Stickman's 2013 Glog - Time To Pull The Plug on 2013

I'm pulling things together to get ready for my next growing season. I bought NuMex variety seeds from Sandia Seed company in New Mexico, Hot Paper Lantern Habaneros and Antohi Romanians from Johnny's Select Seeds in Maine and Korean varieties from Evergreen Seeds in California. Due to the unbelievable generosity of a number of THP members I've also gotten seeds to a wide variety of chiles from around the world. Special thanks to BootsieB, stc3248, romy6, PaulG, SoCalChilehead, joynershotpeppers, highalt, cmpman1974, smokemaster, mygrassisblue, Mister No, chewi, KingDenniz, orrozconleche and most recently and spectacularly, Habanerohead with a great selection of superhots and peppers from Hungary!

There are eleven varieties of Hungarian peppers in here, mostly the early, thick-fleshed, sweet ones that range from white through yellow to purple and red.., plus Aji Lemon Drop, BJ Indian Carbon, Naga Morich, Bishop's Crown and TS CARDI Yellow! Now I just have to go through my seed bank and match the space available to what I want to grow. Thanks Balázs!

 

[stickman]

Things are looking good!

And dirt day is a comin'!

Geeze, I read through these glogs and find varieties I've never heard of, I think the corns gone next year and some of these new found varieties will fill the space.

BTW your recommendations for ferts perked my babies up, thanks!

Scott

It's sure easy to go gaga over all the varieties people talk about here... You know you've been assimilated when you start talking about replacing the other vegetables with chiles!

Glad your babies perked up. Did you try the GH RapidStart?

Beautiful seedlings. Things still popping for you too I see. I had some of those little round seedling things that I tried that did not sprout one seedling I had set to the side. I looked last night and after about 3 weeks I had about 5 seedlings. I have no idea what one is but two were White Bhuts, one was Brain Strain "Original" from Pepperlover and one Naga Morich. I forgot what the other one was. This is the time in the germ/seedling stage where the trays that you have had no luck with and set to the side start to pop like crazy. I must remember that for next year so I dont remove the labels.

Yeah Pia... we've all done it and it's still worth a rueful chuckle...

 

[megamoo]

I love this time when everything is new and fresh and like a coiled spring ready to burst into growth. Can't wait to see them get outside. Will you be growing the mature plants in pots or in the ground?

 

[stickman]

I love this time when everything is new and fresh and like a coiled spring ready to burst into growth. Can't wait to see them get outside. Will you be growing the mature plants in pots or in the ground?

I hear ya Moo... anticipation is a pretty energizing feeling!

Most of the chiles will go into the ground, but I'm going to experiment with root pruning pots for a few of the Chinense varieties. It looks like it'll be a while before plant-out though... Overnight temperatures here have been falling between -6 and -3 degrees C and I won't be planting out in the hoophouse until they reliably hit 5 degrees C.

Chatting with Devv about drip irrigation got me off my butt and looking into it... For about $35 I got a system that will take care of six 5 gal. airpots spread out along the south side of my house with 1 gal./hour drippers, and it'll be expandable to cover more if I want. I have a couple of herb beds there too, so I think I'll be expanding enough to cover those as well. The next big purchase will be a hose timer...

 

[Devv]

Glad your babies perked up. Did you try the GH RapidStart?

Not this time, I was too much of a hurry to make them start to do something, as I would have had to order it over the net, I found some fish emulsion 5-1-1 and liquid seaweed 0-0-1 locally.

Applied half strength as a foiliar spray, saw the results the next day.

Chatting with Devv about drip irrigation got me off my butt and looking into it... For about $35 I got a system that will take care of six 5 gal. airpots spread out along the south side of my house with 1 gal./hour drippers, and it'll be expandable to cover more if I want. I have a couple of herb beds there too, so I think I'll be expanding enough to cover those as well. The next big purchase will be a hose timer...

Cool beans glad ya got that working...

Take care,

Scott

 

[DocNrock]

That Kapia really wants to get outside! Nons coming up. Gonna be a banner summer!

 

[stickman]

That Kapia really wants to get outside! Nons coming up. Gonna be a banner summer!

Maybe so Doc, but it's taking its time getting here... Looks like maybe after the weekend it'll warm up some, but it'll still be a back-and-forth dance I expect...


Forecast for Greenfield (01301) Monday 4/9/2013

Partly Cloudy
H 68° / L 39°

Partly cloudy. High of 68F. Winds from the North at 5 to 10 mph.Monday Night
Overcast with a chance of rain. Low of 39F. Winds from the ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40% with rainfall amounts near 0.4 in. possible.


I thinned the Eggplants and Tomatoes, when they get a bit bigger I'll up-pot them. Planted the Mache'... Claytonia isn't big enough yet, and I'm not taking any chances on the onions...

Mache'...

and some bulbs are beginning to peek up, like these Tulips...

and Jonquils...

 

[Trippa]

The ground is obviously warming up Rick. Do you get the rural type forecasts over there that many farmers utilise ?? Dew temp, grass temp, soil temp, humidity etc ??

 

[stickman]

The ground is obviously warming up Rick. Do you get the rural type forecasts over there that many farmers utilise ?? Dew temp, grass temp, soil temp, humidity etc ??

Hi Trippa
I'll have to look and see... I found this website... http://www.agriculture.com/weather?&page=weather&zip=01301 and I'll have to see what the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) has on its website.

 

[stc3248]

Sweet Rick! I see a hoop house in your near future!

 

[stickman]

You betcha Chief! The forecast for next week predicts overnight lows in the 30's, so I could have the chiles in the hoophouse in as little as 2 or 3 weeks if they pull up into the low 40's. This weekend is going to be about soil prep... I'm going to get a truckload of well-composted horse manure to spade in with the amendments so I'll be ready to jump when that happens!

 

[roper2008]

Tomato and eggplant time, yea! I'm growing mostly asian eggplant. Machiaw F1 from Johnny's is my favorite
hybrid eggplant. The other is Thai Long Green. I ordered Kamo from CNN with my pepper order. It's suppose
to be very good. I don't have much luck growing the larger eggplant, but I will try a few Black Beauty anyway,
maybe I'll get it right one day.

 

[stickman]

Out of curiosity Linda... what's your soil like? Is it sandy, loam or clay? I'm finding that like all Nightshades, Eggplant like to keep their feet fairly dry. They put out a lot more foliage than Peppers or Tomatoes though, so they need more water and nutes to support that. I'd say base-dress with a mix of balanced fertilizer, compost and epsom salts a week or two before planting out and spade it all in lightly. They love warmth! So before planting out, put down black poly mulch, and really smooth the soil underneath first so there's good contact between it and the mulch... then you get the maximum transfer of heat from sun to soil. Once they start to flower, side-dress every 2 weeks with tomato fertilizer or water in a Kelp/Fish mix. If you want to see pics, check out my growing other glog from last year. http://thehotpepper....en/#entry615297

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get some of my pepper varieties to sprout at all. Among the missing-in-action were the Hungarian Stuffing Peppers, Hungarian Hot Wax, Cascabel and Nee's Macedonian Annuum, not to mention the "Non-zanos". So I finally let go of the seed trays with these seeds in them to make room for the up-potted Tomatoes and Eggplant.

 

[stickman]

Time to shove the excess plants out the door to make room for the ones trying for some size before I plant out. The excess Mexican chiles will go out on Monday to some co-workers. These are the Tomatoes and Kurtovska Kapia peppers I'm taking to my Mom today. She has a grow light setup in her cellar that I set up for her so they should be OK.

My wife has an Amaryllis that started to bloom last week and is at its peak now. It has six big blooms on it... I've never seen so many at one time! I guess it likes the bonemeal and lots of sun outside during the summer...

 

[stc3248]

B-E-A...utiful Rick! Some of the perdy ones are showing off around here too. Sure sign of spring right there brother!

 

[GA Growhead]

My wifes amaryllis only threw out four blooms but two stems came up this year, one behind the other. So had 8 total. Awesome flowers aren't they.

 

[Sawyer]

Holy cow! Is that thing named Audrey?

 

[Chaosbites]

Wowzers! That's a great lookin amaryllis!

Sounds like dirt day isn't too far off for you guys. We are getting signs of spring here on the front range.

Michelle

 

[Devv]

Looking good!

The wife saw the Amaryllis and drooled!

Come on spring!

Scott

 

[roper2008]

Out of curiosity Linda... what's your soil like? Is it sandy, loam or clay? I'm finding that like all Nightshades, Eggplant like to keep their feet fairly dry. They put out a lot more foliage than Peppers or Tomatoes though, so they need more water and nutes to support that. I'd say base-dress with a mix of balanced fertilizer, compost and epsom salts a week or two before planting out and spade it all in lightly. They love warmth! So before planting out, put down black poly mulch, and really smooth the soil underneath first so there's good contact between it and the mulch... then you get the maximum transfer of heat from sun to soil. Once they start to flower, side-dress every 2 weeks with tomato fertilizer or water in a Kelp/Fish mix. If you want to see pics, check out my growing other glog from last year. http://thehotpepper....en/#entry615297

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get some of my pepper varieties to sprout at all. Among the missing-in-action were the Hungarian Stuffing Peppers, Hungarian Hot Wax, Cascabel and Nee's Macedonian Annuum, not to mention the "Non-zanos". So I finally let go of the seed trays with these seeds in them to make room for the up-potted Tomatoes and Eggplant.

I have acidic clay soil here. All my veggies are in raised beds, which I add compost, some peat moss, bonemeal, Espoma
Garden-Tone, lime. This year I will add rock dust to the beds. Sometimes I sprinkle Epsom Salt. After that I don't usually
fertilize again. The asian eggplant always produce fine for me. I will try fertilizing them every 2 weeks after flowering, especially
the black beauties. Thanks for the tip.

 

[stickman]

Thanks folks, things are really looking up here ATM!

I have acidic clay soil here. All my veggies are in raised beds, which I add compost, some peat moss, bonemeal, Espoma
Garden-Tone, lime. This year I will add rock dust to the beds. Sometimes I sprinkle Epsom Salt. After that I don't usually
fertilize again. The asian eggplant always produce fine for me. I will try fertilizing them every 2 weeks after flowering, especially
the black beauties. Thanks for the tip.

It looks like you have your soil amendments dialed in Linda, good luck!

Had Blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning and cracked an unopened quart of Maple syrup from last season that smelled fermented and was inedible... oh well, I'll mix it with some warm water and feed some of the outdoor plants with it. That aught to give 'em a boost!