MeatHead 2014

Thought I'd start a new glog as my 1st year grow plants have now gone, and all remaining plants are intended for the 2014 season. Currently have growing with hopes of keeping through winter-
Yellow bhut jolokia
Brain strain
Aji limon
Chocolate Trinidad scorpion
Fatalii
Black Hungarian
Chinese 5 colour.
Have all healthy plants bar 1 out of 6 inch pots and in either permanent or semi permanent homes. Due to messing up the labels I'm not sure which is which on the Chinense varieties. Have 1 seedling that was seriously struggling, but it's starting to throw out new leaves so there's hope for it yet. Hoping we either have a mild Winter here, or I can get some lights set up in our spare bedroom to get them through until Spring. Have a few more varieties I have yet to plant, but thinking I may wait til the end of January to start those seeds. 
 
Anyway, enough babbling. On to some pics!
Green pot is an Aji Limon, bag TBD Chinense, Venus fly trap and pitcher plant on the cooler in the back, cayenne I'm trying to decide whether to OW or not in the red pot and some cilantro in the cup

Another couple of TBD Chinense's and the struggling seedling that's popping back (over watering was the cause I think)

Chinese 5 colour and 2 more Chinense's

Aloe vera and a couple of strawberries for my wife

More tbd Chinense's

Black Hungarian (already putting out flower buds that are getting pinched off for now)

Last 2 Chinense's

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Love the updates Chris and glad to hear the wife is getting on board. Just get her addicted to the superhots and you're good to go. Also send some of that pork down here...

 

[MeatHead1313]

Love the updates Chris and glad to hear the wife is getting on board. Just get her addicted to the superhots and you're good to go. Also send some of that pork down here...

Thanks Adam. I was surprised, but really happy when she said she wanted to help me. I think it was due to the fact she'd picked some plants out for herself that spurred her on. Then she realised it actually was fun so has had no problems helping with the peppers and tomatoes. She even helped me mix some of the potting mix I'm making last weekend. Slowly working on building her tolerance. Need to start upping it a bit more though.
The pork was killer! Salsalady's jalapeno seasoning is great, would love to see it become available to purchase! And HBJ's powders are top quality too. Got a little of the pork left over too. Wish it could be easily shipped!
Crappy plating shot with some of the onion and carrots it cooked with (these soaked up the powder flavours really well) and a generic side of fries with some sea salt and some jalapeno powder. 

 

[MeatHead1313]

Finally got a weekend off and was planning on potting up quite a few more plants yesterday. Those plans had to get put on hold due to the wind, but the weather today is absolutely beautiful so that'll be the gameplan for this afternoon. 
Finally have my first ever wild pepper sprout! CAP215 I got as bonus seeds from an order from pepperlover. Can't wait to get some fruit on this one to try.

 
Have a couple of flowers about to open on some of the tomatoes already. Only have the danko's in their final pots so far, the rest are must do's this afternoon. Danko flower from neoguy's seeds-

 
Brazilian starfish pod isn't looking like a starfish at the moment. Seeds were saved from pods purchased from pepperlover last season. Not sure if this is how they start, if it's just a misshapen early season pod or if it's something else. Either way I'm just happy to have pods forming.

 
And finally, trying my hand at brewing some AACT. I'm using worm castings, bat guano, seabird guano, a little mushroom compost, mykos and seaweed extract along with some molasses. Had it brewing about 12 hours so far and looking good. Got a nice foam on top so I think I'm doing it right lol.

 
More pics to come this afternoon. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[maximumcapsicum]

AACT looks really good man. Did it cloud up really got after brewing?
 
Your plant shots make me so impatient to get things in the ground! I think I am going to risk the high 40's.
 
Pork looks great man! Did salsalady donate the seasoning to the cause?
 
Happy growin!

 

[heefy]

Hi. That pod does not look anything like a starfish, as you say. I can't see it morphing into a starfish either. Lol.

Good luck with the eradication of the bugs. Your plants look great.

 

[Essegi]

Congrats on your first wild!

 

[MeatHead1313]

AACT looks really good man. Did it cloud up really got after brewing?
 
Your plant shots make me so impatient to get things in the ground! I think I am going to risk the high 40's.
 
Pork looks great man! Did salsalady donate the seasoning to the cause?
 
Happy growin!

Thanks Adam. I didn't notice any clouding up, but have really only been looking to see if it was foaming or not. Need to give it a good luck and see.
Shouldn't be far away from dirt day for you should it? I'm definitely glad to see the end of the cold weather. In another sign that spring's here we filled our hummingbird feeders yesterday and have some feeding from them already. 
The seasoning was a bonus in 2 orders I made with her. The first was in an MFRB deal she did last year, then again when I ordered some chipotle bbq sauce when I ran out of that. 
 

Hi. That pod does not look anything like a starfish, as you say. I can't see it morphing into a starfish either. Lol.

Good luck with the eradication of the bugs. Your plants look great.

That's what I was thinking with it too. Hoping it's just a crazy early season pod and pods that form later grow true. Either way, I'm happy to have pods growing. 
 

Congrats on your first wild!

Thanks Essegi!
Decided not to wait til this afternoon to pot up the plants. My wife was getting impatient waiting to do it lol. 
Some shots of everything that was potted up after we were finished

 
Seedlings moved from germ tray to cups and nursery pots. Transplanted Primo, Scotch bonnet TFM, Bahamian goat and Barrackpore

 
Tomatoes moved up to 6 inch pots

 
Also have a Jamaican yellow mushroom that set a pod

 
Along with a Jimmy Nardello setting a pod

 
Going to let these 2 grow, but as these varieties are still only about 8 inches tall I pulled the flower buds off the other plants. Some of them are setting flowers like crazy so going to be a bit of a job trying to keep on top of it. Knowing what I'm like though I'll do it for a week then just say screw it and let them be lol. 

 

[MeatHead1313]

Redneck herb garden!

 
While planting earlier my wife had the idea to use my old bbq pit as a planter for some herbs. I took a look, couldn't see why not so off we went to Lowes to get her some herbs. There were already a few holes in the bottom of the bit, but I drilled a few more just to be safe and ensure adequate drainage. Ended up picking up cilantro, flat Italian parsley, Greek oregano and spicy globe basil. Now I need to research growing and caring for herbs as well. 

 

[Devv]

Like that redneck herb garden, use what you have!
 
Plants are looking great! You should be ready to plant very soon.
 
How have your temps been?

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

Plants are looking nice and so is the herb garden.

 

[thirdcoasttx]

Thats awesome!

 

[MeatHead1313]

Like that redneck herb garden, use what you have!
 
Plants are looking great! You should be ready to plant very soon.
 
How have your temps been?

Thanks Scott! Most of the things we've reused for the plants have been all her idea. Definitely helps save a little money which is always a bonus.
Temps have been great here. Anywhere from 60's-80ish during the day, with most days in the 70's lately. Still getting the odd night dipping into the 40's, including tonight with 46 predicted. Just checked the 10 day and after tonight it's all 50's and 60's for the lows. Plants should definitely start really kicking into overdrive now. Can't wait! Though I do think harvest time with roughly 90 pepper plants might be a bit of a workout.
 

Plants are looking nice and so is the herb garden.

Thanks Jeff! The seedlings really should be a bit further along than they are though. Combination of no ferts at all and not enough water until I realised my mistake. Live and learn. Trials of a rookie grow lol.
 

Thats awesome!

Thanks! It's definitely a plus when the other half gets involved and enjoys it. 

 

[thirdcoasttx]

Yeah it is! I've still got some work to do with my wife but she's coming around slowly but surely. Props to yours for the bbq pit idea!

 

[Devv]

My wife comes out and weeds while I do the other stuff. Usually she will put in two hours in a weekend. There's no way I could do all I do and weed. A major help!  AND she's a weed pulling machine. During plant out she's not afraid to grab the hoe and help either. She also helps with prepping the peppers, Habs and lower heat. She worked the supers a few times and they went through the gloves. That was that.

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Plants are looking amazing MH! Love the tomato rig... may emulate you there. Can't wait to see that jamaican 'shroom get some color!

 

[MeatHead1313]

It never ends. Just when I thought I was done sowing seeds, I get some more to sow. Jumped on Smileyguy697's sasbe offer for some of his tepin x lemondrop seeds. Got them in the mail today along with some bonus A3W kracken scorpion seeds so going to give them a soak tonight and sow them after work tomorrow. 

 
Aphids are starting to run rampant on the plants. Even the seedlings in the greenhouse have them now. I have no idea how they managed to get in there but they did. Don't want to lose any of the plants so I called in reinforcements.

 
Pretty hard to tell but I ordered 1500 ladybugs to help with the aphids. Just waiting for it to start getting dark then they'll be let out amongst the plants. Hopefully they can knock them down. 

 

[MeatHead1313]

Now up to 3 CAP215's up, and 1 just poking up. Looking forward to watching these grow, and then tasting my first wild pepper!

Just finished releasing the ladybugs among the plants. Released some onto my wife's flowers and the ornamental peppers by the front door, then went and released the rest onto the big plants and into the greenhouse. Extremely happy with how lively they were. A lot of them were straight into eating the aphids which is a good sign. Another good sign was by the time I finished releasing them onto the greenhouse plants and came back to see how they were doing on the flowers, this is what I found (sorry for the bad picture quality, it was nearly dark)

 
Found quite a few mating already, so hopefully very soon I'll have some ladybug larvae to help finish the job. 

 

[MeatHead1313]

Had a nice surprise while checking my plants this afternoon. Got some assassin bugs hanging around my peppers. I have a love/hate relationship with these as they'll devour any bad bugs on my plants, but also any good bugs as well. Hopefully if they breed the young will target the aphids first.

 
Still unsure what my first superhot pod is, but leaning towards chocolate scorpion rather than yellow bhut or fatalii. Guess I'll find out for sure when it ripens

 
Smaller plants are still kicking along nicely, though I have a few that seem to be growing pretty slowly. Thinking that has to do with a low N level in my mix, so may have to use fish ferts a little more often. Good news though is the SAFI red hab I have in Ocean Forest is starting to put out buds! This was definitely my favourite habanero that I tried last year

 
Chinese 5 colour is starting to throw out pods nicely. Most are still purple, but I now have my first multi colour arrangement on it. Have 1 cream and 1 orange pod on it amongst the purple 

 
Haven't been able to do much transplanting lately as it's been too windy when I've had time to make up some potting mix. Hopefully Thursday will be calm enough. Have quite a few plants ready to go up from 6 inch and 1 gallon pots, and I need to get my sprouts out of the germ station and into something bigger and better. CAP215 are looking great for still being stuck in the coir pellets

 
Also have some new sprouts up, which gives me some more crosses growing this year. Both are from smileyguy697
First up, tepin x lemondrop. Can't wait to get some fruit on these as I've read nothing but good things about the flavour of these

 
Also have an A3W kracken scorpion hooking

Brazilian starfish is definitely a not. May have to message pepperlover and see if there's anything they could have crossed with. Seeds were saved from pods I purchased from her last year.

 

[Devv]

Looking good!
 
Is it time for them to stay outside yet?
 
Cool beans on the Ladybugs, did they stick around?
 
As soon as my gals hit the dirt all kinds of wasps were on those plants, they had to be hungry...and wasps we have here. No bad guys in the garden so far.
 
Keep it green!

 

[MeatHead1313]

Looking good!
 
Is it time for them to stay outside yet?
 
Cool beans on the Ladybugs, did they stick around?
 
As soon as my gals hit the dirt all kinds of wasps were on those plants, they had to be hungry...and wasps we have here. No bad guys in the garden so far.
 
Keep it green!

Thanks Scott! Yeah I'm leaving the big one's out. Supposed to hit 37 here tonight, then warm up again tomorrow so I'm sure 1 cold night won't hurt them too much. Little one's are still in the greenhouse, but all the vents have been open allowing them to get some wind to help harden them up, so once I finally get them potted up they'll be out as well. 
Had a few of the ladybugs hang around, but most left the next morning. So unfortunately that means I'm still fighting the aphids. Been knocking off what I can with the hose to keep them down, and ordered some aphid wasps instead of more ladybugs which should be in tomorrow. Really hoping this works as I don't want to resort to pesticides as I like keeping the beneficials around.