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Spicy Chicken's MMXII Grow Log (The Hot Spot Pepper Shack)

Hello everyone!

Planting seeds is still a couple of weeks away yet but thought I would start out with an introduction and let you know a little bit about our place we call The Hot Spot or should I say what others call it, I call it a garden. ;)



Here is a little bit about our hobby farm and how we turned what once was an old abandon farm into our favorite place to be.

This is a family oriented hobby farm located in Northeastern Wisconsin. The farm is about elevan acres in size but we are utilizing only a small portion for the garden. Even though our growing time is short we use every day given to produce some of the best peppers in the state.

We have lived here since 2002 and our garden is just a smidge over 1/2 acre. As each year has passed the pepper garden has grown. Our garden for the year of 2010 had just over 1000 pepper seedlings planted, 2011 2000. Although no herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers are used, we are not organically certified and do not claim to be.

The compost that is integrated into the soil is procured from a large organic dairy farm a few miles from our home. The soil is sifted and mixed with the compost to create raised, plastic mulch covered beds, thus giving us the ability to control soil heat, moisture and weeds. As the plant grows, we denude the early buds, giving plants time to become strong and resilient.

After the first denuding, plants are then allowed to grow into a nice leafy foliage that produces great tasting peppers we are happy to be able to share with others.

From our family to yours, Thank you!




I am in the midst of building a grow room with a second story green house where this year I will be able to start the plants. Some of you may have seen the tread in Grow Tech category, might be interesting if you’re ever bored. http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/23974-spicy-chickens-grow-room-and-greenhouse-makeover/f

Worked very hard at it last summer, my wife calls it The Pepper Shack.

A couple of before and after pics.


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As you can see I have a long way to go, but at least I will be able to start the seeds in there, really looking forward to that.

More to come. thanks for looking! SC
 
This circle should be interesting; Black Pearls and Chinese five color alternated.

2012_Grow_Log_139.jpg

Very interesting set up, I have to admit that after reading through the steps seeing Black Pearls and Chinense 5-Color kind of surprised me.

Do you grow cover crops in those super-sized containers during the off season?
 
Howdy from western MA! Heard about your glog from other posts and thought I'd stop by and check out your content... Wow! Lots to chew on here. Where abouts are you located in WI? My sister lives in Eau Claire. Cheers
 
Thanks everyone for stopping by and all of your kind words!!! ;)


Very interesting set up, I have to admit that after reading through the steps seeing Black Pearls and Chinense 5-Color kind of surprised me.

Do you grow cover crops in those super-sized containers during the off season?

The black pearl and 5 color is for my wife, she loves the ornamentals; personally I hate to give up a circle for that but she's worth it!

No off season here, It goes from this:

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To this in 60 days, and by then I'm tucked away nicely in the warm pepper shack processing peppers,

2012_Grow_Log_142.jpg



Thanks


Howdy from western MA! Heard about your glog from other posts and thought I'd stop by and check out your content... Wow! Lots to chew on here. Where abouts are you located in WI? My sister lives in Eau Claire. Cheers

Not to far away, located about 50 miles north of Green Bay. If you happen to stop by this fall around harvest time I could use the help. LOL

Cheers - Jeff
 
Your glog is always a fun one to watch. I love your setup, I'll need to keep it in mind if I ever move back further north... that last pic is making miss snow. Don't get me wrong, I love our growing season, but I missing having a legitimate winter...
 
Beautiful winter shot, wow! That's nice of you to include her in the fun... maybe she'd like Pimenta da Neyde or some of the crosses like Pimenta Leopard. I'm growing Pimenta da Neyde for the first time and am real curious to taste the peppers, the plants are stunning.
 
Thought that I would throw in a quick up date on the main gardens even tho they are not finished.
The first pic is of the west side of garden one and as you can see it does get a little shade come 7 o'clock or so
10 rows with ruffly 220-250 plants per row.


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Here is a pic of the east side of garden one. the bricks this year are not to hold down the plastic for wind ; we have that fixed this year but for holding down a plastic cover do to frost we had about 11 days ago, need to get them picked up! lazy I guess.

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Garden two, not all peppers in this one but still a respectable 1000 or so.

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A closer view of the cistern well with the irrigation pump this year. the black hose feed garden one and is almost 500 feet long; on real hot sunny days the water warms quite well by the time it gets there.

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Pic of the drip connection at the beginning of each row. this drip tape drops one gallon every foot every 2 hours.

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The filter, back-flow preventer, pressure reducer; 10 lbs

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Things are starting to bud out and I do have some peppers almost ready to turn color.

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And lastly; this is all that I have left to plant, 306. was kinda hoping to get them in last night or tonight but ended up with company both nights, crap!!

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Thanks for looking - Jeff
 
What a set up! So many plants! Do you harvest them by hand yourself? That must be real crazy handling that.

Hit that one on the head!!

99% by my self, last year I had around 2000 units and it was a very very bad year but managed to get about 5 to 6 hundred thousand chilis, if this year turns out like 2010 I could have upwards of 1 to 1.5 million, so CRAZY is an understatement but definitely crazy. lol
 
I just can't believe it. That is one of the most awesome grows
of any kind I have ever seen. Man you are a horticulture arteest!
Not to mention handy with tools.

1.5 million? Really? Gads, that is insane. I'm hoping for 150 : )

How is it possible to pick that many by yourself?
Let's see, 2 seconds per pod, 1,500,000 pods. That's 3,000,000
seconds, 50,000 minutes, 834 hours, almost 35 days of round the
clock picking. You have got to be super human, my man. When
do you sleep?
 
I just can't believe it. That is one of the most awesome grows
of any kind I have ever seen. Man you are a horticulture arteest!
Not to mention handy with tools.

1.5 million? Really? Gads, that is insane. I'm hoping for 150 : )

How is it possible to pick that many by yourself?
Let's see, 2 seconds per pod, 1,500,000 pods. That's 3,000,000
seconds, 50,000 minutes, 834 hours, almost 35 days of round the
clock picking. You have got to be super human, my man. When
do you sleep?

Absolutely Impossible for one person pick that many one at a time. our season is quite short compared to most here but we do manage to pic quite a number during the summer months but ultimately the all get pulled and hung just before last frost and then I can harvest at my leisure, about 40 to 50 days between first frost and freezing all day.

I built a pod comb box a few years back, guessing I can strip more than a thousand pods per minute, so it happens a little faster that one might think. the real time consumer is the processing and will have hired help that this year; if everything goes well.

O and when do I sleep? between midnight and 4am every day, not to much into those slices of death. lol

Thanks for your interest PG Cheers - Jeff
 
using those same numbers to extrapolate out my aproximate grow, I am anticipating about 120,000 pods - 400 plants x 300 pods per plant per season (conservatively from the sounds of it) = 120,000 pods.

Good grief... thats probably like 4000lbs of peppers.

*searches craigslist for bigger freezer*
 
Don't know if any one could get that kind of production out of super hots especially if they don't denude the plants like I do, but 150 to 700 per plant is norm here.

No freezer needed I dry all the pods and need to pump up production if I want the Festival Foods contract.

Here is just a very small portion of one years harvest.

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Cheers, Jeff
 
Don't know if any one could get that kind of production out of super hots especially if they don't denude the plants like I do, but 150 to 700 per plant is norm here.

No freezer needed I dry all the pods and need to pump up production if I want the Festival Foods contract.

Here is just a very small portion of one years harvest.

2012_Grow_Log_151.jpg


2012_Grow_Log_152.jpg


Cheers, Jeff

Agreed - but I have an extra long growing season, which might balance things out a bit.

Well, I'll certainly try to keep track of my production better this year, as I've done some things to improve the soil vs last year, and they get more sun (plus they are planted where the horses used to poop).

Also, that is an awesome number of pods...
 
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