Noah Yates' 2014 Glog

Noah Yates · Feb 18, 2014

Only loooks worse this morning.... I may have to snip the tops off all of the plants. This has gone from a major grow in the ramp up to a crisis in critical condition. I really just want to punch myself in the face... worst gardening mistake of my entire life..... I dont even want to post a picture... I think it would disturb and depress all of you as much as it does me. I dont think I will ever use an oil-based insecticide again. I cannot believe this. I am just constantly going around shaking my head. :mope:

I just cant get over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

juanitos · Feb 19, 2014

you have to post a pic, we must see the carnage so we can feel your pain.

Noah Yates · Feb 19, 2014

Nah man.... no way. Im just trying not to even think about them.

I can see some little green leaves starting to shoot out of the sides. So maybe these little guys will be fighters and survive my wrath.

Lol... whats funny is that although there were aphids on the plants... I never saw any damage. I totally would have been better off just continuing to kill them by hand.

I have been thinking about it... and I have accepted the fact that it could be the case that none of them survive. If this is so, then I can get excited about the year of the edible peppers. I am imagining how awesome it could be to use all that space the chinenses would have occupied to let my jalapenos and cayennes just flourish. Hopefully there will be at least a few of each of my chinenses that make it through this travesty. Especially since they include seeds that were so kindly given to me by members (7 pot bubblegum and SB7J from pexpeppers and "select primo" seeds as well as a "TSMB special var" from sanchez). I was also really looking forward to growing out jay's peach ghost scorpion for the first time................................ ughhhhhhhh... im feeling ill again writing this...

That was well over 100 dollars worth of seeds.

cone9 · Feb 19, 2014

Do you want me to send you any seeds?

Spicegeist · Feb 19, 2014

Noah Yates said:
Nah man.... no way. Im just trying not to even think about them.

I can see some little green leaves starting to shoot out of the sides. So maybe these little guys will be fighters and survive my wrath.

Lol... whats funny is that although there were aphids on the plants... I never saw any damage. I totally would have been better off just continuing to kill them by hand.

I have been thinking about it... and I have accepted the fact that it could be the case that none of them survive. If this is so, then I can get excited about the year of the edible peppers. I am imagining how awesome it could be to use all that space the chinenses would have occupied to let my jalapenos and cayennes just flourish. Hopefully there will be at least a few of each of my chinenses that make it through this travesty. Especially since they include seeds that were so kindly given to me by members (7 pot bubblegum and SB7J from pexpeppers and "select primo" seeds as well as a "TSMB special var" from sanchez). I was also really looking forward to growing out jay's peach ghost scorpion for the first time................................ ughhhhhhhh... im feeling ill again writing this...

That was well over 100 dollars worth of seeds.

Maybe order some live plants?

Noah Yates · Feb 19, 2014

Most of them are actually rebounding surprisingly well.

maximumcapsicum · Feb 19, 2014

Oh man Noah I just got caught up. That is the worst! But you say things are rebounding? That's good!

Devv · Feb 19, 2014

Sorry about the carnage Noah.

I usually use wettable sulfur to kill the nasties, so far it's never hurt the plants. I've tried some homemade Rosemary oil (infused), and it worked really well. but it was on a container plant I moved into the shade.

Glad to hear they're perking up. What doesn't kill them makes them stronger.

Good luck with this!

Hybrid Mode 01 · Feb 19, 2014

Just read the whole thing. Wow, what a roller coaster! I was so excited to hear about all those random crosses you're experimenting with. And then… A shitstorm of shit-eating shithawks descended upon your grow.
I'm so glad to hear they may still be fighting. I kinda thought they might. It's been my experience that as long as there's a stem attached to some roots, there's still energy to flush leaves. Good luck! We're all pulling' for ya'!

Noah Yates · Feb 19, 2014

I havnt planted the experimental seeds yet. I am doing that this weekend... it was all of the chinenses under "home garden" that were affected by the gognats...

And thank you cone9... but I still have plenty of seeds.

How about this?... I will take a picture... but i wont post it until they are fully recovered and i will do a before and after.
For the sake of science.

Hybrid Mode 01 · Feb 20, 2014

I broke my keyboard liking this. ^^^

edit: For the science, not for the dead C. chinenses...

Datil · Feb 20, 2014

I usually use Azamax as soil drench against aphids and it works nicely without having to spray every single leaf cause it's systemic.
Very sorry for your loss, i believe many of us are sowing too much stuff anyway and you'll end up with plenty heat/pods in any case by the end of the season.

Best of luck

Datil

Noah Yates · Feb 24, 2014

So today my potting soils and new bank of lights finally arrived!!! :party:

I am about to mix it up and transplant my babys into 3.5 inch pots. As I mentioned on the previous page, the soils and amendments include: FF Happy Frog, FF Ocean Forest, Roots Organic original, Pro-Mix BX, Shrimp Compost, Seaweed Compost, Alaskan Forest Humus (Ancient Forest), mycorrhizae, coco coir, vermiculite, perlite, azomite, glacial rock dust, volcanic minerals, gypsum, and dolomite.

And a quick update on the sick plants... yesterday i cut off all of the dead or nasty looking growth and pruned them up nicely... takingcare to squash any aphids I encountered (they are still around). With all of the damage cut off they actually look pretty nice. I am sure they will look even nicer after being transplanted into this nice soil. One thing is for certain... if they are not stunted by this... then the fact that they have been topped multiple times now will mean they could grow into monsters by the end of the season.

Noah Yates · Mar 2, 2014

Yesterday I finished transplanting all of the plants for my home garden into 3.5 inch pots with that super-soil mix... they seem pretty happy. I also planted all of my tomatos and the peppers for my experimental grow. I decded to try out a new method with the tomatos and experiementtal peppers (experiment is in the name isnt it!?)... I sprinkled about a half an inch of the super-soil on the bottom of the germination pots... then covered it with my standard soil-less media. My reasoning is that by the time the plants can use the rich soil their roots will just* be coming in contact with it.

Noah Yates · Mar 2, 2014

Just counted up my plants. Not including the plants I am going to "weed out"... but *including the seeds I sowed yesterday I am in charge of 497 plants. I have 222 live peppers at this point along with 215 pepper seeds and 60 tomato seeds sown as of yesterday.

I have probably twice as many flower and other vegetable/herb/fruit seeds to plant when the weather warms as well... I just dont have room to start them indoors.

Noah Yates · Mar 4, 2014

496 plants now.... one little guy didnt handle the transpanting process very well, so i pulled it... only to discover that it basically had no roots. So one less serrano.

The "sick" plants (all of the chinenses) are bursting out very nicely. The rest of the species are really loving their new soil. The seedlings that had yellow leaves are turning green and the plants that were already looking great are putting out one or two sets of new leaves that are very very healtyh looking. I did see a few aphids appear on them for the first time yesterday. So I am considering mixing up some neem oil (not go gnats) and applying it tonight. (properly)

Other activities for today's agenda inculde charging my biochar with worm castings, compost, AACT, organic meals, azomite, glacial rock dust, and volcanic sands.

juanitos · Mar 4, 2014

Pix plzzz i want to see them 400 plants, i only have room for 100!

What are you going to do with all of them lol?

Noah Yates · Mar 4, 2014

Yes... that is also something on the agenda for today!!! Pics or it didnt happen right!?

Well... when the weather warms I am going to do a further selection process where I will give away my least favorite plants and then pot up the chosen ones. I will still have a few hundred peppers at that point. At the home garden I have about 1800 square feet to play with (not including containers and random "flower beds" where I plan to have some random peppers growing scattered all around). And at my grandparents' place they have 4 garden spots, two of which are in the bottom lands next to a creek (rich topsoil)... I plan to use one of the garden plots in the bottoms for my experimental test grow... that is where every one of those peppers will be going. I will probably plant some of my sweet and mild peppers from my "home garden list" in their garden plot closer to the house....

When planting, I plan to do clusters of peppers to conserve space. I will do the 2 foot square foot garden (4 plants in a square pattern 1 foot apart.) The clusters will each be given plenty of room to grow laterally. I have used a similar method in the past with great results. The peppers support each other and cooperate very well.

Noah Yates · Mar 5, 2014

Noah Yates · Mar 24, 2014

Except for the fact that the aphids are still around and require constant attention, everything is running smotthly... The plants look good in spite of the aphid infestation. As you can see from the pictures, I am probably needing to raise the lights again soon. I absolutely cannot wait until the weather warms enough that i can begin to harden them off in preperation for their final transplanting. I am going to amend the garden and prepare it for planting this week. Hopefully I can get them in the ground in early May this year. Last year I failed to plant them in the ground until the second week of June.

My lovely Tomatoes: Pink Girl, Cherokee Purple, Pineapple, Magic Mountain

These are the "dead" chinenses that I killed with the Gognats XD Looking great honestly (despite the continueing aphid problem)... I have been spraying soap and neem oil... as well as squishing them every time I see them... and literally rinsing them off of the plant manually by mechanically agitating them under a hard flowing stream of water... That is such a chore... but its actually the most effective method Ive yet discovered.
Now that the aphids are spreading to my anuums, it might just be a MUST for me to use some drastic crazy insecticide that will be guaranteed to ikill the adults as well as the eggs... if anyone knows of such a treatment give me some advice... one person has already mentioned azamax...

The little guys in the pic are all of my "experimental" plants to be grown in the bottom lands.

This past week I have been spending several hours a day harvesting my worm castings that have built up over the past year. I estimate it to be at least $1000 worth of worm castings and worms from my 7 worm farms. (several hundred pounds) {and these are not your ordinary worm castings... they have been supplemented like none other.... top quality worm castings}... not for sale.... just for me and my plants :party:

I also rebuilt my worm farms so that in about three months I will be able to harvest more earthy goodness. ( Although I will say that I am going to try to build my own tumbler harvester.) Any other method is simply too time consuming when dealing with hundreds and hundreds of pounds of castings.

This is my biochar in the process of innoculation (or charging) I have mixed 1 part bio-char to 3 parts worm castings. I have also added azomite, glacial rock dust, gypsum, JOB'S organic fert meal, kelp meal, fish hydrolysate, fish bone meal, black gold (from kelp4less), and a little bit of promix to give some fluff

On a side note.... I measured my garden space officially for the first time... and including the raised beds that are already in place, I have 1404 square feet of space to play with. (at my home garden).
Not including the the space occupied by the raised beds I have 1323 square feet... That amounts to 82 4x4 plots of 16 square feet.

I have yet to measure out the garden plot in the bottom lands, but I think it will be a similar size.