Pulpiteer 2013 Grow Log

Pulpiteer · Jul 2, 2013

... and another week goes by without getting to glogs. I'm so sorry. Trying to get where I can catch up.

allaKAZAAM said:
Hey'yah!
Great news to hear on your newest arrival to the family! I'm really loving being a father now to, but my wife left me to go visit my family down south...not liking being alone/without them.
Sorry to hear that your crop is slow moving, but to cheer you up, let yah know that up here in Moosonee Ontario. Growing ANYTHING is not easy. Thought I lost all my plants about 2 weeks ago, temperature dropped to 2 celcius (average night temperature right now is about 10). So your plant WILL takeoff like gangbusters, and produce lots for you.
'Cause I am SURE ALL OF US here on THP wanna see more recipes/preserves! I know I do!!!
Let nature take its course...

Thank you! I can only imagine how tough growing peppers in Canada must be. I bet you'd love a nice big greenhouse.
Thanks for the words of encouragement - just slow moving this year. I'm trying to keep patience.

KiNGDeNNiZ said:
How does your garden grow

Ugh... slow. Update below.

RocketMan said:
I put the fish emulsion in my first Homebrew and it killed all the foam also. Shane told me to add some fresh grass clippings and I got some slight foam after I did that. In the second one I left the fish out and made sure the grass was in there and had foam for days. I don't think measurements have to be very exact, I just used 2 scoops of this and one of that and just get some on the scoop of another. I think that as long as you have the right ingredients in there and some mycos to get it started you'll be golden but then I've only done 2 and could be all wrong

Have a great week.

Hmmm... I wonder if that's it. I'll have to try without the fish stuff next time.

Ok, so I've gotten some growth since last time, but not much. And the bad news is that I think it was only dogs the first time, but appears to be a rabbit that is chopping my young pepper plants off at the base. Here is what the end result looks like:

That's the plant, on its side, on the ground. This makes me want to purchase one of those high powered pellet guns I could maybe get away with in town...

As far as how things look, well here is one of my rows/groups from about ground level:

As you can see, there is some height. Not too bad. Not too good either. I still have hope, but am still impatient.

Things are greening up though, and that's good. This is the sort of thing going on - yellow leaves from early on, with new green ones on top.

This tells me that I should be ok, and that the late cold weather and lots of water did not help me.

Some plants are doing better than others. One weird thing that has happened is some of the plants that grew right next to other plants that I either put in as companions or let come in, like alyssum or catnip, grew better. Here is one from Spicegeist, one of the yellow 7 x fatalii crosses (f2, I think). This particular plant is by yellow woodsorrell, milkweed, and alyssum, and I think it is twice the size of the other yellow 7 x fatalii that is not so close.

Here is a Burkina Yellow (from Aji Joe) that is right by some catnip (a handy little herb/companion plant btw). It is doing great.

A close up of the buds developing

Here is a goatsweed that got in a few weeks later than the other peppers. I put in a group of about 8 plants later than the rest, and they have done a ton better. Moral of the story: make sure your plants are hardened off and the ground temperature is warm enough. I think that's the moral...

I put some plants out front, and they are in a bit of a different setting and they are doing well. Here is a purple bhut.

Here are my tomatoes, they are coming along a bit better now

Finally, yesterday evening, I was out with my wife and we stopped at a greenhouse in Lansing. They had Hardy Kiwi on clearance, $10 apiece. You need a male and a female vine, so I picked up two plants and will try these out. I've been reading up on them this year and they sound awesome. Here's a pic:

And I believe that's 10 pictures. Ok, now I'm off to try to make a small dent in my glog reading...

Thanks for stopping by.

stc3248 · Jul 3, 2013

They're finally starting to get some traction! Rabbits hate cayenne powder!!! Enough where it'll get in their fur and on their feet should they walk through it! Set a good perimeter and around/on the plants should keep them away. I got a huge quart size at a bulk store for like $7...they sell other repellents, but they're much more expensive.

WalkGood · Jul 3, 2013

Not all the pictures load for me but that's probably my isp, can't see the first 5 but from the others tings look nice, lush and on the right track. Sad to read about wabbit troubles, have you tried jerked or smoked wabbit

Pulpiteer · Jul 15, 2013

stc3248 said:
They're finally starting to get some traction! Rabbits hate cayenne powder!!! Enough where it'll get in their fur and on their feet should they walk through it! Set a good perimeter and around/on the plants should keep them away. I got a huge quart size at a bulk store for like $7...they sell other repellents, but they're much more expensive.

I've been putting out all sorts of hot pepper powder. I've also put out some anti rabbit organic spray. It's working pretty good, but I have to stay on top of it. I saw the stupid thing out there again today. I made my own combination of leftover coffee and garlic powder. We'll see how that does.

WalkGood said:
Not all the pictures load for me but that's probably my isp, can't see the first 5 but from the others tings look nice, lush and on the right track. Sad to read about wabbit troubles, have you tried jerked or smoked wabbit

Thanks! I really want to get that rabbit, and I haven't fired up the smoker yet this summer, so that would be a great project to try out...

Alright, time for an update.

Things are still going very slow, but I am seeing progress. Not enough to make me feel better, but nonetheless, progress. Oh, and here is what I am pretty sure has been the cause of my slow grow - cold and very wet weather combined with my first year of no-till gardening combined with clay soil that held the water longer created kind of a perfect storm. I don't think the soil warmed up for a long time and so the plants may have gone through transplant shock and heat topside, but were cold and damp bottom side, while lacking the microbial life to get the nutrients to them. So, I've supplemented nitrogen and compost tea as I am able. Plus it has warmed up. Oh, and I almost forgot the dogs and rabbits. They have cost me between 5 and 10 plants this year. So, it's been tough.

Enough with all of that, here is the current state of affairs - a wide shot of the peppers on the left, tomato garden on the right:

Here is that ground level shot taken from the same spot as my update above, 12 days later:

And here is the same Burkina Yellow that I showed up above as well:

This shot will give you a feel for part of what I've been dealing with. These are both Aji lemons (in the foreground), both planted at the same time. One has obviously taken hold and is growing and the other, not so much. Not sure why.

Another issue/variable. I have one Jimmy Nardello that I raised from seed, and another that I found at a nursery. The one from the nursery is on the right and it was planted in the ground about a week or week and a half before the other was put in. The one on the left is the one from seed and is doing very well. Several variables - but I will say this, the peppers that I put in the ground later are doing much better. I think the ground was ready for them so they rooted in without the same shock.

Here's another fun bit - with all of the wood mulch, as I mentioned above, I've had a few (thousand) slugs. I think it's doing better since I put out some old grape juice slug traps. But as you will see below, they went to town on some of my plants. This one is still doing well, despite being so holey, or holy in my case. It is a yellow 7 x fatalii from Spicegeist.

Here's a plant that is doing well, a Scotch Bonnet FDA yellow from Pic1:

And you might not believe it, but I actually have some little pods coming in!
Here is a Cili Goronong (from aji joe):

And a douglah from seed I selected from pods from last year that had stingers:

Finally, I have another little project. If you have a few empty 2 liter bottle around and want to try growing some things vertically, you can try this:

You can see a few things got going. We'll see how it does. Here is the youtube video that I got the idea from.

Alright, that's what I've got for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Pulpiteer · Jul 18, 2013

I know it's just been a couple of days, but I have a few more pictures. The temperatures have been very hot and humid. The ground is very dry and hard though, so I've been watering at night. The peppers have loved it, though, so I think they are going through a bit of a growth spurt.

Even with the recent growth, I feel like I'm about a month behind where I should be, and that feeling is probably accurate. The question will be if the season is long enough or not. I should be ok, but I would have liked things earlier. This strange spring put a hurting on me.

Here is the purple bhut that's in a spot away from the main pepper garden. You can see I've got flowers coming.

Here is another one that is doing well - one of my fataliis. These are just great plants, I'm thinking.

The goats weed keeps growing. This is my first time growing these. This one got in later than most of the other plants, but like I said above, that seems to have helped the plants that got in later. Not sure what is going on. Anyway, here it is, nice and fuzzy:

Here is a yellow manzano. It's not too tall yet, but it's branching out pretty decent and the color is looking good.

Here is a Peach Australian Lantern (aji joe) that is super bushy. Never grown this one before, so it'll be fun to see how it goes.

Finally, one that I'm excited about, a 7 Pod Congo (pepperlover).

And some non's

My ground cherries are doing well. I'm going to grow a lot more of these next year. Very cool and they taste awesome. You see they have a husk. When the husk turns brown and falls off, it's ready. Very sweet, but with the texture of a small tomato. Different and very good.

I have some volunteer sunflowers that made it. I caught them blooming this morning.

Finally, our son (our 4th child) is almost two months now, and he's growing a lot and just started smiling recently.

Thanks for stopping by!

3/5King · Jul 18, 2013

Andy!....Yo! Lol, haven't stopped by the old glogolitto in a bit. Sounds like you've been tested quite a bit this year. I feel for ya, my first year was rough and my second year (this one) started off slow like (most) everyone else. Foam on AACT isn't necessarily a sign of microbial life. You can have a tea with no foam that is hardy with microbes. Foam is caused by proteins in the compost. (I don't know what you made yours with) as long as you have air, sugar, a source of microbes and it smells good when you're done, it should be good to go. Gotta have faith! (You're great at that!)

My plants a few weeks ago looked like they got peppered with a shotgun too....freakin' bugs! They're doing better now. Your garden will pull through. Things are looking up! Another couple weeks and it will be in the past.
Wonderful to see your smiling baby boy! He's a handsome devil....wait can I say that??? Lol

ajijoe · Jul 18, 2013

wow andy sorry i didnt check in sooner been super busy very little time to talk
moms been sick too so i have been watching Shailynn alot

im seeing alot of mine in your grow and frankly you have done me proud,very nice looking plants!!!

i hope you blessed as i see you are in so many ways
oh by the way the Reluctant pastor sauce you sent me is anciant history that stuff was addicting!! if you need anything let me know
please keep in touch im following your grow now too so i will be checking in from time to time :party:

thanks yuor friend Joe

wahlee76 · Jul 18, 2013

Your plant are looking good. I'm sure they'll grow nice and strong, as I'm sure your son will

. Just make sure you pass on the pepper virus

MGOLD86 · Jul 18, 2013

Looking good Andy, it seems like you are powering through a bit of a hard start. It will all end up in your favor, just wait. It always seems like you are running behind, but then.....BAM! You will be setting pods and harvesting every few days.

And your son looks great! Getting much sleep yet??

Pulpiteer · Jul 18, 2013

3/5King said:
Andy!....Yo! Lol, haven't stopped by the old glogolitto in a bit. Sounds like you've been tested quite a bit this year. I feel for ya, my first year was rough and my second year (this one) started off slow like (most) everyone else. Foam on AACT isn't necessarily a sign of microbial life. You can have a tea with no foam that is hardy with microbes. Foam is caused by proteins in the compost. (I don't know what you made yours with) as long as you have air, sugar, a source of microbes and it smells good when you're done, it should be good to go. Gotta have faith! (You're great at that!)

My plants a few weeks ago looked like they got peppered with a shotgun too....freakin' bugs! They're doing better now. Your garden will pull through. Things are looking up! Another couple weeks and it will be in the past.
Wonderful to see your smiling baby boy! He's a handsome devil....wait can I say that??? Lol

Glad to have you stopping in again! You've been busy out on lakes catching fish and running races by the looks of your glog. I didn't know that about lack of foam - thanks. I think I'll be making another batch here soon. The plants are really greening up, which is great, now just a race against time.

Thanks for the compliments on the baby - handsome devil - made me laugh!

ajijoe said:
wow andy sorry i didnt check in sooner been super busy very little time to talk
moms been sick too so i have been watching Shailynn alot

im seeing alot of mine in your grow and frankly you have done me proud,very nice looking plants!!! i hope you blessed as i see you are in so many ways
oh by the way the Reluctant pastor sauce you sent me is anciant history that stuff was addicting!! if you need anything let me know
please keep in touch im following your grow now too so i will be checking in from time to time

thanks yuor friend Joe

Great to hear from you Joe! Glad you enjoyed the sauce! It was fun to make. I'm not sure what I'll do this year and if I'll get a good enough harvest. We'll see. Those Cili Goronongs are podding up nice, so I'm excited to see what they turn out like.

wahlee76 said:
Your plant are looking good. I'm sure they'll grow nice and strong, as I'm sure your son will . Just make sure you pass on the pepper virus

Thanks wahlee! Yeah, I'm trying to pass on the pepper love to the kids with varying degrees of success. We'll see. At least they are doing some gardening with me.

MGOLD86 said:
Looking good Andy, it seems like you are powering through a bit of a hard start. It will all end up in your favor, just wait. It always seems like you are running behind, but then.....BAM! You will be setting pods and harvesting every few days.

And your son looks great! Getting much sleep yet??

Thanks Matt! I think I'm moving forward. This heat we're having is really helping I think. It'll probably be a late harvest this year, but if the plants move forward like they are now, I'll at least have a harvest.

Sleep at night isn't too bad now. My wife is nursing, so I really can't complain. He's sleeping better, only up once or twice during the night, so that's been good. I have to tell you though, bed time with 4 kids = insanity. When the dust settles I just sit in a daze for awhile, then go out and check the garden to amp down a bit.

I kept meaning to add a video. I've got this messy, mixed plant, wood chips and weed thing going on in my garden - not very neat. Yet, many of the glogs I follow have these neat lines, clean, bare soil, nicely manicured, very pretty grows. I feel like the guy who shows up at a formal restaurant wearing dirty jeans and a stained t-shirt. Which is all part of the fun of following glogs - seeing these different ways to grow things. Anyway, as I was contemplating this, an old SNL skit came to mind, anyone else remember the "Anal Retentive Chef"?

http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/widget/widget.html?vid=n9838

PaulG · Jul 18, 2013

Hey Andy, things seem to be looking up garden-wise.
I'm sure your tea will spur the plants on!

Wow, four children now! You need to stop having kids, or grow
another pair of hands. Right now you and your spouse have one
hand for each child. A 'reasonably' manageable situation

He is a real cute tyke. Looks like he will be a happy baby!

The Goat's Weed looks great. +1 your comment about the soil temp.
The old wive's refrain is 'plant seeds with your pants off'. Meaning If
you sit on the soil and your tush gets cold, the soil is too cold for
germinating seeds. I imagine the same is true for planting out. Roots
like warmth.

Good luck in every way, my friend!

Pulpiteer · Jul 18, 2013

PaulG said:
Hey Andy, things seem to be looking up garden-wise.
I'm sure your tea will spur the plants on!

Wow, four children now! You need to stop having kids, or grow
another pair of hands. Right now you and your spouse have one
hand for each child. A 'reasonably' manageable situation
He is a real cute tyke. Looks like he will be a happy baby!

The Goat's Weed looks great. +1 your comment about the soil temp.
The old wive's refrain is 'plant seeds with your pants off'. Meaning If
you sit on the soil and your tush gets cold, the soil is too cold for
germinating seeds. I imagine the same is true for planting out. Roots
like warmth.

Good luck in every way, my friend!

Thanks Paul! Never thought of having one hand for each child - that's funny!

"'plant seeds with your pants off'."

For the record, your writing this just reaffirms everything we midwesterners suspect about y'all on the west coast.

romy6 · Jul 18, 2013

Dang Andy what are you feeding that boy. Two months old and he looks 6 months. Have you been adding some compost tea to his baby bottle :rofl:

Really liking your plants . They are starting to green up nicely. :party:

And don't feel bad .Compared to your grow mine looks like a the home depot garden center . Ugly black containers sprawled all around the house :shh:

Pulpiteer · Jul 20, 2013

romy6 said:
Dang Andy what are you feeding that boy. Two months old and he looks 6 months. Have you been adding some compost tea to his baby bottle

Really liking your plants . They are starting to green up nicely.

And don't feel bad .Compared to your grow mine looks like a the home depot garden center . Ugly black containers sprawled all around the house

Thanks Jamie - I have to give all the credit to my lovely wife. As Jim Gaffigan says, when you think about the male contribution to life, it's kind of embarrassing.

They are greening up, I'm feeling better. I just hope that they get big enough by fall to get a good harvest.

PaulG · Jul 20, 2013

"For the record, your writing this just reaffirms everything we
midwesterners suspect about y'all on the west coast. "

Actually, I think that is advice from the heartland :rofl:

Carry on, my son.

WalkGood · Jul 20, 2013

Very cool vert grow, I love the idea and very handsome son … keep up da great grow!

stc3248 · Jul 21, 2013

What'd'ya mean Andy! You don't plant out without pants??? Hmmm...you midwesterners are a strange bunch!

Haha...looking good! Try a handful of soil acidifier around the ones that aren't moving and give them a dose of epsom salts. Usually wakes them up!

Pulpiteer · Jul 23, 2013

PaulG said:
"For the record, your writing this just reaffirms everything we
midwesterners suspect about y'all on the west coast. "

Actually, I think that is advice from the heartland
Carry on, my son.

So, I'm in a small rural town... I'm already the hippy pastor who is growing *something* with grow lights in the winter. Now I am being encouraged to plant without pants on? This is going to confirm everything they already suspected about me...

WalkGood said:
Very cool vert grow, I love the idea and very handsome son … keep up da great grow!

Thanks!

stc3248 said:
What'd'ya mean Andy! You don't plant out without pants??? Hmmm...you midwesterners are a strange bunch!

Haha...looking good! Try a handful of soil acidifier around the ones that aren't moving and give them a dose of epsom salts. Usually wakes them up!

Thanks Shane! I'll remember that about the acidifier, not a bad idea, my soil is pretty alkaline. I've been putting epsom salts on here and there with some other foliar feeding.

Alright, a quick update

Here's a shot from a different angle that kind of shows you where the peppers are today. The plants, as a whole, are looking much better. There are a couple stragglers, but they are mostly nice and green. The thing that drives me crazy is that this is where I was in early June last year. I've been talking to several gardeners in the area, and almost everyone's vegetables are a little slow this year. Anyway, here's an almost ground level shot.

I have a couple pods developing

A purple bhut (Pepperlover)

A douglah (my seed, orig. Aji Joe)

And an FDA Scotch Bonnet (yellow, Pic1) which is showing that true bonnet shape, hooray!

Speaking of true bonnet shape, I received a thrilling package in the mail last week - MoA Scotch Bonnet seeds! Thanks so much to Steve, a truly generous guy and what an exciting thing he's done bringing this pepper to growers all over the country!

I have a few volunteer sunflowers, here is one close to the peppers. The seed was planted this year, either by a bird or a chipmonk out of the seeds from the bird feeder.

Finally, a critter shot. I found these unusual bees on my peppermint the other night. They are not like the ones I usually see, so I got a picture. They were doing something there, just sitting, not sure what...

Alright, that's all folks! Thanks for stopping by!

PaulG · Jul 23, 2013

Allright, pod heaven!

Could those be Mason Bees. They are small, black
bees that lay eggs in tubes or holes on wood to winter
over, then hatch out in the Spring. My buddy keeps his
bee tubes in the fridge in the winter, then puts them out
in Sping.

Sawyer · Jul 23, 2013

Looks like those bees are plotting something.