Pulpiteer 2013 Grow Log

buddy · Apr 15, 2013

[sup][sub]Very nice! Good luck with your 2013 season.[/sub][/sup]

DesertChris · Apr 15, 2013

Love the horseradish!!

The plants look nice and cozy in there

Mine are all on the porch getting a workout in the wind....lol... It should toughen em up a bit for later though

Pulpiteer · Apr 15, 2013

buddy said:
[sup][sub]Very nice! Good luck with your 2013 season.[/sub][/sup]

Thanks Buddy! Right back at ya!

DesertChris said:
Love the horseradish!!

The plants look nice and cozy in there

Mine are all on the porch getting a workout in the wind....lol... It should toughen em up a bit for later though

Yeah, I am lacking the wind - I run a fan a bit, although not as much as I should because it does toughen them up and when they get bigger that thicker stem pays off. Of course, since I don't have almost 2,000 pepper plants, I'm more afraid to lose mine :surprised:

Quick update: I received an awesome delivery today from a guy from our church who works for the city. The city has piles of wood chip mulch and, as it turns out, leaf mulch that's been rotting for a couple of years. So...

Here is a look at one of three huge piles of wood chips:

I realize now that I should have done a wide shot of all three to give you a sense of the amount I received. But that was just part of one pile. Here is a closer picture so you can see how the chips are starting to decompose a bit. These will be awesome on the garden.

Here is a pile of the leaf mulch that I received - these, he told me, have been sitting for two years. It's dark and beautiful. I'll use this as a medium to plant the peppers into when it's plant out time. Awesome looking stuff.

My daughter even got to ride in the tractor and help scoop up and dump a load. These are the blessings of rural small town living. Some places prosecute you for growing things in your yard. Our town enables me. Good stuff.

And I'll close with a few pepper pics:

A yellow manzano (from Hooda)

A kind of blurry red rocoto (my seed, originally from Totally Tomato) It's blurry because it is so ready to burst with growth it is hard to photograph... yeah, that's the ticket...

And finally, a chocolate hab. (Pepperlover) This one began with some wonky first true leaves, but as you can see, the second set are looking good.

And that's it for tonight - thanks for stopping by!

Sanarda · Apr 16, 2013

excellent score and the plants look real good. They itchin to get out into that open air.

DesertChris · Apr 16, 2013

LOL! It's only around 1,100 right now, and a lot of them are teeny tiny

Those mulch piles are a huge score!!

Your peppers are going to be loving it!

romy6 · Apr 16, 2013

You are a blessed man Andy. :clap:

Must be a wonderful place to live.

And they let your daughter drive the tractor. :crazy:

Your garden is gonna rock this year :lol:

RocketMan · Apr 16, 2013

Nice Andy, she'll remember that ride for the rest of her life.

love the horseradish, I recently made a Garlic Wasabi hot sauce and the price of fresh Wasabi is crazy but the sauce came out very tasty. the Wasabi heat was gone in no time but the flavor is there and I used some green habs which gave it a nice but a bit mild heat. I guess green habs are not the same as ripe ones.

Devv · Apr 16, 2013

Small communities are great! The people are caring and all pull together in times of adversity, and are there to just help :surprised:

Sorry about the heater loss, perhaps aiming it away and let it bounce off the wall when you need it on.

Plants look really good, hope it warms up your way soon!

STEVE954 · Apr 16, 2013

Andy, thats awesome that you got some wood chips/leaves in decomposition mode! Great soil condtioner!

I used cypress mulch for my in-grounds, however cypress mulch is not the best choice for the veggie garden b/c they repel water, suck up nitrogen and take forever to decay.

I am now in search of this brown gold!!!

Bigoledude · Apr 17, 2013

I would love to have summa that stuff Andy! A couple of years ago I took 2 loads of horse stable stuff in the lot next to my house. As the weather warmed up and, the poo still wasn't finished cooking, the flies showed up by the grillions! My neighbors wanted to KILL me. Every time we opened the door to our houses, flies would come pouring in. This lasted about 2 months.

But man! When that stuff finished, you could sprout rebar in it!

Pulpiteer · Apr 23, 2013

Sanarda said:
excellent score and the plants look real good. They itchin to get out into that open air.

Thanks Pia! Plant out will be in about a month - so it's time for their growing to kick it into high gear.

DesertChris said:
LOL! It's only around 1,100 right now, and a lot of them are teeny tiny

Those mulch piles are a huge score!!

Your peppers are going to be loving it!

Yup, huge score indeed! Good stuff.

romy6 said:
You are a blessed man Andy.

Must be a wonderful place to live.

And they let your daughter drive the tractor.

Your garden is gonna rock this year

I am blessed in many ways and I try to appreciate it as much as I can. I hope the garden rocks - if it doesn't it won't be for lack of trying.

RocketMan said:
Nice Andy, she'll remember that ride for the rest of her life.

love the horseradish, I recently made a Garlic Wasabi hot sauce and the price of fresh Wasabi is crazy but the sauce came out very tasty. the Wasabi heat was gone in no time but the flavor is there and I used some green habs which gave it a nice but a bit mild heat. I guess green habs are not the same as ripe ones.

Wasabi hot sauce sounds interesting. That's a strange combination. The green habs sounds like a good choice for a flavor combination, since wasabi has a strong flavor and you don't want them clashing. You are the hot sauce master!

Devv said:
Small communities are great! The people are caring and all pull together in times of adversity, and are there to just help

Sorry about the heater loss, perhaps aiming it away and let it bounce off the wall when you need it on.

Plants look really good, hope it warms up your way soon!

There's positives and negatives to both small and large communities. I grew up in a small town and sometimes it drove me nuts. However, there can be that sense of folks coming together for their community in a way that is real personal, and it's cool to see.

I ended up elevating the heater well above the plants, so that took care of it. If those are the only plants I lose this year, I'm doing ok.

STEVE954 said:
Andy, thats awesome that you got some wood chips/leaves in decomposition mode! Great soil condtioner!

I used cypress mulch for my in-grounds, however cypress mulch is not the best choice for the veggie garden b/c they repel water, suck up nitrogen and take forever to decay.

I am now in search of this brown gold!!!

I'm excited about the mulch! I wonder why cypress repels water? Interesting. I think I saw it on your glog. Looks like cedar. I think that's an anti-fungal, which would be why it would be used to make chests to store clothing and stuff like that. That would keep it from decomposing. As far as the nitrogen, have you noticed a difference in the plants? That's interesting...

Anyway, good luck in your search for wood mulch!

Bigoledude said:
I would love to have summa that stuff Andy! A couple of years ago I took 2 loads of horse stable stuff in the lot next to my house. As the weather warmed up and, the poo still wasn't finished cooking, the flies showed up by the grillions! My neighbors wanted to KILL me. Every time we opened the door to our houses, flies would come pouring in. This lasted about 2 months.

But man! When that stuff finished, you could sprout rebar in it!

Nice! We had turkey manure last year and wow that stunk something awful for a long time. Our neighbors endured and we paid them off with veggies. Amending the soil is a long process, but boy it pays off.

Ok - another quick update. First off, we had some major flooding, which has thrown off my schedule and all sorts of stuff for the past week or so. We had a couple of inches of water on the one side of our basement and now it looks like we'll need to replace carpet. Ugh...

Anyway, I got some good work done yesterday.

First off, I got the mulch spread on the pepper garden and about half of the tomato side. I'll need a bit more, but most of it is done. Here's a wide shot of the pepper garden with my two oldest kids checking it out.

The soil was not tilled. It was just chopped and dropped and left to decompose over the winter. I then covered it with mulch and I'll add compost around the plants when they go into the ground.

I used my trusty wheel barrow for some of the work. Plus I figured out that it was a good place for some bumper stickers...

I brought out my overwintered peppers. They are either dormant or dead. Now we'll find out

And a close up

If any live they will be a bonus. I hope one or two did. I should know in just a couple of days.

Finally, Saturday is the big day for the second annual pepper draft. I've grown several extra plants, just to make sure I have enough. So, in order to get rid of the extras and to spread the gospel of peppers, I've found some folks who are willing to grow these crazy hot peppers. I have a lottery style drawing to determine the draft order, then they draft their peppers for the coming year. Trades are allowed, and trash talking is encouraged. Plus we eat hot stuff and have fun. This year, one of the guys started a tshirt business, so we are doing tshirts for the draft. Here is the design:

I'm loving it!

Thanks for stopping by.

Pr0digal_son · Apr 24, 2013

Looks like you are way more prepared than I. Not taking the garden out to the sidewalk? I cut a plant way back like the one above and it eventually died on me. It had some new growth but the stems ended up getting hollow. The plants that I left more green wood on thrived. Have fun with the draft,make sure to get us pics.

WalkGood · Apr 24, 2013

What’s not to ~~like~~ love …

Great wood chips & leaf multch
Tractor ride \o/
Awesome Manzano, red Rocoto, Chocolate Hab & other babies
Great space for the garden
Smexy red wheel barrow
Pepper draft \o/

Life is great in your neck of da woods mon, hope your OWs pull thru … great updates ^_^

Sawyer · Apr 24, 2013

Love the t-shirt, and the no-mow yard. The suburbanite infatuation with manicured lawns just leaves me shaking my head.

Hendrix1326 · Apr 25, 2013

Pulpiteer said:
You can make maple sugar, and I have half a mind to try something like that, but I am not going to have a ton of syrup. You can also make maple candy of all sorts. I actually made a maple flavored pudding from scratch last week (from syrup we already had). I'd have to learn how to do it - and that is really the draw for me, to be honest. It would be cool to figure out how to make maple sugar.... but we'll see. One step at a time.

Making maple sugar candy is pretty easy, Andy. Just do like when you make rock candy. Take a bunch of the sap, boil it down to syrup, and pour it into a large jar. Then, dangle a string down into it that has a weight on the end, and tie that up outside of the jar somewhere. Eventually, sugar crystals will start forming on the string, and within a couple of weeks, you have nice maple sugar candy, yay!

I remember having some freshly made maple sugar candy at the UP State Fair when I was a kid, and I haven't had it since then, about 20 years ago, but I will never forget that flavor, best maple flavor I've ever tasted.

RocketMan · Apr 25, 2013

Lovin the T-Shirt design for the pepper draft. Should be a great event with the opportunity to get some really good Pics for the church gallery. Nothing a wall full of watering eyes, runny noses, excessive sweating and people who just wont stop eating

stc3248 · Apr 25, 2013

Great stuff Andy! Wish I could attend that pepper draft! Not to walk away with plants, but it just sounds like fun! Great shots around the pepper patch too. Things are heating up all over!

PIC 1 · Apr 25, 2013

Andy your garden plot looks ready, fill those planting holes with some rich goodies !

Cool Tee.......as many star's as letters in the title, ...coincidence ?

Have fun with the pepper draft , I bet that can be exciting. Anywhere there's chiliheads and pepper plants you know thw talk will be hot and heavy. Are you able to recruit any folks to help with your planting ?

Pulpiteer · Apr 26, 2013

Pr0digal_son said:
Looks like you are way more prepared than I. Not taking the garden out to the sidewalk? I cut a plant way back like the one above and it eventually died on me. It had some new growth but the stems ended up getting hollow. The plants that I left more green wood on thrived. Have fun with the draft,make sure to get us pics.

Oh, the garden is out to the sidewalk. That picture just has the foot of grass that is a buffer. The plants grow out to it, so yeah, sidewalk peppers again, I hope. The stems are getting hollow on some, so they don't look too hopeful. These are some plants I had to hibernate after they brought aphids in, so I'll take what I can get. If even one makes it, then I'll be pleased.
And I will get pics of the draft - should be fun!

WalkGood said:
What’s not to ~~like~~ love …

Great wood chips & leaf multch

Tractor ride \o/

Awesome Manzano, red Rocoto, Chocolate Hab & other babies

Great space for the garden

Smexy red wheel barrow

Pepper draft \o/

Life is great in your neck of da woods mon, hope your OWs pull thru … great updates ^_^

Thanks WG! It is going well, I'm just trying to enjoy it!

Sawyer said:
Love the t-shirt, and the no-mow yard. The suburbanite infatuation with manicured lawns just leaves me shaking my head.

Thanks Sawyer. I agree with the whole manicured lawn thing. I'm trying to convince anyone I talk to that dandelions are a good thing, for example. Not too many takers yet, even after I rattle off their benefits. Mind control by big lawn chem ag... :surprised:

Hendrix1326 said:
Making maple sugar candy is pretty easy, Andy. Just do like when you make rock candy. Take a bunch of the sap, boil it down to syrup, and pour it into a large jar. Then, dangle a string down into it that has a weight on the end, and tie that up outside of the jar somewhere. Eventually, sugar crystals will start forming on the string, and within a couple of weeks, you have nice maple sugar candy, yay!

I remember having some freshly made maple sugar candy at the UP State Fair when I was a kid, and I haven't had it since then, about 20 years ago, but I will never forget that flavor, best maple flavor I've ever tasted.

I'll have to remember that Karl - sounds like a good experiment for our kids. I never did that growing up. You are in prime maple syrup country, I would think. You've gotta have some maples around you. Or is it all pine and paper birch up there? If not, make some next year. It's amazing.

RocketMan said:
Lovin the T-Shirt design for the pepper draft. Should be a great event with the opportunity to get some really good Pics for the church gallery. Nothing a wall full of watering eyes, runny noses, excessive sweating and people who just wont stop eating

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to it. Rumors have spread and we have a new person entering this year. The legend is growing...

stc3248 said:
Great stuff Andy! Wish I could attend that pepper draft! Not to walk away with plants, but it just sounds like fun! Great shots around the pepper patch too. Things are heating up all over!

I'd love to host you Shane! It's fun stuff.

PIC 1 said:
Andy your garden plot looks ready, fill those planting holes with some rich goodies !

Cool Tee.......as many star's as letters in the title, ...coincidence ?

Have fun with the pepper draft , I bet that can be exciting. Anywhere there's chiliheads and pepper plants you know thw talk will be hot and heavy. Are you able to recruit any folks to help with your planting ?

Thanks Greg! The draft should be a good time. The tshirt will amp it up even more than last year. I think I'll be planting on my own again this year, but that's ok.

A quick update:
So I sorted out the keepers and the draft entries tonight. As I was repotting one, I got a shot of the roots that are developing. Looking good.

Here's a Cili Goronong (Aji Joe) that is a nice looking plant.

Finally, a quick lesson I learned. Here is a chocolate cherry that was doing well, but the leaves had some curl and it developed white bumps underneath. They were not eggs, just edemas. Here are some pics:

Well, I did a search of this site and found a great article linked by Pepper Guru. Here is his post. It was very helpful. The article said that the edema could happen under conditions that were humid, cool air, high light, and poor air circulation. Well, the plants are in the basement, which just flooded last week, the lights are on almost all the time, and I haven't gotten the fan going as much as I should, so there you go. I'm trying to run the space heater a bit more, as well as the fan in hopes of keeping things straight. Anyway, just wanted to pass that alone in case it can help anyone else.

Thanks for stopping by!

3/5King · Apr 26, 2013

Can't wait to see your garden in the ground Andy! So soon....can't wait to pierce that first patch of ground with the shovel. You should see the plants I have at my house...they've been stunted for months. I'm just trying to keep them alive until I can get them outside, in hopes that nature will take over parental rights....lol