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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...
Thanks, guys.
 
Rick, wood will definitely suck the N out of soil. Sawdust from lumber is the worst. I found that out last year using not quiet old enough horse bedding that was sawdust based. These logs I hope will have a more gradual impact, but there are some "oldish" ramial  wood chips down in there too. It's a bit of a dice roll this first year for sure. I may try to do a N+ offset with some seabird poo (10-12-2) I'm experimenting with. Hope I don't catch anything on fire :D.
 
And since we're experimenting.....
 

 
I'm starting toward some brews -Alfalfa, Kelp!, Kelp+ and the Sunleaves Seabird guano.
 
 
 
 
Finally decided to up-pot the big Birgit.
 

 
Not nearly as many roots as I saw in Blisters first up-pot at about 2 months also I think.
I discovered though fairly recently I miscalced my nutes and I was on the weak side for 6 weeks maybe.
And she got spindly under the weak LED for two weeks. She's been forgiving though.
 
Last Saturday I made a few pots. Thought I let her try one out.
 
New shoes, caveman style. :D

Made out if some gourds I grew last year.
It holds roughly 2.5-3x what the 3.5 x 5s do. She's going in OF instead of coir so I can watch a transition.
 
In the nursery...
 

 
The third of 4 possible B Rainbows after only 18 days  :rolleyes:
I gotta figure out my germ issue or I'll be re-sowing peppers in May.
 
Pube Flowers!
 

 
A little over 2 months. The forks of the forks are forking.
 
Out here in the fields.....
Gai Choi and Heading Mustard.
 

 
 
 
A little sunburned, windburned, frostbit, or all the above, but starting to take holt.
They were under a light row cover though. 
Not enough water gets through so I pulled back covers and  hand watered them and the onions.
 
Thanks for reading.
 
Looking great JJJ!
 
I see you're putting a ton of effort into this years grow, fun aint it? Really good down time for the brain AND a beverage of choice while working never hurt either!
 
Keep it up it's going to be a killer year!
 
I have to congratulate you on your great garden. I am also passionate about growing vegetables and many varieties. 
I read all your post and share their techniques fertilizers, much like I do here. I have not seen tomatoes ... 
 
Do not grow tomatoes?
 
Yeah, Scott, it could be a killer, and I aim  to stay on the right end of that  :eek:
 
Cypress, tomatoes, yes. Last year was my first go with heirloom varieties and it was mostly a bust, but we got a few. It was mostly because of excess rain, but I didn't work it as I should have either.
This year I aim to do better. I just put a few seeds in for an early start; maybe as early as late April, but my main plant-out will be third or fourth week in May -same for peppers (and may even wait longer for eggplant). I'll start those tomatoes  second week in April.  We typically have a final cold spell around 10th of May and plants just sit a shiver for a while after that if you plant into that and don't protect them. I want the ground to be good and warm.
By the way, we have a young lady living with us who worked the garlic crop for some collective farms in Argentina last year.
 
Tomatoes be susceptible to excessive moisture, many diseases come desdpues much water. Here again February has been excessively wet and rot my tomato crop devastated.
Now some plants recover and deliver new clusters, although they are not good quality. Anyway I've started a new Late crop from cuttings, and tomatoes are taking shape ... If the cold does not advance towards the end of April there will be tomatoes again.

Secretly tomato is a good pruning and abundantly rich soil. Fulfilling this premise will have lush harvest if variety has good genetics.

I have more than 100 varieties, if you sent him some very productive seed varieties.

We salute the Argentine colleague!
I think google has translated wrong.

I offer here Send some very productive varieties and high quality
 
I mixed up a cubic foot of Blend #1 seedling mix
and gave it some seeds to try out.
 

This is not the actual soil. I've been sifting a cap of fines on seeds this year.
The formula 

(I almost forgot how much fun spreadsheets can be!  :rolleyes: )
 
No amendments in here; just something to get the cotys on their feet. 
To get some real container soil going, I'm short: rock dust, a big bag of perlite, and some crab meal would be nice
If they have them at the hyrdo shop, I'm up for an expedition tomorrow. Hopefully in the big city, I'll be able to round up some up-potting supplies too.
 
I took a head of garlic, two qts of water and a little Dr Bonner soap and had a tete-a-tete with a commune of aphids that has squatted in my grow room.
 
Actually I took them and the peppers outside to catch the some late rays and do the spraying else the whole house would have smelled like an Italian restaurant.
 

 
 
 
Meet one of my gardening partners.
 

 
He poked his head out while I was doing some bed repairs.
It's a red toad. He worked part-time last year.
I should put a little pond in close to the garden to encourage multiplication.
 
The preamble to next week's Wave Two sowing -peppers, lettuce,and tomatoes.
 

 
I dug in to the Rainbows and found the last seed had sprouted but was dazed and confused and two of the pobalanos have brown spots on a coty each. I 86ed all three.
 
Thanks for reading.
 
As always your plants are looking great JJJ! That root ball is nice and white to boot. I'm curious to see how it does in soil. I'm hoping to put one of my coco starts into my pop's greenhouse this year. I'd like to see how it does over the summer months.

Neil
 
Plants look great JJJ!
 
Glad they're getting some sun, and 86 those Aphids!
 
So what's wrong with the house smelling like an Italian restaurant? ;)
 
We have quite a few toads here, occasionally they scare the heck out of me. Having one jump in your lap while repotting a plant is always a surprise. And just how do they get in there?
 
Lol wow JJJ! I'm tempted to use your seedling shot as my background. Amazing array of plants, and no signs of stress or discomfort. I've had a couple grow a bit too close to the lights sadly.
 
Love the soil experiments. Can't wait to hear how your seedling mix works out. Say hi to your gardening partner for me!
 
Thanks, guys.
I hope I've turned the corner on the aphids. They don't look as "thrivy" as they were. I need to mix another batch of juice today.
We made it the the grow store, 5th Season in Asheville. I disposed of, gifted 5 plants and some gourd seeds to the guys there. They clipped me some little Carolina Reapers and Fidalgo roxa peppers from their indoor grow that were ripe. We had supper with friends when we got home and tested them out.
Reaper -mas caliente , tongue-numbing -even for small, indoor hydro grow. Roxa was sweet at first, then suddenly exploded with a mild Hab-ish heat, but short lived.
 
I picked up 30-kordlok 550 pots, and a couple of bags of OF to up-pot.
There were no great prospects for free granite dust from a local cutter's floor, so I bought 10kg of glacial rock dust by Vital Green(bottom of that page), a little azomite, and perlite 4cuft, since the locals have stopped stocking it :(
No crab meal, but maybe I can score some out E. Carolina way on our camping trip next weekend.
 
I've found a nice source on 25lb bags of earthworm casting from a local producer just down the river from me. That's on tomorrow's list. 
 
So soil mixing is coming soon in earnest -about 12 cu ft I hope
 
Two month updates
 

the coir MoAs are greening up with stronger nutes and CaMg
 

Manzanos are always a little droopy, but the aphids may have soured them some.
 

These girls look nice and happy. Almost everything at 2 months is blooming or with buds
 

 
 
 
just potted my 5 back up Poblanos in pure coir.
(one got a pinched coty, ouch)

I'm gonna try to use organic hydro ferts on these when they are ready, since I have extras to fiddle with.
 
 
 
 
 

 
Thanks for reading 
 
Plants look great JJJ!
 
Love the color of the F Roxa. And yes Reapers are hot, but they do have a really nice flavor. Definitely not a snacking pepper!
 
The Kordlocks look nice and stable, solo cups need to go!
 
That cider is making me thirsty, gonna have to call it here soon!
 
Enjoy what's left!
 
Thanks, all.
The cider turned out fine. We bottled a dozen bomber-sized bottles and kegged the rest to carbonate with pressure.  The worse cider I ever made was still better than most anything I've bought off the shelf. And sometimes you can read their ingredient list and see they've tried to put everything in it except cider. Some are good but they are usually not dry enough for me. One year I'll have enough apples to run 40-50 gallons and won't have to buy cider. Until then I'm accumulating meade. It's easy to make. You just have to source honey at the best cost, but even at $10 a quart, which makes a gallon, you can best the hooch they sell on the wine shelf. So we cleaned those carboys and already have them bubbling in meade, which should be ready to bottle in time to catch the cider this fall.
 
Couldn't wait until tomorrow to sow the Annums.
 

 

 
Some of those I'm only looking for a plant or two.
I finally found Biker Billy's at a Home Depot whilst visiting my daughter a few weeks ago, and promptly left them there :banghead:
 
The big job today was selecting which 30 lucky girls would get the new shoes.
 

 

 
All got a shave (trimming off the lower leaves), but no waxing. ;)
 
thanks for reading.
 
 
 
 
 
Great updates as usual J!!! Well done. :dance:


 
 
cypresshill1973 said:
I have more than 100 varieties, if you sent him some very productive seed varieties..
 
Click to expand...
 
Impressive, what are your favorites to grow?
 
Penny,
I've always just grown Roma hybrids until last year because that's all I can get locally in a sauce variety. Last year, with the peppers, I grew a variety from seed, but none stood up to the wet summer and I didn't manage them well either. But I got a few. I liked: Bonny Best, Thessalonikki, Kosovo, Cherokee Purple, Flamme. I was most excited about some "hanging" winter tomatoes, Piennolo del Vesuvio, but they were a bust. I'm trying a couple again this year. I should have bite the bullet and ripened them off-vine, because most everything split when it got close to ripening. Our seasons are usually a little more tomato-friendly.
 
How are your toms coming along?
 
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