PeriPeri's Grow Log 2012: South Africa

DocNrock · Dec 8, 2012

All is looking awesome. That cruise sounds tough, but I'm sure you'll survive.

Enjoy! The chiles will be waiting for your return with more flowers and larger pods. Think of it as a homecoming present.

PeriPeri · Dec 9, 2012

Wow, Conor, that is a great thing to do! I will endeavour to find some. Not sure how long we will be in MAputo for... but I will search! There is nothing the Mozambiquans don't know about PeriPeri sauce and Prawns... Mozambique PeriPeri prawns are famous here in the South of Africa. We often make a prawn Braai (Our local word for BBQ). Get a weber, put a skottle on it and fry up fresh prawns with plenty butter, oil, garlic, parsley and of course PeriPeri sauce.... it's heaven on earth. A good kilo or two of prawns does the trick... with a nice ice cold beer - can't go wrong! Have you tried any of the Nando's PeriPeri sauces?

DocNrock, lol yea... Papa's comin' home... and if I have learnt anything - leaving mother nature to do it's own thing is best! Sure they will have rocketed by then.

PeriPeri · Dec 9, 2012

I think I will start with the Maputo market

http://blog.getaway.co.za/food/authentic-mozambican-super-hot-peri-peri-sauce-recipe/

PeriPeri · Dec 9, 2012

I went to see the babies one last time before my boat trip... it was a blisteringly hot day today at the farm. Chillies were droopy and parched. I rarely sweat in hot weather, but today I was sweating like a hog out there. Must have been an easy 38ºc today. No wind, just hot and humid.

I had to do a spot of watering inside and the nursery also needed some watering. The last week has been hot. We had a hectic thunderstorm that followed at about 5pm, but I had left already. Joburg had a huge hailstorm that rained hell and damnation on trees and plants everywhere... luckily the farm is a good 60km away and that part of the country does not suffer from hail storms much!

I was only there for an hour or so, just to check the team is doiung their bit. A lot of the inside plants are still looking very yellow. I have put this down to the fact that the week before was just too wet. We seem to have gone from too much rain to no rain and hectic heat this week. I think the plants are a little bewildered.

But on a good note. There is success in the nursery area and things are looking good outside. The team have been busy turniong the soil and remounding the soil outside. So this is looking good.

They will focus on doing this inside next week. The soil has become very baked as a result of all the rain and sudden heat we have had. Top soil is hard and cracking as a result. So I have asked the guys to just loosen the soil and remound the soil in the rows.

Lots of flowers everywhere and some good pods appearing on the earliest plants I planted.

So this is how things are looking:

http://www.coredesign.co.za/glog/9_12_2012/IMG_1196.jpg
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saugapepper · Dec 9, 2012

Ja Lourens, I know all about die braai... you forget that I speak Afrikaans.

Let me know if you find some Mozambique periperi seeds in Maputo. And yes, we have Nando's here and most supermarkets sell their sauce. Not hot enough!

PeriPeri · Dec 9, 2012

lol Not forgotten - but agree - Not hot enough, but quite tasty. They sell Nando's Extra Extra Hot PeriPeri here in addition to the Extra Hot... and I think it is actually milder I think... but it is sooo moorish, I just want to sip it out of the bottle with a McDonalds straw lol It's like hot gravy sauce... really really tasty lol

I will see what the market has to offer... some of the local sauces must be good. I doubt any of them will be hot enough for us as it can only ever be as hot as the Birdseye... and that is not very hot lol

PeriPeri · Dec 19, 2012

Hi Guys, All back from the cruise. Wow, what an amazing fun way to have a holiday! Unfortunately we had banked on going on land, but both day trips on land were cancelled - Major Bummer! We had a huge storm on the first stop and very choppy seas on the second. So close but no cigar. I have plenty PeriPeri growing this year - Conor I will send you from my stock... sorry mate.

This having been said, things are looking great at the farm. Distance does make the heart grow fonder... My sister sent me some pics from her phone, but pics are not great - I will be going through on Thursday to do some watering - so I will take good pics then. My staff have gone on leave already... so I will be driving through every two days to do the watering. Which will be a slog... but I think I will enjoy it

The second wave of chillies I planted inside are slow to grow... looking good, but seem to be taking longer than first batch.

Black Pearls coming on just great... I love these little gems. They make incredible chilli flakes. The aroma from these is amazing.

This one was supposed to be a Hotazel... but it sure don't look like one to me? These pods have been green for ever... I am waiting for the colour to come, I think it looks more like a chinese 5 colour or something like this. Pods are quite big though... any ideas?

The Thai chillies are just thriving... loving the weather and their soil... plenty pods everywhere.

The outside area too has come on tremendously in the week I have been away. Can't wait to check for flowers.

stickman · Dec 19, 2012

PeriPeri said:
Hi Guys, All back from the cruise. Wow, what an amazing fun way to have a holiday! Unfortunately we had banked on going on land, but both day trips on land were cancelled - Major Bummer! We had a huge storm on the first stop and very choppy seas on the second. So close but no cigar.

This one was supposed to be a Hotazel... but it sure don't look like one to me? These pods have been green for ever... I am waiting for the colour to come, I think it looks more like a chinese 5 colour or something like this. Pods are quite big though... any ideas?

Hi Lourens
Glad you had enough fun that it wasn't too much of a bummer when you couldn't go ashore

I wonder if the Chinese pepper you showed is a Szechuan pepper called Facing Heaven... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facing_heaven_pepper

I had a fellow from the UK send me some seeds for them this week, and a few Piri Piris as well. It's all looking just smashing, though I can't help thinking that it would conserve water if you put some mulch down around your chiles. Cheers

TheFanMan · Dec 19, 2012

they're starting to bush out nicely.

PeriPeri · Dec 19, 2012

stickman said:
Hi Lourens
Glad you had enough fun that it wasn't too much of a bummer when you couldn't go ashore

I wonder if the Chinese pepper you showed is a Szechuan pepper called Facing Heaven... http://en.wikipedia....g_heaven_pepper

I had a fellow from the UK send me some seeds for them this week, and a few Piri Piris as well. It's all looking just smashing, though I can't help thinking that it would conserve water if you put some mulch down around your chiles. Cheers

Hey Stickman, I think you are right - these pods are definately facing heaven and shape wise they look the same. Sad that they are not Hotazel pods... but then that leaves something for next season I suppose.
What would be a good cheap option for mulching? The farm has pine needles... I see this being used occasionally? Aparantly this would also be good for controlling weeds?

TheFanMan said:
they're starting to bush out nicely.

Thanks TheFanMan, they have come on nicely in the open field... next few weeks are going to be busy without the staff to do the watering. All I want for Christmas is Automated Irrigation lol

DocNrock · Dec 19, 2012

PeriPeri said:
Hey Stickman, I think you are right - these pods are definately facing heaven and shape wise they look the same. Sad that they are not Hotazel pods... but then that leaves something for next season I suppose.
What would be a good cheap option for mulching? The farm has pine needles... I see this being used occasionally? Aparantly this would also be good for controlling weeds?

Thanks TheFanMan, they have come on nicely in the open field... next few weeks are going to be busy without the staff to do the watering. All I want for Christmas is Automated Irrigation lol

Everything is really growing nicely. Glad to hear you already have pods forming. Was about to say that I'm pretty sure that plant is not a Chinese 5 color. The Chi5 pods start cream colored and turn purple very quickly. They stay purple for quite some time, then turn yellow. Once they turn yellow they pretty quickly go to orange, then red. Not sure what exactly it is, but Stickman is probably right.

Automated irrigation would be so sweet.

GA Growhead · Dec 19, 2012

Hey PeriPeri,
I used pine needles for mulch with great success last season. I know they can be on the acidic side, but i did not have any problems. Peppers like it slightly acidic anyway, correct?
Ga GH

stickman · Dec 19, 2012

GA Growhead said:
Hey PeriPeri,
I used pine needles for mulch with great success last season. I know they can be on the acidic side, but i did not have any problems. Peppers like it slightly acidic anyway, correct?
Ga GH

If the soil is already at the low end of the pH scale you can buffer with powdered limestone. If you do, I'd recommend Dolomitic Lime since it gives the chiles the Magnesium they want. You could double up with rock Phosphate or bone meal at the same time, work it into the soil around the plants and then cover with the mulch. 5 cm should be enough mulch, but I'd put down a single layer of overlapped sheets of newsprint underneath. It's just enough of a barrier that any seeds in the soil would be blocked from getting leaves up into the sun, and would smother and die. Any seeds in the mulch would be unable to get roots into the soil, and would wither in the sun and die, but water and air would get through the paper with no trouble. If you have a drip irrigation or soaker hose system to water the plants you could leave them in place underneath the mulch and you'd lose even less to evaporation.

GA Growhead · Dec 19, 2012

stickman said:
If the soil is already at the low end of the pH scale you can buffer with powdered limestone. If you do, I'd recommend Dolomitic Lime since it gives the chiles the Magnesium they want. You could double up with rock Phosphate or bone meal at the same time, work it into the soil around the plants and then cover with the mulch. 5 cm should be enough mulch, but I'd put down a single layer of overlapped sheets of newsprint underneath. It's just enough of a barrier that any seeds in the soil would be blocked from getting leaves up into the sun, and would smother and die. Any seeds in the mulch would be unable to get roots into the soil, and would wither in the sun and die, but water and air would get through the paper with no trouble. If you have a drip irrigation or soaker hose system to water the plants you could leave them in place underneath the mulch and you'd lose even less to evaporation.

As stickman said, i had added a bit of dolomitic lime when i prepared my plot. That might have helped keep the PH in control if the pineneedles were too much.
I really like the newspaper idea! Thanks for that advice. I will do that for sure next season.
Ga GH

WalkGood · Dec 19, 2012

stickman said:
... though I can't help thinking that it would conserve water if you put some mulch down around your chiles. Cheers

PeriPeri said:
Hey Stickman, I think you are right - these pods are definately facing heaven and shape wise they look the same. Sad that they are not Hotazel pods... but then that leaves something for next season I suppose. What would be a good cheap option for mulching? The farm has pine needles... I see this being used occasionally? Aparantly this would also be good for controlling weeds? …

I’m going to follow your advice as well stickman, seems our winter is making things very dry and sucking the water out of the ground. The other day I was reading about using seaweed for this and it also acts as a good natural fertilizer. While I did find some good reading about the how to, was wondering if either of you know anything about using it on peppers. I do plan to rinse and dry so I don’t over salt the peppers cause I already use Epsom salt on them once a month.

stickman · Dec 19, 2012

Sorry, I'm a little too far inland to have access to seaweed... If you post to the glog section, someone may know. I generally use straw, shredded newsprint or well-composted horse manure/sawdust bedding for most of my crops, but for the heat-lovers like the cucurbits and nightshades I use a black plastic thermal mulch I get from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. It really worked well for me this past year, and I ordered some more to use next year.

http://www.johnnysee...lch-4-x-50.aspx

Here in New England, warmth is in shorter supply than water...

WalkGood · Dec 19, 2012

Thanks for the feedback Rick, I feel fine with all I read on various sites. I was just wondering if you had any experience with it and peppers. BTW I've seen seaweed for sale on the net, heck the city here rakes the stuff with tractors and buries it basically throwing it all away. So this coming Sat. I'm going early to get my hands on some to start testing it out. Call me stupid for never jumping on this before, lol.

Apologies for the brief hijack Lourens.

PeriPeri · Dec 19, 2012

Hey Guys,

All good. Enjoying the hijacking... in our coutry when one talks about hijacking, it involves someone with a gun taking your car by force... so this is very pleasant by comparison lol

I am really quite far from the ocean too. What concerns me most is the amount of area I would have to cover. I'm guessing about 80m2 (861,1128 sq ft) which is quite a lot in my calculation. Plus I would have to lay down drip irrigation first - in my thinking... which all sounds pretty expensive. The newspaper idea is great, but I can't read this many newspapers in time lol

But seriously - yes, thanks for the feedback. I will investigate my options. It would save big time on the watering. As it stands at the moment, I have two days worth of water in the soil after every soaking. I imagine with mulching, it could extend this by several days at least.

sicman · Dec 21, 2012

awesome,those plants are looking great! i hope my "ground project" turns out as good. going to start getting the ground ready this weekened.

PIC 1 · Dec 21, 2012

Your plants are really taking foot...Nice work with the "Hilling" of the rows. That cuts back on the weeding and keeps the roots cool and protected. As your plants grow so will the root zones. They can easily travel down a meter+.....They'll actually do better with less watering than when in the early stages. When the fruit appears, a deep drenching will be appreciated by the plants. A few days of drying out will send the roots lateral seeking water. The bigger the root zone the larger the plant. Too much water too often will shut down on any growth spurts........I can't wait to see all the peppers coming off the plants.
You will have tons to process and cook with. good luck and Happy Holidays...

Greg