Siv's second time lucky? 2020 Glog

And so it begins:

 
From left to right:

1. Growdown Fatalii - Seed Savers Exchange
2. Kang Starr Lemon Starburst - Pepper Donkey [new for 2020]
3. Bahamian Goat - Pepper Donkey
4. Sugar Rush Peach - Pepper Donkey
5. Dorset Naga - Pepper Donkey [new for 2020]
6. Piri Piri - All Good Things [new for 2020]
7. Peppadew - THP seed train (I think) [new for 2020]
8. Turbo Pube - fataliiseeds.net [new for 2020]
9. Datil - THP Seed Train
10. White Ghost - Pepper Donkey
11. Purple Thunder - PaulG [new for 2020]
12. Leviathan Gnarly Scorpion - WHP (I think) [new for 2020]
13. Solid Gold But - saiias [new for 2020]

All the seeds look pretty good other than the piri piri which seem small and darker than expected. We'll see how it does. Overall, I think I have a good mix of heat and colour. Maybe I need to add something yellow as the growdown fatalii looks orange.
 
I'll put together another tray next weekend. Last year was easy as I had limited seeds, this year has been near impossible to choose what to grow as I have so many seeds thanks to the kindness of PaulG and the THP seed train.
 
I'm debating if I should do an Aji this year. Last year I got a ton of Aji Limo so perhaps I should try crystal, mango or pineapple - any recommendations?

 

[PaulG]

Looks really good. You can wait awhile before
you thin those seedlings. I am even trying letting
a couple live out their lives as twins this season.

 

[Siv]

Wow guys, where has the time gone! Time for an update.
 
My white tote has gone a great job, especially after being moved outside. Here are some progress pictures:
 
5th May:

 
10th May:

 
19th May:

 
Once the plants got to a decent size, I moved them into the 5gal hydro buckets or outside into the 10gal grow bags

 
24th May:

 
The only plants not to take off are the Turbo Pubes - my only pubescens I started early this year. I'm going to starts some more in August to put outside in October.

I may bring these inside and try them in a grow tent.

 

[Siv]

The hydro lineup this morning:
 

 
I added three more buckets to the end this year. They don't have individual valves (I ran out) so they're all tied together.
 
From left to right:
White Ghost and Dorset Naga with a couple extras that I put in soil to give to a friend - the SRP didn't take the transplant very well as I'd left it in too much sun. It's coming back though.

 
Fatalii (growdown seed), Piri piri and Datil

 
Purple Thunder (from Paul), KSLSB & Bahamian Goat

 
White Ghost, Aji Amarillo (from Harry D) and SRP - the SRP has had a caterpillar attack so I've now been spraying all with neem.

 
LGS (from the seed train), Aji Cristal & Peppa Dew 

 
Datil, Orange Ribbon, Solid Gold & White Ghost

 
And the new buckets, SRP, Peppa Dew and LGS

 

[Siv]

I put my cascading hydro back into service for herbs:
 
Basil, chives, a ton of mint and parsley

 
It was used for salad last year and got a bad aphid infestation so I stuck to herbs that are anti-insect. So far so good.
 
The soil setup has been slightly modified this year. The top left corner gets too much sun and the plants don't grow as well so I moved a couple bags to the bottom right. If I can get some more bags, I may add another couple of sites:

 
Naturally these will be a lot slower than the hydro but they're still solid producers and much less risky. A ton of Aji pods already on the go:

 
And finally, I pulled everything out of the raised beds. I'm seriously regretting planting Malabar Spinach last year - it must had put down 1000s of seeds as I've been pulling these shoots out every day.

 

[internationalfish]

Your pepper plants look great, but holy crap, that hydro herb monster! That's excellent! If you went all-in on basil you could start a pesto business.

 

[Mr.joe]

Everything is looking great except that fatali plant is almost certainly diseased. I recommend pulling the fatali and starting a new one in 6 months.
I really like your hydro bucket system one day I'll try out a real hydro setup.

 

[Devv]

I just found this, looking good Siv!
 
Congrats on the Pubes doing so well!

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Beautiful!  Gorgeous big glossy leaves on some of those guys!

 

[HeatMiser]

That's one good looking grow Siv! great job!
 
How big is your main nutrient reservoir and how often do you change it?

 

[Siv]

That's one good looking grow Siv! great job!
 
How big is your main nutrient reservoir and how often do you change it?

 
The hydro herb thingy has a 27 gallon tote - you can see it in the picture on the bottom right.
 
The buckets have two 32 gallon trash cans:

 
I actually setup 4 last year when I was away on vacation but that wasn't enough! Since we're not going anywhere this year, I'm sticking with two. I don't change nutes at all, I just run one barrel to empty and then switch to the other. I'm not trying to over-concentrate the nutes to maximise growth so I'm sticking to about 2.5g to 3g per gallon of masterblend. I sometimes just fill or top up with water without adding nutes.
 
Last year I tried to do a flush where I emptied all the nutes out of the buckets - within 15 minutes the plants started to droop so I quickly filled them all back up. Now this was maybe due to me doing it during the heat of the day and perhaps would have worked better in the morning or evening but I'm not messing with that again just in case.
 
The only problem I have had is the float valve sometimes gets clogged with solids since the nozzle is so small. I had to replace it once last year. I may experiment with making my own with a toilet float which would be much more resilient.

 

[Siv]

So after giving away a few plants, I was still left with some fairly decent ones and I remembered I had ordered some 7 gallon grow bags last year that I didn't use. So a quick trip to lowes for some wire mesh and I set up 10 of these:
 

 
The mesh is crappy since the holes are too small but I was single minded about getting them planted so I cut some access ways large enough for my hand. I say "I" but actually I passed that duty on to my son. This was a big mistake.
 
I had 8 very nice plants that I transpanted into the new grow bags and kept them all on the right side of my grow area which now looks like this:
 

 
The problem with letting my teenage son cut the access hatches is that he left plenty of wire sticking out so my arms look like they've done 10 rounds with a porcupine. Too many scratches to count. But I persevered and plugged them all into the dripper system. Two bags left so I'll see what else I can stick in them.
 
I'm gonna have to do something about that little pond. I noticed a mosquito when planting and it's also meant to be my walkway so not very handy with a puddle in the middle.

 

[DWB]

Check out how Devv does his shade cloth. Not quick and dirty but something you may want to consider for your space. His is very classy. This could work for you.

 

[Raputin]

Impressive!

Stupid question as I don't see many people in my country doing it, why do you use wire mesh around your pots? To avoid birds?

 

[Mr.joe]

Impressive!

Stupid question as I don't see many people in my country doing it, why do you use wire mesh around your pots? To avoid birds?

I believe its just to provide support for the plant much the same as a tomato cage.

 

[Siv]

I believe its just to provide support for the plant much the same as a tomato cage.

 
Yep, exactly this - much less work than canes and twine and it's only costs a dollar or two per site when you cut them from a large roll. Just make sure you get mesh with holes large enough for your hands!

 

[HeatMiser]

 
The hydro herb thingy has a 27 gallon tote - you can see it in the picture on the bottom right.
 
The buckets have two 32 gallon trash cans
 
I actually setup 4 last year when I was away on vacation but that wasn't enough! Since we're not going anywhere this year, I'm sticking with two. I don't change nutes at all, I just run one barrel to empty and then switch to the other. I'm not trying to over-concentrate the nutes to maximise growth so I'm sticking to about 2.5g to 3g per gallon of masterblend. I sometimes just fill or top up with water without adding nutes.
 
Last year I tried to do a flush where I emptied all the nutes out of the buckets - within 15 minutes the plants started to droop so I quickly filled them all back up. Now this was maybe due to me doing it during the heat of the day and perhaps would have worked better in the morning or evening but I'm not messing with that again just in case.
 
The only problem I have had is the float valve sometimes gets clogged with solids since the nozzle is so small. I had to replace it once last year. I may experiment with making my own with a toilet float which would be much more resilient.

 
Awesome, great to see your set-up, thanks Siv!
 
Interesting you don't change the nutes. My plants almost died when I didn't change them for almost 2 months . Figuring out this whole kratky thing for peppers - I feel like dutch buckets were a bit easier.
 
Will be following your grow!

 

[Siv]

So the two turbo pubes (from the ChilliChump seed kit supplied by fatalii.net) still look small and not living up to the "turbo" name. So I decided to try an experiment.
 
One has been brought indoors in search of cooler temperatures. This may be a bit of a fail as with the tent closed, the temps hit the high 90s thanks to the light. So far I've been leaving the door open and while still warm, not quite as hot.

 
For the second, I've taken a leaf out of Skullbiker's book and shoved it under my avocado tree for shade. Hopefully it'll also help keep most of the rain off.

 
Everything seems to be progressing OK at the moment. A small few caterpillars here and there but no horn worms yet. It looks like the first fruit I will get to taste are the Sugar Rush Peach. I'm not exactly sure where these seeds came from (I ordered from several different sources and also may have got some from the seed train) but the plants are putting out a ton of fruit really early and they're huge. The plant pictured earlier that I thought was an Aji is actually a SRP now that I've dug the label out of the soil! The pods are more than double the size of the ones I grew last year.

 
My glossiest plants are the KSLSB (L) and Bahamian Goat (R). You can see the shared heritage:

 
And it looks like my Peppa Dew will be making pods soon! I can't wait to stuff these with cheese.

 

[Inoks]

Things rolling nicely!

 

[Devv]

Congrats on the peppers! They're doing really well!
 
Now that Avocado tree caught my, and LB's eye. They don't freeze?
We have a few young ones in pots grown from seeds. I wonder if they will ever produce??

 

[Siv]

Congrats on the peppers! They're doing really well!
 
Now that Avocado tree caught my, and LB's eye. They don't freeze?
We have a few young ones in pots grown from seeds. I wonder if they will ever produce??

 
Our avocado tree is pretty old - perhaps 15 years. It's pretty big now so hardy enough to survive the occasional freeze we get. Every year we have a few babies growing from seeds that have dropped the previous year. They never survive to the next year so I think you'll have to bring yours in during the freeze until they're a bit larger. Also note that it's right in a corner between a wall and the house - this must help shield it from the worst of the freeze. We rarely get a freeze that lasts more than a night so a little protection helps a lot.
 
I've found the avocado to be a very fussy tree. If we get a bad freeze then it does lose a lot of the thinner branches and I have to be careful with the trimming to make sure that I don't over trim. One year I cut it back a lot and it didn't fruit at all. Since then I've basically tried to leave it alone as much as possible.
 
For me, the avocado is a nice to have but an annoying producer. We get a ton of avocados all at the same time and we've tried freezing but they don't really keep well. So it's a nice to have but I'd rather have citrus. We have two lemons, a lime and an orange and they're great - we leave lemons on the tree and they stay there until needed. Right now there are a dozen ripe lemons still on the tree from last year and lots of new ones growing.