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Pulpiteer 2015 - New Year, New Hopes

I've been working towards 2015 for a bit now, so I figured I might as well get the glog fired up.
 
Quick recap: I'm a pastor was moved by the denomination last summer (happens every so often in my profession), so 2014 was not great. The soil in the new garden spot needs a ton of work. So this year is a year I hope to move forward.
 
One benefit of the new place is a 10 by 10 (or so) area in the basement that I can use as a plant room.  I've been working on that lately.
 
The room was previously used as a small wood shop, so it has a large table and a simple, homemade wooden shelving set up.  Here is a shot of it with the lights temporarily in place for my over winters.  I've already taken out one level in order to have a large growing area in the middle.  Also, on the far end, you can see I began a simple extension.  I wish I had a picture of how it was when I first started.  There were narrow shelves on that far wall.  I tore all of that out.  Also, there was a ton of paint and stuff on the shelving unit, that I had to move elsewhere.

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I got some insulation from a big box store (Menards), and began cutting and duct taping it in place.

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I attached the vanity lighting to 1 1/2 by 3, then screwed it in from the top so the screw head was flush with the upper level, and the lighting was as far up as it would go.

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Insulation in, lights on. On the top level I have 2 four foot t8 bulbs. 6500k color. The heat from the CFL's on the mid level make the top compartment warm. I hope warm enough for seeds to sprout.

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Since I want to be able to have loose plants on the mid level, but don't want water seeping into the wood or down into the lights on the bottom level, I took some cardboard from our packing boxes and made a custom fit box for that second level. I then lined the box with 2 garbage bags I sliced up the sides in order to make plastic sheeting.

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For the bottom level, I added insulation on the floor, since I figured cold air would come up from that. I also bought an 8 bulb, 4 foot, T5 grow light, which you can see hanging from the top of that bottom level. Finally, I thought I'd put a little 10 gallon fish tank in the bottom. This will provide humidity and when I get water from it to water the plants, it'll be full of nitrogen. Oh, and in the tank are 2 Firemouth cichlids.

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Also on the bottom level, to the right, I put in an exhaust fan. I got 2 of these little fans. They were on sale because they were out of season. I cut a custom hole in the insulation and stuck it in. I know, it looks factory made, right?

growstepfan.jpg


And here is the whole set up. Maybe you can see the second exhaust fan. I put it in the upper level to the right to blow across the seedlings when the come up. Also, my thought was that I could push the hot air to the left where there is a gap running down the side wall, and maybe the bottom fan would pull it all the way to the lower level and push out the cold air.

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Of course, you need to cover the front in order to keep the heat in. I took some large cardboard boxes and covered the front with Mylar emergency blankets.

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I put two screws on each side on the very top, and ran some wire through the top of the card board wall. And I hang them on that to hold it up.

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Ok that's my 10 picture limit.  I'll try to make it back tomorrow to cover my overwinters and the seeds I just put down, as well as the soil rehab project. 
 
It's been fun to get this going.  Hopefully it'll pay off.
 
Thanks for stopping by!
 
stickman said:
Nice color Andy, and enough heat to last you at least a month. Keep up the good work! :dance:
 
Thank you! I'm starting to have a good amount in my freezer for when I get to drying and eventually making more jelly.
 
Devv said:
Looking good Andy!
 
Nice to see the rewards ;)
 
Thanks!
 
romy6 said:
Beautiful pods and garden Andy . Glad you were able to turn it around . I see next year being epic my friend !!
 
Thanks Jamie! We'll see about next year. I'm pleased with the improvement I had this year for sure.
 
 
Just a couple of pepper shots:
 
Here is the harvest from last Monday (September 28).  This was a pretty good sized harvest, especially compared to what I was getting last year.  I'm pleased...
 
harvest.jpg


And some individual shots

An Arkansas Peach (Sawyer) - the color is off on the peach ones. They look a lot more peach colored.

apeach.jpg


One of my best plants has been my Bhut Orange Copenhagen (Coheed) - the pods are picture perfect, but my color is off on this again.

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Here is a picture of that Schneider farm Scotch Bonnet. I'm thrilled with this pepper. A great true bonnet.

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Brazilian Starfish from pepperlover - beautiful pod

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Here is one of the new ones from Judy at pepperlover - the Devil's Brain. It is a really wrinkly looking thing with tons of oil on the inside.

dbrain.jpg


I loved the look and shape of the Ice Scream Scorpion ButchT (Buckeye Pepper) - very cool pepper. One of the pepper draft guys used one as a popper and it almost killed him.

icescream.jpg


Here is another one of those weird pods off of the Peach 7 Pot plant from Sawyer. The pods are huge and tasty so I am saving seeds.

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I got some pods off the C. Praetermissum (Coheed). Hot little guys.

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And I also picked a bit of a harvest last night. Two harvests in two weeks. My freezer is getting some pods and I'm happier than last year, but still not fully satisfied.

harvest2.jpg


Thanks for stopping by!
 
Trident chilli said:
The Schneider Scotch Bonnet makes a perfect picture ... I can understand why you are pleased with this variety
 
Thank you!
Yep, they turned out to be a nice looking variety, for sure. I just ate a couple of slices of one tonight and really liked the taste too.
 
 
Here are some pics of this week's harvest
 
First, the overall harvest shot:
 
harvest.jpg


It was another good harvest. I've had a few of these now. It's been a much better year than last year for sure.

Here is a yellow scorpion (pepperlover)

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I only had one Harold St. Bart Habanero seed germinate this year for some reason (Buckeye Pepper). I isolated that plant and finally got a few beautiful pods from it and saved the seeds from two of them. Here is one of the nice ones:

hsb.jpg


The Aji Melocoton is a pepperlover special. It look like a large Aji Lemon except peach instead of yellow. The color comes through ok on this picture but really doesn't capture it. I haven't tasted it yet, but it's a baccatum, so it'll be good. It's a cool pepper.

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Here's one of the Pubescens that I got from Coheed - CAP273 Peru. They are orange, and I'm excited to see how one tastes.

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The UBSC brown that I got from Pic1 never turned brown, but they produced beautiful pods. Now they are putting out several with very cool stingers as you can see here.

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Sawyer sent me seed for the "Arkansas peach" - they have gotten larger and I wanted to get a shot of that.

apeach.jpg


And the inside gives you a clue as to how hot they are.

apeach2.jpg


Ok - that's what I have.

Thanks for stopping by!
 
Just a couple of quick shots for tonight.  We had a big frost about a week and a half ago.
 
Here are the results:
 
frost.jpg


I pulled some of the plants out and put them in pots in the garage. I'll figure out what to overwinter in the next few weeks.

I did get one more harvest before the frost destroyed everything.

harvest.jpg


Now I'm busy trying to winterize stuff - keep rabbits and deer away from fruit trees, figure out how I want my raised beds set up and where. Figure out where to get the manure and fill from... Busy time


Anyway, thanks for stopping by!
 
Hi Andy looks like you had a ok year great looking pods
How would you describe the flavor of the Schneider farm Scotch Bonnet?
Those Arkansas Peach look mistakenly harmless lol
 
Hey, Andy, glad to see you had a good year after all.  Next year should be even better.
 
Pulpiteer said:
 Here is another one of those weird pods off of the Peach 7 Pot plant from Sawyer. The pods are huge and tasty so I am saving seeds.
How is the heat for that brown not-Peach 7P?  It originally came from a Burgundy 7P that produced the most colors of any variety I've had, peach, red, caramel, as well as the expected burgundy.  This brown one is something new, but definitely looks like something to try to propagate, especially if the flavor and heat are there.
 
Pulpiteer said:
 Sawyer sent me seed for the "Arkansas peach" - they have gotten larger and I wanted to get a shot of that.
And the inside gives you a clue as to how hot they are.
Plantguy76 said:
Those Arkansas Peach look mistakenly harmless lol
Hah!  Yeah, it has Carolina Reaper in its ancestry, so the potential for heat is there.  I'm glad it came through as peach.  My notes say it should have a small, tight seed cluster, so I'm a little disappointed this one looks more bhut-like.  Oh well, both this one and the other are low-F number generations, so a lot of variability is to be expected.
 
Plantguy76 said:
Hi Andy looks like you had a ok year great looking pods
How would you describe the flavor of the Schneider farm Scotch Bonnet?
Those Arkansas Peach look mistakenly harmless lol
 
The year turned out pretty good - especially compared to last year. 
As far as that Scotch Bonnet - it seems to be that real typical scotch bonnet flavor - very good, a bit, I don't know people say smoky, so yeah... not really fruity.  But a good taste and habanero level heat.
 
Sawyer said:
Hey, Andy, glad to see you had a good year after all.  Next year should be even better.
 
How is the heat for that brown not-Peach 7P?  It originally came from a Burgundy 7P that produced the most colors of any variety I've had, peach, red, caramel, as well as the expected burgundy.  This brown one is something new, but definitely looks like something to try to propagate, especially if the flavor and heat are there.
 
Hah!  Yeah, it has Carolina Reaper in its ancestry, so the potential for heat is there.  I'm glad it came through as peach.  My notes say it should have a small, tight seed cluster, so I'm a little disappointed this one looks more bhut-like.  Oh well, both this one and the other are low-F number generations, so a lot of variability is to be expected.
 
I hope so, although all of my woodchips have disintegrated and the garden is now basically a cover crop of clover.  I'm trying to get wood around for raised beds, we'll see how that goes...
 
That not Peach 7P had maybe a habanero level heat, maybe a bit lower.  It was the first fresh pod my son tried and actually got him to try other peppers so that was cool.  I really liked the taste on that one - not your normal chocolate taste, more fruity.  Good flavor.  The Arkansas Peach had a so so flavor, but it's a pretty color and holy cow it's hot.  Really cool pepper.  Thanks again for all the seeds!
 
 
So I got an awesome package in the mail on Halloween from Romy6 (Jamie)
 
gift.jpg


Some awesome varieties in here, including a Bhutlah clamshell and chocolate bubblegum. Thanks Jamie!


Here's a shot of the freezer bags with most of my harvests in them. Now I need to get processing and drying. Not too bad this year.

harvest.jpg


Alright - that's what I have. Getting towards the end of another year and another growlog. Wow...

Thanks for stopping by!
 
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