Pulpiteer 2016 Grow Log - better late than never.

stc3248 · Mar 15, 2016

300+ plants!!! You'll need to hire help to harvest! Can't wait to see the buckets full-o-pods!

Pulpiteer · Mar 30, 2016

austin87 said:
Wow man that is so awesome! I have just over 10 varieties and I feel pretty good about it! You are crushing it!

Thanks! We'll see how they do this year. I've heard that it should be a warmer year this year, which may be a good thing for my harvest.

stc3248 said:
300+ plants!!! You'll need to hire help to harvest! Can't wait to see the buckets full-o-pods!

I have 315 pepper plants growing down stairs right now. I'll give over 200 away though, so it'll settle down. It should be a big pepper draft this year with 11 - 12 participants!

Alright- here's an update.

It was an intense few weeks leading up to Easter, but the plants made it through with limited attention. As they begin to get the size they are, I have more of a challenge keeping them watered. The green tends to aspirate greater amounts of water, while the root zone provided by the pots are too small to hold enough water to really keep up. So I do need to check on them a few times a day, just to catch the ones that are wilted. However, I cannot water them to much or they get edema (bumps under the leaves) pretty bad, or turn yellow due to the excess water making nutrient uptake a challenge.

Here’s the two main grow shelves:

The overflow on the side:

The over wintered plants canopy:

I mixed up a solution to feed the plants and boost their immune system – it has water from when I cleaned the fish tank, kelp, fish fertilizer, and some root boost. I dilute it when adding to the plants and keep the aerator going so it doesn’t stink.

I was excited to find some bat guano on sale. Part of the ingredients I use for my special soil mix.

It took forever, but I finally had two galapagoense seeds germinate. I really hope to get some pods from one of these so I can save seed from it.

Some of the plants - very green, looking good.

Alright - thanks for stopping by!

Maligator · Mar 30, 2016

I'm impressed, that's one heck of a grow list...I'll be following this since your in the same state and I'm new to the Michigan pepper grow season.

Devv · Apr 1, 2016

Andy, you're on mark this season!

Wishing you continued success!

Trident chilli · Apr 2, 2016

Andy how are those black river bonnets doing

Sawyer · Apr 2, 2016

Those OWs are looking really healthy. Mine are barely hanging in there. There's no more frost in the 10 day extended forecast, though. Maybe I'll move them outside tomorrow to try to wake them up. On the seedling side, I've had 3 of 6 Schneider Farm SB come up. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do this year.

Pulpiteer · Apr 4, 2016

Maligator said:
I'm impressed, that's one heck of a grow list...I'll be following this since your in the same state and I'm new to the Michigan pepper grow season.

Thanks! What part of the state are you in?

Devv said:
Andy, you're on mark this season!

Wishing you continued success!

Thanks! I'm hearing a warm summer is on the way here (although it's snowing today) so maybe we'll be in for a good season!

Trident chilli said:
Andy how are those black river bonnets doing

Excellent! They are in the stage with the big, fat leaves:

Sawyer said:
Those OWs are looking really healthy. Mine are barely hanging in there. There's no more frost in the 10 day extended forecast, though. Maybe I'll move them outside tomorrow to try to wake them up. On the seedling side, I've had 3 of 6 Schneider Farm SB come up. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do this year.

Thanks - they are doing well. I'm now getting to the part in the indoor grow where I'm running out of room and just waiting to get stuff into the greenhouse.

Glad those Scotch Bonnets are working for you! I look forward to seeing them as well.

It’s been busy down in the pepper dungeon with the plants quickly growing past the limits of their pots. This means I’ve spent a lot of time potting them up into bigger containers, choosing the plants that will be mine and the ones that will go into the pepper draft – since the drafted plants go into specially marked containers which makes it easier for me to sort out later.

Anyway, here’s a shot of the whole shebang just a few days ago. It’s changed a bit since then, but this gives you an idea of what is going on.

On the top shelf I’ve started some flowers and tomatoes – Moonglow Tomatoes which I love.

Here is what a root ball looks like when I move up a pot size. This one actually isn’t too bad. The ones that are bigger have circles around and really need to be broken up.

Some fat leaves growing in under the lights:

Here (below) is one of the rare C. Pubescens. I think you can see the small fuzz on the leaves in this shot.

Here is a C. Chacoense with a flower that is going to blossom soon.

Finally, I’m phasing in some LED grow lights when I get a change. Here is one of the bulbs to give you an idea what that looks like:

I think I'll put more up later today if I can. I'll be working on potting more plants up throughout the day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Maligator · Apr 4, 2016

Pulpiteer said:
Thanks! What part of the state are you in?

Livonia

Devv · Apr 4, 2016

Good stuff there Andy!

Whens dirt day?

Love the look of the pubes! They're really hard to grow here with the heat, but are just beautiful plants. I can't stop growing them! (or trying to

Pulpiteer · Apr 4, 2016

Maligator said:
Livonia

Cool - I'm just north of Lansing. So we're in similar areas climate-wise. I think this summer should be warmer than the last so it may be a good year for the peppers!

Devv said:
Good stuff there Andy!

Whens dirt day?

Love the look of the pubes! They're really hard to grow here with the heat, but are just beautiful plants. I can't stop growing them! (or trying to

Dirt day is usually around Memorial Day - give or take. I always want to get them into the ground earlier, but the cold soil sets them back, so I have tried to hold off more as I've gotten more experience.

The Pubescens do well here. They are so tasty (not to rub it in)!

I did a lot of work downstairs with the peppers today, so a second update:

Here is a Harold St. Bart’s Habanero comparison shot – before and after with the bigger pots:

Here is a Naga Brain Yellow – a new and very cool cross grown by Jamie (Romy6). This variety has grown some very large leaves. It’ll be interesting to see what the plant does as it moves outside.

The little C. Galapagoense sprouts are growing and developing their true leaves.

I got a new LED growlight in the mail today from Amazon – here it is on the upper level

And another view lighting up some plants on the upper level...

And that's what I've got for the night - thanks for stopping by!

Maligator · Apr 4, 2016

I'm curious to know what your determination about the use of LED lights will be as the season progresses.

Devv · Apr 8, 2016

And I agree with the holding off with the dirt day regarding peppers. I plant maters March 1st, peppers just sit at that time. Tried March 15th, last year and this year. No good. The second round plants put in the dirt around April 1st are doing better than the earlier gals.

Next year a new plan, live and learn...that's all we can do.

Keep it green and much success this year!

RocketMan · Apr 9, 2016

Oh wow, the LED grow light looks awesome! Is it one of the programmable ones? I saw one somewhere that you could modify the color range of the lights to bring out more blue or red / other colors.

Pulpiteer · May 27, 2016

Maligator said:
I'm curious to know what your determination about the use of LED lights will be as the season progresses.

They seemed to work just fine. The ones that screwed into the socket were too much for being that close to the plants though and they burned the leaves.

Devv said:
And I agree with the holding off with the dirt day regarding peppers. I plant maters March 1st, peppers just sit at that time. Tried March 15th, last year and this year. No good. The second round plants put in the dirt around April 1st are doing better than the earlier gals.

Next year a new plan, live and learn...that's all we can do.

Keep it green and much success this year!

It took a bit up here for things to warm up, then last weekend they finally did and it's been hot all week. So the last two days have been dirt day!

RocketMan said:
Oh wow, the LED grow light looks awesome! Is it one of the programmable ones? I saw one somewhere that you could modify the color range of the lights to bring out more blue or red / other colors.

It's not programmable, just a simple one. I think I want to move more towards those though since they should last longer and use less power.

Ok - it's been almost two months...
Life is just getting away from me with work, family, and yard work.

The pepper draft was the first of May - and it went wonderfully.

For newcomers to my glog, the pepper draft is the way I give away extra pepper plants I have and how I spread the love for insanely hot peppers. I grow extra seedlings, get people together who take turns drafting the plants based on variety and how each individual plant looks - so it's like the NFL draft for peppers. Plus we eat hot food and hang out together.
This was the 5th annual draft - here's coverage of the first four: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
This year we had 10 people/couples drafting over 200 pepper plants, making it the highest participation in a pepper draft ever!

Here is my son picking the ping pong balls that determine draft order:

All the peppers up for draft:

And things getting serious...

The work on the garden and yard has been a lot. I am moving to raised beds, so what I am trying this year is large tractor tires that a parishioner got me for free. Here they are unprepped:

They needed to have the top rims cut back and then filled with fill dirt, manure, and compost.

I then put the black plastic mulch cover over them, cut holes in, and planted the peppers.

Oh, and we got chickens! We have four Isa Browns who are great egg layers. I'll have to post more on that another time.

Here is a close up of a Scotch Bonnet Peach from Trident Chili – with a pod already growing!

The final item is that we just had a large maple cut down. It was dying in the center, dropping large branches, and blocking the sun from the garden area. It was huge. And I got tons of mulch from it!

And that's my 10 picture limit. It gives you some idea of what's going on. I'll get more on here when I can. I've been busy planting almost 100 pepper plants the last two days, so it's just been busy for me.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Devv · May 28, 2016

I've been missing your reports!

Glad the pepper draft went well, and the garden looks great!

A ton of work but good for the heart!

keep it green!

OCD Chilehead · May 28, 2016

Cool tire plot. Very good vibes going on here.

Wishing you a fantastic season.

Thanks for sharing

Chuck

Trident chilli · May 29, 2016

Great use of recycling tractor tyres Andy ... rubber raised beds I would imagine that on warm days the rubber would absorb the heat hopefully holding it for cooler days. The Matthew Arthur's Peach SB look great pleased to see you already have pods. Very prolific variety that seems to have more flowers than others ... will be interested in its development especially grown in soil and boosted by heat and humidity

Schneider Farm and Arkansas Peach that you kindly sent are turning out to be grand looking plants both starting to produce buds

Echoing Chuck here's hoping you have a fantastic season

stickman · May 29, 2016

Nice pics Andy! It's plain that your season is gonna do well for you... Bonnet pods already! Keep on truckin'. :dance:

Pulpiteer · May 31, 2016

OCD Chilehead said:
Cool tire plot. Very good vibes going on here.

Wishing you a fantastic season.

Thanks for sharing

Chuck

Thank you!

Trident chilli said:
Great use of recycling tractor tyres Andy ... rubber raised beds I would imagine that on warm days the rubber would absorb the heat hopefully holding it for cooler days. The Matthew Arthur's Peach SB look great pleased to see you already have pods. Very prolific variety that seems to have more flowers than others ... will be interested in its development especially grown in soil and boosted by heat and humidity

Schneider Farm and Arkansas Peach that you kindly sent are turning out to be grand looking plants both starting to produce buds

Echoing Chuck here's hoping you have a fantastic season

Thanks - I think that the black rubber will heat up the soil nicely. The issue will be drying out. We'll see how it goes. Last season the soil took too long to warm up. That shouldn't be a problem this year.
What is the story behind the peach SB? I'm excited to see how it turns out. I really like peach pods and Scotch Bonnets - so it was one I really wanted to see how it went.

Glad to hear the seeds are working out for you!

stickman said:
Nice pics Andy! It's plain that your season is gonna do well for you... Bonnet pods already! Keep on truckin'.

Thanks Rick!

Ok - to continue from last entry, I mentioned that we had some trees removed. That not only opened up the garden area for more sun, but also left me this pile of wood mulch:

I’ve stuck a couple pepper plants in the front yard in order to isolate them for seed stock. Here is the “Big Black Mama”. It's between a Cornellian Cherry (left) and Nero Aronia (Right). Oh, and that's a robin's nest on the far left, taken from one of the trees that were cut down.

Here is a Bhut Orange Copenhagen – I really like this pepper and need a pure seedstock to continue growing it. You can see I have planted some other things near to it - a Shasta Daisy and a Calendula.

I also want to save seed from my galapgoense, so I have it isolated in a pot over by the hops. It got a late start, but I hope it will catch up.

The tires and black covers put out a lot of heat and the plants are adjusting okay. I had to give them a bit of water. You can tell they look beat up by the wind and heat, but I think they’ll adjust. When they are big enough that their green covers the top of the tire, it will cool down the surface a bit and they’ll be ok.

Here you can see the plants I overwintered. They are doing well. I even have some Pineapple Rocoto pods coming!

I also put some tomatoes in. I put four of them in car tire raised beds:

And a few non peppers...

I am growing honeyberries - and this year my plants finally produced a few! Here is a picture of one of them. It had a good taste, but a bit tart yet, I think I picked it a little early.

I've got a lot of comfrey in the front yard with all my perennials, and the bees love it.

And that's my 10 picture limit. Thanks for stopping by!

OCD Chilehead · May 31, 2016

Very nice pile of mulch. That's gold in my garden. Will make great compost. Plants are really going to kick off soon. Comfrey looks good. Glad to see some bee's. I've seen bees for the first time in years in my yard. I've been reading the benefits of planting comfrey. From medicinal uses to breaking up clay and nutrients for the soil.