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MikeUSMC 2017 Grow

A little late in the season to start a glog probably, but I figure if I want to trade seeds with some of you guys at the end of the year, at least you'll know I'm not full of shit when I say I have stuff to trade ;)

Anyway, I had a pretty rough start this year. Started my seeds mid-February, then proceeded to fry half of them when they dried out from being in the living room with my pellet stove (Doh!). After that, my two overwintered plants (a Manzano and a Rocoto) turned into aphid magnets. Those promptly got chucked outside in March (I think?) to freeze and die a cold, miserable death. Of course, the aphids found their way to (what was left of) my seedling tray, but I got those under control.

Ok, enough whining. I'll try to get you guys caught up.....
Last year, I grew about 30 different Scotch Bonnet plants, which caught the attention of Superhot Sim and Trident, who are also huge Bonnet fans. We ended up doing a seed trade last year, so a lot of my seeds this year came from my chilehead brothers from across the pond (in the U.K.) :cheers: Thanks guys!

Here's my 2017 list (this will be my 4th year growing), which is a little smaller than last year due to a lower back surgery I had about a month ago. All is well, I'm on the mend, and back out in the garden :)

-Numex Twilight x3
-7 Pot Douglah x2
-Chocolate SB x2
-Scotchbrain (F4) x2
-Cappuccino Scotch Bonnet
-"Yellow" Scotch Bonnet
-TFM Scotch Bonnet
-Tobago Scotch Bonnet
-M.A. Peach Scotch Bonnet
-M.A. Daisy Cutter x2
-Bahamian Goat
-Aji Mango
-Aji Jobito
-Orange Blob
-Chocolate Bhutlah (DM)
-Nagabon
-Mammoth Jalapeño x2
-Poblano

Here's some pics from earlier in the year:
March 30, 2017
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April 16, 2017- First look at the sun
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I always grow in 5:1:1 mix (and add in CRF granules) in 5 gallon buckets. Here's a couple shots of my 5:1:1 "Graveyard" in the woods behind my house, and the new stuff ready to be mixed.
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May 21, 2017- All potted up
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What a difference a few weeks makes ;) (Pics taken this morning)
I'm also trying CNS17 (3-1-2) instead of DynaGro this year. It's just so much cheaper.
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Chocolate Scotch Bonnets on the right, Douglahs on the left
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Numex Twilight (biggest plant in the middle). I had 2 Belingrath Gardens plants in that pot last year, and now there's a TON of volunteers popping up. Almost looks like ground cover, haha. Gonna leave 'em just cuz ;)
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Another Numex Twilight out front. Getting some volunteer Twilights in that pot too, but I'll probably pull those
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Besides the Twilights, the only pods I have so far are a couple of 'peños...
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...and a couple of small Poblanos
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5 Tomato plants for Mrs. USMC
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Thanks for looking, everybody :cheers:
 
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I know if I saw damage like that to one of my tomatoes, I wouldn't be as non-chilant as you are about it. I'd be flippin' out. Lol. Ugh, I hate nuisance critters. They make me very unhappy. But it looks like your mater plants are producing nicely! A lot better than mine ever do. I sure hope your back doesn't bother you too much. Just the X-ray alone makes my lower back stiff and sore. Lol. Great work and I can't wait to see more!
 
I've heard of squirrels eating tomatoes when there isn't any water around for them. Nice glog though, I'm about to leave for the chiropractor now, the wife's back went out the other day. We might have had the slip n slide out for the kids, her back didn't like it
 
Bhuter said:
I know if I saw damage like that to one of my tomatoes, I wouldn't be as non-chilant as you are about it. I'd be flippin' out. Lol
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 Haha, honestly, I don't care too much for tomatoes to begin with. The only reason I grew them was to try to appease the Mrs. (who hates peppers), and is constantly complaining about buckets all over the backyard, haha. My solution was (sort of) a compromise: I'll grow some stuff that she likes, but it's gonna result in even more buckets ;) Honestly, I think she's lost interest in them by this point, so....."meh." As long as they're leaving my peppers alone, I don't much care. I think the Nagabons taught them a lesson, haha

tctenten said:
Do you have chipmunks?
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Yup, Terry. Tons and tons of them.
 
MikeUSMC said:
 Haha, honestly, I don't care too much for tomatoes to begin with. The only reason I grew them was to try to appease the Mrs. (who hates peppers), and is constantly complaining about buckets all over the backyard, haha. My solution was (sort of) a compromise: I'll grow some stuff that she likes, but it's gonna result in even more buckets ;) Honestly, I think she's lost interest in them by this point, so....."meh." As long as they're leaving my peppers alone, I don't much care. I think the Nagabons taught them a lesson, haha

Yup, Terry. Tons and tons of them.
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My money is on the chipmunks. Samething was happening to a buddy and he caught them red handed one day.
 
:(
 
we've got a chipmunk (more likely more than one) that the wife named Macgyver as he's one crafty son of a...
he/they find clever ways to rob the bird feeders, and yes they have stole an odd pepper or two and taken only a bite out of it  
 
 There's one though that has found that if he stands on the stump in the backyard and faces the house while he does his mating scream (somewhere between a chirp and a bark :lol: ) the sound carries much further there.
so he climbs up onto his podium, stands up tall(for a chipmiunk) and does this bark/chirp noise...
  I mean he gets his whole body gets into it with each chirp :lol: little dude is putting in all he's got to call the girls to the yard!
The wife thinks it's adorable, I admit it was kinda cute at first :rolleyes:
But this little guy singing the song of his peoples from that stump / podium every morning is getting old almost as fast as that woodpecker last year   :rofl:
no need for me to shoot any animals i'm not going to eat, though at this point i'm kinda hoping that hawk comes back  :twisted:
 
cotton balls with peppermint oil on them is supposed to deter rodents, but i cant exactly have cotton balls as mulch throughout the garden :lol:
 
pretty sure we could never get rid of the chipmunks and squirrels anyway as long as we got a walnut tree (crafty little bastards hide them things everywhere :lol:)
 
My Benelli Nova has become my best friend between mid-May and yesterday. I probably dispatch 30 or more chipmonks every year, and my reward is an actual measurable chokecherry harvest. Out of a potential 10 five quart ice cream pails of chokecherries out of the grove I took in a grand total of five. The bastiges eat them green, I can't compete. The birds wait till they're ripe, I'm happy to race them for what the chipmonks leave behind.
 
Chipmonks will nibble at and ruin tomatoes as well.
 
I take no pleasure in shooting the marauders, and neither do I hesitate or feel bad for them. Chipmonks breed on average twice in season, more if the season is longer. They are rodents and reproduce accordingly. They average 6 pups/litter. God made them cute so my wife would give me crap, but I get over that too (I do 99% of the cooking around here)...
 
I used to leave the squirrels be, they were no threat. Fox squirrels are kind of cool....But last year we found that a couple gray and black squirrels had moved into the grove, last winter they girdled and killed a couple dozen trees. Hello Benelli.
 
The fox squirrels are safe though...unless they develop a taste for ajiis....
 
Mike - here's to a pain free back, buddy!  I will no longer
complain about my lower back issues after seeing that x-ray
image of your hardware.  I assume that's titanium?
 
Do you have rats?  We're seeing a huge uptick in the rat population in our
neighborhood the past year or two.  So far they haven't bothered
my plants, although I did see one trying to get some Marion Blackberries.  
I hope it got a thorn in its foot!  They have started eating stuff in my
compost bins, for the first time since I started them 15 years ago.  I'd
get out the break barrel pellet gun, but they are quick, and don't like
to be exposed too much.  The squirrels, mostly invasive reds from the
East coast, dig around a lot, but don't bother the plants themselves,
just make a mess around my containers, so I just swear at them  :confused:  :rofl:
 
Good hunting, brother!
 
+ 1 on the chipmunks ,  I caught them once eating my tomatoes , Got one of the Blackcat rat traps ( the plastic ones )  put a little peanut butter down in the hole with a peanut on top , BAMMO !  B e sure to wire it down . Got the traps at any hardware store , farm supply etc. got 15 so far this yr.    !
 
If you wanna put the Chipmunks off your 'maters, you've probably already got the means handy... mix your pepper powder with crisco and coat the green tomatoes with it. They'll only take one bite and go berserk! They may come back once more, but when they get the same results they'll be gone for good.  :twisted:  My Dad used this method for Racoons in the sweet corn with good effect. Tomatoes are useful for hot sauce so they may be okay to keep for that alone, eh? ;)
 
Time for another little update, I guess. Chipmunks have completely stripped one of my 'mater plants of full size fruits. Cherry tomatoes are sprawling like crazy and loaded up, but none ripe yet
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Family photo of the peppers (sorry for the crappy lighting)
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Still waiting for the 'peños to ripen
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Chocolate Scotch Bonnet plants loaded up, and putting out some pretty big pods
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Chocolate Bhutlah (DM) putting out some pretty big (and scary ;) ) pods
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MA Daisy Cutter throwing out a few different phenos on the same plant (notice the long, skinny pod right above the one I'm holding)
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Beautiful NuMex Twilight
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And FINALLY getting a few ripe pods, here and there. This is an Orange Blob habanero, seeds courtesy of Superhot Sim. Thanks again, bro! Looking forward to trying this pod tonight with an ice cold beer!
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Thanks for looking!
:cheers:
 
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