• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

Mezo`s "super hots" Glog including the 'big' solar dehydrator.

The is thread with the humungous solar dehydrator. :D

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G-Day, im Mez or Mezo & im new to this part of Australia having come from Perth (Western Australia) where growing chili peppers is so easy (except the heat).

I live in the border ranges in northern New South Wales (bordering Queensland) and its a mixed bag of temperate & tropical conditions, the summers are very hot, wet & humid, the winters are dry & sunny.



Average daily temps.

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And average monthly rainfall.

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Aussies reading this will already know this, but people in other country's probably paint a picture of Australia as a hot dry/dusty land but this is far from the truth, up north its full blown tropics with a wet season & 100% humidity (yuck). Down south its freezing cold & snow during winter, out west its a dry heat like in the Mediterranean & in the middle of Australia is desert country.

So im now growing for the first time "Super hots" and for a very important reason, whilst working away in Perth i had a double heart attack wich has left me permanently disabled, sadly they are unable to operate on me (bypass/stent) as its to far gone, so having worked all my life (Electrician) im now at the age of 45 claiming a disability pension & i hate not being able to work.

Now i take shovel fulls of dam tablets to keep my heart pumping & id rather not be taking any but right now there no option i have to take them or ill drop dead on the spot. After much reading i found out that cayenne powder has all sort of benefits to your health & well being, especially to your cardio vascular system. I had read that cayenne powder can stop a heart attack in its track & i put this to the test (twice) and yes it does work where the medication (Nitrolingual) had no effect.

So anyone reading this who spots a friend having a heart attack just flick some chili powder in a glass of water as fast as you can & get them to drink in right down, fast. It works within 30 seconds of drinking it & it saved me from two more attacks already.

So there's my life story in a nutshell & some sound advice on how to save a heart attack victims life.
And this ladies & gentlymen is why im growing "Super Hots" to make high heat cayenne powder for cooking to improve my circulation/remove fats & as a "just in case of emergency"

OK on with the first of my "Hots" the Bhut Jolokia, the reason i chose this was simple i just Googled "whats the hottest chili" and up popped the result, however further reading on the interweb i found threads from this forum & names like the Butch T, the Douglah & Brain Strain.

So ive ordered them from pepperlover.com after so many people gave such great reviews, Bhut in the meantime lets look at my Jolokia`s.

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Must admit i just love the shape & color of these babies.
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More soon,

Mezo.
 
Pia, I PM'ed you about those barrackpores... and yes Mez's grow is just starting... scary how things will be once summer hits in Oz in Dec/Jan
 
Im still doing battle with these dam aphids, they have moved on to day old seedlings now??

I cannot spray them as it will kill them so im manually squishing individual aphids one by one, nightmare.
On the plus side ive now got some spiders in the tent feeding on them as well as the odd ladybird coming in, ive just got to do this for a few more weeks until spring & then hopefully the natural predators will take over it force.

But yeah Conor, if i don't loose the battle there's going to be one big harvest this summer & that dryer will be choc-o-bloc with peppers.

Mezo.
 
Damn, Meez, sounds like them aphids are really giving you a rough time!

After putting in my order for Californicus (broad mite predator) the other day, I get an email today saying there is demand issues and I probably won't get them this week. Not sure exactly what that means (will I get them next week??) but I need them NOW. The broad mite population has freakin' exploded! Like your aphids, I have even observed the mite bastages on seedlings a day or two old. Was hoping to avoid it but I'm gonna have to find some way (without using chemicals) to control them in the meantime.......
 
Quick update, were going to be using some old water tanks a raised beds this year (for the superhots) and the others like habs etc will go in the old veggie patch.

Theses tanks will be slit in two (depthways) giving me two 600mm high beds (2ft roughly) and they measure three meters in diameter (almost 10ft across) an we have two this size plus a slightly smaller one.

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Now i wanted to drag the tank to the spot with the tractor, Danny said "nah we can roll it there" if it got away from us it was going straight in the river.

Mezo.
 
Hmm, link is just giving me "this video is unavailable" :(

***edit** ah...think it's still being processed by Youtube... will check back later :)
 
Hmm, link is just giving me "this video is unavailable" :(

***edit** ah...think it's still being processed by Youtube... will check back later :)

Yep still being processed?? may have to upload that again,,,sigh.

Well we managed to get them cut in half, were still draining the other big tank so that will be another day (its getting late) but here's what we got done today.

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So another big tank yet to split, then ill be making four or so more beds out of old roof iron at the same height to give roughly ten beds.

Mezo.
 
Mezo, I hope you have a front end loader there mate, filling those with a wheel barrel will take you all summer. :)

Man I hate that your having such an issue with those darn aphids. Having to keep them in the tent for winter sure can't be helping things any. Have you been able to use the solar dryer any during the winter? Been interested to see if it was still working in the cold.

Cheers
 
More to the point...did you ever get the vid of you guys rolling the big round thing into the swamp onto youtube successfully? Wheres zee new link Mez?
 
Sucks about the lambs Mezo.....my battle with the aphids and the effing ants that ranch em will resume in about a week....I'm just hoping the second run of pods managed to survive em after I left.
I am a constant avatar changer...but the "flower power" has the record for longevity, no one questioned it.......hehe- little bit of humor goes along way, people need to use it more often-its good medicine.

W/F:[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Gnslngr shoots flowers for fun.. Bloody americans [/background] :P
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]...ONLY if they charge unprovoked! :rofl:[/background]
 
Mezo, I hope you have a front end loader there mate, filling those with a wheel barrel will take you all summer. :)

Thanks everyone, yes RM ive been offered the use of my neighbor Steve`s 100HP tractor that has a bucket on the front, our little "one owner from new" John Deere doesn't have one & sod trying to fill these big babies by hand.

Ive drained the second big tank & ive just got to shovel the 50yrs of crap out & then we can roll it in to position & cut it in two. Then i have to make up the remaining beds out of old corrugated roof iron & then fill them with the lovely rich friable soil we have down here in the valley, with added aged cow poo, aged chook poo & bonfire ash (yum yum).

Mezo.
 
Mez, sounds like a great plan! Can't wait to see your grow this upcoming summer. Those St. Helena's have produced more than 150 pods for me. Amazing little annum that will grow in scorching heat and produce pods.
 
Mez, sounds like a great plan! Can't wait to see your grow this upcoming summer. Those St. Helena's have produced more than 150 pods for me. Amazing little annum that will grow in scorching heat and produce pods.

My St Helena`s are the only chilli`s that have not been affected by the aphids Conor? weird eh? them Black Prince toms are not so healthy, that fungi/mold has made its way in to the stems of some of them & has killed the vine, some toms are ripening though so at least ill be able to salvage some seeds and have another go in spring (outdoors this time).

And RM i forgot to mention the dryer, ive not stopped using it right through winter mate. Its been zero at night & twenty during the day & its drying whole Thai Birdseye`s to a crisp, so yep it does work as long as you can get some sunshine.

Mezo.
 
They are a magical little pepper, never expected much of it but it keeps on producing. Too bad most people on here are only interested in superhots.

I have some more black Tom seeds if you need them. Just let me know and they are yours.
 
Things are moving along nicely Mez. Your grow is sure to get me through the long winter months here

Thanks Pia, while your shivering yer timbers scoffing a plump turkey our harvest will be coming online, but the same goes here when were overwintering & germinating we are watching your summer harvest.

Been busy chopping fallen tree`s & backburing before the summer gets here (and the fire ban) the winters here are very dry & the grass is dry so every farmer sets the fields ablaze to reduce the risk of bushfires come summer.

Mezo.
 
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