Operation Golden Garden 2014: Let's Get Started!

**Instead of starting an entirely new GLOG, I decided to tack 2014 on to the end of this one. So if you have already went through 2013's grow, just jump ahead to page 40.**
 
Before you go on, I would recommend you grab a beer or something else stiff to drink.  If you didnt follow my grow last time around, I have the tendency to go on, and on, and on, and on.  Also, I may not be the most "PC" out of the group, so if you are looking for clean language, on topic discussion, and general 'niceness', I am sure that I can point you in the right direction.
 
Ok, now that we got that out of the way....I AM STARTING A FREAKIN GROW LOG!  A quick bit of back story. Since I spent more time in high school partying than studying, I didn't have much of a choice following graduation. I decided to enlist in the Marines (there really isnt another choice) and now here I am 8 years and 5 deployments later.  This last go around I left the first few days of September and just got back yesterday (9 months for all the other 'non studying' folk).  As most of you know, if you want some bangin pepper plants, you need to start early, and May 25th aint early.  So right before I left I cut everything back and prayed to the pepper gods that my plants would make it through winter so I could have something to come home to.  Up until yesterday I thought that they were just taking time to put on some green, but when I walked through the fence to see my dogs, a ritual that I typically do after every deployment, I realized that the plants were not there and instead was four trays of new plants just waiting for planting.
 
Note:  IPhones are not the world's leading video recording devices.  And as a result, I may not be easily heard.  Dont worry, I didn't have much to say initially anyways, I was just a bit more surprised than anything.
 

 
For someone who seems to always talk a bit too much, I didnt have much to say initially.  I was freaking out inside and didnt know if my wife got them or what.  When she told me that the guys from THP did it, i was blown away.  You gotta understand, over the past 9 months Bill (RocketMan) organized a "Operation Hot Sauce" care package rotation for me and my guys.  A bunch of members here chipped in and sent packages of sauces, powders, peppers, and other treats to help make this deployment a bit more enjoyable.  To hear that they ALSO chipped in and GAVE ME A GROWING SEASON pretty much put me over the edge.  I know that I already messaged you guys but I wanna thank RocketMan, Coheed196, Romy6, KingDenniz, Silver_Surfer, STC3248, DesertChris, Sanarda, MuskyMojo, Pulpeteer, WalkGood, DocNRock. Stickman, Annie57, Pic 1, Pr0digal_Son, Jamison, Spicy Chicken, HighHalt, Fremp, SethSquach, 3/5 King, Patrick, Bigoldude again for helping make this happen for me.  And although giving me a garden was WAY MORE THAN ENOUGH, they also gave me a little sumpin sumpin that will help out picking up the last minute things that I need to make sure I have everything I need for the season!
 
So this morning, I got up early because I am still on Afghanistan time, cooked breakfast, and then after the family ate we went out to the garden to plant everything. 
 

 
 
The Peppers:
7 Pot
7 Pot Douglah
7 Pot Yellow
Aji Colorado
Bhut Jolokia
Bhut Jolokia Assam
Bhut Jolokia Yellow
Bonda ma Jaques
Cobra
Congo Trinidad
Fatalii
Jamaican Hot Chocolate
Lemon Drop
Marconi Giant Hybrid
TSMB 
TSMB Yellow
Naga Morich
Safi Red
Trinidad Scorpion
West Indian Red
 
Maters:
Black Krim
Black Pear
 
Oh, and did I tell you that THERE ARE 3 EACH?!?
 
Gettin to work tilling the rows a bit


 
The wife givin me a hand

 
The kiddo givin me a hand

 
Rows Complete

 
And Peppers in the ground!

 
Some goodies from Bill, Jeff and Bonnie (Bill also has goodies in the fridge )

 
Parting Shot

 

 

[stc3248]

 so hopefully ill get it up in the morning.  

PT SD ED?
 
The plants are looking happy and healthy Matt! Did my review...uploading now. Wowzers...it was a creeper and hit my gut a couple hours later. I am rethinking my vid review strategy for the Reaper and Moruga...my strategy is now to send them to you and let you do it!

 

[RocketMan]

Nice growth on the plant Matt. Golden Garden is looking awesome!

Now after seeing your review of the Madballz, I'm thinking that I need to get some seeds and get a whole S Liad of those pods for a new formulation of Rocket Fuel or maybe it should be called After Burner, LOL

Happy Fathers Day Brother!

 

[MGOLD86]

Nice Matt... It looks like some of the tomatoes in the back row are growing pretty quickly too! Do you have room to plant cilantro? Then you'd only need sweet onions and/or garlic to make your own salsa!

I do have room for some cilantro.....might have to pick up some. Great idea!!
 

PT SD ED?
 
The plants are looking happy and healthy Matt! Did my review...uploading now. Wowzers...it was a creeper and hit my gut a couple hours later. I am rethinking my vid review strategy for the Reaper and Moruga...my strategy is now to send them to you and let you do it!

lol!  Thanks man.  Heading over there now to check it out! And I always said, if you grow it you should try it....so you aren't getting out of it that easily!
 

Nice growth on the plant Matt. Golden Garden is looking awesome!

Now after seeing your review of the Madballz, I'm thinking that I need to get some seeds and get a whole S Liad of those pods for a new formulation of Rocket Fuel or maybe it should be called After Burner, LOL

Happy Fathers Day Brother!

That would be great stuff!  I have a few drying, when they are good ill shoot a few your way.
 
Here is the video from yesterday.  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
http://youtu.be/hNilpitT3UU

 

[stc3248]

Great update and vid brother Matt! If you're having trouble with water retention on you little guys you can add a little peat to the mix to help it retain moisture a bit better. They also sell those moisture control pellets...but peat is better. It will also help the soil wick up moisture better. Your ingrounds are already battling...coming on strong!!! Looks like its gonna be a HOT summer over there!

 

[DocNrock]

Matt, your grow is taking incredible shape already!  Pods on the Naga Morich, cool baccatum flowers on the Aji Colorado, green and tall Trinidad, Bhut, Assam...it's going on, and now!  Awesome!  And those "practice" starts look pretty nice, as well!

 

[Devv]

First come the flowers, then the pods, then the pain..
 
All's lookin' good from my house!
 
Edit: Happy Fathers Day!

 

[MGOLD86]

Great update and vid brother Matt! If you're having trouble with water retention on you little guys you can add a little peat to the mix to help it retain moisture a bit better. They also sell those moisture control pellets...but peat is better. It will also help the soil wick up moisture better. Your ingrounds are already battling...coming on strong!!! Looks like its gonna be a HOT summer over there!

Yea, I decided to just pot up the seedlings into the Dr Earth because it retains water much better and it will be a better segway into the organic mix later on.  I am planning on mixing my own soil for the containers when they make it to that stage and peat is definitely on the menu.  Thanks again, wouldn't have been here without your help brother.
 

Matt, your grow is taking incredible shape already!  Pods on the Naga Morich, cool baccatum flowers on the Aji Colorado, green and tall Trinidad, Bhut, Assam...it's going on, and now!  Awesome!  And those "practice" starts look pretty nice, as well!

Yea man, I am freakin out.  First pod of the garden will be a great review!  I kinda surprised myself with the starts, they seem to mostly be doing pretty well.  Pictures below.
 

First come the flowers, then the pods, then the pain..
 
All's lookin' good from my house!
 
Edit: Happy Fathers Day!

Hellz yea, gonna be on the Pain Train pretty soon!
 
So I logged on about 2 hours ago to post a few pics but got MAJORLY side tracked.  You guys need to go check out Greg and Silver Surfer's updates, friggen amazing!
 
But back to here.  I pulled seeds and tried some of the other Jamie Box-o-Hell pods last night.  I didnt have time for a full blown review video, but I can tell you that Jamie has a real winner with that Douglah.  I tried a piece of it (I was tasting a bunch of pods as I seeded them) and it lit me up properly!  It had a good flavor and what I really liked about it was that it was crisp and fresh.  It snapped a bit when I bit into it, and pretty quickly after that I was sucking in air and wondering why the hell I did that! Check this badboy out!


 
Also, his brain wasn't one to play with.  Pretty nasty as well!

 
For the past 2 days I have been installing my driplines.  I mentioned to Bill already about my thoughts on the dripline systems.  I have a bit of a "required in case" feeling for it.  I had it last season and used it under 5 times.  I think that if you have good water retention in your soil (and you get regular-ish rain) you should be good and won't need it but just a few times.  Now, the containers would definitely benefit from a dripline, but other than being a total pain the ass to water close to 100 in ground plants a few times over the season, you could go without it.  But, the benefit of being able to feed your plants off it, run parallel systems to containers, and using it maybe 3 or 4 times over the season when you go over a week or 2 without a good rain, it is worth it.  So, needless to say I installed the system over the past 2 days.  Last time I just put it on the surface.  This time I decided to go under ground about 6 or so inches.   This way I can water at the roots and not worry about it being kicked around on the top of the soil.  It was a pain in the ass. Keeping lines straight, making sure I didn't mess up the roots, and keeping everything level.  Note to self, next time do this BEFORE the plants are in the ground...


 
So here is an update on the starts. 
Billy Boy Douglah (1)
Brain Strain (2)
7 Pot Chiguanga (2)
7 Pot Savannah Hybrid Long (3)
TSMB Satan's Strain (2)
ButchT Mississippi Strain (3)
Billy Boy Jonah (3)
Infinity (3)
Billy Boy Douglah Red (3)
Douglah X Trinidad Scorpion S1 (3)
7 Pot Brown (2)
Billy Boy Douglah Yellow (1)
Trinidad Viper X Purple Bhut (1)
Reaper (4)
7 Pot Bubblegum (1)
Brain Strain "Tail" (2)
 
I decided to go with the "Southern Cutlery Tags".  I got tired of making little friggen stickers and putting them on the pots, then not being able to see them when I went to see what everything was.  These tags work much better, cant believe I didnt do this before!  Also, like I mentioned to Shane, I am getting dried out every morning in the little cups, so everything that is stable is moved into bigger pots.  This is where they will stay for a while.  They should be able to build up a good root ball and then ill move them to 1 gal grow bags.  I potted everything into Dr. Earths instead of ProMix because it is organic and holds water better for what I need right now.  It is like 90 degrees by 10 am, so I need something that will hold the water and get the seedlings through it.  I have a few babies that are doing great (The Savannahs) and a bunch that I saved before total annihilation. 



 
Last bit on the seedlings....I pretty much had 2 or 3 varieties that made me decide to start some seedlings.  The BBG 7 pot was on the top of that list.  I finally got one to pop!  When I told the wife that my Bubblegum 7 Pot pepper popped, she was like "ill do a review with you on THAT one!".  So folks, you heard it.  If you can get me a BBG 7 Pot at some point this season (mine will more than likely not set fruit before winter), I will get the wife on video.  She is watching me type this and not thrilled that it is now written in stone.

 
Oh...and I took your advice Rick

 

[stc3248]

I have some BG7s almost ripe! She's in luck!!! Hahahahaha great update! I'll post a pick of your future pods when I get back to my room!
Lets try it from the phone???

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/yFsPO5Y.jpg" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />

Hope that works! BTW thanks for the certificate!

 

[3/5King]

Everything is looking wicked Matt! Your seedlings are doing well. Ugh oh! The wifey's going to get down on the BG7 huh...what made her want/agree to do that? I'm anxiously awaiting some pods myself!

 

[stickman]

Good Job Matt! Those Cilantro plants'll get you started, but be aware that they'll bolt after a few weeks. You'll know when that happens because the  flower stalks'll start to shoot up. The new leaves on the flower stalk will be more feathery, like carrot leaves and they'll lose their pungency. If you use coriander seeds to cook with, just let the plant go to flower and collect the seeds when they're ready, but to keep a steady supply of cilantro coming you'll need to get a packet of seeds and put another 10-12 seeds in the ground every other week.

 

[MGOLD86]

I have some BG7s almost ripe! She's in luck!!! Hahahahaha great update! I'll post a pick of your future pods when I get back to my room!Lets try it from the phone???
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/yFsPO5Y.jpg" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />
Hope that works! BTW thanks for the certificate!

Nice! Great lookin pods man!

Everything is looking wicked Matt! Your seedlings are doing well. Ugh oh! The wifey's going to get down on the BG7 huh...what made her want/agree to do that? I'm anxiously awaiting some pods myself!

The name BUBBLEGUM is like iossible to resist, lol. If there were a gummy bear 7 pot, Reese's pieces corps on, or skittles Bhut, she'd be all over those as well!

 

Good Job Matt! Those Cilantro plants'll get you started, but be aware that they'll bolt after a few weeks. You'll know when that happens because the  flower stalks'll start to shoot up. The new leaves on the flower stalk will be more feathery, like carrot leaves and they'll lose their pungency. If you use coriander seeds to cook with, just let the plant go to flower and collect the seeds when they're ready, but to keep a steady supply of cilantro coming you'll need to get a packet of seeds and put another 10-12 seeds in the ground every other week.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll pick up some seeds at the local store.

 

[romy6]

 Garden is coming along nicely brother man.  Can't wait to see the wifey and the BG7 review.

 

[WalkGood]

Great updates Matt, happy I threw in my two cents, hehehe

 

[laynlow]

Garden is looking good!

 

[Devv]

I caught that line about the wife and the BG7 review...make sure she reads all of this ..LOL
 
Garden's kickin' keep it up!

 

[PIC 1]

Matt,
Ya got a killa garden growing..with backup seedlings to boot !
No lack of heat with that listing....
Can't wait to see those plants kick some arse........and they will !

 

[stickman]

I'm growing some Alphanerdz-strain Douglahs I got from Trippa... still waiting for it to warm up enough for the flowers to stick so I can try one of those for myself. How do you like them?

 

[MGOLD86]

 Garden is coming along nicely brother man.  Can't wait to see the wifey and the BG7 review.

 
Thanks Jamie!  I can't wait for it as well.  Gonna be great.  I can already pictured her in my head, oh my god, this isn't hot, it is the F'n sun!!
 

Great updates Matt, happy I threw in my two cents, hehehe

Me too, man, ME TOO! 
 

Garden is looking good!

Thanks, I am super thankful to get to grow this summer, really got hooked up from the members here!
 

I caught that line about the wife and the BG7 review...make sure she reads all of this ..LOL
 
Garden's kickin' keep it up!

She read it, and I think that she thought to herself  "what did I sign up for..."
 

Matt,
Ya got a killa garden growing..with backup seedlings to boot !
No lack of heat with that listing....
Can't wait to see those plants kick some arse........and they will !

Thanks Greg! It is a blast seeing everything really start to take off.  It wont be long before I am draining the booze bottles for the harvest shots.  I mean, I am already drainin the booze bottles...but no harvest for them yet...
 
 

I'm growing some Alphanerdz-strain Douglahs I got from Trippa... still waiting for it to warm up enough for the flowers to stick so I can try one of those for myself. How do you like them?

 
I loved it, here is the video review.  Plus, it is always a bonus to have the original strain!  I didn't grow it, just got the pods from Silver_Surfer so you would have to ask him about production and plant habits, but the pods were definitely gnarly and a MUST grow. 
http://youtu.be/MouruvmMSFU

 

[stickman]

Thanks for putting some of the history of the strain in the review Matt... I didn't know any of that. It makes it that much more special!
 
You might want to keep some hard candies or a very ripe, chilled watermelon handy when your wife does her tasting. Sugar seems to damp out the fire quicker than anything I know of. Beer comes in third for me... it has sugar in it too, but not as much.

 

[RocketMan]

So I stopped by the mail box on my way he tonight and there was a package in there from Matt. Now Matt had told me that he was sending me something but it was not want I expected by a long shot. Brother as much as you were floored by the garden I was floored when I opens your package. Here's what was in there:

At the bottom of the Certificate it says, "This flag was flown on November 26, 2012 over Camp Lawton, Herat Provance, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom" Matt, I have no words worthy of this so I'll just say that this will have a place of Honor in the RocketMan room at the new house and Thank you.