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.

 

[Beehunter]

Im loving the hoop house set up. I saw its 2 or 3 degrees difference in temp at night. But how much is the diff during direct sunlight? was wondering cause i was using a pvc plastic greenhouse and in direct sunlight it got way too hot!

 

[stickman]

Hi Britt
Thanks for stopping by.
I think the differential between inside and outside temps. were even greater with my setup. The poly sheeting only had about 70 percent light transmission as compared with clear PVC, but I had black plastic thermal mulch on the ground inside to convert more of the light to heat. If the temperature outside on a sunny day was 15 degrees C, inside the hoophouse with the ends buttoned up it got to 46 degrees C. I had to unbutton it by 10:30 AM to keep from cooking the peppers. Even with the ends opened up it was still 32 degrees C in there. The idea is to use the soil as thermal mass to hold heat and radiate it after sundown, and plastic sheeting to trap the heat in a small confined space so you don't have to heat a large one. The other advantage to planting directly into the soil is that there's more water available to the plants if you keep a regular watering schedule. Pots dry out too quickly. Now that the overnight temps. have climbed up to around 5 degrees C I don't need to trap as much heat, but the peppers still want to be warm, so I swapped out the poly sheeting for Agribon fabric. It traps enough heat during the day that the peppers are warm at night, but it doesn't get above 32 degrees C at the hottest part of the day without unbuttoning it, and when it rains, the water gets through the fabric so I don't have to water the plants in the rain.

 

[Pinoy83]

Thanks guy, it looks like you have your own backyard jungle going in chiles. Good on yer mate. Are you getting any pods yet like the folks in SoCal?

Yea we got a small backyard jungle chiles..and yes we get chiles all year round...the old peppers is in there 2nd flowering already this year

 

[stickman]

With clear and sunny conditions, daytime highs close to 80 degrees here. The temps. in the hoophouse were around 100 degrees. Most of my Korean Annuums are about a foot tall and looking really happy. They've grown faster than I thougt they would and quite a few are brushing the curved sides of the hoophouse. I may have to rethink my schedule and take off the fabric the end of this month instead of waiting 'til the end of June. I guess I didn't need to start the Annuums quite so soon... next year I'll have to wait unitl late February to start germinating them.

 

[stickman]

After a few days of rain and warm nights this is the result...

Korean Annuums (Gochu peppers)

Gochu peppers flowering

Andy F1 (A Gochu hybrid)

Long Green (A hot Korean salad pepper)

Big Jim

Coyame Jalapeno

Poblano

 

[stc3248]

Wow! Amazing what a couple warm nights can do! Those bad boys really greened up and are taking off! They will all be loading up soon brother! Nice work and great timing/strategy on plant out my friend! Looking forward to all the nice pod shots in the coming weeks!

 

[SocalChilehead]

Rick it looks great and loaded with flowers in no time your gonna be loaded with pods.

 

[RocketMan]

Stickman, your the third of forth one I've seen with the hoop houses. I may have to look at putting something like them together for the couple of cold nights we get in the winter down here. Plants are looking really good. Have you tried those Korean salad peppers before? The sould like some pods I used to get when I was stationed in Oui Jong Bu back in '86. They were a long green pod that they would stuff, batter and fry up. Not really hot, well not to me, but they were tasty as al get out.

RM

 

[stickman]

Wow! Amazing what a couple warm nights can do! Those bad boys really greened up and are taking off! They will all be loading up soon brother! Nice work and great timing/strategy on plant out my friend! Looking forward to all the nice pod shots in the coming weeks!

HI Shane, Thanks for the kind words. I'm pretty pumped about it... Last year I didn't get any flowers on my chiles until the 4th of July! The nights are still walking back and forth between the upper thirties and low fifties temperature-wise. Some of the blossoms have dropped, but some have stayed too, so bog willing and the creeks don't rise I'll be able to share some pod pics soon.

Rick it looks great and loaded with flowers in no time your gonna be loaded with pods.

Hey Fernando! Thanks for stopping by. I'll do my humble best...

Stickman, your the third of forth one I've seen with the hoop houses. I may have to look at putting something like them together for the couple of cold nights we get in the winter down here. Plants are looking really good. Have you tried those Korean salad peppers before? The sould like some pods I used to get when I was stationed in Oui Jong Bu back in '86. They were a long green pod that they would stuff, batter and fry up. Not really hot, well not to me, but they were tasty as al get out.

RM

Hi RM, Thanks for looking in. I haven't tried the Long Green chiles yet, but I hope I have what you mentioned. My Dad was in Korea late in the war with the Marines near Freedom Bridge and Oui Jong Bu. His clearest memories of the native foods were kimchi, the round pears and the peppers you described. I figure I've got a few shots at it since I started some Korean seeds I had gotten from Evergreen seeds in SoCal and also some from BootsieB. Most of his varieties were intended for fresh use, so it covers a pretty broad range.
What branch did you serve with in Korea? I did my whole tour with the regular army at Ft. Carson, CO... home of the 4th Mech. Div.

 

[RocketMan]

I was Regular Army also, but they wouldn't leave me alone in one place till the end ov my career. I did tours in Korea 85-86 2 ID and Germany 89-92 40th FA BDE. State side I have been to Ft Sill, Ok 17 FA BDE, Ft. Stewart both with the 24th ID and the 3ID. Retired from Stewart in 03. I Kroea I was stationed at Camp Essayons with the 6 BN, 37th FA MLRS. Was there for 13 months both frozen and fried. I too remember the round pears we called Pa's. Kinchi was ok but not my most favorite. Love the pepper pods and Yakki Mandu which were like pizza role shapped egg roles and always lots of that red pepper powder and paste.

 

[stickman]

I was Regular Army also, but they wouldn't leave me alone in one place till the end ov my career. I did tours in Korea 85-86 2 ID and Germany 89-92 40th FA BDE. State side I have been to Ft Sill, Ok 17 FA BDE, Ft. Stewart both with the 24th ID and the 3ID. Retired from Stewart in 03. I Kroea I was stationed at Camp Essayons with the 6 BN, 37th FA MLRS. Was there for 13 months both frozen and fried. I too remember the round pears we called Pa's. Kinchi was ok but not my most favorite. Love the pepper pods and Yakki Mandu which were like pizza role shapped egg roles and always lots of that red pepper powder and paste.

Arty huh... I was with Charlie Co, 4th Engineers, so we worked pretty closely with you guys. Either you scratched our backs while we were clearing obstacles or we'd make obstacles and a dedicated battery would cover them after we left. In '81 I mustered out after a three year enlistment but hey, different strokes...
Thought you might like this youtube video of a Korean girl making the fried peppers...

Cheers

 

[RocketMan]

Thanks alot man now I'm hungry!

 

[stickman]

Well, the gloves are off! Today is officially our first frost-free day here, and the forecast for the next week is for nighttime lows in the fifties across the board, so I took the agribon fabric off and the hoops out. My babies have all grown up, except for a few who need a little more encouragement in the form of fish and seaweed emulsion. I also notice that for some of the chiles started later than the Gochus the closer they were to the center of the hoophouse, the bigger they got. Only had one plant frosted, and that one was close to the end as well as close to the outside so it was getting cold from two sides at once. It's looking good now though. The side branching was able to carry it through. More pics...

Garden overview

First pod that didn't fall off at this stage.

Pepperoncini

Serranos

Kim-Chi

Habaneros.

 

[stickman]

Hey RM, found this online for you to check out. Cheers!
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/1099/mandu.html#axzz1vSLtoKET

 

[RocketMan]

Sweet, sounds a little like what we had but I'm sure that like we do in our cooking differences depending on the personal and locational preferences. I've had both the boul mandu and the fried and both are tasty.

 

[highalt]

Wow, Rick, things are looking great! The pepper plants are getting bushy, and loaded with buds. Even your non pepper stuff looks a lot bigger than the last pictures I saw! Good job on getting an early start with that hoop house. I'm going to have to try something similar next year.

According to a chart I just found, we have a 60% chance of being frost free by the 25th, and a 90% chance by June 13th. Well, I guess I'm feeling lucky, because I planted out today. If we get a cold spell, I'll just have to drag out the floating row covers, and hope for the best.

 

[Beehunter]

Plants are lookin awesome! congrats man! Looks like they will be loading up with pods in no time! Will you keep the black soil cover over them the entire summer?

 

[stickman]

Sweet, sounds a little like what we had but I'm sure that like we do in our cooking differences depending on the personal and locational preferences. I've had both the boul mandu and the fried and both are tasty.

Hi RM. Mandu are favorites of mine too. I like how they use mashed tofu and meat together in the filling. Much lighter. Probably because a. meat is expensive and b. Korean summers are HOT and they don't want to be loaded down with a heavy meal then. I also love the cold Buckwheat noodle soup they make in summer called Naengmyon and Kkaennip Kimchi with cold rice.

Wow, Rick, things are looking great! The pepper plants are getting bushy, and loaded with buds. Even your non pepper stuff looks a lot bigger than the last pictures I saw! Good job on getting an early start with that hoop house. I'm going to have to try something similar next year.

According to a chart I just found, we have a 60% chance of being frost free by the 25th, and a 90% chance by June 13th. Well, I guess I'm feeling lucky, because I planted out today. If we get a cold spell, I'll just have to drag out the floating row covers, and hope for the best.

Hi Bonnie, thanks for looking in. As windy as it gets out your way I'm sure a hoophouse would help extend your season and protect the young plants from local conditions. It worked well for me... I remember the time we worked on a road building project in a state forest up near Fairplay, and there was still snow on the peaks around us in August, so I'm not surprised they're still so cool for you now. We're pulling for you here!

Plants are lookin awesome! congrats man! Looks like they will be loading up with pods in no time! Will you keep the black soil cover over them the entire summer?

Thanks Britt. Yeah, I'll keep the plastic down all season, but I'll cover it with shredded newspaper mulch the end of June. The idea being to keep weeds down and retain moisture. I notice that the black plastic mulch is so sheer that it lets enough sunlight through for the weeds underneath it to grow. The mulch on top will block the light and smother them, and the plastic will keep them from being able to grow up into the light. I'll leave it in place all summer, but when things start to cool off in September I'll compost the shredded paper mulch and expose the black plastic to the sun again. When we get close to frost I'll put the agribon fabric and the hoops back on so they can squeeze out a few more pods.
Cheers all.

 

[PaulG]

Looking just fantastic, Rick! Now I'm even jealous of your weather!
We are still mired in s*** here. Seems like we just can't get a decent
run of warm weather - now we are practically stuck at 60 for daily highs,
and .25" rain yesterday, and looking at .25" - .5" today, and then 7 more
days of cool wet cloudy weather; this is starting to suck really bad.
My peppers had a nice 10 day run of flowering and podding, and now
they are stalled out again.

Anyway, it's heartening to see some northern folk are having some decent
weather and growing opportunity. Your hoophouse system really worked
well for you. If it wasn't for my little greenhouse, pepper growing would
be pretty much out of the question here.

Have a great week, my friend - growin' strong!

edit: My bad for infesting your nice log with negatoriness about the
weather, Rick. I really am grateful that it is not freezing anymore, and
that I do, in fact, have a place to get the peppers out of the nastiness.
Please accept my apology.

Paul

 

[stickman]

Hey Paul, welcome back!

Looking just fantastic, Rick!

Thanks! Exposure to the THP website is the inspiration for growing as many of the different varieties as I have this year. I've also learned a whole lot from folks like you, Shane, Shigshwa, Bonnie, et al. It's been a kick, and I can't wait to see where it's going.

Anyway, it's heartening to see some northern folk are having some decent
weather and growing opportunity. Your hoophouse system really worked
well for you. If it wasn't for my little greenhouse, pepper growing would
be pretty much out of the question here.

Have a great week, my friend - growin' strong!

Thanks Paul, the same to yourself.

edit: My bad for infesting your nice log with negatoriness about the
weather, Rick. I really am grateful that it is not freezing anymore, and
that I do, in fact, have a place to get the peppers out of the nastiness.
Please accept my apology.

Paul

De nada compadre, It's hard to be gracious when you feel like you've got sand in your shorts... ... but you do quite well. As Red Green says, "We're pulling for ya... we're all in this together"!