Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

Pulpiteer · Apr 13, 2013

I got my rocotos to grow for the most part, as well as yellow manzanos, but no luck on my orange manzanos and giant mexican rocotos - which sucks because I was really looking forward to those. My oranges had some rot for sure. I had no real luck on the orange rocotos in germinating them with the paper towel method. So, I'll need to figure out how to get some Giant Mexican Rocotos to pop for me next year.

I hope your fruit survives. Last year we had an early warm spell and late frost up here and our state lost 90% of our apple crop and most other fruits. That hit our economy hard.

Sawyer · Apr 14, 2013

Thanks, Andy. I think there may have been a bad batch of Giant Mexican Rocoto seeds out there this year. Leaves something new for next year. I'm sure some of what I'm growing this year won't impress me enough to keep on the list for next year, so it's not like I'm facing an ever increasing grow list. :rolleyes:

I wish I could say I was out of the woods with respect to fruit (and could start planting out peppers), but it looks like there is another cold snap coming toward the end of next week. Someday the cold snaps will end. At least it's going to be mostly dry, so I should be able to prepare the ground this week.

I am the recipient of some of the famous THP generosity. :woohoo:

I received this package from Mike (Capsidaburn), a smorgasbord of chiltepins:

And this package from Jamie (romy6), with due credit to Kevin (waywright) for the smoked powder:

Image is a little blurry; the two small seed packs are 7 Pot Primo (on left) and BJ Choco x Yellow 7 (on right).

I could use some help identifying the pods. The one with the blue label is a 7 Pot Primo and I think so are the three smaller red ones below it. But what are the two red ribbed pods to the left? The Chocolate Bhut x Yellow 7 label came detached from its pepper, but I think it belongs to the pod right above the label. Is that right? I have no idea what the very dark pods above that are, unless they're Chocolate Habs. Are the small red ones on the right some sort of chiltepin? The orange ones above a Scotch Bonnet? And the yellow a Datil? I tried tasting the end of a yellow one, but all I got was heat. :mouthonfire:

Thank you, Mike, Jamie, and Kevin!

Edit: After looking at Jamie's glog again, I think the ones in the upper left are Chocolate Habs, the two red ribbed ones are 7 Pot Jonahs, the orange are Yellow Scorpions, and the yellow are Aji Lemons. Am I right?

buddy · Apr 15, 2013

[sup]Very nice! Good luck on your 2013 growing season.[/sup]

romy6 · Apr 15, 2013

John, very close. The ribbed ones are not white bhut's. The big yellow is a yellow cardi scorp. The small yellow ones are 7 pod yellows. The pimpled red is a Jonah. The little red ones that kinda look like tepins are inmature tobago seasoning and my mystery annumms.

Let me know what you think of that yellow 7 X choc bhut pod. It is a tasty beast.

DesertChris · Apr 15, 2013

Fantastic Stuff right there!

Devv · Apr 15, 2013

Nice haul buddy!

WalkGood · Apr 15, 2013

Simply awesome!

»» Foobar2k ::: Beatles, The - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) - 02 - With A Little Help From My Friends ::: 1:10/2:44 (•••••••••&bull

::: 411 kbps ««

Dot Com · Apr 16, 2013

more seeds? Nice pods and powder too?

THP is the best for chiliheads :mouthonfire:

Sawyer · Apr 17, 2013

Thanks to everyone for visiting! Yes, THP is the best for (enabling) chiliheads! I've already planted some of most of those new seeds. Some I'll keep for next year.

Time for a brief update. No pics yet, but will try to upload some soon.

Rocotos -- Only found a couple that were sprouted, but as a couple of folks suggested, the cotys were rotted in the shell. Better luck next year.

So I didn't look at my grow for ONE DAY, and had a near disaster. The recently-planted vegetable/herb flats were dried out (some of those transpire like crazy, plus the mat was still on under them) and some of the plants looked like goners. Fortunately, after a thorough watering, everything perked up except for a single camelina seedling. With the potted up plants (all peppers in 3.5" square pots), I had been noticing an occasional aphid and fungus gnat, and was spraying them with coffee and watering with mosquito dunks and keeping the problem mostly in check. Skip ONE DAY and the aphids had spread across an entire shelf of plants and the gnats were swarming. I've drenched everything with coffee and Bt. I'm out of the sulfur/pyrethrin mix. I may step up to Sevin next. This early in the season, I'm not too worried about using it. It can't be too bad or I never would have made it past childhood.

On a positive not, I've started hardening off the plants. Two days in a row with ~80ºF temperatures and mild nights, so I'm rotating the flats out and in on a couple hour period. It's cloudy so they aren't getting hammered. What I notice most is not sunburn, but apparently having been somewhat dormant through the recent cold spells, the roots weren't able to keep up with the increased transpiration of the leaves in an outside environment. They wilt a little, but perk right back up when brought inside. (I imagine a fan would help with this problem, in addition to stem strengthening.)

The OWs continue to leaf out. One of the six red BJs is behind the others, but looks healthy enough and the Naga Morich has decided to settle down on the side of life for another year. One of the BJs actually has some blossom buds showing. I'll try to get a picture of that later.

Edit: The OWs have been outside continuously for the last several days. Brought in the last of the flats for the day just now and had both a five-line skink and an eastern fence lizard checking out the plants. That's an argument for not using Sevin, or if I do, I'll do so just before this next cold spell when the plants will be in for a few days.

Devv · Apr 17, 2013

I keep hearing about fungus gnats (I call gnats G-natsjust cuz) can you post a pic?

When I was hardening mine off I started on a weekend so I was home, and when the drooped moved them to shade, soon as they perked back up, out in the sun they went. But I'm glad you're at that point!

Hope you win the Aphid war!

Oh the chems we endured as youngins!

DesertChris · Apr 18, 2013

Dang pubescences....I had rotten cots too....so this round, I did surgery as soon as the radicle was 1/2" long, and some had started rotting already

5 seemed somewhat ok, and now looking at them I have hope on 2 of them surviving, but only time will tell....

So far, I have seen 7 or 8 actual aphids, but I squished the buggers immediately. I think they must have come in with the 2 free greenhouse grown pepper plants my gal brought home from the garden show.

Next time any plants come home, they will get inspected thouroughly, and maybe some chem treatment.

I hope you wage a succesful war on those pesties!!!

WalkGood · Apr 18, 2013

- Great to read the hardening off process has begun for you ... won't be long now

- Next to my coffee spray I still keep a bottle of soapy water, have you tried soapy water to kill the aphids?
- Keep da faith, you'll win dat war!

capehog · Apr 18, 2013

When I was a kid my dad would cut a milk jug in half poke a few holes in the bottom fill with Sevin and tell me to make sure you use it all. I would be covered by the time I made it around the garden. Guess we are all lucky to be around today. Just think we used to ride in the back of a truck bouncing down the road trying not to get thrown over the side. Now I'm sure in todays world 3 cops and a social worker would show up at the house called by a busy body neighbor citing child abuse.

Sawyer · Apr 18, 2013

Devv said:
I keep hearing about fungus gnats (I call gnats G-natsjust cuz) can you post a pic?

When I was hardening mine off I started on a weekend so I was home, and when the drooped moved them to shade, soon as they perked back up, out in the sun they went. But I'm glad you're at that point!

Hope you win the Aphid war!

Oh the chems we endured as youngins!

Scott, those things are way too tiny for my camera's capability, but the wikipedia entry has a picture. I'm not entirely sure that's what I have. I'll have to look at them under a lens sometime soon. My healthier plants seem okay, but some of the stragglers are, well, straggling. I've been attributing it to cooler weather and low light, but i'm beginning to think the gnats are a contributing factor as well.

DesertChris said:
Dang pubescences....I had rotten cots too....so this round, I did surgery as soon as the radicle was 1/2" long, and some had started rotting already
5 seemed somewhat ok, and now looking at them I have hope on 2 of them surviving, but only time will tell....

So far, I have seen 7 or 8 actual aphids, but I squished the buggers immediately. I think they must have come in with the 2 free greenhouse grown pepper plants my gal brought home from the garden show.

Next time any plants come home, they will get inspected thouroughly, and maybe some chem treatment.

I hope you wage a succesful war on those pesties!!!

Yeah, the difficulty with these rocotos just makes me all the more determined to achieve success... next year.

I never had an aphid problem indoors (and we're talking in more than 25 years of indoor plants) until I ordered a couple of BJs from a guy (no one on here, as far as I know). I had to go out of town for a few days right after they arrived, so I watered them well and put them on the window box with my house plants. When I came back they were absolutely covered in aphids. I complained to the guy but was met with an, "eh, thems the breaks" kind of attitude. Ever since, I've had a few here and there, but they don't really get out of hand until there are pepper plants around.

WalkGood said:
- Great to read the hardening off process has begun for you ... won't be long now
- Next to my coffee spray I still keep a bottle of soapy water, have you tried soapy water to kill the aphids?
- Keep da faith, you'll win dat war!

Thanks, Ramon. Soapy water, I knew there was something I was forgetting. I've also got a test batch of capsaicin spray I mixed up last year, but since the leaves fell off my cantaloupe vine after using it then, I'm not sure I want to test it on my pepper plants. Maybe one of the red BJs, since I have so many of those.

capehog said:
When I was a kid my dad would cut a milk jug in half poke a few holes in the bottom fill with Sevin and tell me to make sure you use it all. I would be covered by the time I made it around the garden. Guess we are all lucky to be around today. Just think we used to ride in the back of a truck bouncing down the road trying not to get thrown over the side. Now I'm sure in todays world 3 cops and a social worker would show up at the house called by a busy body neighbor citing child abuse.

Yep, except for me it was a spaghetti sauce jar with holes poked in the lid. I'd turn up my pants cuffs, spray Off! on my shoes, socks, cuffs, around my waist and wrists, then dust everything with Sevin. Sure fire way to keep the ticks and chiggers away. We had an official garden duster for spreading it in the garden, which, on a still day, resulted in a cloud of Sevin in the garden. Just writing this brings back the memory of the smell. I also remember waiting for the school bus and feeling the droplets of cotton poison/defoliant hitting my skin as the crop dusters flew over just above the power lines. Yeah, it's a miracle any of us lived. (not)

Edit: typo

WalkGood · Apr 18, 2013

Sawyer said:
… Thanks, Ramon. Soapy water, I knew there was something I was forgetting. I've also got a test batch of capsaicin spray I mixed up last year, but since the leaves fell off my cantaloupe vine after using it then, I'm not sure I want to test it on my pepper plants. Maybe one of the red BJs, since I have so many of those. …

I use 3 ounces per gallon, spray early morning and wait 20 minutes to mist that soapy water off. I’ve left it on before and the results are not pretty, lost all my leaves but the plant did come back. Regarding the pepper water, I’ve never tried that on any plants, I keep the same to keep animals from getting too close to my crop, lol. Oh almost forgot, make sure the plant is watered well for at least 12 hours prior to application so it doesn’t drink up your mix.

Sawyer · Apr 18, 2013

WalkGood said:
I use 3 ounces per gallon, spray early morning and wait 20 minutes to mist that soapy water off. I’ve left it on before and the results are not pretty, lost all my leaves but the plant did come back. Regarding the pepper water, I’ve never tried that on any plants, I keep the same to keep animals from getting too close to my crop, lol. Oh almost forgot, make sure the plant is watered well for at least 12 hours prior to application so it doesn’t drink up your mix.

Thanks for the tip. I tried my capsaicin spray on a few of the most heavily infested plants. It was developed to be a mammal repellent that would stay on the plants, so we'll see what happens. I will say, the aphids definitely reacted to coming in contact with it. They would stand out at a 45º angle from the stem and just hold that position. Kind of funny to see actually. With the coffee, I didn't really notice any reaction at all. If the leaves fall off, then the experiment morphs into a stripping experiment. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Hopefully everyone here will learn from your experience on having the plants well watered before introducing some of these more extreme treatments. Speaking of, how is the old girl doing?

WalkGood · Apr 18, 2013

Sawyer said:
... Speaking of, how is the old girl doing?

Same as the picture I showed not long ago, new growth with very good color ... wish it was faster but she's definately going to make it. We're going to get rain this weekend and that should help her, I'll also give her a spray of seaweed tomorrow and that's been a blessing IMO. If I had watered her well before me attacking the nematodes she probably wouldn't have suffered loosing all her leaves. I knew better and just wasn't thinking that day

Sawyer · Apr 18, 2013

Yeah, we all do that, know better about something and do it anyway. I think that's called reinforcement. Bet you won't do it again.

I just noticed the low for tomorrow morning is predicted to be 28ºF. I have everything inside except the grain flat. Was going to leave it out, but then I noticed three cells have the Mrhani basil in them, so I guess that comes in, too.

I noticed a couple days ago that at least 4 of my in-ground hops vines are starting to grow. That's four more than I expected to have after last summer's heat and drought. I gave up watering toward the end and thought they had died, but I guess it was just dormancy. Does anybody know how frost sensitive hops are? I have some wax paper cloches I can put over them if needed, but since it rained steadily for the first part of the day, it will be real muddy trying to get to them.

Edit: typo

Devv · Apr 18, 2013

Reading those lines about the Sevin dust, I guess following the mosquito fogger truck in the mid 60's wasn't the best thing to do....

Sawyer · Apr 18, 2013

Oh yeah, I remember those, too.