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Stickman's 2012 Gochu Pepper Glog

Well, here we go... Started about 35 Korean Gochu Peppers and a few Korean salad peppers, jalapenos and orange habs. All are mostly up today but the habs. I started them early last week in my heated grow tent down in my cellar on top of a grow mat, but didn't have the thermostat quite dialed in. When I left it it was 70 degrees f. in the tent. When I checked again the next morning it was 85 degrees, and I was afraid I'd cooked the seeds, so I moved them onto my kitchen windowsill on the grow mat and awaited developments. Looking much better now. I'll give the Habs until the weekend to pop, then move the flat down to the grow tent.
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Trippa said:
Great looking space. How many plants are you planning on putting in there???
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The tilled space is about six feet by twenty feet... call it roughly two by six meters. I have a couple of Poblano peppers that need about a square meter apiece, the rest can go in more compactly. I'll have a couple of Greek Pepperoncini, a few Korean green chilies, a variety of Mexican chilies and as many of the Gochu peppers as I can fit. Fortunately, my Mom has a large garden space, and has agreed to take the overflow. She doesn't eat or grow chilies herself, but she has enough space in her garden to grow what she wants and still have room left to share. Good old Mom! I kept eighty out of almost a hundred chilies this year and gave the rest away.

highalt said:
So what are you planting in the square foot gardening area?
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A little bit of everything... We eat a lot of leafy greens, onions, root vegetables, beans, squash, eggplant and tomatoes. I love to cook a lot of different cuisines and try to have the necessary ingredients on hand. Some personal favorites are Italian Eggplant, French Filet Beans, Beets, Sungold Cherry Tomatoes and lots of Cilantro for Asian and Mexican food and Basil for pesto!
 
highalt said:
I think it works two ways. One, it makes the stem thicker, so it's harder for the cutworm to wrap itself around both the stem and the skewer, which is how it eats through the stem. Plus, the skewer is too hard for it to chew through, so it may not distinguish between it, and the softer stem next to it.
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Thanks, Rick - that's very helpful!
 
highalt said:
No problem! Here's another tip. If you decide to use the straw method, be sure to slide it down below the surface of the soil, or they can still chew through the stem.
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Thanks again! Sounds like you have experience with cut worms!
 
highalt said:
Here's another tip. If you decide to use the straw method, be sure to slide it down below the surface of the soil, or they can still chew through the stem.
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Yeah, I was planning on doing the same thing with pasteboard from cereal boxes... bend them into a ring and fasten with a paper clip or piece of tape and put it around the stem and an inch below soil level. The skewer/chopstick method looks easier though, and I do have several packages of skewers on hand.
 
Approaching the end of week nine... My Gochu peppers are all about 7 inches high and showing side branching and blossoms.
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Orange Habaneros started at the same time about three inches high.
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Korean chilies from BootsieB
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Mexican chilies from seedswap hosted by Highalt
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A little whimsy... My cheapjack hygrometer...
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The air is so dry here right now that it's nearly bent in a half circle.
 
Hey, Rick - great pix and varieties going there. It's cool that
you have a focus for your growing - peppers for your cuisine.
I'm not really sure what a gochu pepper is, but they look great!
I'm not a big KimChee fan, but have eaten a few I liked. Some
are pretty hot!

Love the hygrometer. I use pine cones. They open up in the
dry weather and close up when wet!

Carry on, bro, looking very good!
 
PaulG said:
Hey, Rick - great pix and varieties going there. It's cool that
you have a focus for your growing - peppers for your cuisine.
I'm not really sure what a gochu pepper is, but they look great!
I'm not a big KimChee fan, but have eaten a few I liked. Some
are pretty hot!
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Gochu is the Korean name for chilies, and the varieties they grow are mostly Cayenne peppers they got from the Portuguese traders that came during Columbian times. Gochu garu is the ground pepper powder (or flakes) that they use in their cooking. Sometimes they add it to food directly, and sometimes they make a paste of gochu garu, malt powder, rice powder, Meju (the bocks of fermented soybean paste left over from making soy sauce) and some of the soy sauce and water. It's cooked together into a very thick, dark red paste and allowed to ferment. The fermentation helps to preserve it and gives it a depth of flavor it wouldn't otherwise have. The paste is called Gochu Jang, and they use it a lot in soups, stews and stir fries, or as a garnish. They make a dish they call Ojingo Bokkeum that I absolutely love. It's pan-fried squid and vegetables with lots of gochu jang, toasted sesame oil and fresh ginger. Properly cooked the squid is quite tender and not at all rubbery. It'll scorch your butt, but it hurts so good!
 
Hey, that squid sounds great. I love squid! And octopus - any kind of seafood!
You're makin' me hungry, man! How long were you in Korea?
 
That's the funny thing... I never was. My Mom's kid brother is only about six years older than I am, and when I was a teenager he did a tour in Korea and brought back a Korean wife. She left him when she got her citizenship, but she was a good cook, and before she left I got a good grounding in the cuisine that's stayed with me all these years. I have a number of good Korean restaurants in my area for trying new things, and a small Korean grocery for supplies. Mostly, I'm self-taught.
 
Okay, I thought maybe you did a TDY there. But having a
korean cook in the family for awhile was probably even better!
Good on ya for sticking with something you like and making it
your own, my friend!
 
In light of my past experiences with cutworms, I checked out my peppers to see how sturdy the stems are and I think the peppers I started back the beginning of February have stems thick and woody enough that I don't think I need to worry about them getting chewed down. For the rest I'll use Highalt's bamboo skewer method. I'm very mindful of Cutworms right now because when I spaded in the soil amendments for my newly-tilled pepper plot I turned up a few, and where you see a few, there's always more present.
 
http://www.thekitchn.com/cooking-korean-ojingo-bokum-66600

stickman said:
That's the funny thing... I never was. My Mom's kid brother is only about six years older than I am, and when I was a teenager he did a tour in Korea and brought back a Korean wife. She left him when she got her citizenship, but she was a good cook, and before she left I got a good grounding in the cuisine that's stayed with me all these years. I have a number of good Korean restaurants in my area for trying new things, and a small Korean grocery for supplies. Mostly, I'm self-taught.
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Try these Paul- http://www.thekitchn.com/cooking-korean-ojingo-bokum-66600 http://allrecipes.asia/recipe/2095/dakdoritang--spice-chicken-stew-.aspx http://koreanathome.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/jangjorim/ http://allrecipes.asia/recipe/2083/yukgaejang--spicy-beef-soup-.aspx
 
Ool... Still sunny, windy, dry and cold, and it looks like it won't be changing this week. The pepper plot is prepared... s%@#^ it! I'm going to put down plastic thermal mulch and set up a low hoophouse with 6 mil plastic over it. Put a min/max thermometer inside and as soon as the overnight temps in the hoophouse are up in the fifties I'm going to plant the hardier varieties of chilies.
 
It was a pretty windy day, but here's the setup for extending the growing season... Hoophouse...
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Plastic thermal mulch laid down inside the hoophouse to warm the soil. The plastic will trap the heat the soil radiates at night.
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