Rabid48's 2012 Grow Log

Hello all! I'm new around these parts, but I've been lurking around the forums ever since I figured out how to eradicate the aphids from my overwintered plants by reading Pepperguru's guide in the main growing section. I've been hooked ever since.

This will be my log for 2012, but I'm playing a little bit of catch up because every time I come here I wind up salivating over someone else's photos rather than posting my own. I started back on February 1st, so hopefully this will get me back on track.

Last year I had a pretty basic season, with just a few small jalapenos, sweet cayennes, Hungarian waxes, California Wonders, and one lonely chocolate habanero that I bought as a plant at a greenie festival up in Rochester. I grew them all out of some 6-8" pots outside my apartment, so they never got very big. I decided to overwinter them in the hopes of getting some better production this year while being able to focus on a few more varieties.

Unfortunately, things didn't go so well; battling aphids, cold, and a few fungus gnats really took their toll on the plants. I started out with around 10 and I am now left with only 4: one jalapeno, one sweet cayenne, and two Hungarian waxes that are intertwined in the same pot.

This is the jalapeno, with its one lonely leaf of new growth:

And these are the sweet cayenne and Hungarian Waxes:

The leaves on those look pretty terrible, but that is just old growth ready to be trimmed. I've since cut them back a little bit and they seem to be doing fine. Hopefully they'll keep on truckin' til plant out, which should be after Memorial day around here.

So, that's what's left of last year's grow. Onward to 2012's grow.

I've gotten a much earlier start this year. I don't think I started until April last year, so hopefully that won't be too much of a hindrance. Just lots of potting up.

Here is a list of what I have planted so far (No superhots unless somebody wants to do some donating):

• Cayenne (amazon via wholesale via toddsseeds.com) x8
• Poinsettia Pepper (Burpee) x11
• Tequila Sunrise (Burpee) x6
• Anaheim (from my mother's friend) x6
• Chocolate Habanero (from the greenie festival's plant) x6
• Caribbean Red (Ferry Morse) x6
• Pablano (Ferry Morse) x4
• California Wonder (Walmart) x7 + some non-thinned ones I might plant

I also planted some Roma tomatoes with those, and wound up with 50 sprouts! (I spilled the seed pouch and decided to spread the love around.

In addition to all of that I just planed a few more varieties on Monday 2/20 (numbers listed by cell, with three seeds per cell):

• Rocoto (CPI) 0/9
• NuMex Jalmundo (CPI) 0/9
• Pasilla (CPI) 0/9
• Pimient de Espelette (CPI) 0/9

That batch was a splurge to get some new variety that I hope will turn out well. I'm especially excited about the rocotos to see how they do in the cooler/hillier climate that we have up here.

As I'm sure you're wondering, no, I won't be planting all of those plants into the ground when the time comes. I plan on giving a few away to family/friends in the area who are also gardeners. I also think I'm going to put some poinsettia peppers in my office. Show everybody at work what I'm all about.

The main reason for not planting all those wonderful plants is because of space (shocker!). I think this year I will be able to plant in the ground around my apartment (east and West facing, unfortunately no south facing). Here is the West facing spot I plan to use:

There are some black-eyed Mary plants in there that I'm hoping I can take out.

So that pretty much sums up my plans/what I've been up to. Now for the seedling pictures. I have a whole bunch but most of them are just at the cotyledon stage. I'll keep it interesting.

The first batch, minus the Pablanos and bells. The Roma tomatoes are in the containers up front. This was before I thinned them out.

I had to pot things up to solo cup size so tat I could reuse my germ chamber for the second batch. I first went for theses cut-offs for more lateral space, but as you'll see I listened to Toby Kieth and just went for the straight up solo cups after my first batch of transplants.

This is post thinning and the first batch of transplants. Things got a little leggy while I was away for a few days. No worries there though.

...and here is the most current set up. Today I added all those cfls on the strip (ala stc3248's grow log). They're bright as hell! I could physically feel the eye strain from them after I was done looking at the set up for a while. I'll have to get some sunglasses.

They're only 5000, but I'll switch 'em over to 6400 like everything else is if they don't work well.I also added a fan to the mix to help beef up the stalks, but most of them haven't crested the tops of the cups, so it isn't doing much.


Thanks for stopping by and having a look! I really love the community here and I hope I didn't take too much of your time from slobbering over those other awesome looking posts.

Nathan


Nathan

 

[rabid48]

The too much light theory may be an issue for Shane but I don't think it's your problem New York. I've noticed that you keep your plants on the dry side. Almost every picture you post the soil looks dry. Is it pretty warm at plant level on the drooping ones? Do you use a fan to circulate the air? If you water them when you see them drooping to they perk back up?

Best of luck to you.

It's probably both. The only reason that I think it's not the warmth is that it happens at the same time everyday, and they are perked up the next day.

As far as the watering goes, I do use a little bit of droopy-ness to tell me when to water, but I also judge it based off of the weight of the cup, which seems to be a good indication of how wet it is. I also tend to take pictures right before I water.

Hey, Rabid! Your grow out is looking very robust! You have some great plants. That little Caribbean Red reminds me of a Red Habanero that I'm growing this year. It branched at less than an inch tall, after growing very, very slowly at first. They should be nice bushy plants!

Thanks Paul! I hope that Caribbean Red works out! It's finally starting to right one of the branches, but the other is still growing downwards. We'll see what happens.

LOOKIN GOOD NO THE WEATHER HAS TO WARM GETTIN CLOSE!!
THANKS YOUR FFRIEND jOE

Thanks Joe! I hope that warm weather gets here soon! I need it! The plants you gave me are really starting to look good also, I just don't know where I'm gonna put them all!

-Nathan

 

[ajijoe]

It's probably both. The only reason that I think it's not the warmth is that it happens at the same time everyday, and they are perked up the next day.

As far as the watering goes, I do use a little bit of droopy-ness to tell me when to water, but I also judge it based off of the weight of the cup, which seems to be a good indication of how wet it is. I also tend to take pictures right before I water.



Thanks Paul! I hope that Caribbean Red works out! It's finally starting to right one of the branches, but the other is still growing downwards. We'll see what happens.



Thanks Joe! I hope that warm weather gets here soon! I need it! The plants you gave me are really starting to look good also, I just don't know where I'm gonna put them all!

-Nathan

your welcome and im sure you will find space

thanks your friend Joe

 

[rabid48]

It's been a while since I last updated, so I thought I'd take the time to put one up. I've been meaning to post for a few days now but it keeps slipping my mind.

Some big news has been happening up here. I've given away a large majority of my plants, all to local family members. I never really intended to grow as many as I did, but luckily they were all willing to take some to grow in their own gardens.

I just don't think they were expecting nearly so many. Hopefully a few of them survive and I'll be able to get some pictures of them later in the season.

For now, here are some pictures from Friday right before I took them all away. I decided to group them all together to show how each type did.

(L to R) Anaheims, California Wonders, Pablanos

Cayennes in the back, Rocotos in the front, L to R Jalmundos, Espelettes, Pasillas.

The chineses, Caribbean Red on the left, Chocolate Habaneros on the Right.

So I wound up keeping only one of each of those types (the biggest ones, obviously), but I still have all of my hot mix plants and all of my Super Hot mix. Some of the supers have died off from neglect/lack of potting up, but I finally got around to doing that last night.

Super Tray 1

Super Tray 2

The hots, with a Pasilla in the front right. It looks like they are all annums.

Also this weekend, we had a nice day, so I decided to go out and set up my raised bead frame. Something I bought off of amazon for way too much money, but I don't really have space in my apartment to be sawing up railroad ties or anything like that. I haven't put any dirt in it yet because we are still several weeks from plant out (a FREEZE warning for tonight. ugh.), and the local soil place isn't open yet. Other plants will be going in next to the bed, but I need to till the soil first. It is REALLY compacted. All in due time.

And finally, here is my only current pepper, though a few more flowers are showing signs of producing pods. It sits rightfully atop the Hungarian Wax Plant that has battled through every imaginable overwinter pest and won. Hopefully I'll get a few more keepers like this out of this year.

Spring/Summer really needs to hurry up.

-Nathan

 

[ajijoe]

lookin good!!

 

[rabid48]

So, just a quick update...plants are still going, recovering from a little bit for Fert burn...had to pot up the Cayenne because it was root bound (now in the same style smart pot as the rocoto)...and then I checked the 10 day forecast...

SPRING! Y U NO BE CONSISTANT!?

What you can't tell from that forecast is that temps are predicted to dip back into the low 60s/upper 50s in the following 5 days. Great. Just great.

Can't it just be plant out time yet?

Nathan

 

[stc3248]

Sorry man...Its been a weird Winter and Spring here too.

 

[slashroot]

Hope your weather changes, your lows are lower than here and I'm almost on the North Pole compared to you hehe But your high temps are much higher than here though!

Nice to see you got your first pepper going on, not many days since mine started to set too

 

[rabid48]

It may be a day early, but...

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

Woo!

Today, spring finally decided to show up in spectacular fashion here in central NY, so it's time to start hardening off!

Hard to believe that in a few weeks they'll be going into the ground!

Nathan

 

[rabid48]

Well that didn't take long...huge thunderstorm rolling through. I got everything inside in time, but I decided to leave the rocotos, cayanne, and poinsettia peppers out there because they are in they're final spots and it's not too windy.

 

[Pepper-Guru]

Dude, You can set an upside down bucket or pot over the ones outside, with a brick or rock ontop to hold it down. Good luck!
Woah! Is that a bass drum coffee table! Kick ass!

 

[rabid48]

Dude, You can set an upside down bucket or pot over the ones outside, with a brick or rock ontop to hold it down. Good luck!
Woah! Is that a bass drum coffee table! Kick ass!

Yeah, it wound up getting REALLY windy, but I was hanging around waiting for it, so I just brought them inside. Impromptu staking FTW! Rocotos look pretty well whiplashed, but I think they'll be ok...

And yes, that is a bass drum coffee table, rescued from the trash after Western Carolina University's maching band got a new one. I was in the band at the time, so I snagged it.

 

[rabid48]

Man, I should really update this thing more often.

So it's been about a month...spring/summer has finally showed up, and the plants are loving it.

So...where did I leave off? Oh Yeah, the outside garden. I got my spot next to my apartment building, but it wasn't really what I expected. Under a decent looking layer of mulch/topsoil was a nice, hard-packed clay/ bottom. So, I got out my manual tiller and got to work. Two weekends later, after adding some peat humus, sand, and topsiol, I finally had something that was somewhat decent.

So, I put a few plants in the ground (5/19).

From left to right, pablano, espelette, and california wonder (the not-hots); plus two roma tomato plants. They're a little saggy in this pic because of not being entirely hardened off, but they wound up doing okay. The california wonder has lost a few leaves to sunburn, but it's still kicking.

Here is the bed a few days later (5/27).

The second layer has pasilla, jalmundo, and anaheim (kinda hots); plus caribbean red and habanero in the ground. Sorry for the bad photo stitching. The pasilla is doing much better since it was a bit burned from some fertz, but the anaheim still looks a little weird... Oh well.

Next to that, I planted many of ajijoe's mystery plants (5/27).

Those are all mystery superhot chineses (I think) in front of those roma tomatoes from earlier. They're probably spaced about 1.5' apart, as I am really strapped for space.

Next to that, more of Joe's mystery peppers, but this time only hot ones (5/27).

All but one are annums I think.

Also, take note of that one on the front left (which I have dubbed "H7"), because this is it today:

Purpling up nicely! This one started out Purple, then decided to go green, and has now gone back to purple. Any guesses as to what it is, Joe?

I also have a whole bunch of plants on my porch area:

L to R: Rocotto, Varigated Tricolor, Poinsettia, and two Tequila Sunrises (which I think are actually just a Burpee branded version of dwarf peppers).

On the opposite side:

L to R: 2 Tequila Sunrises, poinsettia, overwintered hungarian wax, and another rocotto. Thereis also another tequila sunrise and another Caribbean Red in-ground behind those. The CR is the weird one from earlier, and I just noticed today that it has some very small flowers compared to everything else.

Finally, there's a few more of Joe's superhot mysteries in smartpots, plust my massive cayenne in the cage at the end.

That's pretty much all the updates for now. I'm working on creating some time lapse-type gifs as the season goes on, so maybe I'll post a beginning version of those soon.

Hope the season treats everyone well! I'm off to a way beeter start than I had last year!

-Nathan

 

[stc3248]

Great start Rabid! My Cayennes came on like gang busters throwing out pods like crazy while everything else was tiny...then they fizzled and everything in the garden passed them. Think this may be the last season I grow them. The Goat's Weeds are very similar in heat and flavor, and they are a very attractive plant. Hope you have better luck with yours. Going to be really fun to watch your mix seeds grow out and try to figure them out!

 

[mjdiamond83]

Your plants look awesome! They look like they handled the transplanting and recent heat well. Hope you don't have too many neighbors at your apartment building that think its a community garden!

 

[rabid48]

Great start Rabid! My Cayennes came on like gang busters throwing out pods like crazy while everything else was tiny...then they fizzled and everything in the garden passed them. Think this may be the last season I grow them. The Goat's Weeds are very similar in heat and flavor, and they are a very attractive plant. Hope you have better luck with yours. Going to be really fun to watch your mix seeds grow out and try to figure them out!

Thanks Shane! My cayenne plant is kind of looking to be on that track right now, but I hope it keeps going strong. Hopefully be the end of the season I'll have a few that look like yours!

Your plants look awesome! They look like they handled the transplanting and recent heat well. Hope you don't have too many neighbors at your apartment building that think its a community garden!

Thanks MJD! That heat was pretty crazy for a few days there, which happened to be the few days that I decided to plant out... Yours look to be recovering well from it!

Funny story about my neighbors. On the first day I was out there tilling and preparing, he asked me if I was preparing for 2012. I said yes, and he started rambling about storage areas and how he wanted some space, and eventually he started talking about guns.

That's around the point I realized he was talking about the apocalypse, not the 2012 growing season.

I never told him the truth.


Saw some slugs out there munching on some dead leaves this morning. I decided they could use a little salt to tenderize their meal...They didn't seem to like it too much.

 

[rabid48]

Bad News:

The Aphids are back.

Good news:

THE BOYS LADIES ARE BACK!

Saw this little one crawing around on the underside of one of my rocoto plants while I was doing some smooshing today. I appreciate the help.

Also, I posted this in its own thread on the main grow forum earlier, but I got no resonse, so I figured I'd post a newer picture here. This is on my cayenne plant (growing like gangbusters), and shows that the filament and style of the flowers are indeed purple for some reason. Never seen anything like that before, anybody else?

Also, AjiJoe, if you're still browsing here, I have the first pod off of one of your plants (sorry no pics yet), it's a hot mix annum, it's very small, and it is yellow. Does that help narrow down the choices at all? Once I get a pic I'll throw it up to the Pepper ID area.

Hope everyone's season continues going well!

-Nate

 

[PaulG]

Nathan, your grow has really taken off! Your raised bed and in ground
beds look great together. Pretty soon, you won't even be able to see
the sides of your raised beds! Glad you are getting some decent weather.
I'm with Shane, this has been a crazy Spring!

Continued success, my friend!

OOOOOhhhhhh. 2000 posts. Don't I get a pin, or something!

 

[rabid48]

Nathan, your grow has really taken off! Your raised bed and in ground
beds look great together. Pretty soon, you won't even be able to see
the sides of your raised beds! Glad you are getting some decent weather.
I'm with Shane, this has been a crazy Spring!

Continued success, my friend!

OOOOOhhhhhh. 2000 posts. Don't I get a pin, or something!

Grats on the 2000! You do deserve a pin!

Thanks for the kind comments! Your grow is looking excelent as usual, and it's always nice to see North of the mason-Dixon people's grows where the plants aren't already monsters by the beginning of June. Although, yours are quite the lookers...

I forgot to mention earlier, but I think my anaheim is a mutant. It looks a lot like that plant that hwybill posted a month ago in the general grow area. It's loaded with buds, but its stunted, compact, and the leaves almost look like Chineses, but upon closer inspection you find that the leaf tissue actually goes almost all the way down to the base of the leaf. It's hard to explain, I'll have to get a picture later.

 

[PaulG]

Mutant Anaheim? What's next?

 

[rabid48]

Just wanted to post a quick update with a bit O' Pod Porn for you.

My first cayenne pepper on May 27, 2012

The same pepper last Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Not bad for 15 days of growth (9.5").

Also, I've lucked out and my local Wegmans is selling 7 gal smart pots on clearance for $2.00!!!! I just had to buy two more, so now I have 13 of AjiJoe's mystery super hots going. They also had 10 and 15 gal pots for $4 and $6, but I decided to pass on those. Who knows, maybe if I wait long enough I can get them for even less.

Also, I set up a topic in the Pepper I.D. forum to help to identify some of these mystery peppers. Currently only one has any pods, but stay tuned.

I'm gonna try to do a bigger update later this week when I get some time. I have a couple of plants in my raised bed that have yellowing leaves that are dropping, so I am waiting to see if it stops because I was over watering, or if it is due to a lack of nitrogen or something worse. Hopefully it just goes away.

-Nate