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.

 

[Mezo]

Cheers Pic just finished processing them, the solar dryer smells fantastic when you open the big door, a waft of sweet chilli.

And as for the Starlings, mass breeding & release of hawks, falcons & owls but realistically you will never rid them all.

Mezo.

 

[Trippa]

looking good Mr Mezo! Loving the mini harvest. Been some glorious chilli growing weather over the past week as well. Hope you are all good over the hill there!

 

[Mezo]

looking good Mr Mezo! Loving the mini harvest. Been some glorious chilli growing weather over the past week as well. Hope you are all good over the hill there!

Cheers Trippa, its grass growing weather as well & Danny`s old slasher crapped out just when we needed it to work, its been bodged welded & held together by string & fencing wire but he bit the bullet & got a new one.

We had cows grazing on here which kept the grass in check, then a bloke from Brisbane bought the property next door & had a row with the guy who adjist cows on here, the cows cross over from our land on to his & he was getting fed up with cow shit everywhere (duh buy a cattle property expect cow shit) so because there is no fence the cows cannot graze our fields either.

Its prime cattle grazing land round here, you can see the grass growing in front of your eyes & now were having to slash the land every week just because a city bloke doesn't like cow shit?? we got seven more sheep at the weekend to add to the four we have but in all honesty we need fifty plus to keep the grass low.

Next year we will have lambs & start increasing the herd, so ive now become a sheep minder on top of all the other animals??
It started off (when i arrived to mind the farm) with a dozen chooks & the same in ducks (easy job i thought) now were at 50-75 chickens, 50-75 ducks, 20 geese, 2 goats, 6 guinea fowl, 2 peacocks & 11 sheep.

Here is a movie of me last night having a go with the new slasher.

Mezo.

 

[megamoo]

Nice vid

So is all the grass you can see from the camera yours to mow or can you see the neighbours field as well?

Can't put up a fence?

 

[Mezo]

At 3:27 you can briefly see the river & his field on the other side, this is the smaller field the bottom paddock is much larger, fencing the cows from crossing the river is to expensive with 2k`s of river frontage bordering his place @ $6.00 per meter for fencing.

Hence the sheep, they don't cross rivers.

Mezo.

 

[RocketMan]

Looking really ood there Mez. Nice little harvest and the plants are growing nicely. Looks like the With is kicking the without right in the pods

Glad to see that the BSD is living to dry peppers again. That's a win my friend. I know your busy as a one legged man in a @ss kicking contest though. Have you looked at building the Smokehouse any more?

Take care Bro,
Bill

 

[JJJessee]

Looks like a classic Deere, Mez.

 

[Mezo]

Have you looked at building the Smokehouse any more?

I want to Bill, its just time right now ive got to get a motorcycle rebuilt within six months, if i can squeeze the shed in i will.

Looks like a classic Deere, Mez.

Jeff (Spicy Chicken) has the same model, but much cleaner than Danny`s

Well worth reading through Jeff`s threads by the way, this was one of my favourite threads by Jeff.

"grow room and greenhouse makeover"

Mezo.

 

[JJJessee]

I read that SpicyChicken thread, it is amazing what he can do with a ruler and saw.

My dad has a Deere about that size but doesn't use it anymore. I just recently learned to drive it. Trouble is, now that I'm into gardening, he has loaned it to my nephew for his landscaping business.

With a scoop on the front, I bet they'd make a nice little compost mixer.

 

[Mezo]

With a scoop on the front, I bet they'd make a nice little compost mixer.

It would but its finding a used one in good condition, very hard to do here in Australia & it could be thousands of miles away & simply not worth the transport costs.

Danny wants to trade this in for a modern 4x4 with a front bucket, we struggle going up & down steep banks with this old gal.

Mezo.

 

[Dot Com]

OK movie update, im rapidly running out of space as the plants grow larger, not sure what to do either?

Mezo.

you really rebounded from where you were a month or two ago. That one that was snapped in half grew up another two feet w/ 5 stalks and you're up to your ears in morougas & brainstrains. I don't think you'll need to go into town for any spicy condiments in the near future as well

 

[Sanarda]

Thats a lot of grass in that video. How many days does it take to cut all that? As long as the darn thing runs I say its a winner

 

[Mezo]

That one that was snapped in half grew up another two feet w/ 5 stalks and you're up to your ears in morougas & brainstrains. I don't think you'll need to go into town for any spicy condiments in the near future as well

It leads to the subject of topping your plants eh, the damaged ones have grown back so much bushier/thicker.

Thats a lot of grass in that video. How many days does it take to cut all that? As long as the darn thing runs I say its a winner

Takes Danny all day & he`s quick, takes me a lot longer as i have to stop & rest every hour.

Also depends on how much rain we get Pia, this year has been a very dry "wet season" the monsoons were also late arriving if at all? If it doesn't rain it should be OK for two weeks, that grass was very long as we had heavy rains a couple of weeks back.

The tractor is now a convertible, Danny had mad a wooden shade thingy to keep us cool & out of the sun, i misjudged the height of a tree branch & ripped the canopy and the branch clean off (Ooops)

Mezo.

 

[Sanarda]

Ahahahaaaa Mez. Dang about the top of the convertible funny thing is I can see myself doing exactly the same thing. I say sneak a few cows in and let them go to town then shoo them away when the neighbor comes. Tell the neighbor you had gastrointestinal issues if he asks about the cow shit

 

[Mezo]

Well its been a whole five days since i did that little harvest & im just about ready to do another, Monday i think? makes it a week.

But here`s another movie update, the harvests are going to get bigger every week.

Mezo.

 

[Dot Com]

I envy you that you got a morouga plant to go that well. I have a couple seedlings that I hope get half as bountiful as your plants. Those 7-pod browns do look like they're behind but its prolly because they are rarer/more exotic IMHO. I grew a brown hab plant & it was quite hot!!!

Lastly, looks like your solar dehydrator will be a necessity as opposed to an optional curiosity at this point. Can you take a pic of you drying some in there when the time arrives? Anyway, good reesults this season!

 

[JJJessee]

The pepper jungle is looking good, Mezo.
That experiment is making the difference pretty obvious.
If you could remind us of what your potting medium was again and how much shell material you used in the WITH pot I'd appreciate it.
JJJ

 

[Mezo]

I envy you that you got a morouga plant to go that well. I have a couple seedlings that I hope get half as bountiful as your plants. Those 7-pod browns do look like they're behind but its prolly because they are rarer/more exotic IMHO. I grew a brown hab plant & it was quite hot!!!

Lastly, looks like your solar dehydrator will be a necessity as opposed to an optional curiosity at this point. Can you take a pic of you drying some in there when the time arrives? Anyway, good reesults this season!

Cheers DC, ill be taking some good dryer shots in a month or two, right now im just saving seeds but once it goes crazy ill just be chopping them in half & loading them in to the dryer.

Yep im well pleased with how the Morouga`s turned out, when you think i started them along side the 7P Browns (came in the same order from Judy) its amazed me how well they are doing considering i just planted them in plain old potting mix, no perlite or prawn shells, no special fancy fertz (apart from the slow release granular tomato stuff i put on everything).

The pepper jungle is looking good, Mezo.
That experiment is making the difference pretty obvious.
If you could remind us of what your potting medium was again and how much shell material you used in the WITH pot I'd appreciate it.
JJJ

Its just plain potting mix JJJ, says "premium" on the bag (i don`t use el cheapo stuff) but its not the real expensive stuff either, and i don't use perlite either (cant afford it) but if i had the money i would. The prawn shells was from a one kilo bag which Danny boy scoffed down in minutes, Gassy suggested i mince them up fine but i just bunged them in the pot, i did make sure they was well mixed in to the potting mix though (spread around) it could be that helped the roots breath better? (air pockets) ??

I put a layer of potting mix at the bottom, then a few shells, layered more potting mix & then more shells & kept doing this until i had used them, final layer of potting mix & plonked the plant on top.

But even now you can see the one 'with' is much healthier, fatter/greener leaves & it was the first to pump out a ripe pod, and remember the one 'with' was the underdog (the smallest plant) i did that deliberate so it could discount the fact it was the simply the bigger of the two plants to start with.

So even as just a free fertiliser its worth doing, we had been throwing the shells in the bin after a feed? what a waste? but the interesting part will be the blind taste test to see if we can pick which one is the hotter out of the two, if at all?

I will try & get my Hungarian cousin down here for the taste test, he is very good at tasting chilli (heat wise) & if there is three of us tasting together it should rule out one persons taste/tolerance against another's, i will film it & then flip over the plate to see if it is the "with' or 'without' plant & if it does make a difference with prawn shells, in theory it should.

Mezo.

 

[Mezo]

Curiosity got the better of me & i was dying to know what that plant was in the video, i didn't recognise the shape whatsoever?

So i pulled it out & looked at the label (which was at the back) and it said,,,,,,Butch T (me thinks not)

They start off like this & go deep red, i thought the shape was similar to Scarlet Latern? which is odd as im not growing that?

Oh well at least my yellow Brain Strain (below) is growing true to form like the yellow Morouga`s.

And here`s a random shot (below) went back to look at its name but couldn't find it again so its called "Random Chilli 1"

Yep Monday (2nd harvest) is going to be a busy day indeed.

Mezo.

 

[Trippa]

Those mystery ones almost look like Trinidad seasoning pods ... just in terms of pod shape and colour ... no idea though really. Nice shots of the Brain strains bro