Sky's 2010 season.

[Skydiver]

Yellow/Orange Manzano repotted up to a 1 gallon bucket


Black Pearl repotted up to a 1 gallon bucket


My new Jiffy miniheatedgreenhousething


Seedlings love it in there, too, while it's colder outside. Tomatoes (big boy and supersteak hybrids, also some burpee carnival mix sweet bells, the two wee ones in the peat pellets are cabbage flowers)


That should about do it for now.

 

[Skydiver]

Getting better all the time...

better at treating my garden properly.

Got a tiller the other day. Nice Honda job, 4 cycle motor (I frakkin hate mixing gas and oil, dunno why).
Now I'm happily tearing the hell out of the dirt.
I had thought up until now that I was doing ok with a shovel, but with this tiller I'm finding out that I was wrong, there was a nasty layer of clay only a few inches down. I'm in the process of getting rid of some of it and adding garden soil and some mushroom compost and my compost/dirt pile I've been feeding since last year. There's now a much deeper layer of soil on top of the deeper clay.
I'll try and get some pics to compare and contrast from last year, but instead of little plots along my fence, the whole frakkin area is now tilled over and almost ready to plant. It's also wider by a few inches.
I need to terrace it and level the sections still. Will be three 8 foot sections and one 4 foot.
I'm also going to make some spots on the other side of the yard for the Momster's cucumbers/melons/pumpkins/etc.

There's a house being torn down not far from where I am, hopefully I can sweet talk the people there into letting me snag a load of bricks from it to use for walling in some sections of my garden (I love Pennsylvania and all of our hills, but it can make lawns an uneven mess and levelling things is a pain)

Plants are happily soaking up the sun outside, the Jiffy greenhouse is happily greenhousing away, things are going pretty well.
I have a feeling this is going to be my best year ever for peppers.

 

[patrick]

Dude! I swear it reads like you're singing! I think it may be difficult to find a happier pepper grower around here.

It is amazing what a tiller can do isn't it? Glad to see things are going well for you.

 

[Skydiver]

Couldn't find any good comparison images from last year, but that's what it looks like this year.

I still need to level out the sections and add some bricks between the terraces to keep everything nice and even, but it's now got a lot more room for peppers.

 

[Skydiver]

Overwintered Trinidad Scorpion is going to be a monster this year, I'm seeing new grow all over it.
Rolling the dice tonight, low temp on the forecast is 47. Got mah plants in a nice spot next to the house, hopefully it will radiate some heat on them tonight.
Also gonna start giving them more shade, odd as it sounds. Think I'm giving them too much direct sunlight this early in their lives. We'll see.

My Trinidad Scorpion getting ready to explode with growth and destroy taste buds and cornholes far and wide.

Getting a lot of yellow leaves. Not using anything other than some Scott's Potting soil and water, I've misted them once or twice with a mixture of epsom/miracle grow/fish emulsion, mixed to about half strength. Gonna keep them out of direct sunlight for a few days to see if they green up any.
If someone ran into leaves looking like this and fixed it, do want knowledge dropped if you could. I love you long time.

Son of Frankengrow.

 

[Skydiver]

The guts of Frankengrow II.
There's a lot of new stuff in there, mostly tomatoes and flowers, but with a few notable exceptions.

Douglahs

Naga Morich, I have some others growing already, this little guy was late to the party.

 

[patrick]

Diver that's a lot of room for pepper plants, going to have fun watching you this year. How long before that little strip along the fence doubles or triples in size? If you grow something the spouse likes you could get her motivated and turn that one strip into three or four. Good luck!

 

[Skydiver]

Diver that's a lot of room for pepper plants, going to have fun watching you this year. How long before that little strip along the fence doubles or triples in size? If you grow something the spouse likes you could get her motivated and turn that one strip into three or four. Good luck!

I live with the Momster, but yeah, I've been eyeballing the other fence line. As it stands, I'm going to till up a bunch of areas for beans and melons and cucumbers and pumpkins.
I also have the big raised bed garden out front and a ton of 3 and 5 gallon buckets I'm going to plant in, as well.
There's also a 5 or 6 foot strip of bad dirt outside of the fence that I'm probably going to dig out and put good dirt in and use that as well.
Oh and the area beneath the pine tree, it's covered with needles and never gets any rain or good light, I'm going to remove some branches to let rain and sun hit it, planting peas and cowpeas there this year to try and amend the soil a bit.
It's frakkin addictive, no doubt about it.

 

[Skydiver]

Repotted up four of my largest peppers.

Before:

and after:

All four had nice, healthy roots. Repotted into a mixture of mostly Scott's Potting Soil with a bit of coir thrown in, see how well it works for keeping things nice and loose and well draining.
All plants seem to be doing better now that I'm not giving them constant sun. Being in some nice shade and they're greening up a bit.
Overwintered Trinidad Scorpion continues to have nice growth on it, that thing is probably going to be a monster this year.

 

[Skydiver]

Pretty much done with my tiered bed garden in the back yard. Three 8-foot sections that I can put 12 plants in. They look like they're at an odd angle, but they're level, it's the yard that's frakked up.

Lower section. Beans will go by the garage, space for 5 peppers on the fence side. Also, Mom's 4 or 5 year old Poppy plant. That thing is a beauty.

This just won't do. That's about a 6 or 7 foot long strip of bad dirt and weeds outside my gate. That area is going to get weeded and tilled, room for more peppers, of course!

My 9 peppers that have been repotted into 1 gallon buckets. Two manzanos, 1 7-Pot Barrackpore, 1 7-Pot Jonah, 2 7-Pot Yellows, 1 Chocolate Hab, 1 Antillais Caribbean hab, 1 Black Pearl.


Also started keeping all my plants out of direct sunlight and they're doing much, much better.
Things proceed apace.

 

[patrick]

Oops. Heck living with momster is where it's at.

You're peppers are going to explode in the new pots. I see you're still having fun with the tiller. You volunteer to do the neighbors yet? Keep up the great work Diver.

 

[Silver_Surfer]

I live with the Momster, but yeah, I've been eyeballing the other fence line. As it stands, I'm going to till up a bunch of areas for beans and melons and cucumbers and pumpkins.
I also have the big raised bed garden out front and a ton of 3 and 5 gallon buckets I'm going to plant in, as well.
There's also a 5 or 6 foot strip of bad dirt outside of the fence that I'm probably going to dig out and put good dirt in and use that as well.
Oh and the area beneath the pine tree, it's covered with needles and never gets any rain or good light, I'm going to remove some branches to let rain and sun hit it, planting peas and cowpeas there this year to try and amend the soil a bit.
It's frakkin addictive, no doubt about it.

Yep, you've got a super dose of dirt fever.

Looking good SD; I can foresee two 4 foot wide beds straddling that sidewalk next year.

 

[Skydiver]

So freaking angry right now.
Not just one now, but ALL of my Aji Lemon plants have been destroyed by birds.
Is there something about baccatums that birds love? They usually only go after my tomatoes, they got one of my manzanos but left the others alone, they got one lemon earlier, now they've finished the job.
Frak.

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Crap, that sucks! What kind of bird attacks pepper plants?

 

[Skydiver]

Crap, that sucks! What kind of bird attacks pepper plants?

Since it's doves that attack my tomatoes, I have to assume it's doves that went all feeding frenzy on my ajis.

There's a local greenhouse here that I didn't know about until two months ago or so that claims to sell a good variety of chiles. I don't know if he'll have any, but for now I'm writing off any chance of having an aji lemon this year.
I took out my frustrations on the pigeons. 4 today. No mercy. Felt a little better.

 

[madhatter]

My condolences, that is so bizarre. Iv'e never seen birds go after chiles before unless its a tropical bird or something.
At least they didnt destroy everything but that sucks dude

 

[Skydiver]

Stopped at the greenhouse today, no Aji Lemons.
Ah well, something to look forward to for next year. Silver lining.

While there I bought a Giant Marconi and 4 pack of some kind of purple sweet bell pepper.

 

[Silver_Surfer]

I'm growing a few Marconi plants for the first time this season too. Sounds like you need a scarecrow. I don't know if it will work for doves, but to keep crows out nothing beats a dead one hung from its feet in the garden. Next best choice is a scrap of black cloth dangling in the breeze.

 

[Skydiver]

I absolutely love the marconi. Humongous pods, really nice taste, like a bell pepper but with what seems to me like a mild peppery kick. No heat, they make for brilliant stuffed peppers, and they're great diced up and used in just about anything.
You're gonna dig the marconi.
Edit for, I don't have a scarecrow, what I have is a Scare Owl(?). Basically a big plastic owl decoy.
It worked for about a day, but my birds all love me dearly so they must have thought that if it was ok with me, it was ok with them.
My backyard is like a little Eden for my feathered friends, and I've forgiven whatever ate my ajis. It was pretty much my fault for leaving them exposed to the local fauna.

 

[patrick]

I'll have what he's having.

Quite a change of attitude there 'diver. Agree with ya too. What's the point of hating the thing you've been feeding all winter eh?

Too late to start another couple of Aji Lemons? Won't hurt to try eh?

Good luck.