Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

STEVE954 · Apr 6, 2013

capehog said:
Sawyer I went back and read this several times and still cant seem to figure out what you mean by down potting. Please explain.

By down potting, you are taking a plant out of a pot and planting into a smaller pot. In this case it sounds like he is acually down potting his datils into their original seed cells.

Sawyer · Apr 6, 2013

Devv said:
Taking notes here, don't need ANY body parts burning from peppers

Word.

capehog said:
Sawyer I went back and read this several times and still cant seem to figure out what you mean by down potting. Please explain.

Moving a plant from a larger pot back down to a smaller pot, in my case, from 3.5" square nursery pots back into the cells of a 72-cell germination tray. Apparently Datils, in particular, really don't like cool temperatures. With the cool, cloudy weather we had last week, my grow stand just wasn't good enough for the datils and the germination stand was fully occupied with 72-cell flats. Some of the cells were empty, so I put the datils back there. At least three and hopefully four are recovering. Three are gone for good.

PS - Steve posted while I was composing my response. What he said.

Sawyer · Apr 7, 2013

Potted up another seventy-two 3.5" square pots today. All red Bhut Jolokias. A few more than 72 plants, since I put some of the smaller ones 2 to a pot. I now have... 13 flats x 18 pots = 234 3.5" square pots, most with only one plant each. The three-tier grow stand is almost fully populated. The plants are hopefully starting to pull out of last week's cool and cloudy tail spin. The OWs have been out for the last two days and should stay out until late next week, when they're predicting one night back down into the 30s. Anyway, they are looking happier every day. The one Naga Morich OW is finally starting to put out leaves. I tried to take a picture, but the leaves are so small I couldn't get them in focus.

I haven't done a detailed inventory, but a large number of the seeds I planted only two days ago are already germinating. The camelina was the first to sprout, germinating after only one day. I think every seed I planted germinated:

I love the look of grains sprouting. The front 12 cells are barley and the next 12 are rye, a different strain in each cell:

I'll try to get some new pepper pictures posted tomorrow.

JJJessee · Apr 7, 2013

That's good new's on the OWs, Our weather is starting to break too.
What's ooing on with the grain sprouts? I missed that.

Sawyer · Apr 7, 2013

JJJessee said:
That's good new's on the OWs, Our weather is starting to break too.
What's ooing on with the grain sprouts? I missed that.

Thanks, JJJ. In keeping with the peppercentric nature of these logs, I'll try to keep this short. I'm working on the development of regionally-adapted strains of canola, rye, oats, wheat, barley, and vetch, optimized for winter growth. I selected several strains of each from the USDA seed bank based on winter hardiness and a number of other criteria. For canola, I'm looking for good oil production. For rye, I'm targeting rye whiskey distillers; for barley, brewers; for wheat, pizza dough. These get pretty complicated. For example, barley optimized for brewing should have protein not too low (no head), nor too high (cloudiness and off flavors), low beta glucan, lowS-Methyl Methionine, and other considerations. I'm mainly interested in oats as an additional winter cover crop and for the eventual production of animal feed. Vetch is exclusively for a nitrogen-fixing winter cover crop. Oh, yeah, I also have flax, winter oilseed varieties and spring fiber varieties, and sesame, which is strictly a warm-weather oilseed crop. I flubbed last winter's grow season, which sucks because it was a perfect season, so I'm planting a small quantity of each now to test for spring facultative performance.

Sawyer · Apr 7, 2013

I think with the warmer, sunnier weather, these guys are finally going to shift into gear:

Some more:

The Naga Morich OW can't seem to make up it's mind:

Poorly focused, but you can tell the NM OW is starting to bud at the base, which I take as a good sign:

Finally, this is less than 20 hours of growth (compared to this) on the grains, of which 9 or 10 were in darkness:

DocNrock · Apr 7, 2013

Pepper plants look raring to get outside! Wow, those grains grow fast!

Sawyer · Apr 8, 2013

Look at the predicted lows for later in the week:

Boo. Hiss.

WalkGood · Apr 8, 2013

Love all the picture updates, great to see the whole PBC shelving rig, very nice looking powder and great updates on the experiment, any conclusions yet or still too early? Oh and I ran out of “like this” half way thru catching up on your glog, I’ll have to come back and hit ya up soon. Guess our other friends will suffer this as I continue to try and catch up, didn’t realize how far behind I am :/

Keep up dat great work mon and hope things warm up for you soon. BTW I had mine out in 40s, 50s all winter, smaller pods, less growth but no death AFAIK, hehe.

DesertChris · Apr 8, 2013

+1 on the Boo Hiss

I is going to dip a bit low here tonight.... I have to decide if I am going to pull everything inside

Sawyer · Apr 8, 2013

DocNrock said:
Pepper plants look raring to get outside! Wow, those grains grow fast!

They are, Doc, but they're going to have to wait a bit. Hopefully next week. The grains are even bigger today. The rye is into the lights already. Of course, corn is a grain, too, and I remember the old-timers talking about watching corn grow. Can't say as I've ever seen that, but I definitely have heard it grow.

WalkGood said:
Love all the picture updates, great to see the whole PBC shelving rig, very nice looking powder and great updates on the experiment, any conclusions yet or still too early? Oh and I ran out of “like this” half way thru catching up on your glog, I’ll have to come back and hit ya up soon. Guess our other friends will suffer this as I continue to try and catch up, didn’t realize how far behind I am :/

Keep up dat great work mon and hope things warm up for you soon. BTW I had mine out in 40s, 50s all winter, smaller pods, less growth but no death AFAIK, hehe.

Thanks, Ramon. Glad to see you're back. I haven't done a final count on the Borg sowing experiment, but I'm confident that this experiment does not support our hypothesis. If anything, it delayed, but didn't reduce, overall germination rates. Maybe it takes more than the 3-5 seeds per cluster I used, or maybe I overlooked something else.

I've had the OWs out for a few days now and it got down to the low 50s, maybe high 40s one night. They didn't seem to mind too much. They got rained on this morning, but it was time for a watering. Thanks for all the "likes", but save some for other folks, too.

DesertChris said:
+1 on the Boo Hiss

I is going to dip a bit low here tonight.... I have to decide if I am going to pull everything inside

Hey, Chris. I should have been moving my flats in and out recently, but I know I would trip over something and send pepper plants a-flying. :rolleyes:

I was hoping the OWs were out for good, but unless the forecast changes, they'll be coming in for the latter part of the week.

laynlow · Apr 8, 2013

Grow is looking good! That was an interesting read on your trial grows of the grains.

Devv · Apr 8, 2013

Nice update!

Is the grains research a personal project? Around here those get planted in the fall....too hot!

Sorry about the cold coming, it's supposed to be mid to low 40's here Thursday and Friday, way late for us. But I think to cooler weather this year is helping me out, we'll see.

Question about the OW's. Do they come back strong and make things worthwhile? I've never tried that before...

Have a good one!

Scott

Sawyer · Apr 8, 2013

laynlow said:
Grow is looking good! That was an interesting read on your trial grows of the grains.

Thanks, Josh!

Devv said:
Nice update!

Is the grains research a personal project? Around here those get planted in the fall....too hot!

Sorry about the cold coming, it's supposed to be mid to low 40's here Thursday and Friday, way late for us. But I think to cooler weather this year is helping me out, we'll see.

Question about the OW's. Do they come back strong and make things worthwhile? I've never tried that before...

Have a good one!

Scott

Thanks, Scott. The grains projects have the potential to become more than just personal. I've talked to some of the brewers around here and they are enthusiastic about the possibility of using locally grown grains. Likewise with some of the pizzerias. The trick is that the grains have to perform at least as well as their current sources. There is only one distillery around here and he hasn't started production yet, but has expressed interest in the rye. The canola, flax, sesame, and vetch are targeted toward do-it-yourselfers and others who prefer to minimize their dependence on others. I'm thinking about some home-scale oil extraction systems, retting systems, etc.

One problem is, for any of this to really take off, I'll have to purchase/lease/contract some farm land/farmer cooperation. Plus, I need better access to analytical capabilities for determining which strains are best suited to their intended purposes. I do have access to a couple of different university HPLC services, but as we've seen with SHU testing, that is no guarantee of accurate results. I ran an analytical lab for over 15 years, so am trying to set up my own capability, but it's an expensive proposition. (If successful, I'll have one column dedicated to capsaicin.)

You're right about them being fall planted. I specifically selected winter strains in part because of the hot summer weather here, but also to maximize production from land that might normally lie fallow through the winter. (And a winter crop of vetch and rye, provides a generous dose of nitrogen and organic matter when turned under in the spring.) This spring planting is an experiment within an experiment.

This was actually the second winter for all of my OWs, the six bhut jolokias and one naga morich. I was heavily involved in other projects last year, so they didn't get much attention, just enough to keep them alive. So I can't really answer your question about it being worth it. From what others say here on THP, I assume it is.

DesertChris · Apr 8, 2013

Awesome!!

I really like all the work you are doing with the other crops!

Jamison · Apr 8, 2013

Wow them seedlings look soooo healthy Sawyer! Cannot wait for some pod porn from your glog. That Naga is bout to start takin off for sure bro! Keep up the good work!

Sawyer · Apr 8, 2013

DesertChris said:
Awesome!!

I really like all the work you are doing with the other crops!

Thanks, Chris. I've been fascinated with growing things my whole life. Thought it was time to act on that.

Jamison said:
Wow them seedlings look soooo healthy Sawyer! Cannot wait for some pod porn from your glog. That Naga is bout to start takin off for sure bro! Keep up the good work!

Thanks, Jamison, you and me both on the pod porn. Those plants aren't as healthy as they may look in the photo. They really stalled out with the recent cool, cloudy weather (and may do so again with the next round of cold air). Plus I'm fighting a mild infestation of fungus gnats. I'm using coffee and mosquito dunks right now and letting things dry out as much as practical. If that doesn't work, I'm going to drench the soil with the pyrethrin/sulfur spray I've used successfully against aphids.

capehog · Apr 8, 2013

Sawyer said:
Look at the predicted lows for later in the week:

Boo. Hiss.

I really hoped to plant tomorrow after I tilled Saturday and had all the plants sitting outside for the last few days. With the expected storms Tuesday and Wednesday then lows in the high 30's late in the week I guess the plants will have to make a few more days under the shop lights.

Lots of micro brewery types and even folks making shine for profit so another cash crop is always a good thing.

Sawyer · Apr 9, 2013

capehog said:
I really hoped to plant tomorrow after I tilled Saturday and had all the plants sitting outside for the last few days. With the expected storms Tuesday and Wednesday then lows in the high 30's late in the week I guess the plants will have to make a few more days under the shop lights.

Lots of micro brewery types and even folks making shine for profit so another cash crop is always a good thing.

Yeah, I'm worried that once these too cool nights have passed, we're going to shift into the usual hot, dry summer pattern. Last year that started around the third week of May, very little rain until the last part of September.

If nothing else, the grains projects make for some good bar conversation.

Sawyer · Apr 9, 2013

As some of you may recall, back on March 25 I started some rocoto seeds. Several of these seeds have sprouted a radicle, but are now just sitting there in the mix doing nothing. They are planted in the same mix as everything else and I am keeping the temperature around 80ºF. I keep them moist, but not soaked, and don't let them dry out. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get these things to go ahead grow? Thanks!