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Noah Yates' Pepper Patch 2016

 Frost has ended this season and its time to begin preparation for 2016.  I extremely excited about next season.  I have learned several important lessons from this last season in particular.... and although I "knew" the lessons before I experienced the consequences....  I made the mistakes anyway.  
 
-dont go too big---you end up spreading your resources too thin... time, water, nutrients (including soil and amendments), space (for some people), etc.  This last season I had over 750 pepper plants alone.  I also was trying to grow 18 hills of watermelons, 15 hills of pumpkins, 9 hills of cucumbers, 8 rows of muskmelons, a 4mound x 16mound grid of corn beans and squash, and over 100 tomatoes.  I never even got around to planting the gourds, beans, or corn..... needless to say... I didn't get much of anything from any crop.  I spread my resources far too thin.  If I had allocated all of my energy and resources to a vastly smaller population of each crop, then I would almost certainly have yielded excellent results. Nevermind the fact that when you are dealing in these huge numbers, as they are germinating, it is a tedious, back breaking chore to keep the seedlings watered, labeled, taken from their dark, humid conditions into the light before they etiolate or dampen-off, and genrally taken care of in their delicate infancy.
 
-dont try to get a head start--everyone knows you need to wait till all danger of frost has passed to plant out.  And everyone knows you need to harden your plants off slowly.  But then that little voice creeps into your head whispering of advantages and possibilities of impressing fellow THP members with your lush, gigantic, pod-laden pepper shrubs in early June.  So you say "Ill just go ahead and start hardening off during the "warm part of the day" in early April... and Ill go ahead and plant 20 days before the recommended planting time in my area... and we will roll the dice.... If I win then I will have the best garden of anyone in my part of the world and I will look like a genius, and If I lose... well lets not even consider it.  :banghead:                                       
 
 Yeah...   so my plants went from looking like this April 1
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To this on April 27  (by the way my recommended planting date for my area is May 12)
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The plants were hit with cold rains for weeks on end.. followed by a light frost that became a heavy frost in the creek bottoms where this garden plot is.  Sadly, this stunted my plants until July, when they started to rebound a little.  However, by that time the next lesson started to manifest...
 
 pro tip: -put the roots into the ground ;) -- duh!!  Its obvious.  Its soooo obvious that you might just forget to do it.  Especially if you have nearly infinite mulch to play with and a million plants to get planted in a day.  
 
Check this out...
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note that the leaves arent even out on the trees... alas they are wiser than I.
 
What you see above are 9 windrows of mulch 90 feet in length and over a foot tall.  I would have done better to plant in the ground between the rows of mulch, because the method I employed resulted in plants basically being transplanted into pure uncomposted mulch, which is bad on three fronts.  #1- during the heat of the summer, mulch will never be able to hold enough moisture to sustain the plants unless you have a continuous drip... In other words, you will be forced to water every day or your plants will suffer.  #2 wen mulch is decomposing it gets hot, which compounds the problem of #1.   #3 that decomposition in #2 actually involves the use of the same nutrient resources your plant is competing for, so the mulch effectively steals the nutrients from your plants.  This was the nail in the coffin for me.  I went too big, so I didnt give each plant the real time (attention) and resources it needed to flourish.  This factored into my method of planting.  Because I had sooo many plants to get into the ground, I spent minimal time planting each plant.... afterall its easier to push aside some mulch with your bare hands, place your transplant into the void and be done with it than it is to grab the shovel and put your back into it 750 times...... which, of course, resulted in a poor root zone.
 
The combination of my plants being stressed by cold, wet weather in the spring followed by extremely hot drought conditions in the summer conjoined with the blunder of implementing  a soil media with abysmal water retention resulted in a total bounty of only 20 or so pounds of peppers from 700+ plants.  Although by late september all of the plants were healthy and on their way, most chinenses didnt even have time to produce one ripe pod, and most of the anuums only produced a few peppers here and there (too many of which were stolen by critters anyway...).
 
The plants that did produce well, and were generally healthy in spite of me and their terrible conditions had seeds collected, or were transplanted for an attempt at over-wintering. 
The picture below features my over-winters, which include: 
3x Aji Pineapple
3x Tajin Jalapeno
2x Ristra Cayenne
1x Mammoth Jalapeno
1x Fish Pepper
1x Carolina Reaper
1x Chocolate Bhut
1x Jays Peach Ghost Scorpion (red) from saved seed
1x Jays Peach Ghost Scorpion (true) from saved seed
1x Mustard Hab 
1x 7 pot Jonah
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I was actually considering growing only those over-winters next season.  I was even going to give each plant its own 30 gallon worm farm (allocating vast resources to a small population :party: )
But then I gave in to my desire for novel genetics.  So I ordered some seeds from here and there. I picked up some new genetics which i am really excited about, as well as some new stock of my all-time favorites.  I also will be growing out some of the selected seed stock from the prolific plants from this past season.
 
This is my seedlist for the 2016 season.  I will edit this section as it changes:

 
 


Sweet & Mild Peppers:
aji amarillo (refining fire)
aji blanco christal (growdown)
aji panca (pepper lover)
aji pineapple (refining fire) 
albanian red hot (pepper lover)
anaheim numex big jim (reimers)
bangalore whippets tail (hippieseedco)
bell of göllü (pepper lover)
bob's pickling (pepper lover)
corbaci (rareseeds)
cowhorn pepper (pepperjoe)
cumra cherry (pepper lover)
hot wax banana (pepperjoe)
jalapeños “cracked” (pepper lover) 
jalapeno farmers (pepper lover) 
jalapeno tajin (reimers) 
jalapeno purple (refining fire)
jimmy nardello (tatiana'stomatoes)
joe's long cayenne (seeedsaversexchange)
maule's red hot (rare seeds) 
orange king (reimers) 
orange starfish (pepper lover) 
pasilla bajio (pepper lover)  
pasilla holy mole (park seeds) 
poblano (burpee) 
princess faten (pepper lover) 
trinidad perfume (pepper lover) 
trinidad scorpion sweet (pepper lover) 
turkish cayenne (tatiana'stomatoes) 
family heirloom 
 
Hot & Super Hot Peppers:
7 pot douglah x  butch t (cp115)(puckerbutt)
7 pot jonah x butch T trinidad scorpion (jungle rain)
bahamian goat (refining fire)
bhut jolokia mustard (puckerbutt)
big black mama (mojo peppers)
big mustard mama (mojo peppers)
borg9 reaper (mojo peppers)
butcht x 7pot primo (mojo peppers)
carolina reaper (pepper lover)
carolina reaper (puckerbutt))
chocolate ghost pepper (chocolate bhutlah) (pepper joe)
chocolate nagabrain (mojo peppers)
chocolate primo/reaper (Butch Taylor)
datil (rare seeds)
habalokia brown (buckeyepeppers)
habanero mustard (pepper joe)
i scream scorpion (buckeyepeppers)
jays peach ghost scorpion (refining fire)
manzano amarillo (pepper lover)
orange gum tiger (mojo peppers)
pink tiger x bbg7 (mojo peppers)
scotch bonnet 7 jonah (mojo peppers)
scotch bonnet TFM (jungle rain)
scorpion butch-t trinidad  (pepper lover)
scorpion yellow (refining fire)
 
Tomatoes:
 




1884 (tomatofest)
1884 Purple(tomatofest)
Abe Lincoln (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
African Queen (delectationof tomatoes,etc)
Amish Paste (whiteoakvalleyfarms)
Amish Potato Leaf (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Ananas Noire (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Anna Russian (reimers)
Aunt Gertie's Gold (Fiogga)
Aunt Ginny's Purple (tatiana's tomatoes)
Aunt Ruby's German Green (thesampleseedshop)
Aussie(tomatofest)
Australian Oxheart (victoryseeds)
Azoychka (tomatofest)
Barlow Jap (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Beauty King (Fiogga)
Berkeley Tie Dye Green (territorial seed co)
Berkeley Tie Dye Pink (Fiogga)
Better Boy F1 (park seeds)
Better Bush F1 (Early Determinate) (park seeds)
BHN-624 F1 Grape/Cherry (johnnyseeds) 
Big Beef F1 (park seeds)
Big Ben No.1 (tatiana'stomatoes)
Big Brandy F1 (park seeds)
Big B0unch F1 (park seeds)                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
Big Cheef (secret seed cartel)
Big Rainbow (tatiana'stomatoes)
BKX (bunnyhopseeds)
Black from Tula (reimers)
Black Krim (rare seeds)
Black Mountain Pink (amishlandseeds)
Black Sea Man (reimers)
Blue Ridge Black (tatiana'stomatoes)
Boondocks(tomatofest)
Boxcar Willie (totallytomatoes)
Brad's Black Heart (bunnyhopseeds)
Brandy Boy F1 (burpee)                         
Brandywine Pink (reimers)
Brandywine (Croatian) (Fiogga)
Brandywine (Cowlick)(Tatianastomatoes)
Brandywine Red (victory seeds)
Brandywine (Sudduth's) (seed saver's exchange)
Brandywine Yellow (reimers)
Brandywine Yellow (platfoot)(tatiana'stomatoes)
Buck's County Hybrid (burpee)
Bulgarian Old Sort  (HeritageSeeds)
Butler Skinner (amishlandseeds)
Captain Lucky (Fiogga)
Carbon (tomatogrowersupply)
Casady's Folly (Fiogga)
Casey's Pure Yellow (Fiogga)
Caspian Pink (victory seeds)
Chapman (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Cherry Roma (totallytomatoes)
Cherokee Chocolate (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Cherokee Green (thesampleseedshop)
Cherokee Purple (reimers)
Chocolate Stripes (Fiogga)
Church(tomatofest)
Claude Brown’s Yellow Giant (Bill Best)
Copper River (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Cosmic Eclipse (rareseeds) 
Cosmonaut Volkov (rare seeds)
Costoluto Genovese (thesampleseedshop)
Couilles de Taureau (tomatofest)
Crnkovic Yugoslavian (seed saver's exchange)
Cuor Di Bue(delectationof tomatoes,etc)
Cuore de Boeuf de Nice (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Cuore De Toro  (delectationof tomatoes,etc)
Cuostralee(tomatofest)
Dancing with Smurfs(Fiogga)
Daniel Burson (bunnyhop seeds)
Danko (Fiogga)
Dester (rareseeds)
Domingo (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Dr Lyle (delectationof tomatoes,etc)
Dr. Wyche's Yellow (tomatofest)
Druzba (tatiana'stomatoes)
Dwarf Purple Heart (tatiana'stomatoes)
Earl's Faux (tomatogrowersupply)
FFA Pineapple Mix (amishland seeds)
Fishlake Oxheart (Fiogga)
Five Star Grape F1 (johnnyseeeds)
Fred Limbaugh's Potato Top (tomatofest)
German Head (delectationoftomatoes,etc) 
German Hege (amishlandseeds)
German Johnson (white oak valley farms)
German Pink (rareseeds)
German Queen(tomatofest)
Giallo De Summer (totally tomatoes)
Giant Belgium (tatiana'stomatoes)
Giant Oxheart (reimers)
Gildo Pietroboni (Fiogga)
Gold Medal (greatfulseedsaver)
Grandfather Ashlock(tomatofest)
Grandma's Pick (territorial seed co)
Green Zebra (seedsaversexchange)
Hillbilly (territorial seed co)
Hoy (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Humph (thesampleseedshop)
Hungarian Heart (reimers) 
Indian Stripe (tomatogrowersupply)
Indigo Blue Beauty (territorial seed co)
Japanese Black Triefel (delectationof tomatoes,etc)
Jasper F1 Cherry  (park seeds) 
JD’s Special C-Tex (thesampleseedshop)
Jersey Devil (rare seeds)
Jurmala (Bunnyhop seeds)
KBX (Fiogga)
Kentucky Beefsteak (reimers)
Kosovo (tatiana'stomatoes)
Little Julia (tatiana'stomatoes)
Liz Birt (secret seed cartel)
Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (delectationof tomatoes,etc)
Marianna's Peace (tomatofest)
Marnero F1 (johnny's seeds)
Marvel Striped (Fiogga)
Matt's Wild Cherry (delectationof tomatoes,etc)
Michael's Portuguese Monster  (Bigzarro Strain) (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Milka's Red Bulgarian (casey'sheirloomtomatoes)
Mont de Maratz (tatiana'stomatoes)
Moon Glow (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Mortgage Lifter  (Estler's) (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Mortgage Lifter (Radiator Charley's) (territorial seed co)
Mountain Glory F1 (Early Determinate) (reimers)
Moya Juane (secret seed cartel)
Mule Team  (white oak valley farms)
Mystery Purple 2015
Mystery Yellow 2015
Neves Azorian Red (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Noire Charbonneuse (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Old Brooks (reimers)
Old German(tomatofest)
Omar's Lebanese (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Opalka (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Ozark Pink(tomatofest)
Park's Whopper CR Immproved (park seeds)
Paul Robeson (reimers) 103 
Pierce's Pride (HeritageSeeds)
Pineapple (reimers)
Pink Girl (reimers)
Polish Linguisa (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Pork Chop (rareseeds)
Prudens Purple (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Prue (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Purple Bumble Bee (Fiogga)
Purple Calabash (thesampleseedshop)
Purple Dog Creek (amishlandseeds)
Purple Russian (heritageseeds)
Rebel Yell (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Red Barn (secret seed cartel)
Rutgers CS Space Select (territorial seed co)
San Marzano (reimers)
Shapka Monomakha  (HeritageSeeds)
Silver Fir Tree (seed saver's exchange)
Solar Flare (Fiogga)
Soldacki (seed saver's exchange)
Spudakee (delectationoftomatoes,etc)
Stump of the World (tatiana'stomatoes)
Sun Gold F1 (tatiana'stomatoes)
Sun Sugar Cherry F1 (totallytomatoes)
Super Choice (tomatofest)
Super Sioux (reimers)
Tarasenko 6 (tatiana'stomatoes)
Terhune (marriana'sheirloomseeds)
Tough Boy (totallytomatoes)
Tuxhorn's Red and Yellow (tatiana'stomatoes)
Van Wert Ohio (Bunnyhop seeds)
Velvet Red (seed saver's exchange)
Vera's Seed (Fiogga)
Vinson Watts (Tatianastomatoes)
Violet Noir (secret seed cartel)
Vorlon (rareseeds)
Wes (tatiana'stomatoes)
Willard Wynn (Bill Best)
Yellow Ruffled (marriana'sseeds)
Yoder's Yellow German (tomatofest)
Zarnitza (tomatofest)
 






 
Other:


Basil- Genovese, Cinnamon, Lime, Thai  
Marigolds
Catnip
Borage
White Sage
Night and Day Nasturtium
Potomac Red Snapdragon 
Misty Lilac Wave Petunia
Morning Glory-Yama Pink, Keiryu Mountain Stream, Heavenly Blue
Flower Mix-  Bee Feed, Beneficial Bug, Deer Resistant, Butterfly and Hummingbird Mix, Mow No More, Xeriscape, Fragrant
Watermelons- Tom Watson, Ledmon, Orange Flesh Tendersweet, Ali baba
Melons-Boele d'Or, Chatentais
Cucumber- Boston Pickling, National Pickling, Marketmore 76
Corn- Dorinny, NK 199,  Miracle, Mirai 148y, SS3778R
Maxibel Bush Beans 
Turk's Turban Gourd 
Cargo PMR Pumpkin 
Multipik Yellow Squash 
Tigress Zucchini
 
Ouch, sorry to hear about your not so great season. Hope the upcoming 2016 season goes much better for you. I can only imagine how much work went into all those plants. Makes my body ache
 
I also went big this year for the first time. The past 18 years or so I've gone from 3 plants to around 35. I've been doing 35 for maybe 8 years. Well after joining THP and having awesome people share seeds as well as joining seed trains I had so many varieties I'd never heard of. I think I tried to grow them all lol. 460 plants and I don't know how many varieties. I had mistakes this year and definitely need to change some things myself. Next year only around 40 varieties tops. 99% supers. With so many varieties I had many where I only got a small harvest from each. And labeling all those pods so I knew what was what, man that was brutal!
 
I see in your "mild" pepper section you are planning on growing Bob's Pickling and Princess Faten from PepperLovers.  I just recently placed an order from them and got these two as bonus seeds.  Just wondering if you have grown them before.  I haven't been able to find any pictures or info on them.
 
Thanks,
 
bpiela said:
I see in your "mild" pepper section you are planning on growing Bob's Pickling and Princess Faten from PepperLovers.  I just recently placed an order from them and got these two as bonus seeds.  Just wondering if you have grown them before.  I haven't been able to find any pictures or info on them.
 
Thanks,

 
I too received those as freebies with a pepper lover order!!! ...along with orange starfish and cumra cherry from another order. I am also curious to know what bob's pickling and princess faten are like... I have been unable to find any info or pictures either.
 
Best of luck next year. Nothing to be ashamed of this past season. If you don't push yourself you'll never know what's possible. Now if you make the same mistakes again, that's a different problem . That little voice got me early too. While I luckily avoided the frost, my plants seemed to be stunted. When you see everyone else planting out you want to join in.
 
I am going avoid planting out too early next season, and this time I am going to plant directly into the ground, but I have already reneged on my promise to not go large... currently my list sits at 78 varieties of tomato and 44 varieties of peppers... I will be planting several seeds of each.... and growing most of them out myself.  
 
Noah Yates said:
I am going avoid planting out too early next season, and this time I am going to plant directly into the ground, but I have already reneged on my promise to not go large... currently my list sits at 78 varieties of tomato and 44 varieties of peppers... I will be planting several seeds of each.... and growing most of them out myself.  
i was reading the top part... then i saw your list where i had to scroll down.. lol
heaven forbid you join the seed train and get more =]
 
i'm glad you will learn from your mistakes, that's all we can ask. It does seem like in april all our intelligence leaves us as we just want peppers asap, i was guilty of doing some way too early as well.
 
did you get any mustard habs? what did they look like?
you ever considered doing drip tape + fertilizer injector? then you wouldn't have to spend hardly any time watering
 
Hahaha... yeah the list of varieties is waaaaaay out of hand, especially for tomatoes.  And speaking of tomatoes... it is because I will be trying to grow these large numbers of tomatoes (which should not be watered with a sprinkler) that I have, in fact, resolved to acquire about 1,000 feet of dripline and the necessary accessories.  Peppers are much more resistant to bacterial and fungal pathogens on their leaves than tomatoes... so will continue to irrigate them with a sprinkler until I can afford additional drip line.  
 
Actually the mustard habs were one of the varieties that were able to produce a decent number of ripe pods.  These were from seeds i had saved, and they were slightly different from pervious years.  These ripened to a more pronounced yellow/orange colour than I had experienced... usually they were a yellow/green mixture...  Its one of my very favorite peppers... I have one over-wintering, and I will be growing out some fresh seed stock from my original source (pepper joe).
 
2015:
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2014:
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2013:
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My over-winters are thriving!!  I've even been picking peppers in December!!!!
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I am also really excited about the possibility of growing out some family heirloom peppers.  These are some peppers my grandmother has had on her shelf for as long as I remember.  They are the peppers my great grandfather would grow, and these seeds are probably at least 30 years old.  I have lots of seeds to test, and it would be ****ing awesome if I could get a sprout.  The peppers themselves are visibly rancid... but they have an interesting coloration, and you can still detect a strong pepper aroma.
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My plan is to soak my chinenses on new year's eve and sow them on new year's day for the first wave.  The second wave, which includes all of the sweet and mild peppers, will be sown in mid February to early March.
 
 
Its just promix bx with a layer of diatomaceous earth on top followed by a final layer of expanded clay pellets as a mulch.  I included the DE and ECP to help control the aphids after I removed and replaced the top layer of soil, sprayed the plants down, and applied neem oil.... it seems to have worked really well.
 
I might give that a try on my existing OWs. I recently had an aphid/psyllid/spider mite outbreak and are getting them under control. Wouldn't hurt to do the DE + mulch combo moving forward...
 
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