PaulG 2013

PaulG · Dec 3, 2013

romy6 said:
Paul I love your grow. The plants pods and especially pics are always top notch!!!
Those chocolate habs look black. I love it. Is that the lighting or just the natural color of the pod?

Still loving your powders. Won't last long a mi casa !!!! ¡Eeeeeexcelente, amigo. Aprobéche!

You are kind, as always, Jamie. Thanks, brother!

The Choco Hab clone pods had a wonderful dark chocolate color, and these
pods, especially. Very difficult to capture the color; it's already so dark, but
you are right.

Devv said:
Good on ya for trying the fruits, I'm sure you'll like the results!
I think the hard part will be getting them dry enough to grind.
Those forecast temps...uh they suck..hope you don't lose any plants.
As long as my little space heater holds up, the peppers should be fine.
The lows will be around 50, and when it's this cold and sunny, the high
can be mid 70's. The best would be some snow - it's a great insulator
on the greenhouse! The outdoor shrubs and stuff will def take a shot with
this extended cold spell.
We're getting the cold for Sat. high of 36°, so not Tejas Dec. weather!

Stay warm and enjoy!

Sounds like you need some heat down there, buddy :rofl:

I'm digging the clear, cold weather, though. The only way it could
be better is to be on skis in the backcountry!

I'm hoping the power, etc. continues to function. No problems the
last time this happened, so knock on wood. At least it's dry, so no
big snow or freezing rain to contend with :woohoo:

Tested the fruit chips. Yummy, but still not quite ready for the grind.

Glad you are enjoying the powders! Hope you have a nice downhill
slide to a great weekend, Scott!

WalkGood · Dec 3, 2013

Paul everything looks great, pics, dried pods, plants, etc. Not sure if I missed reading it but a good pretreatment of the light-colored fruits by dipping in an ascorbic acid or sulfite solution will keep their color VS no treatment. As you stated thin is the best to get them as hard as possible, even then they seem to absorb moisture out of the air easier than pepper powder so I sometimes put large grain rice in the shaker I use. Good luck with your fruits and let me know how you like.

Hab a great week!

PaulG · Dec 3, 2013

WalkGood said:
Paul everything looks great, pics, dried pods, plants, etc. Not sure if I missed reading it but a good pretreatment of the light-colored fruits by dipping in an ascorbic acid or sulfite solution will keep their color VS no treatment. As you stated thin is the best to get them as hard as possible, even then they seem to absorb moisture out of the air easier than pepper powder so I sometimes put large grain rice in the shaker I use. Good luck with your fruits and let me know how you like.

Hab a great week!

Thanks for the tips, my friend. I'll send a sample or two when I get
some ground up! Can I just use good old powdered pure vitamin C?
It's ascorbic acid. What strength is required?

Hope you are having a good week, brother.

WalkGood · Dec 3, 2013

PaulG said:
Thanks for the tips, my friend. I'll send a sample or two when I get
some ground up! Can I just use good old powdered pure vitamin C?
It's ascorbic acid. What strength is required?

Hope you are having a good week, brother.

I used 1 ½ tablespoons (34 grams) of powdered ascorbic acid per quart of water and noticed that the last two fruits dipped into the same water darkened more than the first swimmers. Upon later testing I changed the water after 2 good soakings and didn't have that issue again but your mileage may vary (YMMV). From what I’ve read vitamin C is the same but does come in different strengths so I found it easier to just buy ascorbic acid powder as I wanted to maintain color integrity as much as possible. I'm still playing around with different techniques and I'm sure you'll do the same, plus you'll like some powdered mixes much better than others so if you're like me you'll hone in on them and try to improve them as much as possible. I still have some dehydrated fruits I haven't gotten back to as I've been way too busy with work and family. Great success to you brethren!

Sawyer · Dec 3, 2013

Wow, Paul, those Wild Texas Tepins are gorgeous plants. And the dried pods have really retained their color. I guess you used a long, slow process to dry them, huh?

PaulG · Dec 4, 2013

WalkGood said:
I used 1 ½ tablespoons (34 grams) of powdered ascorbic acid per quart of water and noticed that the last two fruits dipped into the same water darkened more than the first swimmers. Upon later testing I changed the water after 2 good soakings and didn't have that issue again but your mileage may vary (YMMV). From what I’ve read vitamin C is the same but does come in different strengths so I found it easier to just buy ascorbic acid powder as I wanted to maintain color integrity as much as possible. I'm still playing around with different techniques and I'm sure you'll do the same, plus you'll like some powdered mixes much better than others so if you're like me you'll hone in on them and try to improve them as much as possible. I still have some dehydrated fruits I haven't gotten back to as I've been way too busy with work and family. Great success to you brethren!

Thanks for that, Ramon. That's the same stuff we have - pure ascorbic
acid - so I'll give it a try! You are the man :clap:

This is my first whack at this, so don't have many techiques to try!
I know I need to just try some stuff out with small batches. The fruit
is still drying, but now that the humidity is dropping, maybe it will finish.

Regards, buddy, hope your week is going well.

PaulG · Dec 5, 2013

Sawyer said:
Wow, Paul, those Wild Texas Tepins are gorgeous plants. And the dried pods have really retained their color. I guess you used a long, slow process to dry them, huh?

The Tepins are going to go through their whole growth cysce on the shelf.
The first plant to set pods now has a couple turning red! Maybe I'll get a
Tepin harvest before the summer is gets here

The NagaBrains did hold color nicely. I dried them the same way I do all my
others, at 130-135˚F! These took about 20-24 hours.

Have good weekend, John!

PaulG · Dec 5, 2013

Just a couple of quick pix,

The Wild Texas Tepins are beginning to ripen pods, indeed.
They started at sprouts with cotys on Aug. 19, so would be
about 3 1/2 months at this point:

The fruit I dried for powders.
Ramon is right, I need to treat with ascorbic
acid first. It is definitely crispy enough to grind:

PeriPeri · Dec 6, 2013

Nice Tepins my friend and great concept with the dried fruit... may have to play around with those. Ascorpic acid is to stop fruit from going brown? What fruit have you got there Paul?

Penny · Dec 6, 2013

Nice looking plants Paul, and if I had to guess on the fruit, it looks like apples and pears??

PIC 1 · Dec 6, 2013

Paul I really like the " umbrella " look with the Tepin plants. Those can certainly grow under the flouros through the winter with a little hedge trimming.

Texas Tepin Salsa for Super Bowl ?

It's been fun and informative following this glog through the season.....looking forward to seeing whatcha got go'in next year.

Have a safe and enjoyable Holiday season !

PaulG · Dec 6, 2013

PeriPeri said:
Nice Tepins my friend and great concept with the dried fruit... may have to play around with those. Ascorpic acid is to stop fruit from going brown? What fruit have you got there Paul?

Hey, Lourens! You'll have to blame Ramon- he is the man for the fruit powders!
Yeah, the ascorbic acid acts like lemon juice. We get the ascorbic acid powder
from Bronson Chemical. It's basically just pure vitamin C.

We're below freezing temperatures day and night for the next several days. Tonight's
low forecast for around 17˚F (about -9˚C), so I'm looking at your Spring and Summer
weather with an envious eye! Take care, brother!

Penny said:
Nice looking plants Paul, and if I had to guess on the fruit, it looks like apples and pears??

Thanks, Penny. The fruit is ugly but you were still able to identify!
There are two kinds of pears, an apple, and some pineapple, papaya and kiwi
pieces. Next time I dip in ascorbic acid!

PIC 1 said:
Paul I really like the " umbrella " look with the Tepin plants. Those can certainly grow under the flouros through the winter with a little hedge trimming.

Texas Tepin Salsa for Super Bowl ?

It's been fun and informative following this glog through the season.....looking forward to seeing whatcha got go'in next year.

Have a safe and enjoyable Holiday season !

Hey, Greg! I think the shape is a reaction to the intensity of the HO T5s; The main branches
grew more laterally than upright, and their side branches then started growing more upward and
their tips kind of hanging down, especially with the weight of the pods. I haven't done any pruning
on these except to remove weak lower branches, but I can see how it could be shaped as you suggest.
There may be enough ripe Tepins for some SBSalsa, indeed. Wouldn't that be great!

Take care yourself, my friend; and a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and family.

Devv · Dec 6, 2013

Paul my fruit dried dark too without the additive, it will still taste good.

Stay warm!

PaulG · Dec 6, 2013

Devv said:
Paul my fruit dried dark too without the additive, it will still taste good.

Stay warm!

Haha

I ate some of it and it tasted great. I couldn't resist!

Putting up some Christmas lights the past day or two has made
for some cold fingers :rofl:

but staying warm otherwise!
Staying warm is going to be an issue for the animals and some
of the plants for the next few days. NWS says 14, 9,12, 20˚F lows
for next four nights. The highs are 22, 26, 26, 30˚F! This will really
test my little greenhouse heater. So far it has been a trusty little
unit. If worse comes to worse, I'll bring my one-gallon plants inside.
If this forecast holds, this will be the coldest temps in quite a long time.
I imagine some records will fall.

Devv · Dec 6, 2013

I hear ya about records breaking!

I was raised in NY and grew up with the cold, but after 34 years in the Tejas heat, this weather is COLD for us. 26° in the AM tomorrow 35° for the high. Got the fireplace stoked! And plan on staying inside except for a frigid morning hunt...

Stay warm my friend!

PaulG · Dec 7, 2013

Devv said:
I hear ya about records breaking!

I was raised in NY and grew up with the cold, but after 34 years in the Tejas heat, this weather is COLD for us. 26° in the AM tomorrow 35° for the high. Got the fireplace stoked! And plan on staying inside except for a frigid morning hunt...

Stay warm my friend!

Hey, buddy, 26˚F is cold no matter where you live! Do you have
humidity and cold or dry and cold down there? Hope your morning
hunt was a success - deer? fowl?

19˚F lst night, 10˚F forecast for tonight. Brrrrrrrrrr [shivering smiley]

Hope that fireplace is doin' the trick for ya, Scott! :fire:

Devv · Dec 7, 2013

Well if there was no cold front it would be 75-80° here, like it was earlier in the week. The fronts come with nasty wind, which of course lower the wind chill. The house is on a ridge, the north side, so we get way more wind than in town. The kind of wind that blows the leaves off of trees..LOL.

Our cold can be either wet or dry, last year dry, this year so far wet or humid.

I have two deer feeders in the north pasture, they draw deer from two different ranches, and I can see both from the kitchen window. The wind was howling pretty good so I window hunted...LOL. Didn't expect to see anything unless it was still as they really don't move well here when it's nasty out.

10° is cold!, that's coming our way to reinforce this front Sunday evening, Monday.

Oh the fireplace is a blessing, it keeps the north side of the house warm. The bedrooms are on the south.

How's the green house temps doing with this extra cold weather?

Stay warm brother!

PaulG · Dec 7, 2013

Devv said:
Well if there was no cold front it would be 75-80° here, like it was earlier in the week. The fronts come with nasty wind, which of course lower the wind chill. The house is on a ridge, the north side, so we get way more wind than in town. The kind of wind that blows the leaves off of trees..LOL.

Our cold can be either wet or dry, last year dry, this year so far wet or humid.

I have two deer feeders in the north pasture, they draw deer from two different ranches, and I can see both from the kitchen window. The wind was howling pretty good so I window hunted...LOL. Didn't expect to see anything unless it was still as they really don't move well here when it's nasty out.
That sounds like luxury hunting, my friend! Can't say as I blame you
10° is cold!, that's coming our way to reinforce this front Sunday evening, Monday.
Nat Weather Service now says 6˚. WeatherUnderGround says 17. We've had 16, 24, and 19 the last three
nights. Fortunately the strong winds have subsided, and so there won't be a big wind chill factor the next day or two.
Oh the fireplace is a blessing, it keeps the north side of the house warm. The bedrooms are on the south.
From which direction does the wind predominately blow at your place. Mostly South here, with cold
weather brought by north winds.
How's the green house temps doing with this extra cold weather?
The coldest nights saw 45 and 47 with daytime highs in the 60's, Right now, a cold sunny day,
the greenhouse temp. is 65˚, and it could get a bit warmer. The temp spikes in the afternoon when
the greenhouse comes into the winter sun. On a cloudy cool day, the temp stays pretty constant,
maybe a 10 degree swing night to day.
Stay warm brother!

Thanks, Scott; sounds like you are doing your best yourself!

Devv · Dec 7, 2013

Our winds are usually from the south-southeast. ~~Nasty~~ Violent weather comes from the southwest, you know, hail etc.

Same here, northern fronts change the weather to cold, they usually come either straight down or from your area, winds from northeast are the norm. Last January was mild, just one front, I had the plants outside for 3 weeks straight. It was 50's to 75°....I'm ready for some of that!

WalkGood · Dec 7, 2013

Paul your TT’s look very cool in in their color change period, their pod shape/look and upward growth presence looks similar to my ornamental Thai Hot pods.

Your dehydrated fruit looks like they came out great, bet you couldn’t wait to dig into them \o/

Have you tried powdering and mixing yet? How do you like your mix?

I stayed away from salt with my fruit mixes but I still use a shaker for distribution and it works fine. On my end I’m still finishing off some of my MoA Peach and Tally Mon Powder batches. Better half’s not been helping as her stomachs been off but #1 has filled in when she dropped out, hehe. The combos are awesome, hope your lovin your pepper fruit mixes too!

Brrr on your weather temps, hope you hab an awesome weekend ^_^