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Pulpiteer's grow log 2012

I thought I'd do a grow log this year, since I've enjoyed reading the ones that other folks do. I'm up in Michigan and last year was able to get the plants in the garden in mid-May, but that isn't a sure thing. I'm starting a bit early, but I want the plants to be a good size when I do get them in, so that I don't have to wait until later in the Fall to harvest. If we would've had an early frost last year, I would've been in trouble. The grow log puts a bit of pressure on. If this is a tremendous failure, then it'll be public. I've been gardening for awhile, and had great luck with my peppers last year, but I'm taking a giant step up this year, so we'll see.

Here is my grow list:
1. Douglah x4 Ajijoe
2. Scotch Bonnet (Y) x4 Pepperjoe.com
3. Cherry Bomb x4 Farmers market
4. Bhut Jolokia ® x4 Dshlogg
5. Trinidad Scorpion (Red)x6 Ajijoe
6. Trinidad Scropion (Peach) x6 Ajijoe
7. Chocolate Congo Habanero x6 Ajijoe
8. Caribbean Red Habanero x6 Ajijoe
9. Aji Pineapple x4 Ajijoe
10. Peach Bhut Jolokia x6 Ajijoe
11. Naga Morich x4 Dshlogg
12. Scotch Bonnet (Y)x8 Refining Fire
13. Jamaican Red Mushroom x8 Refining Fire
14. Jamaican Chocolate Habanero x8 Refining Fire
15. Thai Dragon x4 Dshlogg
16. 7 Pot (Yellow) x4 Masschilehead
17. Avery Island Tobasco x4 Masschilehead
18. Aji Limon x4 Dshlogg
19. Devil's Tongue x4 Dshlogg
20. Fatali x6 Totally Tomato
21. Red Rocoto x6 Totally Tomato
22. Scotch Bonnet (Red)x4 Hotstuff
23. Jalapeno x4 Dshlogg
24. Bell (various) x20 (I'll buy the plants in the spring)

This website has been tremendously helpful. After some contact with MJDiamond83, I ordered some CFL bulbs. They are 100 watt bulbs that put out the equivalent of 400 watts of light, 6500 on the light temperature, I believe. I get a shelving unit on sale last year from Lowes, some pvc this year from Menards and ordered some mylar emergency blankets off of Amazon (10 for $8) and put up a cheap frame that gives me two levels, with the CFL on top and some florescent strip lights on the bottom. With the lights on, it gets to about 84, and with them off its in the mid 70's. I hope that's enough to get the seeds to pop.

Here's a shot where you can see the three lights and the mylar around the three sides. For the front cover I just have a mylar sheet that drapes down and it's all basically enclosed.
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Here's a shot of everything planted. For the most part I have at least two seeds in each cell, sometimes a few more than that. I figure I can cut down if I have too many that germinate.
growroom2.jpg
 
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Wow Andy, loving what you're doing with your harvests. That jelly looks fantabulous! I originally only had ambitions to make sauce and powders, but you and a few other people have me starting to get the itch for making jelly.
 
Great update, Pulpiteer! Have a question about the mustard hab. Do the pod changes color to a more caramel color when you keep it on the plant longer? Yours look great!
 
ajijoe said:
everything looks wonderful

the scorps are impressive too great work
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Thanks Joe! Those scorpion plants are great. Nice, big, and full of peppers. Great seed!

compmodder26 said:
Wow Andy, loving what you're doing with your harvests. That jelly looks fantabulous! I originally only had ambitions to make sauce and powders, but you and a few other people have me starting to get the itch for making jelly.
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Thanks! Just make the jelly, you'll thank us later. I promise. It's not horribly difficult either. Plus, it's fun to share with people, especially the ones who turn their noses up at it at first, then try it, then beg you for jars.

KiNGDeNNiZ said:
Don't forget pepper reviewer...
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I think my pepper reviews are basically me being in pain and trying to talk for about 7 minutes...

meatfreak said:
Great update, Pulpiteer! Have a question about the mustard hab. Do the pod changes color to a more caramel color when you keep it on the plant longer? Yours look great!
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Thanks! Mine ripened right into that color, getting a little darker as they ripen. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. They have a really good yellow chinense taste, which surprised me. Pretty hot too. Not sure what flavor I expected, I mean I knew they wouldn't be mustard-y but part of my brain kept thinking that...
 
Spicegeist said:
Nice surprise, too bad about the flavor. You could grow the seed next year and see if it changes color again...
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I'm trying to decide on that. I've got so much I want to grow, not sure if I want one that has a taste I don't care for. But they do look nice, so I'm not sure.



I'm up real late canning tomatoes. Right now they are processing in the water bath so I have a brief moment to update.

First, on Friday I received a surprise package in the mail from Karl (Hendrix1326). It is an amazing assortment of peppers, most of them I've not even heard of, so they are new to me.

package.jpg


I've been looking through them, trying to figure out which I wanted to try first. I ended up sampling a "caterpillar pepper" because it kind of looks like a caterpillar and that's kind of neat. It has a nice kick to it, and I'm trying to place the taste... Very enjoyable, and I'm going to pull the seeds out of the larger one of the two that he sent me. Now I need to work my way through the rest. What a great sample package!

Thanks Karl!


Finally, a quick story. Our neighbor girl is in high school and is over at our house often. She is dating a young man, and I feel a little protective of her. Well, they were out on their porch, I was in the garden, and one thing led to another and he agrees to sample a pepper with me. I'm thrilled, so I grabbed a 7 Pot Jonah and cut it in half so he could check it out. He would've eaten the whole half if I would have told him to, but I couldn't be that mean. I cut a sliver off and cut that in half and each of us had a half a sliver. His eyes turned very red and started watering quite a bit, but since he was in front of his girl friend he had to be tough. I was loving it. He said his eyes always watered when he ate hot stuff. To his credit he really hung in there pretty well, but he also downed a couple of glasses of milk after a couple of minutes. I probably enjoyed the whole thing more than I should have.

Here's a picture of the inside of the pod we sampled. As you can see, there's a good amount of oil on it.

jonah.jpg


Alright, that's it for tonight. Thanks for stopping by!
 
Andy, I have 2 girls in college now, youngest just started this semester and when ever they bring a boy friend over they insist, the guys that is, on taste testing some of my sauce and of course I have to pull out one of the Super hot ones. To their credit they usually man up to it, one even called it "The Man Test". Turned out he's a chili head and grew his own Bhut's. I keep some Orange Creamsicles around for them just incase they get in over their heads but I have to admit, I love watching them squirm about a bit before giving into the heat.
 
real nice glog andy I was going to sleep early I work at 6 am lol I better stop At page 10 and ill view the rest of your glog tomorrow Your plant are looking real nice there. Them plant u got growing from joe just gave me a better idea of how they would look .which means the list I sent u joe just got bigger. real intresting stuff u got on your glog . them jam u made looks really good .havent tried homemade jam in 12 years . ok i got to sleep its 22:56 pm gotta get up in 4 hrs.
 
RocketMan said:
Andy, I have 2 girls in college now, youngest just started this semester and when ever they bring a boy friend over they insist, the guys that is, on taste testing some of my sauce and of course I have to pull out one of the Super hot ones. To their credit they usually man up to it, one even called it "The Man Test". Turned out he's a chili head and grew his own Bhut's. I keep some Orange Creamsicles around for them just incase they get in over their heads but I have to admit, I love watching them squirm about a bit before giving into the heat.
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Nice! I'm not the only one then :lol: . I really have to give this boy credit too, he handled it well considering. Of course if I'd given him a bigger chunk it would've gotten very interesting...

Sali man said:
real nice glog andy I was going to sleep early I work at 6 am lol I better stop At page 10 and ill view the rest of your glog tomorrow Your plant are looking real nice there. Them plant u got growing from joe just gave me a better idea of how they would look .which means the list I sent u joe just got bigger. real intresting stuff u got on your glog . them jam u made looks really good .havent tried homemade jam in 12 years . ok i got to sleep its 22:56 pm gotta get up in 4 hrs.
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Thanks Sali man! You're a trooper reading through so much. Yeah, when I looked over Joe's list of peppers, I kept writing them down, and the list got longer and longer. Some of my favorites from him are the peach bhuts, the harold st. barts, and the peach habaneros. The jam has turned out excellent. In fact, if all goes well I'll make more tonight. :drooling:
 
It's been busy in the Pastor's Pepper patch - keeping me running between work, family, and harvesting/using the harvest. Good problems to have!

First up, here's a nice picture of one of the beautiful peppers that Karl (Hendrix1326) sent. It is a Red Biquinho Iracema. Tiny, not much heat, nice flavor, and a beautiful pod.

karl.jpg


Next, I was opening our garage door and this guy fell out of somewhere.

mantis1.jpg


So the kids and I relocated him to his new home in the garden.

mantis2.jpg


I spent just about every spare daylight minute out picking peppers for a few days last week, which is hard because many times my job has meetings and/or classes that go on in the evening, so I don't always get the daylight I need to harvest. Nonetheless, I was able to find a few peppers. Here's a big harvest shot:

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and here it is with the peppers labeled:

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One of my favorite peppers this year is the Trinidad Scotch Bonnet - both red and yellow, although I've gotten better production out of my reds. They taste wonderful, pack a bit of a punch, and some of the pods are monsters:

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Here is the inside:

sb2.jpg


Now for the work of storing and using everything. Here go some Jamaican hot reds and yellows into the oven to dry:

dry1.jpg


dry2.jpg


Alright, that's what I've got so far. Thanks for stopping by!
 
Wow, Andy, you have a MASSIVE harvest this year, great job! That must be like 20-30 pounds worth! I just went through the other night and picked all of my Lemon Drops that were ripe, and they are in the dehydrator and will become a delicious powder! I also harvested all the ripe Bird's Eye-types that were ripe, as well. Definitely the fun/tough time of the year, since everything is winding down. Oh well, time for us to start planning our 2013 gardens, right ;)
 
Awesome pull Andy! I feel your pain with finding the time to pull them all. My wilds alone take a solid hour just to pick 4 plants clean. Then the never ending task of smoking, drying and grinding...wouldn't trade it though! How are your tomatoes doing?
 
Hendrix1326 said:
Wow, Andy, you have a MASSIVE harvest this year, great job! That must be like 20-30 pounds worth! I just went through the other night and picked all of my Lemon Drops that were ripe, and they are in the dehydrator and will become a delicious powder! I also harvested all the ripe Bird's Eye-types that were ripe, as well. Definitely the fun/tough time of the year, since everything is winding down. Oh well, time for us to start planning our 2013 gardens, right ;)
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Thanks Karl. I wish I would've weighed it, but I think it was a lot more judging by how heavy it was carrying several bags inside. Either that or all the picking wore me out and I'm a wimp :) . Glad to hear about the Lemon Drops - great pepper and great plant. I'm glad those seeds grew out so well for you this year. I can't imagine picking any of the bird type peppers. The Thai's are enough work for me. It's got to take forever. And yeah, I've been thinking ahead to 2013 for a bit now. I've even started asking the guys from the pepper draft what they liked best and didn't like to figure out what they want to grow as well.

stc3248 said:
Awesome pull Andy! I feel your pain with finding the time to pull them all. My wilds alone take a solid hour just to pick 4 plants clean. Then the never ending task of smoking, drying and grinding...wouldn't trade it though! How are your tomatoes doing?
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Thanks Shane! You've had a few harvests that size, that's a ton of time picking! Like I said to Karl, I can't imagine picking any of the bird's or smaller ones, that's a lot of time for small peppers. I never thought about getting a smoker until now. I see why you guys do it. Part for flavor, part for just getting it done. You're right though, I wouldn't trade it either. What a blessing to have a harvest! My tomatoes are starting to wind down. I'm considering doing some more canning - seeing what I have left. I may do some pasta sauce today if I have enough time.



Thanks for dropping in guys!
 
romy6 said:
Beautiful harvest shots Handy Andy:) Can't wait to see what you make of it. Gotta a shot of thsse babies fresh out of the oven?
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Not yet, they're still drying. Maybe I did the temps too low (170-180). It's taking forever. At this rate I'll have that harvest fully dried right before I begin planting for next year.
 
No ,that is perfect for maintaing color and flavor. I am thinking about 6 hours . Let me know how it comes out. My wife won't let me do stuff like that inside and she is a chilihead :fireball:
 
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