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PeriPeri's Grow Log 2012: South Africa

Hi All,

So I'll give it another try this year. God knows I love chillies and I would love nothing more than to have a bumper harvest... but I suspect the truth of the matter is I do not have green fingers. In fact, give me a chilli and I will be pretty guaranteed to kill it lol That's not negativity talking, that's reality based on last years experiences lol

Last year it was pots. This year its a farm east of Pretoria, here in South Africa. My reasoning for this madness is pretty much like a hunter hunting with a machine gun... out of the thousand seedlings I plant... I must walk away with something lol (I hope).

So I have a pice of land. Good soil down by a river in the african sun.

The planting area has been divided into two sections. An enclosed area (±40mx40m) with shade netting and an open area (±40mx40m). Water is limited, but there is borehole water.

Outside Area:
outside.jpg


Inside Area:
inside.jpg


Temps this time of the year are in the mid to high 30ºC. It's the rainy season, so there is rain and it comes in buckets and hail-stones!

So here are the pics I took of the inside and outside areas Saturday 6/10/2012. It was 37ºC that day. I have a video as well which I took last Sunday when I started the planting (to come). Luckily we have a cold front at the moment, so since monday it has been overcast, cool and we have rain (magic). I think its about 23/25ºC at the moment. I planted on Sunday (36ºC) early morning (24/25ºC) and late afternoon and pretty much watered for the rest of the day. Didn't look like rain at all... but it's here and could not have come at a better time really!

As you can see I have laid out the beds in rows. Planting is at 45-60cm intervals. I am doing a little experiment also with double planting and single planting. I suspect the yield will be lower with the bushes that have been double planted... but who knows. A different climate... maybe results will show different.

On the grow list:

Bishops Crown
PeriPeri (naturally)
Hotazel
Hot Pixie
Thaibo
Thai Dragon
Baby Belle
Cal Wonder
Yellow Scorpions
ButchT
Black Pearl
Naga Viper
White Hab
Orange Hab
Brown Hab
Red Hab
Big Jim
Long Thai
Cayenne
Cheyenne
Jalapeno
Carolina Reaper
Serrano
Pasilla Bajio
7 Pod
Bhut Jolokia
Naga King
Scotch Bonnet
Hungarian Sweet Wax
Cherry Bomb
Boriya Mirch
Brain Strain
Ring of Fire

Still to come...

Angkor Sunrise
Devils Tongue White
Barrakpore
Douglah
Jonah
JonahxButchT
Primo
Naga Morich
Infinity
Goronong
Devils Tongue Choc
Hab Choc

One or two other... but I can't remember.

First lot I planted on Sunday 7/10/2012.... details will follow...

Over and out for now!

PeriPeri
 
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Amazing photo's again. Some interesting shapes from some of those fish peppers lol. And some of those 7 pots are massive, they ain't a 1 chomp pepper. lol

Really like viewing your glog, great inspiration.

Keep up the good work mate, your definitely being rewarded for it with those harvests.

All the best
Pete
 
FEEL THE BURN! - That gave me the sweats just watching it. Oucha! Thanks for sharing.

I think we might try and grow some reapers next year they would sell like hot cakes over here. Very, very hard to find true seeds over here in the UK though.

Hope you've got more milk. lol
 
Oh yeah, he was absolutly feeling the burn on that bad boy :)

Way to take the heat though, I don't think I would ahve been quite as good with it.
 
No more milk left in the country... man that was some burn! lol

From what I have seen the UK is chilli crazy... you're right, they would sell well. All I can say is I've done it... I know, no more thanks! lol
 
Lourens, absolutely amazing video! I can't believe you weren't more nervous prior to eating that pepper... I'm not sure I would have the courage to do it. Did you suffer any cramping in the hours since you've eaten the pepper?
 
Lourens you are a true chilehead..more hot stuff! No pepper is a match for this man! :flamethrower:

Yeah they love the hot stuff over here. Since the Dorest naga's came around, people in the UK are much more aware of hot peppers. I sell quite a lot of the more common peppers seeds already and starting to break into the super hots bit by bit. My plan is to sell the more rarer superhots. I know pepperjoe has them but I will certainly need more than 30 (that is the max amount you can order from them) I fully expect to kill at least 29 of them lol

Glad your still alive and lived to tell the tail after Mistress C.Reaper. lol
 
Whoa Lourens I love it! … You demo the Reaper with gloves, lick your finger and then just pop dat bad boy into your mouth … wowza! Nice video to boot, where the heck are the beautiful helpers when you needed them most ;)
 
Thanks guys!

Yea, when I watched that again and realised I licked the first bit of capsaicin I thought... actually you could have saved yourself that little bit of pain lol I still can not get over how hot that Reaper was. It really is insane... and by the looks of it I have enough pods on those two plants to burn down the whole country never mind a small village. Luckily my helpers were at school. As for that other helper "Caroline the Reaper"... she was sitting next to me with bucket in hand going eat eat eat eat!

I have to say that loads of people say they had problems germinating the Reaper seeds and mine did actually germinate straight off the bat. If I remember I had 8/10. Lost 2 due to my underwatering the seedlings :( and lost 4 when they went into the soil and the african sun just fried them. Talking about killing plants... I'm an expert at that lol This is why I went big scale this year - success in bulk lol. I am busy chopping like fury and collecting seeds. At the mo I am aiming for about 100 packets of every variety I have grown this year... but once I have sufficient stock, I will be launching chillihead.co.za - and hopefully with all the flesh, there will be a bottle or two of super chiili sauce to boot!
 
Man Lourens... talk about throwing yourself on the grenade!... :fireball: Just FYI... beer puts the fire out better than milk. Something really malty, like a Belgian Trippel. A hard candy or even a spoonful of sugar help too. Nice review. I liked the comments about tasting like orange blossoms. Cheers
 
Thank you stickman! Always appreciated. I might imagine a stout beer or guinness might work well :) But will def try next time! Er... if there is a next time lol
 
Good luck with your new venture Lourens, very similar to what we are trying to achieve. Growing for seed harvest and flesh for condiments. I think we are going for 5 main products which will be range from a table sauce to a salt rub. Trying to keep it simple but offer something different also. The size of land we have is about the same size as yours also so been interesting following your glog to see what can be grown on that size of area.

Looking forward to picture weekend if yo have time in between processing all those peppers. :onfire:
 
Stefan_W said:
Awesome vid! It was fun to watch you trying to deal with the heat buildup.

Keep up the great work!
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Trying is the operative word, but it wasn't the heat I was struggling with... it was the pain at the back of the throat lol

PjPEPPERS said:
Good luck with your new venture Lourens, very similar to what we are trying to achieve. Growing for seed harvest and flesh for condiments. I think we are going for 5 main products which will be range from a table sauce to a salt rub. Trying to keep it simple but offer something different also. The size of land we have is about the same size as yours also so been interesting following your glog to see what can be grown on that size of area.

Looking forward to picture weekend if yo have time in between processing all those peppers. :onfire:
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There will be pictures as always! Pictures must go on for my fellow chilliheads. That is awesome... never enough space, but the space I used this year was a plenty for me. About 1000 plants... has kept me very busy. But if you have someone else to help, one could do more I guess. I have spent time in the UK and gardening is huge. So you have a really awesome market for seeds. Another thing is the affinity to Indian quisine is massive in the UK... so most people have grown up with a liking for spicy food. So yea... plenty people looking for really hot chillies without a doubt. There is also a huge market for people doing hydroponics in my experience... so you are sitting very cosy there. Not to mention that many smaller cities and villages have market days... the sky is the limit as they say! Nice!

I have learnt so much this year it is actually quite scary. Nothing quite like jumping in the deep end lol Not sure if you have many monkeys in Devon - but pepper maggots and cutworm have been my biggest adverseries without a doubt. But mother nature is really an amazing thing... and I must say that even though there have been other pests like aphids... those Ladybugs were real troopers and kept them all in check... anyway - I'm rambling. You are in for a treat when your season starts (soon) - I look forward to reading your glog!
 
PeriPeri,

I'm still finding glogs here, your's is great! Quite an undertaking this year.

OK, we want more videos!

Scott
 
Dude, that was a massive harvest of great looking pods. Like Ramon said, I bet you were up late processing them. The rest of the guys in wait look killer, as well. Great phenotypes. That little Ignite still cracks me up. Very nice. Reaper pod...you can have it! I like to powder up the supers. No way in Hell I'm doing that to myself! Hahaha!
 
Devv said:
PeriPeri,

I'm still finding glogs here, your's is great! Quite an undertaking this year.

OK, we want more videos!

Scott
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Hey Devv - glad you like it. Vids a plenty on YouTube under "LourensNotman". But if it is any consolation, I will be going to the farm on Saturday... and when I go pickin' theres pictures ;)

DocNrock said:
Dude, that was a massive harvest of great looking pods. Like Ramon said, I bet you were up late processing them. The rest of the guys in wait look killer, as well. Great phenotypes. That little Ignite still cracks me up. Very nice. Reaper pod...you can have it! I like to powder up the supers. No way in Hell I'm doing that to myself! Hahaha!
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Late? For days... had no help chopping lol. But yea, all done. Nitrile gloves also let the capsaicin through eventually. So at the mo, hands are still burning even though the last chilli I touched was like two days ago lol Everything I touch just burns! It's the price you pay - is what I have now come to lol On the bright side Caroline the Reaper is helping me in putting all the seeds in packets - and she is doing a sterling job. Not sure what I would do without her! That is such a painful job as well!

I just love that little ignite. Hes such a little fella. All of what 5 months to generate 4 pods? But hey really... for their size they pack a punch! I have harvested seeds from the first pod and got all of 6 seeds. Needless to say the seeds are tiny... will be fun to see if they grow next year!

Hell no... I don't want the Reaper... here you have it! lol All I can say is I have them... I do have to do something with them... not sure what it is yet... but it had best be in moderation. Really, those pods are insane! And if I understand this right, they guy that came up with the Reaper is working on hotter strains of the Reaper... well I'm not touching those with someone elses barge pole my friend - this was hot enough!
 
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