Simp3204 2020 Garden #2

Hey Everyone,
 
Sorry for disappearing for a few months, I got crazy busy with life and took some time away from updating my Glog.  Garden #1 went pretty strong up until December and got hit hard by a storm when I was out-of-town for work.  I am making some much needed upgrades this year to get started early, including seed heating mats, a new Sansi grow light and a small "greenhouse" outside.  I will update this a little later with a picture of my current seedlings that are growing pretty strong.  Grow #2 looks to be off to a much more organized and healthy start than Grow #1. 
 
My pepper grow this year consists of seeds from White Hot Peppers, Lawrence Family Farms, The Hippy Seed Company and a few plants from Baker Creek Seeds.  Most of you already know Justin from White Hot Peppers and Trent from Lawrence Family Farms on the forums here. 
 
https://www.whitehotpeppers.com/
https://lawrenceproduce.com/
https://thehippyseedcompany.com/
https://www.rareseeds.com/
 
I look forward to hearing from everyone and following along with everyone's 2020 grows.
 
Simp

 

[simp3204]

Totally forgot to post this from earlier, the succulent lizard. I’m hoping the lizards and salamanders I’ve been seeing step their bug eating game up.

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[Mr.joe]

Unfortunately you seem to have so many of those earwigs that the lizards, ladybugs and mantis still won't keep up. But every thing helps I guess

 

[PaulG]

Mr. Lizard likes hanging out under that succulent!

 

[Devv]

Congrats on the first house!
Exciting times; enjoy it.
 
The earwigs are crazy, good luck with the buggers..

 

[simp3204]

I was out in my garden putting extra diatomaceous earth around my plants and I moved my Chocolate Ghost that is in a 5 gallon bucket and found this garden defender underneath. It was next to at least 50 earwig corpses.

It appears to be a common desert centipede. I estimate it was at least 4.5”-5” long uncurled

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[Mr.joe]

That thing is scary looking

 

[PaulG]

Centipedes are amazing predators, alright.
Great photo of an awesome specimen!
 
Give that one a raise to keep it around.

 

[simp3204]

It seems a few centipedes have moved in to the garden, none as big as the one above. The earwig damage has dropped quite a bit and most the peppers are doing ok, some haven’t recovered from the earwigs and might not. Luckily, most of the sicker plants have an extra that is doing ok.

Tomato plants are insane and growing fast! I’m learning tomato pruning this year and I am far behind and will not let this happen next year.

Chocolate Ghost has been growing fast the last couple weeks. Just noticed my basset hound snuck into the top left.

Carolina Reaper with the Choco Ghost in the background. Really starting to get bushy.

Swamp Thing putting out some big leaves.

Earwig trap update, we have two winners that have a lot of kills:

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[Mr.joe]

Wow, that's a bunch of earwigs! Do you inspect those traps to see how many beneficials are taking a swim?

 

[CaneDog]

Jeez, that's some crazy earwig carnage.  Good to see the traps are working so well.  Looks like your plants are laying on some good mass, too.

 

[simp3204]

Wow, that's a bunch of earwigs! Do you inspect those traps to see how many beneficials are taking a swim?

I’ve only ever seen earwigs and garden roaches in them. I can’t even recall seeing a spider in any of them. I have one from last years garden that I just left and didn’t think much of it. It has so many dead earwigs in it I had to top it off with vegetable oil today.

When I did I discovered what I thought was all dead earwigs was not all dead earwigs. The oil looked like it was boiling they were squirming so much. I’ll have to take some pictures of that one.


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[simp3204]

Jeez, that's some crazy earwig carnage.  Good to see the traps are working so well.  Looks like your plants are laying on some good mass, too.

It seems about a third are starting to put it on, they are also the ones that took less damage. Earwigs can go away.


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[PaulG]

I've never seen that kind of earwig damage.
We have a few in our garden, but mostly just
an annoyance. Glad to see the plants recovering
a bit. Still lots of grow season left!

 

[simp3204]

I've never seen that kind of earwig damage.
We have a few in our garden, but mostly just
an annoyance. Glad to see the plants recovering
a bit. Still lots of grow season left!

I’ll have to take some pics of the really damaged plants for you. It seems like mostly just chew on my peppers and tomatoes and then leave. My lettuce is another story, they straight murder it and have done a number to my corn.

Mr. Joe asked about checking my traps for any beneficial insects in them, so, I checked my one surviving trap from last years garden. It’s been in the garden continuously for 6-8 months. At one point in time it was covered in dirt after some heavy rain, probably in December.

Joe, I couldn’t find one beneficial insect in the trap I dumped out. I could have easily missed one or two.

Before the dumpage. That’s a solid mat of dead earwigs.

Pretty horrid smell after dumping the contents out, that juice on the top left. I could tell I used a little fish emulsion to make it smelly.

Mostly earwigs, garden roach at the top. This was the solid layer area at the top of the trap.

Looks like a few grub crawled in when the trap got covered in dirt. Nice amount of soil in there with them.

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[Mr.joe]

Wow. That's disgusting,but seems the traps work. I guess you could compost those bugs. When life gives you lemonade type of thing...

 

[Devv]

Wow. That's disgusting,but seems the traps work. I guess you could compost those bugs. When life gives you lemonade type of thing...

I was thinking the same. Feed the bastages to the plants....
 
I noticed a bhut load of baby grasshoppers in the garden today....not good.

 

[simp3204]

Just moved into my first house and moving my plants was “fun”. It was a warm week and my plants were not happy about the light watering I did Friday night before they were moved yesterday/Saturday.

Some very dramatic wilting in the tomatoes, the peppers held up much better.

About half of the peppers are starting to flower and two of the biker billy jalapeños have been flowering like crazy.

U-Haul Forest:

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[Mr.joe]

Congrats on the new place. The plants will rebound

 

[PaulG]

+1 Mr. Joe!
 
Alright, Jason, a mobile grow room. 
Just needs some lights!

 

[simp3204]

+1 Mr. Joe!
 
Alright, Jason, a mobile grow room. 
Just needs some lights!

Plants are looking a-ok today after some nice watering!

Lmao, a 26ft U-haul grow room! I have a massive shed now, gotta clean it up some and I’ll post pics. It has a 2nd floor that will be my new grow room in our mild “winter”.


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