stc3248, 2013 Grow log, Season's Greetings and Season's End

Well here we go again! Those that saw my grow last year know that I was plagued by virus issues and many other problems, but I was still able to pull off the most amazing grow of my life. By season's end every plant was infected. Some keeled over, but others just kept right on trucking. I learned a ton, and hope to use it to pull off a season without that virus making a repeat appearance. It will be tough. I had huge numbers of pods, and many hit the ground and rotted, so there are sure to be some infected volunteers that show up. My grow this year will be MUCH smaller and focused on the varieties I liked best along with a couple new ones I really wanna try out.


First a couple of my money shots from last year...

I plan to use a similar grow setup to start with...here are a couple pics of how it looked...

My setup evolved as the season began. I started with a single t8 shoplight...the two shoplights and ended up with a single row of CFL's down the center hooked into a 4' power strip the the two shoplights angled in from the sides. The light from the sides really seemed to promote growth at the lower nodes...so for this year...

I bought some more CFL's Mix of 100w and 75w equivalents. The 100w eq were around $10 for 4 at HD and the 75w were $3 for 6 at COSTCO!!! Also bought some splitters for the sockets and here's what the power strip looks like now...

This thing feels like its giving you a sunburn from 6' away...I alternated 100/75 on each side all the way down...Instead of the mylar I am going with foil sided foam sheathing...

My "plan" with this stuff is to make the Shelf unit more of a grow tent type setup. Hoping I can use the lights and a small space heater to maintain a constant temp in the mid 80s. I am also going to "try" to use magnetic tape to attach this stuff so access will be easy. We shall see. May get too warm...but easy enough to vent if need be. I am going to try to keep them indoors much longer this year. I put them out to early last year, and some of the late starts that stayed inside until the night time temps were higher passed many of my early starts that were already in the ground.

My final dilemma is the wife says 20 plants...and I have all these awesome seeds! So I am going to see if the wife's # is sort of like the over the counter dosage...the full prescription strength is double, so I am aiming for 40. I will start almost twice that # though so if you're near SD be watching this glog around plant out, I will be getting rid of some plants...

Well here is the list for now...If something you sent didn't make it I still have them, and will get to them some day. Momma is already pissed!

Wilds
Tepin 15 (seed train 2012)
Pequin Chiapas (Griff87)
Bird Aji (Seed Train 2012)
Cumari (Romy6)
PI 438638 (Romy6)

Annuum
Jamaican Hot Yellow (My Seed)
Goat's Weed (My seed)
Explosive Ember (My seed)
Tri-color Variagata (Seed Train 2012)
Numex Centennial (the next seed train)

Pubescens
Ultra Pube PI 585266 (SocalChilehead)
Manzano (farmer's market)

Baccatum
Yellow Aji from Peru (Paul G)

Chinense
Giant Twisted Chocolate Hab (CMPMAN 1974 Via Pr0digal_son)
St Marteen Marigot Mkt Yellow Scotch Bonnet (Pic1)
Jamaica Scotch Bonnet (Pic1)
Belize City Scotch Bonnet (Pic1)
Fatalii (Pulpiteer)

The Supers
Yellow Billy Boy Douglah (SilverSurfer via Coheed via Romy6)
Yellow Cardi Scorpion (Romy6)
Yellow 7 Pot Brain Strain (Unknown Source probably the next seed train???)
Yellow 7 Pot (Pr0digal_son)
7 Pot Brain Strain (Romy6 Had some from Jamie and got some more from PaulG)
7 Pot Congo SR (CMPMAN 1974 via Pr0digal_son)
7 Pot White (SocalChilehead)
7 Pot Monster Infinity (gnslngr)
7 Pot Primo (MGold via PaulG)
Douglah (Pr0digal_son)
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga (Bakers Peppers)
Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon (Pr0digal_son)

7 Pot Barrackpore (soon to arrive from DocNrock )
HP22B aka Carolina Reaper (soon to arrive from DocNrock )

Ummm...I count 32ish varieties. May scrub a couple off, but may not!!! Thinking I can get by with the Ornamentals and Wilds as long as I keep them small and Bonchi them to look perdy for Momma???

I think I will skip most all of the grocery store available varieties this year so I can grow more of the good stuff...That's if for now everybody! Hope you all have a great season!!!

Shane

 

[stickman]

Hi Shane, how's it going bro'? Haven't heard from you in a couple of weeks, so just checking in... Hope all is well...

 

[stc3248]

YeAh Rick...all is good. Too busy to even harvest them all. Crazy times! I got some pulled today and snapped a couple pics so hopefully I can get them posted tomorrow. We've taken in a 15 yo friend of my daughter, and we're trying to turn 4brs into 5. Dad ran off, mom lost her apartment and is staying wherever she can...tough story but great kid! See y'all tomorrow!

 

[stickman]

Ouch! Good on ya for helping out. I can relate... one of my Uncles was badly injured in an accident with a split-rim tire, and it ultimately killed him 9 months later. His wife had another boyfriend in the house a couple of weeks after the accident, and when my 15-year-old cousin Dan told him to leave, the boyfriend knocked him down. She wouldn't tell him to leave her kids alone, so we took Dan in until he finished High School... very bad juju...

 

[WalkGood]

... We've taken in a 15 yo friend of my daughter, and we're trying to turn 4brs into 5. Dad ran off, mom lost her apartment and is staying wherever she can...tough story but great kid! See y'all tomorrow!

Hat’s off brethren \o_ for helping a child in need, you have a blessed family, your kindness and compassion will not go unrewarded

 

[stc3248]

Nice update Shane!
 
Pods galore!
 
Foodies looked great, the Carne, the dip, and the table layout.
 
And this made me laugh out loud at work:
 
 Loved it!
 
Have a great week!

Thanks Scott!!! The food was a hit...and the peppers, well lets just say I'm not taking any more to work. Too many dares and bets going around and I really don't wanna hurt anyone! :
 
 

Hi Shane,
   Glad you liked the sauce and powder, and I'll be checking in to see how the seeds do for you next season. Bjarne said the BOC had a long germination time for him last year... about 28 days, so don't get discouraged if it seems to be taking a while to sprout. Lourens said that the Naga King was a lot more vigorous grower, so that should take a lot less time. Cheers!

That sauce is a hit with my daughter as well...she's the only other true chilihead in the house. The powder goes well with everything too...I added a little to a bowl of ramen the other day and it was delicious! Perfect amount of smoky heat...only problem is mama borrowed the spoon to eat hers and was not too pleased!
 
 

Point man / Web clearer   you left out snake looker out for. We used to do Terrain runs, over the river and through the woods when I was on active duty. Used to love them till you got a mouth full of spider webs and at 0630 it's hard to see them before your up to your armpits in them. Funny as all get out when it happens to someone else though. 
 
Man that's an awesome harvest you have there. I'm going to have to check out those Brigits, they sound like a good saucing pepper. 
 
Oh, and I agree with Andy on your pepper salt grinder. That's totally marketable. You could sell it as a Grinder and as refill packets. Sounds like retirement income source Brother

I don't mind the spiders...the orb weavers that you run into out in the woods jump off of you as soon as you hit them...Damn...forgot to throw some birgits into the box I just sent you!!! Ughhh...oh well, guess I'll have to send another one soon!
 

I am guessing a flexuosum,lanceolatum or rhomboideum sprout.

I wish John...but I don't have any SEEDS for those...  Hahaha...I started a few more Bubblgum 7s from saved seeds. I plan to get them up and running and then take them up to the office (frost free zone!!!) to grow at the barracks...that may actually be my overwinter strategy if I decide to keep any. I have also been rethinking the overwinter plan for the big birgits, I think some Christmas lights hooked up to my thermal receptacle will keep her going, plus then I can hang some ornaments on her!!! 
 
 

Melissa got them BOC germed. 6/6 in 10 days. Should get a seedling from her sometime soon. Sending you the osu mater seeds. Been out of the mix lately due to a bad year. Hope all is well.

That Melissa can sure work some Magic!!! Is she from Salem??? Haha...she's been more of a ghost than a magician, sure wish she'd come back to the forum, her reviews were awesome! Will be looking for those seeds, but no hurry...your package was mailed out yesterday and should be there tomorrow!!!
 
I will get to the posts on the following page in a bit...after a bump!!! Stand by for heavy updates!!! I have been super busy but most of the plants are still rockin out there for me. I haven't been feeding them as regularly and it is starting to show. I went with some time release granular stuff and hope that'll do ok for the rest of the season. Nights are cooler but not too bad, down in the 50s with highs in the 70s and will slowly drop...seasons don't change as quickly here. First frost last year wasn't until almost Christmas...with my final harvest after the new year!!! Hope I am so lucky this year!!! Most of the plants are blooming and setting in big numbers so hopefully I can ripen one more round and have some big pulls during the holiday season for some Christmas pod care packages!!! Here is the first round of 10 pics...
 

We've had some pretty big winds lately...gusts over 50mph and it did take a toll on a few. Here is my container birgits...I righted it once and added two bamboo stakes for extra support....but no dice. I guess I will need to use some cord for tie downs...beware, the next pic is pretty bad...
 

This is one of the Romy Mystery plants...ughhh. Two of the main beams broken...but not all the way through. I had it tied up higher, but just went around the whole plant without tying it to the stake...somehow the line around it worked its way down to the point where it broke...if you look closely you can see that hoop of line running over to the Goat's Weed behind it?????
 

Since they didn't snap clean...I tried a redneck repair job. The tops are wilting a little during mid day, but in the morning they are back upright again...so there's hope!!! If not...I will just cut it there and see if I can get her to bush out!
 
 

Here is that corner with the Wild Brazil in front, the Goat's Weed behind the the two Romy Mystery plants towering on either side..the one on the right is the one that broke...
 

Here's a closer look at what's going on under the Wild Brazils Canopy...I really need to get to pickin!!! Thanks brotha Jason!!! The differences are subtle between it and the Charapita...but they're there...the pod shape is more corn kernel with these and more ball bearing with the Charapita and the WB sets and ripens underneath while the CP does its business at the tops...here are a few pics of its cousin...
 

Here's the largest Charapita...monster producer just doesn't say enough, and just stunning to look at...
 

 

 
Another stunner...

The Giant Twisted Chocolate Hab (cmpman 1974 via Pr0digal_son) such cool contrast and amazing looking pods!!!
 

Look at those curves!!! 
 
More in a bit folks...still haven't finished the harvest and got a couple chores to do.

 

[Jeff H]

Bump. Nice pics.

 

[stc3248]

Thanks Jeff!!!
 

Speaking of lookers...how 'bout the Jay's Peach???
 

The sun must always shine on these...because no matter what angle or time of day they always seem back lit!
 

Yellow Brains are ripening round 2...and loading up with round 3!!! What great producers! The second round didn't produce the Grade A Large Egg-Double Golf Ball Size...just single to 1.5 golf ball...
 

The Goat's Weed has been getting more shade from its two towering Romy6 neighbors since the sun is moving further south...so the pods aren't getting fully blackened...still beautiful!!!
 

Porter is still out there hating on the pepper plants...here he is next to the Romy-Brain-Strain...this plant is freakin huge for a first year in a container. 5+' tall and 7+' across. This is one I plan to overwinter if she stays healthy.
 

These Brains are my favorite of all the phenos. More elongated and less uniform in shape than the more common variety...but every bit as deadly, or MORE!!!
 

Speaking of deadly...the Primo X keeps changing pod shapes too...maybe someone should chow on this one and see if its just as hot???
 

Same pod from underneath...
 

I tried to capture just how big the Manzano has gotten...but it's so sprawled out that its hard to tell where it ends and the trees above, plants beside or grass below start and it stops...Dozens of "apples" every week off this dude...and another fun one to look at. The plant goes up for the first 5' then cascades all the way back down to the ground...very cool plant!
 

You can see some of the new fruit and blooms still setting pods along with the fully ripe ones...even with a couple solid month left until the thread of frost, they still might not have the chance to ripen the next round...without a little help. These plants can take a frost or two and be ok...so just maybe I can pull another fine harvest later on.
 
ok...another bump and some more in a bit!!!

 

[millworkman]

BUMP!@!!!!!  MORE PICS!

 

[stc3248]

BUMP!@!!!!!  MORE PICS!

You got it Mill!!!

Still haven't gotten around to pulling the Birgits this week...what a great CHORE...wonderful problem to have, but aside from the wilds, these things are second to none in production numbers.
 

Another shot of the beasty Birgits...the contest plant is over 11' now and still climbing slowly. ONE MONTH TO GO!!!
 

Here's this weeks pull...so far. Still have the Birgits and Wild Brazils left to go which will fill up at least one more bucket...The sauces are some of my first ferment experiments. Some smoked Bonnet, Yellow Brain/Cucumber/Tomato, Charapita Yellow and one combo of the leftover Bonnet and Charapita...all very good, but still need some tweaking. 
 

This week's Douglah pull is already in the mail by special request...filled one SFRB. Not my biggest pull of them, but all I had to send. 
 

Another one of Romy's Brains...that dude must be a Genius!
 

Three more jars of ferment started...I made a small batch of this to start with and it was a family favorite. Base is Big Jim's, Sweet Corn, Garlic and Onion...later on Big Jim will meet Jim Beam in the sauce pan to finish it off...but that'll have to wait a couple months. The Big Jims are loaded so I will be adding a couple jars of this to the shelf each week until season's end. The flavor is so perfect I am thinking of playing with it for most of my sauces...adding some supers to it to kick it up a notch or two...thousand.
 

Last but not least...here is a bad ass care package I haven't gotten a chance to upload yet from Vincient...UBSCs , Douglahs, a Moruga, White 7, TFM Bonnet, Bahamian Goats and some SB7Js!!!
 
That's it for now everyone...but I am still picking so stay tuned and I may post a few more later on...I have been on leave for about a week...and still haven't caught up with everything that needs to be done...back to work tomorrow. Ughhhh...
 
Thanks for looking in!
Shane

 

[stickman]

Nice work Chief! I figured you were busy doing something... there's certainly no shortage of things to do about this time of year...
 
Great looking harvests, sauces and care packages... lots goin' on at su casa! I'm finally getting ripe Manzanos from your plant... I picked 4 pods last week and have another 8 getting ready. When I get the ripe pods off the plant I'm gonna put the plant in a 5 gal. airpot to winter over with an Alphanerdz-strain Douglah and a Butch T.   Cheers!

 

[romy6]

 Great gobs of fire my brethren!!!! Yet another stimulating over the top update from the master Glogger herself. Sad to see the monster mysteries flop over but same thing happened to their  momma last year and it only made it come back stronger( until the jaws of Tebow took it down ) . Looks like that birgit is gonna be a winner  . We may need to find another prize for ya since you are overdosed on all things chili. Maybe just a plaque stating master grower , best grow log and tallest plant grower in the lower 48 will suffice. 
 
 Good on you for taking in your daughters friend. She is a lucky Gal. 

 

[Vegas_Chili]

Dang! Awesome as always, always enjoy seeing your updates. I really can't say much, but you got some Awesome plants for being in containers.

The ones that look amazing are... all of them lol, but I do get something for the charapita and wild Brazil. I really enjoyed the charapitas you sent me once.

Looks like you have good weather for year round growing . How much frost do you get there? How many months? Regardless it's still most of the year for growing. Hope you still get that second round of manzanos, and good pull from everything else.

Have a great week .

, Walter

 

[Devv]

Wow Shane an update well worth waiting for!
 
Plants, pods, pulls, and sauces all look awesome!
 
Sad to see the wind damage, I think your repair should do the trick. We had some wind after a rain last week and a few were leaning @ 45°, so I moved the wind break right up to the plants. Wind season is upon us until late March.
 
Good on ya for helping out your daughters friend!
 
Have a great week!

 

[RocketMan]

 
I don't mind the spiders...the orb weavers that you run into out in the woods jump off of you as soon as you hit them...
 
Only spider I have a problem with is the Brown Recluse. I've seen what they can do and it's not pretty but yeah, most don't bother me. I don't like snakes and have used blanks with a John Wayne Blank adapter to take many of them out.
 
 
Damn...forgot to throw some birgits into the box I just sent you!!! Ughhh...oh well, guess I'll have to send another one soon!
 
Wooooo Hoooooo, WIN! Thank you 

 

[WalkGood]

Whoa what an awesome update … plants, bucket full harvest, sauces and the pods pics are just plain badassery FTW. Great looking color on the sauce bottles and love da look on your giant twisted Chocolate Habanero. Hab a great week mon ^_^

 

[Dot Com]

your plants are definitely loving that Poway, Cali sunshine. The Jays Peach, Charapita & Yellow Brains especially

 

[wahlee76]

Great update as usual. The Jays ghost peach is producing a lot more pods than I would expect. Tempted to grow these as well next year

 

[Pulpiteer]

Here's the largest Charapita...monster producer just doesn't say enough, and just stunning to look at...
 

Wow! I don't know that I'll ever be interested in growing wilds - I have to stop somewhere and you're already convincing me to grow the Jay's Peach and Birgit - but if I were ever interested in wilds, it would be because of shots like those. Very nice looking plant! I wonder if those would reseed in a cold climate, because that is a ton of pods.
You've had an amazing grow this year.

 

[stc3248]

May be it for my grow folks...the Santa Annas are tossing my containers around like toys out there...gusts up near 100. Terrible weather almost everywhere today...Fingers crossed for you if you're getting hit too...

 

[WalkGood]

May be it for my grow folks...the Santa Annas are tossing my containers around like toys out there...gusts up near 100. Terrible weather almost everywhere today...Fingers crossed for you if you're getting hit too...

Only clicked "like this" for good luck, hope you and da girls pull through ok, batten down the hatches and take care of the family. We can always grow more and I for one would be sending pods when you are in need ... Hab a great weekend brethren.