I saw a groundhog on my place a few days ago.  I'm not happy about that.  Any idea what makes a good bait for live trapping one?
 
That's a pretty awesome-looking bread oven.  I've got one I've never used.  It was here when I bought the place.  I really ought to try it out one of these years.
 
Great looking place you've got there.
 
Thanks, guys, yeah we have fun with the oven on occasion. It takes a while to fire it up, but you can then cook  in it for hours. We typically would make pizza first, then bread, then let something like cushaw slow-roast overnight.
 
I was excited to see a pepper care package in the mail yesterday.
From a famous NC grower. 
 

 
I'm sorta guessing at names here...
 
Red ones in center -Inca Drops. I ate it first. Fleshier than I expected, sweeter but similar flavor to a Birgit's but I prefer it, not as  hot. I already had it on my 2014 grow list.
 
Yellow-green on top right. Aji Limon. Not as lemony as expected, but a good fresh taste. Probably not as hot as the Drops. I will blanche and vinegar these for winter snackery.
 
Orange top left . Bonda ma Jacques, was on my 2013 grow list but none germinated. They look like Fatallis but stockier. The seeds are also more concentrated at the top. Taste?! - a home run. maybe not as Fatalli hot or quite as citris-y, but way sweeter than other high SCOs I've sampled except maybe Datil, I somewhat prefer the flavor to a Datil because it does have a citrus component (which is plus for me in IPAs too). Definitely a high-end snacking pepper.
 
I had one with  a snackey supper last night, piece at a time, not whole, never felt capsized at all.
 
Bottom red -??? Afraid of this one.
 
Middle bottom yellow, Einstein Yellow Brainstrain, also afraid, but will probably share this with some friends coming in tonight (for our 40 year!!!! HS reunion) after we've had a few. 
 
Bottom right yellow, 7  pot Yellow, _Ditto with the Einstein.
 
Thanks, Annie for the treat!
please Help me with ID  
:D
jjj
 
 
 
 
 
 
Nice care package.  I've been toying with putting the Bonda ma Jacques on next year's grow list.  I'd never heard of it until here on THP, but my notes have it as fast-growing and productive, plus flavorful.
 
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