Mooglog 2013/2014

megamoo · Mar 14, 2014

Devv said:
Sorry to read about the maggots. I read up on them, they can sure do a ton of damage.

Like the garden, sun shades are a huge help once the sun gets hot for sure!

Super David said:
I tried culling all my pods last season to avoid this egg plant fruit grub. It certainly didn't stop them but it did break the cycle for a while and increase yields once it all came back.
I wish there was a chemical to stop these suckers, killing the moths as I see them and picking pods just doesn't seem to cut it.

I don't ever see the moths, I just assumed they are night stalkers. Good to hear the culling might work!

Francoi said:
Megamoo I've read placing fake plastic butterflies scare moths from coming into that area, maybe give that a shot?
I haven't got around to trying it yet..

If the buggers come back its definitely worth a try. Thanks

Just gave everything a dousing in wettable sulfur again. There were a few isolated signs of mites but I did it as a fungicide. The row of Jonahs had been losing leaves and going yellow and without much thought I put it down to their sun position. It has gotten really bad and a close inspection shows the same fungus that was attacking my overwintered Brainstrain. I should have been onto it earlier but its hopefully treated now.

Also gave a foliar fertilize. I've read that a good dose of PK at the time of flowering and fruit set will increase the yield. There is plenty of budding and flowering going on so we will see.

Rainman · Mar 15, 2014

That really sucks with the cross attempt. How many other crosses are you attempting?

I checked the few pods I have and in one of the choc habs, the maggot was 25 mm long and 5 mm wide - I could feel it moving when I picked the pod... I also found a moth cocoon on the underside of a leaf too. Not cool man.

megamoo · Mar 16, 2014

Rainman said:
That really sucks with the cross attempt. How many other crosses are you attempting?

I checked the few pods I have and in one of the choc habs, the maggot was 25 mm long and 5 mm wide - I could feel it moving when I picked the pod... I also found a moth cocoon on the underside of a leaf too. Not cool man.

Every cross I've attempted myself has failed to set

I got those seeds from Junglerain, along with another which didn't germinate. On the other hand I'm pretty sure that I've got an accidental cross of a Barrackpore and Datil growing, which looks like an orange Datil with a very slight wrinkle. I will sample the pods when they're ready to see what else it has retained from each parent.

They are horrible little buggers. I've heard you can get mosquito nets cheap on ebay to protect plants if there's room to rig it all up. Mine are too close together.

Since the cull I've not found any maggotted pods but most are still small and green. Although I found 4 mature pods yesterday that I'd missed in the the tangled jungle. They seem to be uninfected.

Devv · Mar 16, 2014

One thing I've learned is to NOT leave any pods on the ground after reading up on those maggots, even tossing them in the mulch pile can invite them.

Wishing you continued luck staying free of those critters!

Rainman · Mar 31, 2014

Hows the grow going Moo. Are you seeing a fresh burst of growth with this cooler weather?

megamoo · Apr 1, 2014

Devv said:
One thing I've learned is to NOT leave any pods on the ground after reading up on those maggots, even tossing them in the mulch pile can invite them.

Wishing you continued luck staying free of those critters!

Yeah you've got to treat them like a radioactive contagion!

Thanks

Rainman said:
Hows the grow going Moo. Are you seeing a fresh burst of growth with this cooler weather?

It's going ok, probably because I've been too busy to get out there and do anything.

I was acting too cavalier with the wettable sulfur. Two weeks ago I sprayed down all the plants as a preventative measure for mites and fungus and it was effective but it also affected the plants themselves.

I had expected a sudden burst of new growth after the pod cull and cooler weather but its been a bit slow in coming. The sulfur knocks them around. They are only now showing positive signs.

Took some pictures last Saturday.

Wide shot. I was slow to realize that the defoliating fungus present on my overwintered brainstrain had spread to this bed. I assumed without thinking it through that the 2 Yellow 7s (far left) and 4 Jonahs next to them were weak or getting too much sun, when it was a fungus. This bed wasn't sprayed when I treated everything else originally for mites so the fungus had a free run. Finally figured it out two weeks ago, sprayed and now they are looking much better.

Close up of Jonah with new growth on defoliated main stems. (The dead parts are pod stems left from the pod cull.) Doesn't look very pretty but it was much worse before.

In contrast the hedge looks amazing! Lush green everywhere. As soon as the temps dropped down from 36-40ish and there wasn't a risk of the soil drying out I pruned the lower branches to let air circulate.

This end of the hedge is mainly habaneros. Doing great.

Despite a good harvest I'm still getting too high leaf to pod ratio. Will mix even less sheep manure in next time.

Behind the shed is a very nice, protected atmosphere for growing. These plants were the slowest growers and the last planted out but they are starting get some size.

I want to take the shadecloth off them but did it too early last year so I'll wait until there is definitely no chance of hot sunny days. Could be a while... this is Australia.

Non chinenses slow going but looking ok, and very happy to get some rain. There is an invading grass problem but I never really gave these enough attention so I'm just going to let them figure it out themselves this season

Most of these pictures are leaves because as I said the pods have been slow coming back after the pod cull and spray. There is a lot of this going on though...

There are some pod photos to post. This is my favourite plant of the season Orange Primo. Promising a large Autumn harvest!

There are a few more pics need a bump...

Nulle · Apr 1, 2014

Bump.
Beautiful plants.

megamoo · Apr 1, 2014

Nulle said:
Bump.
Beautiful plants.

Thanks

This is what the big pod cull was all about. I think its a Moruga Yellow pod, centre is the tiny entry mark of the eggfruit caterpillar. You can see the colour change of premature ripening and the calyx is turning to a pale colour as the plant aborts the pod.

This was the only bad one I could find but it means the damn things are still around

I guess I have to just keep removing infected pods ASAP.

Can't remember what other pods I took pictures of.

I forget what this is... maybe Bhut Jolokia?

Probably Mustard Habanero..

Chocolate Fatalii or regular Yellow Fatalii

This is Bhut Jolokia X Giant White Hab First pod from two years of trying with these seeds.

Unfortunately on the same plant I found the first sign of aphids outside. Then one plant over I saw a ladybug chillin so I moved him straight to the banquet table

That's it for now. The good signs are outweighing the bad. Aphids have their predators present and active. No signs of mites of fungus right now. Maggot signs are isolated. Lots of budding and flowers blooming, weather is favourable. I did let my other overwinters die because I couldn't be bothered watering them and I accidentally mangled a few with the line trimmer

.

Everything looks green right now so photos are all sort of the same. I'll do another update when the colour comes back.

PeriPeri · Apr 7, 2014

Woa Moo, sorry to hear about the fungus and critters. I feel for you brother, it's been a hell of a season in SA too. But I think you got a hell of a lot more pods than I did! Your plants still look awesome - temps in SA are dropping quite rapidly now... so things are coming to a rapid end. Looks like you still have loads of pods in the making - nice!

wildseed57 · Apr 7, 2014

To bad about your Bug problem We got pepper maggots here, although I didn't know they were here also or where they came from in the first place as I didn't have any problems up until a few years back. They can be a real problem to get rid of I set out some red sticky traps and got several adults that kind of remind me of Tiger Flies and Something was eating the stems from the inside out I managed to catch one of the worms it was almost 2 1/2 inches long and a whitish yellow and looked like a bigger version of the pepper maggot that were in my pepper pods this follow and his friends would hollow out the pithy centers of my tomato vine and would do the same to the stems of the peppers also besides going round and round inside my pepper pods they would even eat up the small tender eggplants just as the fruits were ready to pick, as big as some got I wished that there was a lake near by I would have taken them fishing.

megamoo · Aug 20, 2014

Bugs and other things got the better of me and I gave up on it

Have just started a new glog here http://thehotpepper.com/topic/49478-megamoos-20142015-glog/#entry1042249

Dot Com · Aug 20, 2014

One of my Brain Strains got some brown splotches on it that seems to systematically killing it. I may be able to get a ripe pod off of it before it migrates down the plant. Thats nature I guess. That type of thing sucks especvially after catering to every need of the plant for months, but oh well.

that 2nd pic reminds me of the C- Not Madballz Twisted XL. You ever plant any of those seeds?