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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, Jeff H.
 
A bleak and dreary January day unless you like snow.
I vacillate. 
Today it was fine, about 15° and no wind, a very light powder and every flake stuck.
Tolerable to work out in if you can stay moving.
 

 
This is the row garden today. 100' of length. I'm gonna plant one row of peppers here, and my sweets and a few hots in some raised beds beyond that patch of locust.
 
The oats in there have pretty much winter-killed. I don't know about the Austrian winter peas. Might know something by the end of next week. We're suppose to have a stretch of 40-50°s starting Saturday.
 
I cut and raked some small brush out of my future bee yard for a few hours.
 

 
I've got 3 18-trays full plus 4 that could be potted, and several varieties that have not popped
 

 
I'm really liking the Ocean Forest soil. Gives them a good green color and takes water and holds water about perfect as far as I can tell.
I'm still top watering, almost daily, with spring water now. About 1.75oz per plant unless it's still showing some dampness.
The Mostly Coir Tray plants in the middle are holding there own, but I think the color should be darker. It's a 50% dilution of Greatfulh3ad's A and B Gen Hydroponics nutes. Maybe they just need a little richer mix. I purposefully put smaller plants in the coir to see if they could catch up.
 
The Onions Pot A
 

 
Lots of them are getting their second leaf. I'm trimming them every few days to keep them stocky
When they get 3 good leaves,I'll break the pot up and transplant them into roomier quarters that will be their home until late March.
 
I've been experimenting with some salad greens too.
 

 
While I've still got some room under the lights.
 
AL-KEY-HAUL...
I thought I was going to have a blow-off problem on the peach meade because I over filled the jug, so I put a hose on it instead of a regular airlock in case it upchucked.
 

 
But it has settled down today so I think it will be fine.
 
thanks for reading,
jjj
 
Out there in 15°?
 
I guess it's all about being acclimated to ones environment. It was 34° here when I came home wind a howling, after 30 minutes I came in...yes, I'm a wus. Hands got cold building a raised bed frame for the Asparagus. I have a good excuse though, had to build a fire for the wife, and transplant a few babies..yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
 
Plants are looking REALLY good JJJ! They should be of a nice size come dirt day!
 
You have inspired me to grow Onions from seed again. What are your temps in late March? Here, mine are usually in the dirt, but we decided to wait because the hard freeze (23-26°) forecast for tomorrow. They had originally forecast 20°.
 
Thanks, guys.
Being NO wind makes sub-freezing much more comfortable to work in. IF the wind had been howling, I'd stayed home.
 
Wow, 20° south of SA has gotta be an eye opener and a pipe freezer.
 
Late March-April around here, we'll get a handful of frosts usually but not much below 32°, highs 55° give or take 20. I'm gonna put them under row cover until established, even if the temps are fair. Wind is a not a baby transplant's best frirend, and we get wind well into May even after it warms up.
 
The grow is looking good.  I too am debating when to start my onions.  How much before your transplant (three leaves) do you start your onions.  My plan is to not make the transplant into another container, but into the garden.  Saving one transplant.  I am thinking mid to late April for going into the garden.
 
Jeff, good question. The packet for these cippolinis, said allow 10-12 weeks for plant out. They've been sown for 17 days and starting their second leaf. It stands to reason that within a month, I'll re-pot these. And in another month, set them out. How big will they be at set out?.....???
 
Most  big onions I think are more like 8-10 weeks. And mid April is probably about right in your USDA zone. You'll want "long day" varieties for your latitude. 
 
JJJessee said:
Jeff, good question. The packet for these cippolinis, said allow 10-12 weeks for plant out. They've been sown for 17 days and starting their second leaf. It stands to reason that within a month, I'll re-pot these. And in another month, set them out. How big will they be at set out?.....???
 
Most  big onions I think are more like 8-10 weeks. And mid April is probably about right in your USDA zone. You'll want "long day" varieties for your latitude. 
Click to expand...
 
That sounds like good advice Jesse. Like H Jeff, I would rather not transplant them out of the 72 cell flat into 3.5" pots. I would rather go from 72 cell flat right into the ground. I'm a hundred miles or more south of H Jeff so I'm thinking sometime in March. Maybe mid march-ish.
 
Never done onions before so if I have something wrong, let me know.
 
MaxCap, It's about 2lb of honey per gallon of spring water, and 3 quarts of frozen  peaches. 
And a packet of yeast of course (EC-1118)
 SG was 1.081
It should be  highly drinkable when I bottle it in about 6 months, but the flavor improves with age I hear.
 
Looking good J-cubed! I saw your question in my blog and came looking! The plants in coir are a tad yellow compared to the soil, but not that bad at all. I had originally thought about using snow as a source of water, but it ended up being fairly acidic in my area. It would be a good idea to see where it is in terms of ph and adjust from there. 5.8 is recommended for coir.

Neil
 
Thanks, gals and guys.
 
Neil, I used some spa strips to check my water. The spring water looks slightly above 6.8 pH. The ppm on alkalinity and hardness both seemed about about zero.
On the other hand, tap water here is over 400ppm hardness, and about 7.6pH. I should test my rain water, though I haven't used it in a while. My strips only measure down to 6.8. I'd suspect it's lower than that. The 50% nute solution registered between 200-400ppm hardness.
 
Weekend started fair and on Friday afternoon I worked a couple hours on my beeyard next to the row garden.
 

 
Saturday felt very springish, and I meandered about outside between the  earthoven and the smoker.
And let the onions out for a dose of real light.
 

 
After I smoked a piece of beef and baked a round loaf of bread, I started smoking little batch of salt on the leftover fire.
 

 
And since the weather held up all day, I fired up the burner for one of my favorite meals. I call it Thai  Noodles
 

 

 
The exciting news is...
 
BOCs!!
I've got BOCs!
via Jamison
 

 
And the Inca Red Drops have created an earthquake. :)
 
And even though it has taken a full two weeks....
 

 
some more Aji Dulces are standing up.
They make a good all purpose powder and sauce base.
 
I reorganized trays by size and I put the Manzanos to themselves, or at least sharing tray space with some Japanese scallion pre-seedlings for the moment.
 

 
My fatalli progress...
Coir - 3 on right
Ocean Forest  - 3 on left
 

 
Not too much difference now, but I think the coir will get taller faster, but they are paler than the OF.
 
My Birgits are gonna need some serious headroom by May if they continue apace.
 

 
thanks for reading.
jjj
 
 
 
Plants are looking stellar JJJ!
 
I like the coir OF experiment.
 
Your Onions are doing really well too.

Thai noodles looks like a really nice meal :drooling:
 
Everything is looking great JJ! You really lucked out with the spring water! I'd kill to have source like that near me. Given that your water is so pure you really should have no problems with hydro and coir. It also sounds like like the 50% strength nute solution is right about where it should be. Full strength runs around 700ppm so 50% being 3-400 is about what you should expect. Lowering the ph may free up some cal-mag, but like I said in an earlier post, they aren't looking bad at all. Particularly the pictures you just posted above. They've all got nice flat leaves and are growing strong. If you're concerned give them a light misting with epsom. I suspect that the OF is just a fairly N-rich soil.

How often are you watering?

Love the food porn. I'm a sucker for Thai style dishes.

Neil
 
Everyday I give them a full shot from a 1.75oz turkey baster, unless the top still looks damp, then they may only get half that.
Yes, the spring is a godsend. I have to drive to it, but it's a good excuse to go to mountains :)
I'm not going to tinker with the water just yet, because the color is improving it seems, but the epsom is where I'd start with a couple to see what happened. I have extras of everything that has popped.
 
Thai, yes, my second son turned me on to it a few years ago.
 
Youre a busy one JJJ. Peppers, Bees, Booze, Smoked meat, and thai food. I think we could be great friends.
 
As for now, all I've got my hands in is peppers really. But hoping to expand soon! I'm the State of Idaho's apiary inspector, and been thinking about getting myself a hive or two for a while now. Need more room first though. Also been thinking about brewing up a batch of my own beer, again lacking space. And been eyeing a new pellet smoker with part of my tax return. Lot of what-ifs I know...
 
BUT... I'm pretty confident I will be nabbing my grandpa's house, which will give me alot more space for all my new hobbies I want to start trying out. Keep up the good work, and awesome posts. Always something interesting to read!
 
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