Hello everyone! I am new to The Hot Pepper this year so I thought I would introduce myself here and get a grow log going. I might know someone of you from the other pepper forums... but I must say, I have been devouring the threads on this site lately and it's my new favorite. Reading glog's definitely makes the corporate work day go by faster!
I live in Jacksonville, FL and have a small half-acre piece of land, although not all of it is sunny. I've been here for about three and a half years and I have been growing everything from corn, beans and tomatoes to exotic tropical specimens like coffee and cacao. I have taken my pepper growing from just four store-bought jalapeno plants in 2012 to over a hundred plants in 2015. I have definitely found a true love for growing peppers and love learning more each year about how to do things better and get more pods from my limited space here. Above all else, I am very passionate about sustainability and organic gardening. No pesticides or synthetic fertilizers have ever been used on the property. I have a small bed where I grow isolated plants covered in tulle for seed saving, but the rest of them are open-pollinated out in the yard, grabbing whatever sunlight and space they can. Sometimes it feels like me against the plants as Summer rages hard here with temps over 100 for several months and torrential downpours nearly every afternoon. But that is the fun in it I suppose.
This season I started a lot of plants, mostly from seed that I received in a swap at the end of last year. About half of the varieties have grown true and the rest have been mysterious surprises. Haha! Even a nameless superhot is welcome in my house.
I have been really busy this year working 12 hours a day away from the house, so the garden has gotten slightly neglected. But nevertheless, I have been pulling 50-100 pods every other week or so since June and it doesn't seem to be slowing down much. In fact, most of the plants are putting out new pods now that its gotten a little cooler. The temp here in Jax is hovering in the low 80's during the day and it's looking like the 2015 season is going to move straight into the 2016 season. So after this intro post, I will be updating in real time. I plan on keeping some plants in the ground through the "winter" and at the beginning of next year, I will be starting a whole new adventure growing in large grow bags for the first time.
I will add some photos of the past year so you guys can get a feel for what I'm up to and enjoy some pepper porn. Feel free to comment, but don't judge too harshly! Most of these photos were taken with my phone's camera when I had a spare minute.
2015 Indoor Set-Up... Next year I am going to mount these lights on a shelf system.
Some views of the front yard. I usually throw down some new wood chips and of course about a foot of new compost in the growing areas.
I live in Jacksonville, FL and have a small half-acre piece of land, although not all of it is sunny. I've been here for about three and a half years and I have been growing everything from corn, beans and tomatoes to exotic tropical specimens like coffee and cacao. I have taken my pepper growing from just four store-bought jalapeno plants in 2012 to over a hundred plants in 2015. I have definitely found a true love for growing peppers and love learning more each year about how to do things better and get more pods from my limited space here. Above all else, I am very passionate about sustainability and organic gardening. No pesticides or synthetic fertilizers have ever been used on the property. I have a small bed where I grow isolated plants covered in tulle for seed saving, but the rest of them are open-pollinated out in the yard, grabbing whatever sunlight and space they can. Sometimes it feels like me against the plants as Summer rages hard here with temps over 100 for several months and torrential downpours nearly every afternoon. But that is the fun in it I suppose.
This season I started a lot of plants, mostly from seed that I received in a swap at the end of last year. About half of the varieties have grown true and the rest have been mysterious surprises. Haha! Even a nameless superhot is welcome in my house.
I have been really busy this year working 12 hours a day away from the house, so the garden has gotten slightly neglected. But nevertheless, I have been pulling 50-100 pods every other week or so since June and it doesn't seem to be slowing down much. In fact, most of the plants are putting out new pods now that its gotten a little cooler. The temp here in Jax is hovering in the low 80's during the day and it's looking like the 2015 season is going to move straight into the 2016 season. So after this intro post, I will be updating in real time. I plan on keeping some plants in the ground through the "winter" and at the beginning of next year, I will be starting a whole new adventure growing in large grow bags for the first time.
I will add some photos of the past year so you guys can get a feel for what I'm up to and enjoy some pepper porn. Feel free to comment, but don't judge too harshly! Most of these photos were taken with my phone's camera when I had a spare minute.
2015 Indoor Set-Up... Next year I am going to mount these lights on a shelf system.
Some views of the front yard. I usually throw down some new wood chips and of course about a foot of new compost in the growing areas.