Siv's 2019 first time glog

I have never grown anything intentionally before but I wanted to try. Last year I bought some seeds from a local supplier here and tried to germinate them and failed. Not a single sprout. I kinda gave up. But around May I saw a sorry looking ghost pepper plant (at least that's what it was labeled as) sitting at Lowes so I bought it and put it in a small pot. Despite my neglect (and being away for a month during summer), the thing grew and put out a good set of pods. So this year, I'm highly motivated to give some serious pepper growing a go.
 
Determined to succeed this time, I educated myself and learned about the need for heat mats etc. I also watched a ton of Peter Stanley and Kangstar's videos which were hugely helpful.
 
I started with the leftover seeds from last year and here's the status:

• Kraken - 10 started, 6 sprouted
• Douglah - 10 started, 2 sprouted
• Chocolate Moruga - 10 started, 0 sprouted

Then I placed an order with Sandia seeds on 4th Feb:

• Ring of Fire - 10 started
• Aji Limo - 10 started
• White Ghost - 10 started
• Fatalii - 10 started
• Rocoto - 10 started

Of this lot, most of the seeds have sprouted so I have transplanted around four of each into wicking cups (half in soil and half in hydroton) to see what happens:

 
Then Sandia seeds sent a coupon for 25% off and I'm a sucker for a sale so my second order was placed on 19th Feb:

• Bhut Jolokia Yellow - 10 started
• Bulgarian Carrot - 10 started
• Devil's Tongue - 10 started
• Yellow Jalapeño Lemon Spice - 10 started
• Mulato Isleño Chile - Chocolate Poblano - 10 started
• Bell Purple Beauty Sweet - 20+ started

The yellow jalapeno and bulgarian carrot have already sprung up, as well as lots of the purple bell. The first yellow ghost just popped up this morning:

 

I probably shouldn't have done this but after seeing the love for these varieties, I made a third seed order yesterday:

• Bahamian Goat
• Sugar Rush Peach

So my first lesson learned: Now that I know the importance of heat, humidity and light, I don't need to put so many seeds in. I have way too many seedlings now! I'm only gonna attempt 2 or 3 of the new seeds this time!


 
Now I'm debating how to grow these on. I have plenty of room in my garden so I'm thinking about a whole bunch of 5 gal buckets with one lot as self watering in compost and another as a drip watered hydro. I may do dutch bucket or I may try a venturi style nute injection, not sure.
 
Anyway, I look forward to seeing what happens to all these plants over this year!

 

[Siv]

Siv, where did you get those fermentation jars?

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

 
The jars are mason pint jars from Walmart. The lids and airlocks are from Amazon - search for "year of plenty fermentation set"
 
I added a 4th jar to the ferment pile this morning. This is a mix of a lot of peppers; white, orange and red.
 

 

[Siv]

I managed to cajole my daughter into helping me harvest from the soil plants. They're producing loads now - the hydros are almost all bare. The red Kraken is full and I pulled almost all off.

 
Here's the load:

 
And sorted by type:

 
I had to toss about 5% of the peppers as they had holes - I found a few grubs squirming around inside them.
 
The lemon jalapenos are a revelation - they're lovely tasting and hardly pack any heat. Ideal for family use. My wife has been using the bulgarian carrots in her cooking and the taste is lovely. I'm definitely going to hydro both of these next year as they're only in soil this time and especially with the carrots, I've had to toss about half due to infestation.
 
The red Krakens are hot but weigh next to nothing. There are probably 100 pods there and they weighed 250g!
 
Finally, I think I'm going to get kicked out of the fridge. The sauces are starting to take up far too much room!

 

[Siv]

Not a huge amount to report - other than I'm sick of picking peppers! Maybe I do fewer plants next year... maybe...
 
Anyway, a couple of surprises. First are some peppers from a douglah that was a runt, forgotten about and then suddenly there were pods! My Bahamian goat is pretty much dead but the peppers on it have become bleached in the sun due to the lack of leaf cover.

 
Another surprise was my second soil Kraken which was way behind the other (that was producing red pods). This one seems true to form!

 
These cayennes and lemon drops are good and all but there are too many of the damn things!

 
I bought a dehydrator and after three days, I finally got dry peppers. Damn you Houston and your humidity!

 
And finally, one of my favourite things is Ghost Pepper Garlic from Silverleaf. They disappeared for a while then came back but are generally hard to find. Well now that I have my own peppers, I can make it myself! The hardest part will be forgetting I have them for a few months so they get nice and rounded.

 

[Siv]

Three of my ferments seem to be doing well. One turned a funny colour and smelled bad so I tossed it. I'm now trying to dry as many as I can whole in the dehydrator. The problem is that it's taking forever - I then found that poking a few holes helps speed things along - that's what I'm gonna do now for most of my harvest. The freezer is full already!
 
Too many damn peppers. I've eaten them raw, pickled them, cooked them, some are fermenting, put some through the dehydrator. Now I decided to try tying a ristra:

 
Not pepper related but I did put some carrots in with the peppers in spring. Pulled one out to see what's up. Purple but not that large.

 

[Siv]

A small update. I managed to cajole the kids into coming out and picking the lemon drops dry. We pulled off a ton from 4 plants.
 

 
Then spent an hour cleaning them and poking holes ready for the dehydrator. Here's the end product:
 

 
My main issue with all these damn plants is that they're all flowering again. Looks like I'll have another ton to harvest in a couple months.
 
My rocotos continue to flower but no sign of fruit yet. The hydro one that survived the summer mishap has grown a lot now and the new growth looks good. Temps are dropping now so I'm hopeful that some pods will set. We're unlikely to get a frost until early next year so I hope there's time to actually produce something!
 

 

[Siv]

Not much activity in my garden over the last couple of weeks. I did pick a few pods:

 
I think we're firmly into the second season here. My white ghost plants are covered in green pods so I'm estimating that I'll have another huge haul in a month or so. Same with the Aji Limos - lots more green pods and flowers. I'm pretty happy about this - the white ghost have been used up fast so I need a whole lot more!
 
I can't take any credit for this as I didn't do anything but the avocado tree is putting out a ton of fruit. I think I'm gonna have to start freezing them!

 

[PaulG]

Wow, things are really rocking' in Tejas, Siv.
 
Kudos for a great 'first' season, and good
luck in the 'second'!

 

[Siv]

Wow, things are really rocking' in Tejas, Siv.
 
Kudos for a great 'first' season, and good
luck in the 'second'!

 
Thanks Paul - it's been fun and I'm definitely planting next year but will be a lot more picky about what I plant. Some of your pods are stunners, especially the two-tone ones!

 

[Siv]

It's picking time again! I love that the Texas weather gives me two harvests with no work!
 
I picked about half the red Krakens, half the white ghosts, a third of the Datils and most of the bih jolokia. Still plenty more unripe pods to go and four bloody plants full of Aji Limo pods that I need to get he courage up to attack. Some of the pods seem larger than the first time around. My mum is here and in addition to helping me harvest, she likes cooking with the green cayennes so she's been picking some to use in the kitchen. I've frozen the krakens and will make more Datil and "stormtrooper" sauces.
 

 
Still nothing on the pubes - lots of flowers but no sign of a single fruit. I'm beginning to think my seeds are crap as they were all from the same stock.
 
Pretty much all my hydros are done - there is a black spot disease spreading along them so I'm cutting them off one by one. The only one left with peppers is the sugar rush peach and they're much smaller and much darker peach in colour. I'll have to get a photo.
 
I've bought all the bits to make a stir plate to "Tabasco" my ferments but I just need to get it built. I'll take some photos to document.

 

[Tybo]

Nice harvest!  I can understand getting sick of picking peppers.  I grew cayennes one year and they just kept on and on producing.  I couldn't wait till frost.  I just didn't have the heart to cut them down.  
 
How are you building your stir plate?  I've considered buying one and also building one.  There are a ton of different designs out there on the webs so it's a little confusing which one to go with.  I would like mine to have enough ump to stir some of the thicker sauces so I'm still looking.  

 

[Siv]

A bit of an update from this weekend.
 
The white ghosts I picked in the previous post went into a new sauce based on the original storm trooper recipe but this time with some added guava juice for sweetness. I call this one "Shock Trooper" - google a pic and you'll see why.

 
Over Halloween, it nearly hit freezing but most of my plants were unaffected. Unusual for my part of Texas. Anyway, the white ghosts were the only ones impacted with most of the leaves dying off so I picked anything that looked close to ripe. I also pulled of some red krakens, anaheims and datils. More sauces will be made this week!

 
With mother visiting from the UK, she's constantly complaining about the poor quality of food here. I decided to try taking her to some alternative grocery stores and one had rocotos for sale! Since I have had absolutely no luck growing my own, I bought some:

 
I also found these sauces which I have no idea why I bought because I have enough to last at least a year already and there are still pods to be picked.

 
And finally, this morning, while surveying my plants I spotted this. I let our more than a few expletives at this sight.

8 months of purple flowers and no fruit and finally this bugger decides to grow something. Maybe the colder temps have cajoled it into action... I hope it survives to ripen...

 

[PaulG]

Awesome pods in that last harvest. 
 
I hope that pubescens pod ripens up for you.

 

[Siv]

My stir plate is slowly taking shape. I used to fly rc planes and have a bunch of motors and speed controllers kicking about so the plan is to re-purpose one to drive the stir plate. I bought some strong magnets and will mount it in a wooden box. The design looks something like this:
 

 
I'm waiting for the glue to dry on the motor support but progress so far looks like this:
 

 

[PaulG]

You gots dose skills, brother! That should
be a great stir plate.
 
Dumb question, but what is the purpose exactly?
I mean, why is the stirring necessary?

 

[PaulG]

Some of your pods are stunners, especially the two-tone ones!

I'd be happy to send a few of those two-tone pod
seeds from the Purple Thunder your way. And anything
else you see in my grow logs or profile list.

 

[Siv]

You gots dose skills, brother! That should
be a great stir plate.
 
Dumb question, but what is the purpose exactly?
I mean, why is the stirring necessary?

 
The stir plate is for a vinegar based sauce like Tabasco. You make the mash, ferment and then mix with 1-1.5x vinegar by volume and stir for days. The mash disintegrates into the vinegar and also emulsifies it so that it won't separate. Afterwards, you sieve the sauce to remove the seeds and skin and you're left with a very thin sauce.
Chillichump has a video that explains it well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_woRAK_aPg
 
 

I'd be happy to send a few of those two-tone pod
seeds from the Purple Thunder your way. And anything
else you see in my grow logs or profile list.

 
Wow - thanks Paul - I'd love some. Let me know if there's anything you'd like from what I've grown this year. I also have a bunch of pods I'm happy to send you.

 

[PaulG]

 
The stir plate is for a vinegar based sauce like Tabasco. You make the mash, ferment and then mix with 1-1.5x vinegar by volume and stir for days. The mash disintegrates into the vinegar and also emulsifies it so that it won't separate. Afterwards, you sieve the sauce to remove the seeds and skin and you're left with a very thin sauce.
Chillichump has a video that explains it well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_woRAK_aPg
Thanks for that, Sir!
 
Wow - thanks Paul - I'd love some. Let me know if there's anything you'd like from what I've grown this year. I also have a bunch of pods I'm happy to send you.

 
Sending a PM your way, Siv.
 
I'll send some of both crosses. Be sure to let
me know what's on the list, if anything, you
would like me to include.
 
I'll check out your grow log again...

 

[internationalfish]

Wow, nice hauls! And great work on that stir plate. Really dig the box choice.
 

With mother visiting from the UK, she's constantly complaining about the poor quality of food here.

 
Wait, what? How do you go from the UK to Texas and complain about the food?!

 

[Siv]

Picked a ton of Aji Limo yesterday. Two of the plants are dropping leaves and two still look OK. Left a bunch of green pods on there so likely will get a second haul. I don't think I'll plant these next year as I'll have plenty of dried pods and powder from this year's crop.

 
Into the dehydrator they go. I filled 4 trays full!

 
Most of my hydro plants are on their last legs. The exception is the sugar rush peach however this round of pods are shorter and much darker in colour than the first lot. An interesting development!

 
I made another batch of Datil sauce (datils, tomatoes, vinegar, garlic powder, salt and stevia - cooked, strained and bottled) and printed some labels. I call this one Tatooine:

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Brave.  I wouldn't fuck with Disney or Jimmy Buffett..