seanw first glog (2013) - Racing the End of the Season...

Hello and greetings My first post here, and I'm prepping for my first major season growing. I've done a few small pepper plants here or there, and two summers ago I tried for some variety of ghost chili or other (the pop top cans you can get from thinkgeek), which turned out to look like ghost chilis, but were super mild (may have also been the fact that they were getting almost no sun in the apartment we lived in at the time, and by the time we got the house, they got outdoors just in time for the frost to hit).

I've got a heat mat and a 50 hole rapid rooter en route, and I'll be grabbing some cheapo work lights to give me some light. I also need to rig some sort of container to keep in the heat, they'll be going in my insulated-but-unheated garage until I move them into the garden, thinking either a styrofoam cooler or just putting that silver bubblewrap insulation stuff on a box.

In addition to some herbs and other garden veggies, here's my pepper list for the year:

HP22B
Yatsufusa
Tabasco
Paprika
Firecracker
Early Jalapeno
Moruga Trinidad Scorpion
NuMex Suave Orange Habanero
Chiltepin
Orange Hab
Bhut Jolokia
Red Savina Hab
Hot Cherry Pepper
Butch T Trinidad
Scotch Bonnet

I may have gone a bit gonzo on ordering. We haven't built our garden yet. This will be the second garden, the first is dedicated to berries, and got mauled by rabbits and chipmunks, even with fencing. The vegetable garden is going to be 6'x30', in three sections. Gonna stick peppers and some tomatos in one of the 10x6 section, the other two will be for the other veggies. I'm gonna have to break out some pots for the rest of the peppers. We'll see what happens once we get the garden together, though My current plan is to build a frame around the garden and cover it with 1" or 2" fencing, big enough for the bugs, too small for the critters.

Here's hoping all goes well!

 

[buddy]

[sub]Very nice! Good luck with your 2013 season.[/sub]

 

[SeanW]

[sub]Very nice! Good luck with your 2013 season.[/sub]

Thanks!

Survey says...beans do not survive frosts. Ah well, I have plenty of seeds and a few sprouts left.

My green tomatillos are sprouting
Like crazy, which I

 

[stickman]

Just a word of warning... the green Tomatillos I planted got leggy as h&$# very quickly. They'll probably need some support for a bit.

 

[SeanW]

Just a word of warning... the green Tomatillos I planted got leggy as h&$# very quickly. They'll probably need some support for a bit.

Good to know.

Apparently, my tablet cut the rest of my previous message off. It was having trouble with the site. That's supposed to say "which is cool, now I'm hoping my purple ones do the same"

 

[SeanW]

Stuck another bean plant outside. I'm a glutton for punishment, apparently. That, and I'm critically low on space

Peppers got a good bit of sun, today. I also filled in the cups, they were a little squished down from when I was top watering, and I figure maybe this will smother the green stuff growing on top. I also picked off the deadish leaves, a couple are sticklike, now, but most of them are looking much greener and happier. Watch your water, folks.

Rick, I may have had a casualty, it's too early to see. The gochu I got off of you had a cracked stem, the wind may have gotten it It wasn't a total sever, so I smeared a bit of rooting hormone on the break, buried that part of the stem, and stood it up, supported by a bamboo stick. Hopefully it survives, I was looking forward to that one. Bummer!

 

[stickman]

Sorry it happened to you Sean... the wind can be really fierce this time of year. Hopefully the Gochu pulls through for you, but if not, I'll see that you get some powder to try.

 

[SeanW]

Sorry it happened to you Sean... the wind can be really fierce this time of year. Hopefully the Gochu pulls through for you, but if not, I'll see that you get some powder to try.

Cool, hopefully it comes through. It's still green, so I have at least some hope.

More interesting for today is the horde of police that have their command post set up in my office parking lot in Watertown...glad I checked my phone before I left to head to work, this morning.

 

[stickman]

Yeah, that's gotta be a zoo down there...

 

[SeanW]

We need some rain...they keep telling us we're going to get it, and it never happens. My grass seed needs a soaking! The lawn is growing...getting greener, and if it keeps it up, I'll be mowing in a week or two. I guess spring is here, which you wouldn't know by the frost on my car, this morning. It's supposed to be rainy and bleh the next couple days, but we'll see...

All of my annuums are up-potted. The only thing left in the rooters are the herbs. I had to throw my peas and beans outside, in cups...flat out of space in the greenhouse. The peas will be fine, if the beans die...eh, lesson learned. Might have lost 2 of the 3 poblano that I had growing, I'm torn on the rapid rooters. They seem to be really difficult to balance between "dried out and hard as a rock" and "overwatering." I'm probably keeping plants in there a little too long, but it's still a little rough. The poblanos didn't like the overwatering, and I didn't get them out, fast enough. Soooo much learning to do, this season. Unsure if I'll stick with them for next year, though I still have a bunch left. Maybe I'll try both a seed starting soil and the rooters season next...the poblano seedlings are still greenish, so maybe they'll recover. I only need one, anyway, and probably am going to be struggling to find homes for all of the plants I have...so maybe it was serendipity

I'll snap a shot of the greenhouse, soon. Meant to do it, already. Pretty much just have my tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and some seedling herbs left in there. "Just." Once the plants stabilize a bit, I'll take a count, and see what I actually have going on in there. I'm sure it'll be pretty close to the 20 or so plants I had planned at the beginning of the planting season, right?

Insanity in Boston has died down, some...so we're all back in the office, today.

Side note: the 45 degree angle of the oil drain on a recent model outback is handy for keeping the oil off your hand when you pull the drain plug, but 5 quarts of warm oil leaves the drain with surprisingly high pressure, and if you aren't expecting it, you'll end up with about a quart of oil on your garage floor. Next time...keep the oil collection tray about a foot more to the driver's side...

 

[SeanW]

Things are looking better! I've de-leaved a bunch of the chinense, they were looking kind of rough from the over-watering. Little leaves are coming back, so I'm hoping they'll be bushy like crazy. All part of the plan, right? One of the moruga even has little buds on it, that'll be coming off pretty quickly, I don't want flowers on a mostly-sticklike pepper.

Ordered the cinderblock for the garden, today. It'll be here Tuesday. I'll probably get the garden built Wednesday, and then order the dirt. Plant out is in ~2 weeks, so we're getting there.

A couple pepper recipes, from recently. I made my own burritos, this week. Some baked chicken and cheese, with a spanish "rice" mixture. Rice was white rice, lentils and quinoa (all cooked in beef broth), diced poblano, 2 cans diced tomatos, 2 cans beans, some cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. Pretty tasty.

Also made avocado deviled eggs for a party. 2 dozen hard boiled eggs, 6 or so jalapenos, juice of 4 limes, some salt, pepper and paprika. Cholesterol bomb, but it's the good kind, right?

Funny story - I've been sprinkling a variety of stuff on my flowers to keep the critters from eating it. Friday was ground red pepper day. I threw it out on the plants right before taking a drive, and didn't wash my hands. Predictably, I rubbed my eye. While driving. Left eye clamped shut, right eye was watering so badly that I couldn't see, as I'm zipping down a back road. The burning finally stopped, but every time I opened my left eye it would water and flare up again. That was toooons of fun.

 

[Sawyer]

"Like" for the rest of the post, not the burning eye. That's twice in two days I've heard reference to avocado deviled eggs. I'd never heard of that before, will have to investigate.

 

[stickman]

Funny story - I've been sprinkling a variety of stuff on my flowers to keep the critters from eating it. Friday was ground red pepper day. I threw it out on the plants right before taking a drive, and didn't wash my hands. Predictably, I rubbed my eye. While driving. Left eye clamped shut, right eye was watering so badly that I couldn't see, as I'm zipping down a back road. The burning finally stopped, but every time I opened my left eye it would water and flare up again. That was toooons of fun.

Hi Sean, We've all been there... particularly after dealing with chopped or dried and ground pods. +1 on getting your beds constructed so you can plant out! Looking forward to it brother!

 

[SeanW]

"Like" for the rest of the post, not the burning eye. That's twice in two days I've heard reference to avocado deviled eggs. I'd never heard of that before, will have to investigate.

This is the second time I've made them. The first time didn't work so well, unsure what I did wrong. This time, I added copious amounts of lime juice, and it made a huge difference. Pretty tasty.

Hi Sean, We've all been there... particularly after dealing with chopped or dried and ground pods. +1 on getting your beds constructed so you can plant out! Looking forward to it brother!

I'm usually pretty careful, having nailed myself pretty good in the past. Since it was "only" crushed stuff from a jar, I wasn't paying much attention, and I was in a rush. Haven't hit myself that good in a while - at least the reminder was with a milder pepper, and not one of my supers!

Looking forward to getting the garden going, need me some outdoor planting!

 

[SeanW]

Yikes, so, a month or two ago I put a request in to USDA/GRIN for a couple seed varieties, explaining that no, I wasn't doing any research, but that I was trying to source those seeds to grow them out and share with the community. I hadn't heard anything in forever, so I figured they didn't find that a good enough reason to use their seed sources.

Got an email today that my Aleppo and Haskorea seeds were en route. Both are annuum, so I think I'll have enough time to get them growing, I'll stick them in pots so that I can bring them indoors if need be. Cool!

 

[SeanW]

3 Neptune (seedless green) grapes and 1 Mars (seedless red) grape plants went in the dirt, last night. I'll try and snag a pic today, cinder blocks came in and I got a couple in the right spot, along with planting the grapes, JUST as the sun set, so it was too dark.

It seems my compost is still too raw, I need to add a second bin to let this one cook while we add to the other. I do have a pile of old grass next to the bin, which I pulled some of the composted grass from, along with a bit of the less-good young compost from my bin, to plant the grapes. We'll see what I can manage to add to the garden. That'll get built today, soil will probably get ordered Friday, for a delivery at some point. Once the soil is in, I'll be able to mix in some compost and a few random other things to spice it up, and since it'll probably be next week before this happens, it might be plant out time a week or less after! May 15 is ostensibly last frost, gotta keep an eye on the weather report, since it's been a bit nippy, this year.

Then, we get to see if I have enough planned space and pots for all of my plants!

 

[SeanW]

So, here's the garden, sans dirt. A little over 30' x 10', give or take a block or so. I appear to be growing bird feeders, they'll have to move.

Here's my grapes, with the berry garden behind it. I'll be getting netting over the berries, damn chipmunks and birds ate all the berries, last year

And, I found this little guy in my yard. Moved him from the grass into the brush at the end of my yard, hopefully he's smart enough to stay there and avoid the lawnmower...

 

[stickman]

Cool looking bed Sean, you oughtta get enough peppers in there to hurt yourself pretty good! Do you have a small pond nearby to find turtles in your back yard?

 

[SeanW]

Hopefully I'll get enough peppers in there I have plans for most/all of my nons to go in there, and then as many of the peppers as will fit. Requires over 10 yards of soil to fill...that's gonna be pricey. Gonna order extra soil for my pots, and then just buy bags to fill in the rest.

I think there's a pond fairly close to my house, but it's still a distance that it's surprising that I find turtles. We had a bigger guy, last year.

 

[SeanW]

7 yards of soil being delivered today...rain coming in later this week...GOGOGOGOGOGOGO

 

[stickman]

7 yards of soil being delivered today...rain coming in later this week...GOGOGOGOGOGOGO

Alright! +1 on that!... GrowGrowGrowGrowGrow....

Your Butch T. and Scotch Bonnet peppers got planted out under my hoophouse a couple of weeks ago, and unfortunately they were looking pretty stressed... mostly because they were so dry. I was carrying water a hundred yards by hand from the tap on my house because our condo association hadn't gotten their collective thumb out and set up the garden hose we use to water with. It finally got set up this past weekend and I made sure they got a good drink. They're much happier now. The Chiero went in the mini hoophouse next to our house so I was watering it when it needed it, and it's much happier.