• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

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 :cheers:)

 
Parting Shot

 
 
Glad to hear that you came through Andrea with minimal damage Matt. I think she was mostly a blow hard with a lot of weeping and just basically dumped a bunch of water on us. Things are finally starting to dry up some here and I think your jut a couple of days behind us so you should be doing good in a couple more days.
 
Have a great week Brother!
 
Jeff H said:
It is easy to grow peppers if you can travel in time... :D
 
 
Looking great so far Matt. Keep up the good work. 
Hell yea, you could always fix your mistakes!
 
Fremp said:
Nice update bromigo! Glad you're all safe after the storm!!
Me too, thanks for stoppin in!
 
RocketMan said:
Glad to hear that you came through Andrea with minimal damage Matt. I think she was mostly a blow hard with a lot of weeping and just basically dumped a bunch of water on us. Things are finally starting to dry up some here and I think your jut a couple of days behind us so you should be doing good in a couple more days.
 
Have a great week Brother!
Yea, could have been nasty.  It probably won't be the last storm of the season.  :(  We are still getting a bit of rain off and on, but it is like super sunny in between bouts of downpour. 
 
Glad to see the storm didn't hammer things to bad. I've had some leaves tear on some younger plants after the last storm, was totally not forecast.
 
Your soil looks really nice, those babies should kick after getting that rain!
 
Glad to see your doing Ok at the home front, Couple years back we had a tornado come close by and the hail shredded everything had about 30 green pepper sticks with little pieces of what was once leaves, glad that you just had some wind and rain from your storm.
I just got out of the hospital and will be on blended foods only for a few more weeks, boy i miss real food and a few cold beers to wash it down, so no BBQ this weekend Won't be able to have any hot peppers for awhile life sucks at times, but beats the alternative.   
I'm glad that you and Joe are on good terms again, always best to make nice and heal old wounds It will be good to hear your opinion of the Carlina Reaper.
Well you take care and have a great father's day.
 
Devv said:
Glad to see the storm didn't hammer things to bad. I've had some leaves tear on some younger plants after the last storm, was totally not forecast.
 
Your soil looks really nice, those babies should kick after getting that rain!
Yea, it actually got worse the night AFTER! LOL.  I was in bed sleeping and got woken up at like 230 from winds throwing my kid's outside toys around the yard.  It was ridiculous.  I really couldn't believe how hard that wind was blowing!  But, I went outside in the morning and the plants all made it.  Crazy....
 
wildseed57 said:
Glad to see your doing Ok at the home front, Couple years back we had a tornado come close by and the hail shredded everything had about 30 green pepper sticks with little pieces of what was once leaves, glad that you just had some wind and rain from your storm.
I just got out of the hospital and will be on blended foods only for a few more weeks, boy i miss real food and a few cold beers to wash it down, so no BBQ this weekend Won't be able to have any hot peppers for awhile life sucks at times, but beats the alternative.   
I'm glad that you and Joe are on good terms again, always best to make nice and heal old wounds It will be good to hear your opinion of the Carlina Reaper.
Well you take care and have a great father's day.
Yea, we had a tornado in the area a couple years back and it knocked out dozens of houses and stuff.  It was pretty terrible.  I haven't had the summer hail, so the plants typically get 'holy' from flying mulch and stuff.  Ill send good recovery vibes your way and youll be chompin some ribs and sippin brews in no time!  :)
 
 
So the plants are still trucking along despite the crazy weather.  It is nuts, it is like beautiful, 80 degrees, sunny, then POW!  Mother nature is like, NOPE, I want to thunderstorm....So hopefully that is out of the way.  I could use a few days of just sunny beautifulness.  I am gonna snap a few photos a bit later if the weather stays nice.  My babies are still popping and some are putting on their first set of true leaves.  I think almost all of them have popped except the BBG 7 and Billy Boy Douglah.  Ill take some photos and post an updated spread sheet later if I can get some time.   I am on leave for the next couple of weeks, but of course, the day I go on leave I have to go in for an hour and a half of training.  The Military as a whole has been highlighted in the news for their issues with sexual assault, so we are doing an all hands seminar.  This shit drives me absolutely crazy.  I mean, I am human, sexual assault is wrong.  What do you need to teach me about that?  We dont get a "dont murder" class....friggen military. 
 
Anyways, rant over.  I spent a bunch of time last night and this morning going through my seeds to see where I am at and have a way to better categorize and catalog everything.  A few members have mentioned starting their seed bank (Shane) and I think that is a great idea.  I have wanted to find a way to easily see what I have on hand, track where it came from, and keep tabs on what I am looking for in the future.  So I used a simple Excel Workbook.  I created a tab for each of the species I have (the wilds got grouped because I do not have much of those).  Here is a screenshot:

 
This will come in handy as I continue to acquire seeds and share.  I haven't decided if I am going to make it completely public, I will probably just send it to people as the trading season begins.  I mean...you always want a bit of mystery, right??? 
 
That is all for now.  I have to get ready to go learn something that I already know....
Parting shot....Proof it snows in Afghanistan
 
+1 on 148
MGOLD86 said:
Yea, it actually got worse the night AFTER! LOL.  I was in bed sleeping and got woken up at like 230 from winds throwing my kid's outside toys around the yard.  It was ridiculous.  I really couldn't believe how hard that wind was blowing!  But, I went outside in the morning and the plants all made it.  Crazy....
 
 
I hear ya about wind, I have a wind shield on the north and east sides of my garden. It helped this year with crazy winds, northers in May in Tejas? That's like 2 months late!
 
WalkGood said:
Snow and bad guys, doesn't look like fun ... tanks for all you do!!!
 
Thanks a ton.  I know, really, snow on top of it?!?
 
 
Devv said:
+1 on 148
 
I hear ya about wind, I have a wind shield on the north and east sides of my garden. It helped this year with crazy winds, northers in May in Tejas? That's like 2 months late!
Yea, it is just crazy!
 
So...I got an AWESOME package from Romy6 (Jamie) today. 

 
I busted into the 7 Pot Primo first because I have been waiting a while to try it.  It was a great pepper with a delicate flavor and scent.  Citrusy, with a great moderate heat (probably in the low 700s to mid 8s.  More of a mouth burn, not any real throat slashing.  It would go great with some fish, specifically fish tacos. 




 
http://youtu.be/gsOlJvWbCpE
 
Nice review!
 
You have more guts than me, I ate them with food and made hot sauce. Saved the seeds and smoked/dried the rest.
 
What I enjoyed most was the taste. So much unlike store bought where you get heat but almost no flavor.
 
That Jamie is amazing :onfire:
 
You took that one pretty well champ! I just hope this doesn't turn into a pissing match... ;)  Nice job with the review. I'm gonna have to try to secure one of those to try too. Cheers!
 
Sanarda said:
Great review Matt. Looking forward to many more.
 
Thanks Pia, I'm just getting back into the swing of things!

 
Devv said:
Nice review!
 
You have more guts than me, I ate them with food and made hot sauce. Saved the seeds and smoked/dried the rest.
 
What I enjoyed most was the taste. So much unlike store bought where you get heat but almost no flavor.
 
That Jamie is amazing :onfire:
  

Yea, he definitley knows how to grow some chilis and pack a box! I much prefer the home grown stuff over the grocery store. Even the milder stuff is better.

stickman said:
You took that one pretty well champ! I just hope this doesn't turn into a pissing match... ;)  Nice job with the review. I'm gonna have to try to secure one of those to try too. Cheers!
 

Thanks, and I'm not really interested in any competition so it makes things easier. I'll leave that to the pros!

 
romy6 said:
Great review as always brother man. Pictures are amazing. I really need to get a better camera.  :party:
Can't wait to see more reviews my man  :dance:
Thanks Jamie! Yea, I'm happy to be able to shoot some photos again. I always liked taking pepper pictures the best, and now it is a split between that and my kiddo!
 
 Already planned on it Billster. Just waiting for one to ripen  :party:
 
 I must share the package my brother Matt just sent me. It almost ( it did ) put a tear in my eye. The picture says it all  :P
 
photo_zps5793c3be.jpg

 
 Thank you guys for your service. I am very humbled 
 
Back
Top