Seacowboy 2013

Got my seeds started back in early February. Next year I will begin in December as many of my pepper plants stalled out after getting to be @ 5-6". Other veges did great under the lights and have transplanted well into the garden. This is my first season with a garden in the backyard, been using about an acre at my hunting camp but that's hard to manage being 120 miles away, but have been very succesful there. Tilled the yard up to about 50' x 20' and added 4x4x10's on the corners to set the fence up and 2 more for a gate. The deer in my neighborhood pass through daily in a group of 8-12. I put down a weed cloth over majority of it then added 3-6" of mulch to keep the moisture in since I'm away for wks at a time with work and the other half isn't into doing anything In the garden besides hitting the switch to run the sprinkler off the well, guess I have to give her a little slack since she is 7 month pregnant.

Anyhow I lost over 100 plants when I got called back to work to fill in for an injured crewman, had left about half of what I had outside to finish hardening off then go in the ground when I got back 4 days later. I looked at the temps and it was gonna be fine but missed the rain in the forecast. Rained 3 out if the 4 days I was gone and drowned just over 100 of 120 plants I had outside. Was a mix of mainly peppers with a pile of tomatoes and other stuff in there too, fortunately I still had another 100 or so left inside and was able to nearly fill the garden with what I had and only have to buy a few plants.

So they've been in the ground for 3 wks and things arelooking good. The tomatoes have a little infestation of aphids but my sister has been coming over to spray them with oil/water till I can get back and see if anything else needs to be done. Thinking of possibly introducing some extra ladybugs to fight them off, by I will need to add more flowery type crap before then so they stick around.

Will try to add some pics in and make a list of what's growing. Will update as I go.

Here's day 1 in the ground 5/4/13. Planted 3 rows of sweet corn in the back, their 6-10" now and anout 30 onions. Front left side 8'x8' has rows of turnips, beers and parsnips. Front right side 8'x8' has mixed greens.

This picture was from Thursday 5/23/13. Good bit of growth so far. Will start hitting it with compost tea in 10 days or so and hope things really take off from there.

List of peppers included so far is: Lemon Drop, 5 Color Mustard Habanero, Serranos, Thai Chilis, Tam Japs, Anaheim, Pepperocini, Plain Japs, Golden Marconi, Tabasco, Scoth Bonnet, Tequila and a few different Sweet Bells.

I have 4 Bhut's growing, but very slow still in pots. I plan on transplanting them to 5 gal pots and keeping them for a few yrs if possible, may put 1 in the ground next yr. Have Datil pepper seeds waiting at the house which I'll start and do the same with. Datil's are my favorite, my dog got out of his kennel months ago and ate a ton of my seed stash and all were deposited in the yard over the winter...

 

[WalkGood]

Jason, good list and very nice start! Love the look of your outdoor garden and that second perspective picture of the sprouts is killer, nice DOF. Hope you have a bumper crop in your grow!
 
 

 

[ThePepperManiac]

first off welcome to the forum.. grow looks like is going good like the fence with the door no ghetto growing with you lol happy growing

 

[Seacowboy]

Thanks guys. Some stuff is doing great and others not so much. Brewed up 10 gals of AACT but will have to wait a bit before I can use it, so far today we've got 1.5" of rain and a few more showers on the way. My tomatoes took a heavy hit from aphids before I get them under control, least they haven't moved on to the pepper plants.  The pepper plants are doing so so and many have already flowered but I knocked them off to get more growth.  I put together two bins with 6 pots in each for my first hydroponic set up.  Got a pile of seeds from Pepper Joe and a bag of Peach Bhut seeds along with a variety of pods from romy6 that I have been working on hard the last couple days. 
 
Dying tomato.

 
Right side with mixed Greens in the front.
 

 
Left side with Beets in the front and most of the Peppers back behind them.
 

 
Dinner from the other night, added on a Chocolate Hab from romy6 to the Escovitch Wahoo that turned out excellent.
 

 

[romy6]

 Garden looks sweet J. Your gonna be loving it in a month or so. Food look superb.
 
 
But just a FYI I did not send you any choc bhuts. Choclate habs yes
 
Have a great weekend.

 

[Seacowboy]

Just seeing if you were paying attention there Jamie.  :Either way it was great. Had a lot of down time with all the rain yesterday and found a garden planner program, pretty easy to use and may help for next year and keeping the dates and any notes so I put everything in that I had, minus whats in pots on the deck.
 
http://gardenplanner.dripworks.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=434882
 
Picked up a ph tester and if its reading right I have a bit of an issue with my soil. Reading 3.7 in several spots all over the garden. A friend has a good bit of wood ash that I may spread tomorrow but with plants already in the ground, weed cloth down and mulch on top I maybe limited in what I do to it this year.  After the season I'll move all the mulch and weed cloth and amend the soil with whatever I need to do to make it right, just hope I can salvage this years grow. I know I should have done this first before doing anything else but I put the cart before the horse on this one. Any suggestions on getting that ph up with the quickness?

 

[Seacowboy]

The good news is my ph tester was junk, nursery tested my soil with another probe (still iffy) and got 6.7, so that is much better and return the tester for credit and got ProMix and other goodies. Seems my in ground plants have been a bit to wet, hopefully after raking way to much mulch away to expose the weed cloth and no rain with lots of sun over the next few days the soil will dry up and I can avoid root rot and they will start taking off.  I did send a soil sample off to VA Tech to have analyzed, only $10 and will give me a full breakdown, but won't be returned for 10-14 days.
 
The seeds I started last week have been doing their thing, so far 39% germ rate for 72 sown in rockwool after only 9 days on the heat mat @ 77-80. Put Red Moruga Scorp, Datil, Thai Yellow, Peach Bhut, Naga Viper and Atomic Starfish in one hydro set, and the rest in pots with ProMix.  The ones in pots I will start hardening off once they get a couple more sets of leaves but for now they will get 24/7 light.
 

L
 
Last nights eats. Chicken Taquitos with homemade Guac and a Douglah.
 

 

[Seacowboy]

Found time to make it down to my hunting camp out on the Northern Neck to help get the tomato plants up off the ground and trussed up, 74 plants and another couple dozen that aren't quite big enough.  For sure way to many but we have the room and since I lost so many plants earlier this year the space was going unused and the local HS was practically giving them away and the money went towards their FFA program. Me and the actual owner of the land and neighbor across the street take care of it but I have not been able to get down all spring until now. They put in about 2 doz sweet and bell pepper plants and about a dozen warmer ones, cayenne, jap, cowhorns and a few habs. I stopped at the coop on the way just to see what they may have left over even though its pretty late to be putting them in the ground and they gave me 46 plants for $45, call it a fair deal. Several already had flowers and buds forming with a couple Mexibell pods already forming, I popped off the buds and flowers and stuck them in the ground under a weed cloth.  The neighbor across the street takes care of the garden most the time since were 120 miles away but he WILL NOT do a thing to our plants even when asked so the cloth is necessary to keep them from being overtaken with grass and weeds.  Runs the walk behind just about every 3-4 days between his rows and pull weeds inside but not ours.
 
Enough talky, here's the pics of progress. Oh and the seeds I started 2 wks ago have been doing great, up to 75% germ rate with the only one type to not have at least 1 out of the 3 I started sprout is the Hot Cherry pepper. My indoor grow set up is already maxed out anyways till the 50 some plants get big enough to get booted outside. 
 
Views of the main garden, right to left. Lots of empty space. Has 3 types of beets, few different beans, white/red onion, white/red potatoes, greens will go in probably in September.

 
Side Garden

Florida weave on the toms

New additions.

My helper/hinder.

Finally the best 2 out of the DWC I started, first is a Peach Bhut and the next is a Thai Yellow. Last is a another Thai Yellow, planted, sprouted and planted on the same day just if different media (ProMix), big difference in growth they are at exactly at 14 days since put into germ tray.

 

 

[romy6]

 Man you got yourself a hell of a plot. Looks like the plants are really starting to take off.
 
 
And tell me how you train your beautiful dog not to eat your plants 

 

[PIC 1]

That sure is a nice plot for the veg. Too bad the dude can't help you out a bit with an occasional weeding. If the weather stays dry they're easy to pry up, but we all want rain and that's the kicker.....The weeds love it too ! 
 
Ha..........didn't know ya could get PBR on the East coast. That just started making a comeback on tap with the young folk here. Had my 1st 40 yrs back. 

 

[Seacowboy]

Thanks Jamie, it is a lot of work, especially when our stuff goes unattended for weeks at a time. The soil down there is great for all the peppers I've grown so far and can't wait to load it up next year with some new ones from all the seedling I started lately and more as time goes.

As for the pooch I'm not sure if you can see the black collar and box(shock collar) on him but it works wonders. He does mind well and doesn't try to eat or dig up the plants but he loves being out there and just does laps around and through the garden, which results in several broken stalks and knocked over supports. So when he's in there I put him in a down/stay and correct heavy when he moves unless told too.

PBR's are great after working in the heat and for chasing the heat down during a meal instead of guzzling the expensive Dogfish 90 minute IPA's that I prefer.

Headed back to work for 3 weeks in the morning so I won't have many pics to update. Hopefully wifely can snap a few of the indoor stuff but since she's technically on bed rest I doubt I'll get to hear much about the outdoor garden unless my sister or bro-in-law come by. Hopefully they make a couple visits to keep up on the neem oil/fish feet spray once a week but otherwise I think it should fare pretty good while I'm away. Will try to keep up with everyone's blogs while I'm gone, keep up all the hard work and thanks for comments.

 

[Pepperhead]

I'm so jealous of that spread. My wife and kids would never see me with all the plants I'd grow!

 

[Seacowboy]

I'm so jealous of that spread. My wife and kids would never see me with all the plants I'd grow!

If it wasn't over a 100 miles away I'd be there all the time. Hell even the time I spend in the backyard garden I get flack about, but what prego woman doesn't complain about everything?

 

[Pepperhead]

If it wasn't over a 100 miles away I'd be there all the time. Hell even the time I spend in the backyard garden I get flack about, but what prego woman doesn't complain about everything?

 
Tell me about it.  I've got three kids and one is just 9 months old.
 
We'll have to trade Guac recipes.  My wife makes a killer guacamole using a recipe we stole from one of my friend's wives.

 

[Peptacular]

Nice to see a fellow Virginian man. Although I have to hate on you for such a beautiful plot, especially when I considered you fairfaxians borderline Yankees at one point lol jk.

Either way, kickass looking set up man.

 

[Seacowboy]

Nice to see a fellow Virginian man. Although I have to hate on you for such a beautiful plot, especially when I considered you fairfaxians borderline Yankees at one point lol jk.

Either way, kickass looking set up man.

Thanks man, its taken a good bit of work and more $$ than I'd like to admit, may not get the growth this year but next year it should be all good. Trust me I wish I was much further from the line than I am but stuck for another few years in this hellhole.
 
I go through F-burg all the time, where about's are you? Anytime you feel the need to torture yourself with traffic in NOVA swing on by.

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Wow, nice piece of land. Where do you hunt? Still trying to convince my relatives to let me use some of the 100 acre farm we own and I hunt.

 

[Seacowboy]

The bigger garden and hunting land is down on the Northern Neck in Heathsville. I've been hunting there for 17 yrs and the old guys have hunted there for 40+. Nice get away and even has a haunted house so my wife says that we stay in, just wish it was closer especially now that we have a baby coming any day. Used to hunt a lot in NOVA growing up but 95% of that land has houses on it or surrounding it.  You have any land to duck or goose hunt on over there Joyner?

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

I hunt in Smithfield and yes we get geese but I only hunt deer and an occasional rabbit or squirrel. As for ducks we do not have any standing year round pods but do have a few still ponds where ducks stop by on a limited basis. 

 

[Seacowboy]

Got the results from my soil sample back. Lesson learned, again....  
 
I should have sent it in well before putting anything in the ground and knew I should have but got rushed and short on time due to my work schedule and went ahead with planting out anyways. Results show a ph of 5.1. Way too low and they suggest adding 12 lbs of lime per 100 sq ft. There is a lot more info on the report that I need to cipher through. But now I have to decide rather I will gamble and start adding a little lime now or wait till the end of the season and do the whole thing with about 115 lbs of lime. At least lime is cheap and it fixable, just sucks that this season maybe screwed. So I will focus on what I have in pots with Pro-Mix, along with a dozen in the hydro set up. With a little luck and treating  them right and hope to bring it all around next year.