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.

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.

 

[Pulpiteer]

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

Still waiting... I should have cut them in half, but I wanted to do it quicker. I'll be processing the next batch a little more.

this needs to be made into a poster and hung on the wall in my office! Great shot Andy and i love the way you have them all blocked out. Pepper Art at it's finest.

Thanks, you're too kind! It was fun to do and awesome to have such a large harvest to do it with.

Hey I just noticed a few red bells didn't make the cut. Good for you Andy. Me no likey bell peppers

Good eye. I was going to claim those were "Giant Red Habaneros" that I bred myself...

 

[3/5King]

My god, that's the way to do it pulpy! "Money for nothin' and the chicks for free"

Crazy, crazy, crazy

 

[highalt]

Hey, look, it's a pepper quilt!!!

First of all, that is the most massive harvest I've ever seen ... okay, well, not counting Spicy Chicken's ridiculousness.

Secondly, how long did it take you to get those peppers so perfectly lined up?

 

[Pulpiteer]

My god, that's the way to do it pulpy! "Money for nothin' and the chicks for free"

Crazy, crazy, crazy

Thank you, thank you. I've spent the week trying to find spare time to process these...

Hey, look, it's a pepper quilt!!!

First of all, that is the most massive harvest I've ever seen ... okay, well, not counting Spicy Chicken's ridiculousness.

Secondly, how long did it take you to get those peppers so perfectly lined up?

Yeah, I had some other folks suggest it was a quilt when I posted it on facebook. It would be a nice warm quilt, wouldn't it? It took longer than I thought it would, but not as long as picking them all. I underestimated how long that takes. I could go out and pick a bunch more now, I think. I'll have to soon because we are close to frosting. I hope to make it through the next few days. We've got lows of 32 expected.

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

wow.. simply wow.. ill help u process. them. just send here and ill help you dry em and eat em.. glad to see you harvest all them peppers.. sad to see you getting hit with frost already...

 

[stc3248]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] "I've spent the week trying to find spare time to process these..."[/background]


[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Yeah...good luck with that! I hear ya Andy. Frost sucks...plenty of room for ya down here in Cali! [/background]

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Andy is a pepper cartographer! He bought a large piece of land and that is the map with county boundaries! I'm making a request to reside in Peach Bhut County.

 

[stc3248]

I'll take a spot somewhere in Jamaica Hot or in the Caribbeans somewhere!

 

[Pulpiteer]

wow.. simply wow.. ill help u process. them. just send here and ill help you dry em and eat em.. glad to see you harvest all them peppers.. sad to see you getting hit with frost already...

very generous of you Denniz! I hope the hard frost holds off until mid October, but we'll see.

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]"I've spent the week trying to find spare time to process these..."[/background]


[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Yeah...good luck with that! I hear ya Andy. Frost sucks...plenty of room for ya down here in Cali! [/background]

Thanks for the offer Shane. I'm sad about the frost, but I absolutely love the fall. We've got to start hitting the apple orchards soon.

Andy is a pepper cartographer! He bought a large piece of land and that is the map with county boundaries! I'm making a request to reside in Peach Bhut County.

I'll take a spot somewhere in Jamaica Hot or in the Caribbeans somewhere!

You guys are great. I think I'll try to take residence in Harold St. Bart's ville.

 

[PaulG]

Phenomenal grow, Andy - the crazy quilt harvest is too awesome for words!
Of course it makes sense when I look at your pepper jungle! You have had
a great season, brother; good job!

Thanks for posting the jelly recipe; I've bookmarked that page for future reference.

Hope your weekend is good, and that Sunday service is joyous and uplifting.
Take care, Andy, and regards to your family, as well.

 

[nuk]

I enjoyed this grow log and just looking at the harvest pictures. Nicely done!

I might have missed it but what fertilizer brand were you using (if any)?

 

[Pulpiteer]

Phenomenal grow, Andy - the crazy quilt harvest is too awesome for words!
Of course it makes sense when I look at your pepper jungle! You have had
a great season, brother; good job!

Thanks for posting the jelly recipe; I've bookmarked that page for future reference.

Hope your weekend is good, and that Sunday service is joyous and uplifting.
Take care, Andy, and regards to your family, as well.

Thanks so much Paul! I'm glad I could get a big harvest picture to capture the success of the season. I have really been blessed this year.
Glad you can use the jelly recipe. I just made two more batches of jelly tonight, although one was not a pepper jelly. It was just raspberry for the kids. But the other I made a fatalii and pear jam that turned out really good. I'm going to call it "The Fatal Pear". I'm planning on giving that sort of thing for some Christmas gifts this year.

Sunday went well. We had our yearly meeting with my supervisor as a church and that went well too, which is a relief. They want me back for another year, so that's a success!

Thanks for stopping by Paul!

I enjoyed this grow log and just looking at the harvest pictures. Nicely done!

I might have missed it but what fertilizer brand were you using (if any)?

Glad you checked it out Nuk, and thank you! I did use Happy Frog soil for much of the potting before they went outside, so there was some stuff in that. I also used "Mykos" from Xtreme Gardening to get the roots going. After that I haven't used fertilizer, but I did mulch the plants pretty good with wood chips from the city, and I also used compost tea 2 or 3 times during the season. Oh, and last fall I laid on a layer of cow manure and on a part of it organic turkey manure (which smelled horrible). So, a lot of organic stuff, which I would totally recommend for many reasons. If you're curious about some of the stuff check out stuff that PepperGuru posts, or I'm reading a book called "Gaia's Garden" which gets into that stuff as well.



Alright, a few pictures. I've continued to be busy harvesting, dehydrating, and grinding peppers. As I mentioned to Paul, I just finished a batch of Fatalii Pear jam. My right eyelid is on fire right now, so my hands must still be contaminated.

Anyway, last week my son helped me pick most of the remaining tomatoes - here he is. He really helped for a longer duration this time which was cool. He also helped me peel them a bit.

Here is our total harvest. I cooked these down to a sauce and canned them last week. I think I got 9 pints if I remember right...

Here is one of the tomatoes peeled. I just had to show it because I think I've found my new favorite tomato - the "Moonglow." I bought them from Totally Tomato. They taste great, didn't crack (which was big this year), are a great medium size, and when you peel them they look like a peach or something. Very sweet and wonderful for a fruity salsa.

I've also been harvesting my butternut squash. If you're ever on the fence about these, grow them. They are great. They're hardy, taste great, and will store in a cool area (basement) throughout the winter or you can freeze them. I think I harvested 14 off of one vine this year.

I tried something new this year - an African Horned Melon. Well, it produced awesome vines, tons of green, actually covering my windows, but thus far only 3 fruits that I could find. Here is the largest. At least it looks awesome. It does poke you pretty good too.

So here's something crazy; under some of my tomato plants, where I grew the aji lemons last year, I found these pepper plants. They reseeded. I've not had that happen before. They are too small to produce, but I still thought it was noteworthy. They might have grown better but they were under tomato branches most of the summer.

I decided to be selective in what Douglah pods I save seeds from for next year. I thought I'd go with the smaller ones with the stingers. We'll see how these do.

After seed removal they were put in with the others for drying

Here are some Trinidad Scotch Bonnets drying

And finally, here are some of the powders that are finished. I've kept them separated by pepper because I've also ordered some spices such as cumin and allspice and I'm going to make some rubs and powder mixes.

Well, that's all I've got and it's late so I'm off to bed. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Hendrix1326]

Superb harvest on the non-peppers, Andy! I had the same problem with tomatoes cracking, too. Especially the Cherokee Purples I grew, which I just split and saved seeds from to grow next year or years to come. I love Kiwano melons, I tried them last year for the first time, and the insides are interesting and neon green with cucumber-shaped seeds.

 

[chsy83]

Awesome color on those powders!

 

[PaulG]

You've been a busy guy, Andy. Powders look
great! Have fun experimenting.

 

[Dshlogg]

Amazing harvest. Congratulations on your incredible grow. I've been checking in on your glog all year and it never disappoints. You da man!

 

[Pulpiteer]

Superb harvest on the non-peppers, Andy! I had the same problem with tomatoes cracking, too. Especially the Cherokee Purples I grew, which I just split and saved seeds from to grow next year or years to come. I love Kiwano melons, I tried them last year for the first time, and the insides are interesting and neon green with cucumber-shaped seeds.

Thanks Karl! Did you have the same issue of tons of vine, not many fruit? Also, the one I pictured looks done, right? And how did you eat it? Yeah, rough year for tomatoes. I think next year I'll just do the moonglows and roma tomatoes. Between the two of them they meet my needs.

Awesome color on those powders!

Thanks! The dehydrator is working overtime. I tried the first batch in my oven and ended up burning them, which really sucked, so these are going much better. Although grinding them is rough on my lungs.

You've been a busy guy, Andy. Powders look
great! Have fun experimenting.

Yeah, it's been a good busy though. Thanks and I will have fun with these experiments!

Amazing harvest. Congratulations on your incredible grow. I've been checking in on your glog all year and it never disappoints. You da man!

Thanks Dan - great to hear from you! I actually just had just under a half of a naga morich that I grew from seeds from the ones I got from you last year on a roast beef sub. Wow that's a hot pepper.

 

[stc3248]

Nice pull and powders! Always great to come by here and see your kids engaged with your grow too...future THPers for sure! So did you get anymore feedback from the neighbors once the "gardenscape" filled in and started producing? I've been wondering how well it was received. When a few of my containers spilled over into the front yard it raised a few eyebrows and started some conversations. I gave away quite a few pods to folks that "passed by" (which is odd since I live in the end of a cul de sac) routinely while I was harvesting...

I thought my grow was ambitious for the amount of space I have...until I saw yours! Will you be as ambitious, more or throttle back next season???

 

[Hendrix1326]

Thanks Karl! Did you have the same issue of tons of vine, not many fruit? Also, the one I pictured looks done, right? And how did you eat it? Yeah, rough year for tomatoes. I think next year I'll just do the moonglows and roma tomatoes. Between the two of them they meet my needs.

I didn't end up eating the Cherokee Purples, they split for too long and got moldy The plant was a little stunted, but got about 3 1/2 feet tall, with 3 tomatoes total, and they all split bad! Many of my plants did pretty well, like Sungold, Chadwick Cherry, Bradley, Yellow Pear, and Pink Bertona. Some of those I will be bringing back next season, such as the Chadwick and Sungold, as well as Black Trifele (wow, perfect velvety, non-grainy texture!). Sungolds are the sweetest, least tart tomato I've ever eaten, and they're perfect for snacking since they're cherry-sized!

 

[Beehunter]

Wow Andy! im shell shocked by your havest pic! the quilt o chilis is such as beautiful thing! Also your powders kept there colors perfectly! Man you really got this growing thing down in only one year. Looks awesome. Congrats brotha!