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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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Congrats on the start up.  Really like the logo and presentation.  Best of luck to you and can't wait to start reading about your coming season.
 
Lourens,
Wow great update and I wish you success in your new venture and I have no doubt that you will make it work! It’s so easy working at something you love VS punching a clock and looking at the clock all day till time to split, hehe.
 
Appearance, presentation of booth and your bag of tricks is totally professional, love the fact you have a plant off to the right side, hard for me to tell but is it live? The 2013 Salsa look awesome, I’d love to try it once your products go world wide ;) I know it’s far fetched but think big like your grow, hehe.  
 
Great to read about all the interest from prospective customers via your post & pm, you certainly stirred the pot with professionalism; I love it, great job mon!
 
You really rocked your grow this year, buddy!  Seeing your products at the end of the growing process should be great vindication of your plan and vision!  The pods all look nice, too   ;)
 
Seacowboy said:
Congrats on the start up.  Really like the logo and presentation.  Best of luck to you and can't wait to start reading about your coming season.
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Thanks Seacowboy! 2014 will be starting too soon for my liking, but as they say - no rest for the wicked!
WalkGood said:
Lourens,
Wow great update and I wish you success in your new venture and I have no doubt that you will make it work! It’s so easy working at something you love VS punching a clock and looking at the clock all day till time to split, hehe.
 
Appearance, presentation of booth and your bag of tricks is totally professional, love the fact you have a plant off to the right side, hard for me to tell but is it live? The 2013 Salsa look awesome, I’d love to try it once your products go world wide ;) I know it’s far fetched but think big like your grow, hehe.  
 
Great to read about all the interest from prospective customers via your post & pm, you certainly stirred the pot with professionalism; I love it, great job mon!
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Thanks Ramon! The plant is barely alive... we have winter now, so it was a desperate attempt at showing a plant. Had to take it out of the ground and bag it... so these plants were not happy lol It has certainly created a stir locally... but I need to work better at converting my online browsers to buying things lol Oh well, at least I still have my day job lol
PaulG said:
You really rocked your grow this year, buddy!  Seeing your products at the end of the growing process should be great vindication of your plan and vision!  The pods all look nice, too   ;)
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Hey Paul! Thanks for popping in, yea... last season was awesome. I hope to do better this year. Possibly less quantity - more quality and variation ;) Seeds are on order, but I am still awaiting delivery!!
 
Devv said:
Glad to see your success at the show, your smile say it all!
 
I wish you continued success at your endeavors!
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Hey Devv, Thank you! Early days!
Stefan_W said:
Very cool, love the shots of you at your stand! Good luck with selling your products :)
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Hey Stefan - thanks! Yea, slow going but with a bit of marketing maybe it will get there!
 
Hey, Lourens!  Good luck going forward with your product plans.
I really like the labeling - simple and effective.  I look forward to
seeing your stuff on our local market shelves!
 
P.S. Just went back and checked out your butch T x Jonah review.
Great stuff, brother!  I still haven't got up the courage to eat the supers
straight up.  Do love them sliced up on a good steak or sumtin' like that!
I have some nice super seed collected from Jamie and Matt G pods last
season that I want to grow out next year.  This year Scotch Bonnets, next
year the stars!
 
PaulG said:
Hey, Lourens!  Good luck going forward with your product plans.
I really like the labeling - simple and effective.  I look forward to
seeing your stuff on our local market shelves!
 
P.S. Just went back and checked out your butch T x Jonah review.
Great stuff, brother!  I still haven't got up the courage to eat the supers
straight up.  Do love them sliced up on a good steak or sumtin' like that!
I have some nice super seed collected from Jamie and Matt G pods last
season that I want to grow out next year.  This year Scotch Bonnets, next
year the stars!
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Hey Paul, thanks man! The US market is massive - would be great!
 
Let me tell you, that ButchT X Jonah is one mean SOB. It grows beautifully and has these evil looking pods that are actually MUCH worse than they look. That is one angry chilli. Burns like a chemical truck. One of the hottest pods I have tasted. Weird burn though. The burn kept moving around. So I would say in my books to date its 1. Carolina Reaper 2. ButchT 3. ButchT X Jonah. I have the BuchTx Moruga overwintering in my garage at the moment together with some other plants that got stunted last season due to watering issues. So I am hoping to do a taste test on this soon.
 
The only reason I do it is out of curiosity - yea I should have been a cat! And to create vids for online marketing purposes. Not that I get a lot of leads through those lol Oh hell someone has to do it lol
 
If you are keen to try a Super, I would highly recommend the Ghost pepper. It sounds very cliche... but it really is an amazing chilli. My personal favourite is the Naga King Jolokia. The flavour and burn are just perfect. It's a great starting point to get into the supers. The Naga's and 7pod's all ok from there. It's the ButchT and Carolina Reaper and Moruga that stand out in my mind or any Hybrids between those that are lethal.
 
The Scotch Bonnet is awesome. I had some Scotch Bonnet Peach longs this last season from Grant and man, the flavour and aroma in those babies was to die for (not literally - but in a nice way)... But you are right in your approach. There are so many beautiful chillies and so many people get wrapped up in just eating the hottest - enjoy the journey and work your way through all the different types and flavours and work it up the heat scale. Easy does it - Good luck!
 
Thanks for the tips, brother, good advice!
I'll keep you posted!  
 
Guess you'll be spending your winter getting
ready for  season, eh?  Can't wait to see what
you come up with for next year.
 
I have already rummaged the local nursery for those nice seedling trays and bought the seedling mix. Last year I had a mix of different seedling trays and really battled with most of them. So this year I know which work best for me. Something so basic and simple can be a problem from the onset!
 
It starts again next month! July. Get my fish tank fired up with the heating mat and do the germination thang. Start up propagator middle to late July to get the seedlings going and plants (hopefully) should be good for putting outside in August and the soil early October (weather permitting). Last October we still had a blizzard (lol) - real snow - which we get probably once every ten years here in Joburg. Generally spring starts first weeks in August. We start seeing daytime temps go to ±25ºC and night time temps go up to 10ºC or so. So that gives the seedlings a good month and a bit to grow before the soil.
 
Last year I put the seedlings into a nursery section to grow in the soil and then transplanted them into the garden when bigger. This year I would like to go straight into the garden. So plants will need to be much bigger.
 
I also managed to acquire a green house from a demolition job. Its in bits and pieces, and will need some grey matter to put back together, but I just had to have it. ±3x4m could not miss that opportunity. So I need to get that sorted also pronto - I guess.
 
Loads more varieties... can't wait. I'm like a woman with labour pains. You go through it and it is the worst pains you have ever experienced. yet when it's time for the next baby, you have forgotten all about it lol Given it has only been a month or two since last season, but time does heal everything (do!) lol
 
I like to keep things busy lol
 
stickman said:
You go Lourens! You've got ambitious plans, but I have a feeling you'll do well again this year. Cheers!
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Urghhh I keep fluctuating between excitement and standing at the bottom of that f#@$k off mountain going - Urghhh not again lol
 
But with the help of my Bretheren here I know I can do it!
 
Good luck getting the greenhouse back together!
 
Hi Lourens!
 
Your weather is close to mine in temps, I really want a green house badly! For notes: we have temps up to 104f and down t0 26f , but not those extremes every year. Last year we barely hit any thing lower than 32 and rare 100's
 
My thing is it's really hard to have a green house here....please watch the temps, they can go through the roof really easy in our climates. My brother in Ohio, USA has one and is amazed at how hot the greenhouse can get.
 
Just trying to give a heads up on how those babies can easily fry.
 
Good luck this next grow season!
 
I can attest to that.  The doors and windows need to be wide open or have good ventilation
when the temp gets over 65 or 70 and it's sunny.  Shade cloth is a must.  I lost a bunch of
seedlings one year to frying in the hot greenhouse.  
 
Devv said:
Hi Lourens!
 
Your weather is close to mine in temps, I really want a green house badly! For notes: we have temps up to 104f and down t0 26f , but not those extremes every year. Last year we barely hit any thing lower than 32 and rare 100's
 
My thing is it's really hard to have a green house here....please watch the temps, they can go through the roof really easy in our climates. My brother in Ohio, USA has one and is amazed at how hot the greenhouse can get.
 
Just trying to give a heads up on how those babies can easily fry.
 
Good luck this next grow season!
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Hey Scott, thank you for the heads up. It is amazing how one never thinks of these things. You are right and I can well imagine how hot the green house will get - even in our winter weather. I have received my first few seeds from the US. Pepper Joe has delivered as always fast and efficiently! Thanks Pepper Joe!
PaulG said:
I can attest to that.  The doors and windows need to be wide open or have good ventilation
when the temp gets over 65 or 70 and it's sunny.  Shade cloth is a must.  I lost a bunch of
seedlings one year to frying in the hot greenhouse.  
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Woa that's 210C here. Our daytime temps are that now in the middle of winter. I will definitely be getting shade netting. Thanks for the heads up guys!
 
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