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JJJ Glog 2014.....in summary

Whew!
2013 Swirling down the Drain of Time.
 
Washing the 10x20s for a New Year.
 

 
 
By last October I was so peppered out  -40 some superhot plants and over twice that many mild and sweets. Didn't think I'd ever see the end of it. But, an early surprise freeze caught me off guard and I lost several mild and sweeties. I did get almost the entire superhot crop, dried, smoked, fermented, frozen or pickled. so I should have no dearth of heat to see me through to 2014 harvest.
 
I owe most of my pepper success in 2013 to YOU.
All the folks here at THP helped me from seed, to advice, to encouragement, to inspiration.  Couldn't have done it without y'all.
 
Some changes for 2014:
 

 
I'm moving my Cappy 1000 Pepper Incubator into my  basement utility room. Last year I had it in a minimally heated out building and the night times often dipped into the 50s or lower. And come to find out, baby peppers don't much care for that. They survived, they were just slow growers.
 
 
Dirt:
 
Fox Farms Ocean Forest will be my potting mix. It's organic and hopefully will be as good as the Miracle Grow Moisture Control and it can't be any worse than my home-brew last year which wasn't horrible but coulda been better.
 
Timing:
 
Instead of putting most of my seed in the ground in early February, I'm going to hold off until later on the Annums. The Chinensis at least some in early - mid January and some Manzano seeds earlier than that if I can find them. :rolleyes:
 
How Many for Plant Out?:
 
Not 140.
I'm devoting 2 raised beds -a 4x30 and a 4x16 to Sweet Peppers -Jimmy Nardello, King of the North, Gaint Marconis, Aji Dulce. About 26 plants. 
100' in my row garden. Probably 40 plant's. Haven't decided on the balance, Bhuts, 7 pot, Habs, Bonnets, Jalas, the usual suspects and a few odd balls.
66 plants +/- total. I totally neglected my maters last year(which given the season didn't make much difference), but this year I vow to do better by tomatoes. I hope to do 50 or so -all heirlooms, mostly paste.
I'll start several more of both than needed for selling and give-aways.
 
 
 
In related news....
 
My buddy up in Richmond grew a lot of peppers last year. He has a geodesic dome greenhouse. At the end of season he just dug up several of his pepper plants and moved them in inside.
 

 
They're looking pretty good for late December.
 
My last "harvest" of 2013 was 12/22/13; some Thai Chilis that I'd pulled the whole plants in October and just laid up on a table outside. Most had dried leather-hard.
 
I pulled, cooked, seasoned, ground and strained them into a sauce for Pad Thai for this winter.
 

 
 
Everything subject to change without notice.
(But I'll keep you posted)
 
Thanks for reading,
JJJ
 
 
 
Click to expand...
Great WORK capitalized on purpose! Building that soil web up and sowing some kale. Winter WILL break eventually or so they say...and you'll be ready to go! I have also figured out that rushing them out into the world is usually a mistake. As long as I have space indoors that's where they stay until I know its time. Altough plant out is in late March here, they grow much faster indoors until around May. Keep it up brother, always learn something here! I too started working young, and while some folks may think it robs kids of their childhoods, most productive folks learned those lessons at an early age. I knew that I never wanted to operate post hole diggers for a living if nothing else!
 
Hah! I used to sell seeds too! Hmmmm, I thought at 5 cents. I can say this for sure milk was 2 cents at school back then.
 
Love the grave project, I expect you will really see the benifits year 2. You do realize you're going to make me work harder over next winter? I just have to try that. I did dig the Cuke mound extra deep and put wood chip mulch at 8"s, does that count!
 
Keep it green JJJ! Always a pleasure to come here and see what you're up to, a lot of great ideas flowing!
 
Thanks, fellers.
 
Yeah, Shane, kids 4-8 are starving for a sense of productivity, and a garden or any little commercial operation, like seeds or such, is a good way to make it happen. 
 
Scott, it could have been 5 cents on seed packets, I do remember milk at  2 cents a half pint, and tetrahedral cartons when it was 3 cents -they made a really good stomp bomb. :)
 
We got an inch of snow and sub 20 over night but the 10 day says 30L and mid 50 high, I can dig it.
 
Wave One final plant count
 

 
 

 
 
 
They are bustin' at the seams for more room. Mainly because they are growing wider than taller. A good problem to have. Almost all the one month plants are bigger than the 3 month plants I set out last year. As soon as I can get shed of the onions, which aren't doing all that well, I could up-pot a few. Plus I have a buddy that would take 18 or so since he has a greenhouse to harbor them. And there's 5 trays of mostly nons that will free up Wave 2 and 3 room. It'll be tight. I'll have to use my thinking cap.
 
The Fatalli bud opened
 

 
But I'm going to remove it and the others until plant out. 
 
One Month review...
 
Aji Dulce from my own non-isolated seeds.
 

 
The one on the right is actually a month plus a week.
They are not as robust as most of the others chinense, even smaller than the JA Habs. But I guess they are good for T8 plants at this stage. Certainly better than last year's and they made a crop.
 
That's all I got.
thanks for reading.
 

 
I unplugged the homemade LED fixture and returned most of the denizens to T8 light except this lanky Locato because it wouldn't fit.
In two weeks it was the only plant that put on any growth and it's  just a spindle of a plant. I believe that fixture lacked enough  LED  modules or I had the plants  too far away.
Probably both.
 
Here's a one Month review of the Inca Red Drops
I've never grown this before. seeds are from pods Annie sent me.
The middle one was under the LED for 2 weeks
 

 
 
Generally the plants continue to grow into all the space I give them.
 

 
The bigger plants seem happiest with just 6 plants to the tray.
Os, something's gonna have to give.
 
Most of the Manzanos have forked and the first one has re-forked.
 

 
I know it's only early March but I thought I'd try for some mustard. I started some plugs a few weeks ago and set them under row cover today.
It's Tainong Heading Mustard and Kai Choi. If this don't make it, I'l direct sow some or do lettuce. I've had better luck with fall mustard.
 
 
 
 
This bed is where my mild peppers were last year. I didn't really get the bed worked up the way I'd liked.
So I brought in a load of compost and turned it in to fill it up.
 

 

 
I got the row cover hoops in place. Tomorrow is onion planting day. The onions starts I ordered from Dixondale  have arrived.
 
The onions seeds I planted are still iffy as to whether they will make decent starts. I moved all of them but one tray  to the plastic hoop 
house out back. All this may come to naught and I end up planting sets in mid-April. :)
 
We'll see.
Thanks for reading
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thanks, guys and gals.
I've been away from the pepper ranch for a few days and left plants under the care a sitter.
She did good. Everything looked fine when I got back, a little edema here and there and got behind in hand-to-hand combat with some aphids.
I think I can handle it for the time being.
 

 

 
Got all but the onions shown livin' in the hoop house.
They seem to be going nowhere fast. :confused:
 
Friday, I did get my onion starts from Dixondale in the ground. They sent a generous overage, so I think I put in well over 500, plus over fifty at my daughter's house while we were visiting.
I'll check on mine tomorrow.
 
It's been close to 70° here today so I set out everything for inspection and to catch a few rays when we got home. Tomorrow afternoon a front is suppose move in and take us down to 18°
It's expected to be short-lived and be back into the 50H-30L° range for a week.
 
My poblano germ pot got knocked over and I might get one out of it, so I'll do a restart. But one Bolivian Rainbow is has it's arms in the air, 3 more possible.
 
Thanks for reading
 
Looking really good over here! Sorry to hear about the aphids, but the plants don't look to be too bothered. Those birgits are crazy growers...whether or not you give them what they want they stretch for the sky. A lot of light and a strong fan will beef that one up a bit. Hope your starts do ok in this cold spell!
 
Hardening off looks like it's going according to plan! The OF is a great tool for getting the most out of the plants. I think they'd all be two foot high if I had better light accommodations here. Can't wait to start getting them in the ground!
 
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