Mooglog 2013/2014

megamoo · Nov 17, 2013

stickman said:
Very cool Moo! Have you thought of selling the extras to recoup some of what you spent on starting the seedlings? If you ask around, you might find some "truck gardeners" who'd be willing to buy, or sell them on spec at a farmer's market.

I did have that idea but last year I gave away a lot of plants to THP members and right after discovered I had mites. I really don't want to spread the little buggers around.
It only costs $15 to get a space at the sunday markets near me so I could just sell them all myself if I fell upto it.

Dot Com said:
You been waiting for this day to arrive mega Looks like you planned it out well this season with the things you learned last season (your first grow on that lot). I like the hedge and being to access the plants from both sides so that you're not bush whacking around like last season .

Thanks. I feel I've learnt so much from past seasons and I'm pretty confident I can hit this season out of the park

GA Growhead said:
+1 With no wall the peppers can stretch out on both sides. Looking forward to see it fill up.
Extra plants! a couple aye?
Hope they find a home or get planted somewhere.

I'll make sure they get a good home.

WalkGood said:
[SIZE=medium]Moo, da [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Plants look great and love how you showed your last season’s pods from da freezer[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Great to read that you share your key learning's from last season on shade cloth, plant spacing and mas … invaluable information for da noob’s and pros alike[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Very cool how you converted da GH into a shade house, I really like da look of it. I sure could use one like that for our summers …[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]New bed looks great[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Keep up dat awesome grow and Hab great weekend brethren ^_^[/SIZE]

Thanks WalkGood.

Took a whole bunch of pictures and here they are.

Growth, slowly but surely.

Today its cloudy but we had a few very sunny and warm days and the new plants in the ground were wilting by lunchtime and needed an extra water. It'll be getting much hotter in a month so I decided that shadecloth is the answer to all problems

The new shadecloth runs east-west and so they'll get more than half a day shielded. The other diagonal bed is too difficult to easily shade. Its wide open to the west sun and I only hope that now I've got the bore watering on every morning the frangipani will grow a thicker canopy and provide some protection.

In case you didn't know the sun here is harsh and summer is spent mostly trying to keep the plants alive until it cools down and they can start producing good pods.

Buried the retic hose and every plant gets a dripper

Just need to mulch the bed with pea straw and its finished.

Overwinters are flowering.

Officially first pod set for the season on a NOTgoatsweed

Brainstrain overwinter is looking awesome.

Flowers but no pods yet, its dropping a few flowers.. It's still on manual watering and I forget sometimes and it only gets sun until midday. Once I move it and give it regular water I expect big things.
Its also home to a bunch of tiny jumping spiders.

Here's a Primo Orange just cos I like this one.

My Pimenta De Neydes like to grow tall. Did it last season too and the other one I still have in a pod is the same. Don't know if everyone's do this. Looks good.

Got more pics need a bump.

PeriPeri · Nov 17, 2013

Congratulations Moo - that is one hell of a start my friend. Good luck with your season!

megamoo · Nov 18, 2013

PeriPeri said:
Congratulations Moo - that is one hell of a start my friend. Good luck with your season!

Thanks PeriPeri

Some more pictures.

Both my Douglahs are showing this strange leaf pattern, like something is eating it but I think its more a disease or nutrient issue. Anyone know? The edges of the leaves are cracked and ripped.

Found this lady doing her thing

Habanero Mustard is typical of most of the plants. Budding!

Dorset Naga flowering up.

I like the colours on this one.

As expected the mites have made a reappearance. I'm going to wait until the last seedlings are outside and then get some predatory mites to go to war for me. Until then I'll have to bomb the affected plants with wettable sulphur.

These are the latest seedlings to pop. Some look a bit leggy cos I forgot to check the seeds.

The custom hydro tray failed so I've had to use two plastic tubs and some creative plumbing. Split the intake and each tub has it's own overflow. Leaks a bit, the capacity is now 40 blue trays instead of 50 and I can't shut the door all the way but it works enough

GA Growhead · Nov 18, 2013

Great improvising with the set up! & Loving the updates.

stickman · Nov 18, 2013

Nice step-off to your growing season Moo! Bummer about the mites, but it looks like the ladybugs are establishing your outer perimeter prior to you adding predatory mites. I hope the friendlies take care of things for you!

Shurbryn · Nov 18, 2013

That hedge is gonna look so good Moo. Getting some good growth there. Hooray for the ladybug, bring your friends you awesome little insect you!

megamoo · Nov 28, 2013

GA Growhead said:
Great improvising with the set up! & Loving the updates.

Thanks. Hopefully I'll have some good production updates soon.

stickman said:
Nice step-off to your growing season Moo! Bummer about the mites, but it looks like the ladybugs are establishing your outer perimeter prior to you adding predatory mites. I hope the friendlies take care of things for you!

I'm pretty lucky in this garden with the friendly bugs, but I make a point not to use any chemicals in case it harms or repels them.

Shurbryn said:
That hedge is gonna look so good Moo. Getting some good growth there. Hooray for the ladybug, bring your friends you awesome little insect you!

Only need two lady bugs really

Haven't had time to do anything to the garden that really needs to be done, but the darn thing is growing all the same. So I took a bunch of pictures.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures but I had the camera set on something odd and just hit a bunch of auto buttons when processing on the computer.

I'll start with the bad stuff.
Main bed is growing but the soil is a bit sandy and is causing problems. Last year I had to dig around each plant and put in some more draining soil and I think I'll have to do the same again.

The 7Pot Jonah with mites got a strong dose of wettable sulphur and I cut off all the icky leaves. This was only one of two plants affected by mites so far, the other was in a pot and its gone to bin heaven. I'm holding out a slim hope that because it is away from other plants I might be able to eradicate them just with the sulphur. I only left four leaves and because its so small I was guaranteed total coverage with the spray. I will watch the regrowth with fingers crossed.

I've been getting this sort of damage on a lot of plants. Something is chewing at my plants. Here it has cut away the large vein under the leaf which kills the whole leaf. This one must be fresh because the rest of the leaf hasn't gone limp. Sometimes it doesn't even break through and leave a hole like this but its enough to kill the leaf anyway. There are also little chew marks on other parts of the young stems. Don't know what it is :mad:

Better news is the leftover plants have grown so much I had to move them down a shelf and remove the upper one to give them room.

They are going a bit yellow because I've only given them plain water for about two weeks. I had been adding a tiny spash of seasol and powerfeed to every watering and that really kicked them along. They are due for some more food.

Even better... many of them are starting to make pods

This potted Douglah is looking better than the two I put in the ground so I might graduate this one a nice big pot and see if it can really take off. Poddage

Overwinters are bushing up and podding. Forgot to take a closeup pic of the pods but there are plenty! and big ones too.

Chilli hedge diagonal bed. They are growing but the hot afternoon sun is holding them back by drying out the soil too much. Haven't had time to mulch, but that will help.

Here is the chilli hedge east-west bed. The shadecloth has made a difference, happier plants. It was windy so they're a bit blurry. You can also see the new home of the overwintered Brainstrain. Didn't take a better shot but he is growing and promising great things!

Isn't this the cutest little brainstrain pod you ever did see

There are a whole lot more brand new pods on this plant too. Great things

I have many more photos if someone can give me a bump.

GA Growhead · Nov 28, 2013

bump!

Cartz · Nov 28, 2013

I love the concept of the elevated chilli hedge Moo, hope it comes to fruition for you!

My heart breaks just a little every time I see another Aussie grower battling mites...hopefully you got rid of them early as I'm looking forward to seeing your chilli bounty over the coming months

GA Growhead · Nov 28, 2013

+1 to that!

megamoo · Nov 28, 2013

Cartz said:
I love the concept of the elevated chilli hedge Moo, hope it comes to fruition for you!

My heart breaks just a little every time I see another Aussie grower battling mites...hopefully you got rid of them early as I'm looking forward to seeing your chilli bounty over the coming months

GA Growhead said:
+1 to that!

Thanks

I enjoyed digging through the chilli jungle last season so it will be cool to have a hedge.

The mites really annoy me. They must catch a ride on flying bugs like aphids or moths and get on the plant that way. So its near to impossible to protect against them and completely random where they appear. Also they are too small to see! If they come back in force at least I have a weapon up my sleeve with the predatory mites.

More pictures. I'll try to get my photos sorted so they don't look all crappy next time.

Snow White

Habanero Purple

Those two are in a good spot. They've put on a lot of weight.

Pimenta de Neyde has grown taller. 10 days ago was level with the stake.

Time to play spot the baby pod.

Dorset Naga is not waiting to get big before podding up!

Tobago Seasoning

Chocolate Fatalii

Red Savina. It's in there hiding.

This one is tricky. Trinidad Perfume

7Pot Primo. Very young pod.

7 Pot Primo Orange

Sarge · Nov 28, 2013

Looking good moo man. You've had a toughy by the look of things but I believe your plants will provide for you quite well!

gasificada · Nov 29, 2013

Have you grown the Snow White before, moo? Thems damn tasty! Well, I reckon anyway. Stingy but nice burn too.

PeriPeri · Nov 29, 2013

Awesome progress Moo... going to be a bumper season my friend!

megamoo · Nov 29, 2013

Sarge said:
Looking good moo man. You've had a toughy by the look of things but I believe your plants will provide for you quite well!

Thanks Sarge. It's not been a bad start but its going better now.

gasificada said:
Have you grown the Snow White before, moo? Thems damn tasty! Well, I reckon anyway. Stingy but nice burn too.

I haven't. I saw you had them last season and I want to grow a white pod. I grew tiny white berry like pods last season and I would like to get something more typical of a chinense pod shape. Second season sowing blondie seeds with no sprouts too. Must have got a bum lot.

How is the snow white cross with something black you did? Would be cool to get a zebra pod.

PeriPeri said:
Awesome progress Moo... going to be a bumper season my friend!

Thanks PeriPeri. Same to you! It seems we have both learnt a lot of lessons from last season and improved our methods accordingly. It helps that I haven't had to move house again! My first three seasons were in three different locations. I've still got half a freezer full of pods to deal with as well before production kicks in.

PeriPeri · Nov 30, 2013

Three different homes, man that is a challenge in itself. Different soil conditions every time... wow - tricky!

megamoo · Nov 30, 2013

PeriPeri said:
Three different homes, man that is a challenge in itself. Different soil conditions every time... wow - tricky!

The soil conditions were actually the same - sand. That's basically what you get in Perth. I had to build the soil in raised beds or pots each time. The second season in pots was a complete and total failure. I learned what not to do that year, and the result was an awesome crop the next.

megamoo · Dec 3, 2013

The second round of seedlings are coming along.
The first lot was all chinense and I have to admit they look better as seedlings, short n fat.
These are annuum, baccatum, frutescens, pubescens, praeternissum and chacoense. Hope I've spelled them all right.
Two of the three types of pubes didn't sprout, but one was a non sprouter from last season and I know they are hard to germinate so fairly good rates for everything.

The digital timer to the pump decided to randomly reset itself and I didn't notice for at least two days so the seedlings were suddenly all shriveled up. Managed to catch it in time and it looks like all is back to normal.

Sarge · Dec 3, 2013

Man your seedlings look awesome. Although my first year, mine looked like ass compared to that. I need to find my groove. Maybe its all those lights!

Do those lights hit your power bill much? How do you wire the lights up, are they in parallel or in series and are they connected to your main wiring or just plugged into a wall socket.

By the looks of things, your asshole won't be forgiving this year!

megamoo · Dec 3, 2013

Thanks. IMO its all down to the coco. It keeps the nutrient solution in the root zone but also has air so they are never waterlogged. It's really forgiving and widens the margins for error. So like I said the pump was off for 2-4 days and they wilted but are now perfectly fine.

It's a few hundred watts and they are all in series. I cut up an old extension cord and it all goes to one plug. Costs a bit but their growth is very fast because of the hydro and so I'm only using it for a few weeks. When they go outside the growth rate slows right down.