Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

annie57 · Jun 26, 2013

Welcome back!!! Right on, Arksaw! "Tomato hornworm-pull tutorial." Those ba%tards are the equivalent of land grimpers, aka, helgramites. (At least grimpers great for fishing, exude some call to fish. But they do the same thing relative to "hanging on." One summer my brother and I were fly-fishing on Linville River for whatever would hit, really, using "grimpers." He was turning over rocks and putting them on hook by hand. Not me: I used needle-nose. He yelled at me. I reeled in, went running. He was slamming this bream--and ya know how tough a bream's mouth is--on the water, laughing his ass off. "Look! Insane!" He pulled up the poor fish, still alive. Hook was in grimper. No hook in fish. Still on his line. The helgramite had the grimper's lips in its jaws and Michael couldn't beat it off! Finally, after the amusement passed, being big sis, "And you handle those things like puppies? Please free that poor bream from that leech! Uggh!" Not much makes me squeamish but that did. They try to turn around and whack ya too. Can we establish that the hornworm, is kin to leeches? Except leeches make good fishing bait?)

I'm with ya on chiggers. Kerosene douse/swab many times! Then my grandfather would chuckle as we behaved on his front porch as he puffed on cigar. I can attest to hornet sting. LONG time ago, when co-owned painting-wallpaper, aka "coating" company, business partner and I went to give estimate on new construction at Lake James in summer. Later, was going to a party, had on backless leotard top; when got back in truck, I sat BACK on a hornet that had flown in, lighted on seat. Until then, I had not been allergic to bees. Sucker got my bared back. It hurt but worse, started feeling head crawl, getting hard to breathe. ER replaced the party event pretty immediately.

And sowbugs, pillbugs, will DESTROY plants. I hit raised beds and finished compost with SluggoPlus. Sure, they do make kick-butt composters but they most certainly will eat NON-decaying plants, as you know. I'd take anybody up on some toms if you can't get those to pull through, hon. I wish I had some left to send you, mostly heirlooms. But I have faith that if you get them out of the medium--away from those rampaging omnivores--it'll be okay.
And taking plants with you, esp. MoA's? :dance:

Wonderful!

Sawyer · Jun 26, 2013

Well, shoot, I'm still out of "likes"; I'll have to come back later.

Thanks for the offer, Ben. I'll get back to you once I've determined what I have here.

Shane, Doc, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I can get some pictures up by Friday. I'm working on a journal article review right now that was due yesterday (well, I should be, anyway) and family is coming in this weekend, so it might be next week before pictures start showing up.

Later, gloggers.

Hey, Annie, I missed you here at the top of page 22! I've wondered if hornworms might make good catfish bait. They're somewhat similar to Catalpa worms and those make great bait. You can even make a dough bait out of them; throw a bunch in a blender with some corn meal. That's a funny story about the poor bream, though not to the bream, I guess. Not many things freak me out, but I won't go anywhere near a helgrammite. I don't remember ever seeing one as a kid, so I never got used to them.

I've found a cup of bleach in a tub of water, followed by a good soak, will work for a mess of chiggers. Kerosene works, too, or a dab of clear nail polish. (Well, I guess you could use colored, but someone might think you had the measles or something.) For one or two, if you can remember, when they first start to itch, instead of just scratching, draw your thumbnail hard, backwards across the bite. Chiggers are a soft-bodied creature and that will often squish them. If you just scratch normally, you just move them from one spot to another. I used to get a whole line of bites in the direction of scratch from a single bug, until my dad taught me that trick. Hmmm... party... backless leotard... now I'm distracted. But, ouch! Like I said before, I consider myself fortunate never to have been stung by a hornet. (Now just watch, I'll probably get stung by one this year.)

I had one area that was a veritable sowbug condo. I dusted it with DE, but haven't looked since to since if it did any good. Seems like it ought to, since they have a hard shell.

Thanks for the thoughts on tomatoes; I'll work something out. And I didn't actually wind up taking the MoAs with me. I wanted to, but ran of time getting everything ready and took a chance. Things worked out more or less okay.

WalkGood · Jun 26, 2013

Ok, ok we need a picture fix

annie57 · Jun 26, 2013

Sawyer said:
Well, shoot, I'm still out of "likes"; I'll have to come back later.

Hey, Annie, I missed you here at the top of page 22! I've wondered if hornworms might make good catfish bait. They're somewhat similar to Catalpa worms and those make great bait. You can even make a dough bait out of them; throw a bunch in a blender with some corn meal . . .

+ 11111111nth degree. They call them "Catawba" worms around here. Catch em, freeze 'em in cornmeal--some years are better for them than others--or just use 'em--FIL, RIP, WONDERFUL man, used to have trees LOADED with them. I like them for crappie stalks at night in summer. NO fish will turn those or "grimpers" down. Problem, among many, lol, with grimpers is, have to fish same body of water get grimpers out of or fish won't take them. Same deal--or at least I've found--with crawdads. I thought it was a fluke but went down to pond below house where the fish will hit a hook with NO bait on it. Took crawlers and some crawdads caught in stream on my bro's property a few miles away. Reeled in cat after cat on crawlers; not one took crawdad--munched around, moved it around, but none took the bait. THP NOT a fishing forum but never tried grinding them up to make dough balls. Hmm. Deep fried cat fillets, hot sauce . . . DAYUM! Gonna have to brave a storm to get boat out and set up for a nightstalk! Thanks for inspiration!

Edit: hornworms might work but Catalpa/Catawba--think they got tougher bodies. BUT the blender idea as hornworms DO glow in dark . . . hmm. NOT that I want hornworms but . . . recycling . . .

PaulG · Jun 26, 2013

Hornets are awesome! What ferocious predators. And clever.
I can vouch for what Annie said about the sting. I was hit by two,
one on the ear (ouch) and the other on the arm. Those suckers
were waiting for us by the third or fourth time we ran by pitching
rocks at their nest! I didn't have the adverse reaction Annie did,
but I wasn't wearing a backless leotard top, either. I have left
hornet's nests alone since then.

Sawyer · Jun 26, 2013

Oh, yeah, I ~~like~~ respect hornets, but I sure give them a wide berth whenever possible. I try to live and let live with all the paper wasps (red, house, guinea), yellow jackets, hornets, etc. I've seen too many garden pests fall victim to them not to appreciate their role. And the bumblebees, orchard bees, etc are all good pollinators.

DesertChris · Jun 26, 2013

Checked my tomato seeds to see what was left... there were a couple that I had sowed all the seeds, but still had some left from several of the varieties...

So......

I packaged up:
Wild Galapagos
Amish Paste
San Marzano
Cherry Roma
Yellow Pear
Honkin' Big Black Cherry
Oregon Spring
Mortgage Lifter
Cosmonaut Volkov

They should be there in a couple days

Can't be having you going without a good supply of Maters!

Sawyer · Jun 26, 2013

Well, thanks, Chris. Still not sure what I've got left, but these will be appreciated. I especially like the looks of that wild Galapagos and Honkin' Big Black Cherry. I had some Mortgage Lifters, but those may be some of the ones I lost. Even if I don't get them all planted, they'll keep in the fridge until next year.

Sawyer · Jul 7, 2013

Finally, here are a few pictures. Not much to look at, in fact, I'm still potting up from flats. I've finally dealt with all other distractions, for the time being, so hopefully this next week will see more progress. I still plan to put some in the garden (beyond what's already there), but will be keeping most of the strains for which I only have a few plants in pots. It's very clear the ones in pots in partial shade will do better than the ones in day-long, full sun in the garden, as the summer wears on, and I'm not set up for shading the whole garden. This batch of pictures won't show the shade vs. sun difference, but I'll post more in a few days. Speaking of summer, my sympathies to those of you out west in the heat wave. So far summer has been remarkably mild here. We had a big cool-down about the same time the heat cranked up out west. I haven't studies the weather maps, but I assume the two situations are connected. Things are starting to warm up here again, but not too badly. This is the forecast for the next week:

I can live with that. Should even be able to set some pods, I think. Does anybody know at just what temperature plants stop setting pods? Has anybody noticed any differences among strains of superhots?

So here is a pod on one of the T. 7pod Congo SR Gigantics. This plant is in dirt and was the only plant blooming out back at the time this pod was a flower, so for my own purposes, I'm considering this an isolated pod. The only possible cross would be the bhut jolokias that were on the front stoop, but they are well-separated and I have yet to see an insect pollinating any of the peppers. (I miss the honeybees.) I have some bumblebees, but they've been working the passion flowers. Anyway, here's a pod:

The stuff that looks like dirt on the leaves is (store-bought, yuck) cayenne powder. I walked out a few days ago and a deer was standing there looking at the plants like it was thinking, "Which one will I eat next?" So far they (there are at least two) haven't developed a taste for cayenne. There are several other pods on this one plant, but all those pictures came out blurry.

Here are some of the other plants in dirt. This was midday and they were thirsty. I gave them a drink right after I took the picture. For scale, the tallest plants on the right are about thigh-high.

It's an assortment of plants; I couldn't tell you off the top of my head what is what.

You may recall upthread I had an issue with hornworms completely stripping one my OW bhuts. They ate all the leaves and damaged two of three pods. The plant is recovering nicely:

That remaining pod I'm considering isolated for my own purposes. From here on out, I'll have to bag flowers/limbs/plants/rows to ensure isolation.

For comparison, here's on OW bhut that didn't get stripped:

They are both in 1 gal. pots and are due to move up.

I had thought I got all of the hornworms, but I missed one. The very next day after my previous post on the matter, I found the one OW Naga Morich completely stripped. It, too, is recovering nicely and recently got new shoes in the form of a #5 pot:

Chris, I got the tomato seeds you sent last weekend. Thank you, very much. Together with the ones I have that makes 22 varieties. I planted 3 cells of each yesterday. Hopefully we'll have a late frost this year and I'll have a decent fall garden.

Oops, I just realized I didn't resize the pictures before posting. Too late, now; I'll do better next time.

More later.

JJJessee · Jul 7, 2013

Looks Good, ArkSaw.

Our weather has been more moderate than the past few years too, no 90° highs yet, but staying above 60° at night. Still getting just a bit too much rain maybe. I'm gonna need every inch of summer Oct will give us too.

Looks like your passion flower has a fruit on it all ready. You grow it just for flowers or fruit too?

DocNrock · Jul 7, 2013

Sawyer, things are looking great. Sucks about the hornworm damage to the Bhut, but it looks like it's coming back strong! Glad to hear the cayenne is repelling the deer. Pods are looking great!

Sawyer · Jul 7, 2013

Dagnabbit, I knew I was jinxing myself with my previous talk about getting along with wasps. I just stepped barefoot on one. Take a finger and touch the middle of your other palm and that's where it got me, on the analogous part of the foot. Can't really blame it, though; I did step on it. It flew away apparently unharmed and though this was only about 15 minutes ago, it already doesn't hurt. In fact, I can barely feel it at all. Apparently, it was a glancing blow, just enough to say, "Get off me, fool." I think it was a common red and black paper wasp, in which case it really did take it easy on me. It might have been a mud dauber, in which case I might have gotten a full load. Their stings are barely worse than a sweat bee, for me anyway. Incidentally, for about the first second and a half, it felt exactly like I had stepped on a briar, then it felt like stepping on a very small coal for about five seconds.

Hey, JJJ and Doc, thanks for stopping by. This has be the best start to a summer I've seen in years. I could use some of that excess rain you guys out east have been getting. I haven't had any in about two weeks. I just wish I had gotten everything situated outside earlier. Oh, well, if things hold weather-wise, I might still get some early harvest. At the very least, I should be well-positioned for the fall.

Yeah, I've thankfully had just the one batch of hornworms, and the damage wasn't too bad. The stripped bhut already doesn't look much different from the unstripped ones. It put me to thinking about Spicy Chicken's process. (At least I think I remember that's who strips his plants when planting out.) I wonder if this is how he made his discovery. Or maybe sunburn-related leaf drop?

Good eye, JJJ, I hadn't noticed that. Yes, that's a fruit. I don't grow it for any reason; it just grows. Or at least I haven't before this year. The row it's in is next to be weeded and I'm going to weed around the passion flower and put up a bamboo trellis for it. I'm thinking of trying to concoct some sort of refreshing drink from the fruit. More and more I'm trying to utilize what grows without effort on my part, wild cherries, mulberries, passion fruit, etc. I noticed just a little while ago, there are a lot of the big black-faced bumblebees working the passion flowers. That means there is a nest somewhere close by. I hope I don't discover it by mowing over it. I've got a lot of tall growth yet to mow for the first time this year.

So I just counted and I have 27 plants in the garden, most of which are doing well. When I said 22 before, I must have meant 32, because I can see where 5 didn't make it. Still not sure what all is there; the labels are obscured under the plants.

DocNrock · Jul 7, 2013

Sorry to hear about the wasp sting. Ouch! Never had one on the bottom of the foot but had a hornet get me in the ankle once. 27 sounds like a nice, manageable number, with nice, manageable harvests.

Pulpiteer · Jul 11, 2013

That hornworm story is what hornworms watch around halloween time for horror flicks.

I just read that plantain leaf helps with bee stings. Never tried it, but that came to mind with your hornet story.

Sawyer · Jul 11, 2013

There is a lot of plantain growing here. I'll have to keep that in mind. I've used a poultice of vinegar and baking soda in the past, maybe adding plantain to that would work. I've been trying to get jewel weed to grow here. It is supposed to be good for preventing poison ivy reactions and I've had at least a couple of experiences suggesting that's true.

Here's a picture of my first ripe pod, pitiful and bug-chewed as it is. It's on the hornworm-stripped OW bhut jolokia, so I suspect stress has accelerated the ripening.

One of my Douglah plants is expressing purplish coloration not present in the others. It got chomped by a deer just as the heat kicked in, but it's slowly recovering. Is this common with Douglahs?

A couple of nons. Two of the potato onions and two of the shallots are putting up flower stalks. I'm planning to try to cross them, just to see what I get. I was disappointed to find one of the potato onion flower stalks cut, apparently by a bug. Does anybody have an idea what could do this?

And finally, a bit-past-its-prime passion flower:

Devv · Jul 11, 2013

Hey Sawyer,

Glad to see you're back up and running!

I hear ya about chewed on pods, the grasshoppers have been getting about 3-5% of mine.

Your question about temp versus polination, I think 93 and up hurts it, it's been above 95 and most of the peppers stopped flowering like they did when it was in the mid 80's. 100 today they say..

stickman · Jul 11, 2013

Hey Jay... Y'know it's funny, but your Deer-chomped Douglah looks an awful lot like my Aji Panca plants.

Sawyer said:
One of my Douglah plants is expressing purplish coloration not present in the others. It got chomped by a deer just as the heat kicked in, but it's slowly recovering. Is this common with Douglahs?

These are my Aji Pancas... it was cloudy when I took the pic, so it's fairly dark, but it has the same purple stems.

Sawyer · Jul 11, 2013

Devv said:
Your question about temp versus polination, I think 93 and up hurts it, it's been above 95 and most of the peppers stopped flowering like they did when it was in the mid 80's. 100 today they say..

We've only gotten above 95 once or twice so far this year. Everything I have is still growing and blooming, though I'm not sure the blooms are setting. Got my fingers crossed.

stickman said:
your Deer-chomped Douglah looks an awful lot like my Aji Panca plants.

I had to look up Aji Panca. Interesting pepper. I'm beginning to think even the commercial vendors aren't doing the best job of keeping their plants isolated. I expect some non-canonical forms from hobbyists, that's one of the reasons I mostly buy seeds from vendors. But that SR Congo Gigantic pod I posted above looks more like a Chaguana to me. Could just be atypical-first-pod syndrome, though. Anyway, I'll isolate some of these purple Douglah pods in case it turns out to be something special.

Stefan_W · Jul 11, 2013

Sorry to hear about the hornworms, but at least you got your first ripe bhut! My bhuts had the shoulder gnawed on like that last year. Do you have any idea what bug does that?

Sawyer · Jul 11, 2013

Stefan, I'm sure other bugs will, but this was the work of the hornworm. It ate two other pods on that same plant completely in half lengthwise. They kind of shriveled up after that. You can see them in the third pepper image in this post.

Compare this picture of the OW Naga Morich to the one here (last image in post) taken four days ago. Considering there was nary a leaf on it after the hornworm got done with it, I think it's making a pretty good recovery.

Can anyone tell me what this gorgeous creature is? I've seen a few of them around and think they must be good guys, or at the very least, indifferent.

I've also got lizards, skinks, toads, a green tree snake, and a garter snake all hanging out around the place.

The tomato seeds I planted on the 6th have almost all sprouted. Maybe I'll have a decent fall garden.