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

The is thread with the humungous solar dehydrator.

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.

And average monthly rainfall.

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.

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

More soon,

Mezo.

 

[Beehunter]

Awesome Mezo. those bhuts are looking beautiful.

 

[benzo]

Love the look of them Bhuts, they look heaps bright read. good luck with it all buddy

 

[Mezo]

Im going to need it judging by the weather warning just issued.

They reckon there's 200mm of rain coming our way & could develop into a cyclone (that's a hurricane to you blokes in America)

The Bureau of Meteorologuy has repeated warnings the low pressure system of the southeast Queensland coast
could develop into a cyclone.

http://www.theage.com.au/queensland/rain-deluge-hits-southeast-queensland-20120305-1ubme.html#cyclone

Fingers crossed it stays on the coast as it makes it way south, im 60 or 70 K`s inland, my poor ol chilli's have had enough to drink thank you jebus, can we have some sunshine now.

Mezo.

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Good luck... Hurricanes are teh suck...

 

[megamoo]

Just read your whole thread. Whatever you're doing its working, nice big red bhuts!

About those seeds that had sprouted in the paper towel... as soon as the root tip pops out you can plant them. If you leave it too long the root hairs grow into the paper towel and then you have to cut up the towel and plant it with them or risk breaking off the root. Learnt that the hard way my first season.

I wish growing in perth was as easy as you say I had a whole season ruined by disease or something don't know what happened.
Just tipped out fifty buckets of soil and dry sticks that were supposed to be my chilli jungle

You don't look like you'll have those problems. Good luck.

 

[simon]

Yeah - so jealous. My Bhuts look extremely sad and barren in comparison.

Well done.

 

[Mezo]

Thanks lads & thanks for the confirmation megamoo, the second lots of seeds i laid out on Friday arvo (today is tuesday) have started to sprout already, that's only four days !! no heat mats or anything flash like that just a wet paper towel on a table with a water container cut in half over the top of them.

These are the Red Habanero`s sprouting & ill plant them out this arvo.

And the others that have started sprouting today (only in four days again) are Conrad`s Piri Piri`s.

And my first lot of Judy`s seeds are going great guns (Douglah, Butch T`s, Naga Morich, Brain Stain) they went in to plastic boxes with paper towels 19 days ago, there is this lot below (about a week old) & the same amount under the table planted out yesterday.

And more are sprouting on a daily basis.

So its a bit of a race against time to get everything germinated before we loose the warm weather (30°C Days) as long as they are healthy little seedling like above ill be happy, ive no electric down here on the farm so im relying solely on mother nature to do the work & its raining again (no sunny shine).

Mezo.

 

[PaulG]

You have awesome bhuts, mezo! And your 'portable' solar
dehydrator looks very cool. I can't see why it shouldn't work
great, since you should have great air flow through it. You're
having too much fun : ) Have fun with your cool new seeds!

 

[Mezo]

Cheers Paul, haven't done anything on the dehydrator this week as its just to wet & muddy inside the tent, its been raining hard here in NSW for weeks & the place is waterlogged & squelching around in thick mud (slipping & sliding) aint no fun when your building things.

Still that`s not stopped germination, and the sprout counter has hit 80 today (that`s in the seed mix off the towels).

Conrad`s seeds are doing very well (five days in to germination) i potted eleven of his Piri Piri today & his Wiri Wiri`s are just sprouting now, some of them will be potted in the morning.

Conrad`s Wiri Wiri.

And below his prized St Helena Island Yellow`s have just started to sprout as well, these will become my most prized as well. There was only five seeds & two have sprouted so far only six days since i got them in the mail.

What makes this fun is i have to make sure i look after them, when you have 20 odd seeds you don't mind if a few fail to germinate, with just five seeds you end up willing them on.

I can see how this hobby can get very addictive.

Mezo.

 

[PaulG]

G'day, Mezo! Sounds like the pacific nw there, bro! When we get our rainy season, the yard is so waterlogged you can't walk on it. I finally bought about 4 or 5 yards of 1/2 to 1/4 inch clean gravel and put it all around the house on top of some landscaping cloth so I could get out in the yard in the wet weather. I wish I would have done it years ago! Good luck getting everything set up for the cooler weather!

 

[Mitch_from_OZ]

Great blog Mezo! Awesome work and all the best for the future

 

[Mezo]

Cheers Mitch,

Well its happening so fast now the bench is getting fuller by the day, made a bit of a cock up yesterday (plonker) i was busy watching a chicken out of the corner of my eye in case he came in for a peck, i was spraying down the paper towels & when i looked back at what i was doing i had washed some seeds in to another row!! Conrad`s ones.

Its not to much of a biggie, i will label them with a Conrad ? and wait till they mature then identify what is what.

Some shots of the bench, it will be full to the brim by the end of germination.

Mezo.

 

[Trippa]

You are in trouble Mezo. you aren't even hiding your addiction anymore ..... hope you have a nice mild winter so they all continue to flourish.

 

[Mezo]

Cheers Trippa, ive just been eying up where all this lot is going to go once they mature. Although we have acres of land here we also have cows (they eat anything) we also have chickens, ducks (more than you can count) & Tom (the Peacock).

So wherever i decide to put them they must be protected from the wildlife, and fencing in stuff costs money, lots.

If i decide to make a big area down the paddock i then run the risk of the native animals eating everything, Bandicoots, Possums, Wallabies & Kangaroos, not mention Cane toads (and we have lots of them).

Id love to make raised beds (one for each variety im growing) with plenty of separation between each to prevent cross pollinating & we do have the room to do that but making up that many beds is a major task & really if i got to that stage i may as well be doing a commercial venture.

And doing a commercial venture, well there are plenty of people already doing that (officially & unofficially) and are there that many customers who want the product, not really are there.

Enough waffle Trippa, another pic of my Bhut Jolokia`s, found three more eaten yesterday & spotted a fresh small hole in one so i ripped it open & found a caterpillar inside, so i finally know its pests & not disease that's taking my fruit.

Like an idiot i squashed it in to the ground & then thought "what a plonker" i should have taken a picture first to identify what pest it is, oh well next one ill remember to take a pic.

Mezo.

 

[Mezo]

Well decided to pick some of my crop proper for the first time, took all the nice ripe red ones seems so many are ripening now.

This little bunch i decided ill just de-seed & use in some dishes down here on the farm.

And know matter how many times i try not to get burnt with Chilli`s i always seem to do a fine job of it?? i use latex gloves & im real careful but always, always i burn myself??

I burnt my dangly bits the other day, at first i was real annoyed, then went to bed with a warm feeling in my nether regions.

Mezo.

 

[TheFanMan]

And know matter how many times i try not to get burnt with Chilli`s i always seem to do a fine job of it?? i use latex gloves & im real careful but always, always i burn myself??

capsaicin can soak through latex gloves, you have to use nitrile gloves.

I burnt my dangly bits the other day, at first i was real annoyed, then went to bed with a warm feeling in my nether regions.

Welcome to the club.

those pods look awesome btw

 

[Mezo]

Thanks for the tip buddy, i did wonder how i had "balls on fire syndrome"

And no matter how hard you try to wash it off your hands i wake up in the morning & rub my eyes & arghhhhh.

Oh the joys of hot peppers.

Mezo.

 

[Trippa]

I don't bother with gloves I use the method of only touching the outside of the pods and if need be use a fork to hold the pod while I cut and deseed.

 

[Mezo]

I don't bother with gloves I use the method of only touching the outside of the pods and if need be use a fork to hold the pod while I cut and deseed.

So how do you separate the stringy bits Tripp? i find the only way is to get your thumb in there & push the seeds out.

Mezo.

 

[Trippa]

Sharp knife and just nick the minimal amount of placenta out with the seeds attached (while holding the outside of the half pods with my fingers or a fork) allow them to air dry for 2-3 days and then trim the excess placenta from the seeds using a sharp knife or if the placenta is small enough I just chuck the whole lot into a paper envelope and in a dark cupboard for further air drying

I have a double handled/blade rocker knife and board for cutting the pods for use up so I don't have to touch them like this