Slade122's 2014 Greenhouse GLOG

slade122 · Sep 22, 2015

So, I tested the injector for the first time last night without digging the holes. Worked like a charm. The systems takes a bit longer to pressurize, but no biggie there.

I tucked it behind the trees so I have room to dig my hole where I'm putting it. Going to bury it down in the ground about 2 feet. After running it for a bit, I had to make a few adjustments to prevent leaking, was a 20 minute fix.

Pressure reading with a 25PSI regulator before the injector. Doesn't seem to affect the PSI at all, top gauge before the injector reads the same. The one at the bottom fluctuates about 1-2 PSI as the piston pumps. The injector makes a sort of "Clicking" noise as the piston inside moves up and down. The first run it took a bit for the injector to suck the fertilizer up to the injector, but the vacuum seems to hold after you shut it off. I went through about half a gallon of concentrated fertilizer at 1% injection, without accounting for what would have been put in if the fertilizer didn't have to be sucked up through the long length of tubing that runs to the fert concentrate. Water consumption is probably around 75 gallons in that case.

Some pod pics

Bahamian Goats

Arroz con Pollo

Tepin's loaded.

Scorps

Nice cluster

Almost there

Full View

slade122 · Sep 23, 2015

I seem to have attracted loads of bees this year. They especially seem to love Basil flowers. Every day the majority of the pots look like the one below, where the holes in the bottom are just absolutely swarming with them. They are very welcome in my yard, nothing like free labor

My project should be finished up tomorrow, I've been working a bit too much to get things done with that. Next Tuesday I'm leaving for Taiwan, and I'll be out for 2 weeks. Should have a huge harvest ready by then. The garden should run itself, in my testing I see no problems with that thus far. I'll probably cut the injection rate down to .5% while I'm gone to make sure that I don't over-fert while no one is watching.

slade122 · Sep 25, 2015

Alright, so here is the completed project. There is just enough room to put 32 gallon brute trash cans below the injector, so that's probably what I'll go with for fertilizer concentrate storage. The white hose is for manual bucket fills for fertilizing anything that isn't hooked up to the irrigation system. The water hose is unhooked in this image because I was using it for some other stuff. The Injector board ended up not being quite as high off the ground as I had wanted, due to the Fiance's demands - but I can live with that, I mean, I still get to have my injector board. I haven't glued anything together and it doesn't leak a whole lot. I'm waiting to do that until I get another 2 or 3 injectors later in the year or possibly early next year for next season's grow. The hose-end timer is super easy to operate, allows minute increments for water time. The box to the right is my fertilizer storage bin.

I picked some nice size pods and threw them on a pizza.

I also added a second sprinkler to each of my raised beds for a total of 10.6 gph and better coverage. The water wasn't getting quite deep enough because the timer only needs to run for 25 minutes or so before water is coming out of the bottom of the pots.

I replaced the 1GPH drippers in my hydroponic tanks to adjustable drippers that flow up to 12GPH, as the others were not filling it nearly fast enough. They should now have adequate input so that they don't have to be refilled constantly.

Since doing this system, in just a few days to a week or so I've noticed some huge changes in my plants. The pods are growing faster again, as well as becoming far more firm and having a shiny appearance again. I attribute some of those things to an increase in calcium, which is reflected in the new leaf growth as well. The PH is back on track again. New growth is returning mostly to normal. Water content in harvested pods is coming back up as well in those varieties that tend to hold more water in the flesh.

I already know that next year's grow will produce far more that this year's due to some of the difficulties associated with hand watering a large number of plants. So far, I'm very pleased with the outcome of this project. It was relatively easy and pretty fun. All you need is some basic parts and the tools.

juanitos · Oct 3, 2015

some advice:
the clear tube the injector comes with can grow algae, better to get a black one(not super important)
Orbit timer will fail within 12 months. I've gone through 3 of them before switching to different brand.

gotta love the bah goats.

Rymerpt · Oct 3, 2015

Very impressive

slade122 · Oct 13, 2015

I made it back from my 2 week trip. Everything went well. Here is one of the places we went for a day and a half or so, rode bicycles around the lake, about 20ish miles.

juanitos said:
some advice:
the clear tube the injector comes with can grow algae, better to get a black one(not super important)
Orbit timer will fail within 12 months. I've gone through 3 of them before switching to different brand.

gotta love the bah goats.

Thanks for the tips. I use black tubing for the rest of my hydro systems. I wasn't sure if anything could grow in that tubing or not given the strength of the solution being injected.

The orbit timer was just the cheapest unit I could pick up quickly, I'm not sure that I'll even use one all of the time, but they are nice for when you are away. What brand are you using?

Goats are one of my favorite pods in the habanero range. So much tropical flavor. They're pretty versatile too. I'll definitely be overwintering mine in the greenhouse for next year.

Here's my goats that I harvested after I got back. These are by far the largest pods produced this year. Pod quality is super high, these are the first harvested after injection.

Rymerpt said:
Very impressive

Thanks, Rymerpt. I don't think I'm doing too badly for a hobby backyard gardener. The best part about the whole thing is that I can scale it up to hundreds of plants or more. I just don't have the space in my backyard, My wife might kill me if I take over even more of the yard :shh:

But, where there is a will there is a way

Here are the plants after 2 weeks of taking care of themselves. They're so loaded that many of them are sagging pretty heavily. I noticed some whiteflies when I was picking last night

An example of how loaded they are, Arroz con Pollo Underside

A harvest. Far less than 1/4 of the pods on the plants right now. 3lbs 3 and 5/8oz

Spread and sorted. Not yet processed. Arroz con Pollo, Mulato Isleno, Criolla de Cocina, Maules, Giant Cayenne, Tequila Sunrise, Bahamian Goats, Ghosts, Shishito, Italian Pepperoncini, Sweet Minis, Jalapenos, Fish Peppers, Thai, Chile de Arbol, Piquin "A" and "B," and Tobasco

I'll do the usual process and pickle some, smoke and powder some, make only a little sauce (I already have 20+ bottles), grind some up in to paste, and save some for fresh eating.

I'm going to do a seperate powder for ghosts, one with the usual mix of thai, tobasco, piquins, and chile de arbols, and one with ACP's.

I brought back some seeds, but these are the ones I'm most excited about, translates to "Spicy King Devil Pepper" or thereabouts. Looks like a red habanero type.

slade122 · Oct 19, 2015

A little update, all of my plants are still loaded pretty heavy. should have plenty of time to finish most. Awesome results with drip irrigation, and it's so much less work.

Tobascos.

Moshi's that normally stand taller than I do have fallen over to less than my shoulder height. It's now a struggle to make sure branches don't break off.

Bullet Habs

Choco Ghosts loaded up.

White naga's pumping them out. I'm going to make a special edition white pear sauce with these and the bullet habs.

Red Ghosts turning colors. Harvested a few last week, all 3 plants trickle in at the same time. Hard to be patient for them to turn full deep red.

Datils getting close too.

I'll probably have another big harvest next weekend. While I was crawling through the pepper jungle, I saw that there are even more than I thought. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

I've started making my new variety selections for next year. This is my list so far:

King Naga
Red Savina Habanero
Bhut Orange Copenhagen
Peach Bhut (SS) [PL]
Moruga Scorpion Red
Moruga Scorpion Yellow
Moruga Scorpon Caramel
VV7 Scorpion
Douglah
7 Pot Primo Red
7 Pot Primo Yellow
7 Pot Brain Strain Red
Jona's Yellow Brain
7 Pot Madballz
7 Pot Barrackapore
7 Pot Bubblegum
7 Pot Mustard
7 Pot Yellow
7 Pot Caramel
7 Pot Brown
7 Pot Orange
7 Pot Cacanaguas
Peach Congo [PL]
Devil's Tongue
Devil's Brain [PL]
Aji Colorado
Tekne Dolmasi (My only sweet/stuffer of the year)

In addition, I'll be putting the following in my greenhouse for the winter:

Chocolate Bhut
Red Bhut
White Naga
Moruga Scorpion Red
Bahamian Goat
Yucatan White Hab
Moshi
Lemon Drop
Arroz Con Pollo
Chitlepin

Maybe a few more, not sure yet.

Most of the annuums I'm going to chop and bonzai. Especially more rare piquins B and C. Probably some Tabascos.

The local bonsai shop might buy them off of me if they turn out okay.

Runescape · Oct 20, 2015

slade122 said:

Nice pods and plants, yo.

What variety are these pods?

slade122 · Oct 20, 2015

Thanks Runescape.

These are a mexican pod, the Guajillo.

They don't have thick flesh at all, mostly used dry. The odd thing is that they hold a massive amount of water for a pod to be dried, when you cut them open, water just kind of spills out everywhere. This is my only variety that does this.

The guajillo's are on the chopping block for next year, along with the vast majority of my annuums. Not that they aren't a good pod, they are just dirt cheap at the mexican grocery if I want them. The same goes for many of the mexican pods I grew this year like the chile de arbol and Mulato isleno (Ancho type).

Next year I'm not growing anything that can be sourced locally and/or cheaper than I can grow it for.

Runescape · Oct 21, 2015

slade122 said:
They don't have thick flesh at all, mostly used dry. The odd thing is that they hold a massive amount of water for a pod to be dried, when you cut them open, water just kind of spills out everywhere. This is my only variety that does this.

Next year I'm not growing anything that can be sourced locally and/or cheaper than I can grow it for.

That's pretty weird.

And yeah, that's probably a good idea.

Jeff H · Oct 22, 2015

slade122 said:
Next year I'm not growing anything that can be sourced locally and/or cheaper than I can grow it for.

I think that would reduce my grow to about nothing. For what I spend on soil/fertilizer/seeds etc, everything from tomatoes to hot peppers are pretty pricey to home grow, but I enjoy it.

slade122 · Oct 22, 2015

Well, there is one factor that was left out of that - quality/freshness. No tomato I've had tasted quite as sweet as one grown myself. Maybe it's the work put in.

My whole goal of next year is to increase pod quantity while reducing input costs, and hopefully improving quality simultaneously.

But, we all learn something new every year.

slade122 · Nov 2, 2015

We've had quite a bit of rain here lately. The plants don't seem to mind. It's cooled down now quite a bit as well over the last 2 weeks.

Well, it was about time to pick some peppers again. Here is 7lbs 14oz.

Biggest haul to date, exceeding my second biggest by 2lbs.

All of the smaller types in the big pile were dried up and turned in to powder. I froze the white ones to make a sauce at the end of the season, still waiting for most to ripen. The chocolate and red ghosts, and scorpions went in to another powder for some searing heat. I made 3 more bottles of yellow sauce. I have 4 empty bottles left I think. I also made another 3 jars of picked peppers that were a mix of sweets, jalapenos, fish peppers, and Italian pepperoncini's.

The plants are still pretty full. In another 2-3 weeks I'll be able to take the same haul again from the plants. Ripening seems be slowing a bit with the change in weather and shorter days.

I can't believe it's November already. Watching the weather closely this month to see if we will have our first freeze of the year. It might be late this month, so hopefully I can get another big haul before that happens.

dragonsfire · Nov 3, 2015

Very nice selection ! Lots of possibilities

slade122 · Nov 5, 2015

dragonsfire said:
Very nice selection ! Lots of possibilities

Thanks, when I look at that picture it kind of reminds me of the grocery store, but with even more selection.

My pepper storage is now nearly full of pickled peppers and about 6 different kinds of hot sauce. My freezer is loaded up with bags of peppers, some ground, some whole as well. It appears I've got more than enough stock to get me through the winter, probably enough to get me through next year with the exception of powders - which is what I plan on focusing on primarily for next year. Huge dehydrator, here I come!

Who knows, maybe after next year I'll still have plenty and have to resort to growing something else, but I hate the sound of that! We shall see though, my pepper consumption is pretty high. I usually end up pretty short on the lower heat items, like the few sweets I'm growing, and things like jalapenos. That's the only things that friends and family want, they generally don't need a whole lot.

Earlier in the year I gave away a number of plants to friends, family, etc. Most of them have plenty of pods now too, because they don't consume at nearly the rate that I do. Aji Limon was well praised this year by them.

slade122 · Nov 13, 2015

A general update. As you can see, the moshi's are so loaded down, they are not even really visible in the pictures like they were before.

Chinese side

I made some wings the other night, they turned out pretty darn good.

A close up of the shishitos before I cooked them.

A perfect Pod.

Oh, and I did my first tri-tip. Reverse Seared- So oven until slightly less than rare, and then thrown on the grill for a few minutes on each side to get to a nice medium rare to medium on the ends. This picture is before the sear. It turned out really well. Extremely juicy and tender. I'm probably going to go on a warpath and start cooking these regularly. They're super easy and make for a nice meal. I want to throw one in the smoker next.

It's really cooling down now in Texas, averaging lows of around 50 and highs around the mid 60's. According to the extended forecast, we're not supposed to get down to the mid-30's until the first or second of December. Last weekend I took a look at the greenhouse, fired up the heaters and the lights. One of the 2 ballasts blew on me, started smoking like crazy, so I've got to get another one here shortly. The heaters all worked fine, as well as the blower. So it looks like I'm in decent condition to get things rolling in there. I'll probably move stuff in next weekend.

slade122 · Nov 24, 2015

Well, I decided to call it quits for the outdoor portion of this season. With temps dipping down in to the 30's, and as cold as 32, the plants are pretty much at a dead halt. I decided to pick everything left, and cut my losses, and move what I wanted to save in to the greenhouse.

I picked about 22lbs off the plants, many unripe, but still some good ripe ones.

stuff that I saved, these are lemon drops and tepins, absolutely loaded. It's like a rain of peppers coming down off the plants.

A bunch of plants super-packed in there. There's about 12-15 plants loaded up with pods there.

There are 5 other plants I saved elsewhere in the greenhouse, Piquin "B" a Tobasco, and white/yellow bullet habs.

Some greenhouse pics with the lights on at night. Had to put in a new 600w ballast, went with an 600w electronic Quantum II. All of my other tropicals are packed in there too. I saved plenty of bench space for next year's babies.

Anyways, there will be more than enough pods to keep nice and warm throughout the winter. The plants seem to be loving the warmer weather in the greenhouse.

I'll keep updating this glog up until the new year with anything that comes out of the greenhouse! Be sure to follow my glog for next year!

End of the year mix with some green chile hot sauce, mostly green habs, with a ton of lime and garlic. Actually tastes pretty darn good.

Still waiting on peppers to dry in the smoker, might be a couple of days...