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

WalkGood · Oct 24, 2013

Wishing da OW's great luck but don't think dem need it under your care, hab a great weekend!

stickman · Oct 25, 2013

HabaneroHead said:
Hi Rick,
Yeah, it was a good season, though the moving was in the middle of the harvest period, so I was not able to deal with them so much. I have frozen some pods, and I am planning to make sauces, since it seems my colleagues simply love them. Owervintering is not a big deal, you just need to avoid overwatering them, and they are going to thrive next year. I am not going to give them any artificial light, but as per my experience they will be fine. There is only one thing which I am sure about: next year I am not going to grow the Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon and most probably the Naga Morich strain I had. The pods were very small, and the plants did not really produce many pods. I liked the heat of them, but that's all. I am planning to replace them with other strains, which might have bigger pods. On the other hand the TS CARDI Yellow and the Red Hab is a mass producer, with big, heavy pods. They are absolutely amazing! I was stripping some of my Hab plants from the bottom,which resulted much bigger pods.
Yesterday the induction cooker and the oven was built in, so after two months of sandwich-eating, I can finally cook anything!
Balázs

Hi Balázs,
Thanks for the vote of confidence with over-wintering. I'm gonna do my best... I have to keep them in my cellar, which has no ambient light, so I've got a couple of drop lights on a timer set for 10/14. The plant nannies seem to work well for keeping the plants watered. I gave them each a 10oz bottle when I set them downstairs last weekend, and I'm thinking that should last them somewhere between a week or two... we'll see.

Sorry the BJ India Carbon and Naga Morich didn't work out for you. If you're interested, I have lots of seeds from my large-podded Yellow 7... it was a beast this year! I probably got 70 or 80 pods off the plant, for a total weight of a little over a kilo after I seeded them, and the plant was started from seed this year. The taste was sweet and fruity, but with Lots of heat. I also have lots of seeds from my Butch T. plant that produced only about 40 or 50 pods in the first year... most smaller than a 2 Euro coin, but there's enough heat there for anybody. I'll be curious to see how the plant produces in the second year.

Good news that your kitchen is finally ready! Not a moment too soon, eh?

WalkGood said:
Wishing da OW's great luck but don't think dem need it under your care, hab a great weekend!

Thanks Ramon! Gee, you're sure having fun with the Halloween pics...

Reminds me of a bit of fun my Dad and I had with the trick-or-treaters that came to the house when I was about 16... We had a drop-leaf table that we set up facing the door from the porch to the house. The porch light was on to let the kids know it was OK to come to the house, but the only other light on was a kerosene lamp on the table in front of my Dad. We draped an old sheet over the table that went down to the floor all around, after opening the 2 halves of the table enough for me to reach my fist up between them. We cut a hole in the sheet over the gap, cut the bottom off a cardboard box with a flap lid and fastened the box down over the hole. I painted my hand up to look gnarly... black nails, green greasepaint on the skin and black lines over the creases in the skin. Then I got underneath the table with the basket of candy. Dad would greet them when they came to the door in a gloomy room with the kerosene lamp casting shadows up his face, and had one foot under the edge of the sheet where I could see it. He'd tap his foot soundlessly... once for each kid, and I'd get that many pieces of candy in my hand, then tap his boot to let him know I was ready. He'd ask the kids if they wanted candy, and when they said yes, he'd say "Well, give them their candy", and I'd put my hand up through the box and hold it open for them. I never tried to grab their hands or anything like that, but some of them wouldn't take it... Good for a chuckle...

PrimeTime · Oct 25, 2013

funny. might do this candy hand this year!

Devv · Oct 25, 2013

Sounds like good fun Rick. When I was a kid some of the houses really did it up for Halloween. I really miss the trick or treaters, none around here out in the sticks.

WalkGood · Oct 26, 2013

stickman said:
Reminds me of a bit of fun my Dad … We cut a hole in the sheet over the gap, cut the bottom off a cardboard box with a flap lid and fastened the box down over the hole. … I got underneath the table with the basket of candy. Dad would greet them when they came to the door in a gloomy room with the kerosene lamp casting shadows up his face, … I'd put my hand up through the box and hold it open for them. I never tried to grab their hands or anything like that … Good for a chuckle

How awesome … kinda like Thing from the Addams Family. You should get in da spirit again, there’s still time. While the kids are getting their treats I offer the parents that we know pods and dem love it … Definitely one of my favorite celebrations All Hallows' Eve rocks!

Hab a great weekend!

stickman · Oct 26, 2013

Yup, we definitely enjoyed putting on a show for the kids every year. It was even more fun than going trick-or-treating for me. I hear ya about not having kids coming around much Scott... we live in a cul-de-sac with a cemetary on either side of us, apartment buildings to the south and the County Fairgrounds to the north. Mostly older folks in the apartments, so the only kids we see here are our immediate neighbors. Most of them are earthy-crunchy types that don't want their kids to have sugar, so we end up giving them apples, stickers and temporary tattoos. The adults get a small packet of my smoked "kitchen sink" powder... :hell:

They all take it too...

PIC 1 · Oct 26, 2013

Hey Rick,
Sounds like you have the OW's in control, good luck with the indoor process, plants and seedlings.

Halloween's a fun holiday for the kids an adults.......I dressed up as a scarecrow with a black crow on my shoulder last yr .......hah, wasn't "trick or treating" but giving the candy out at the house. As a kid we grab the large paper handled shopping bags and head out right after school. I recall at times the bags would get so heavy with candy there'd be a hole in the bottom of the bag before we got back home. Here in the city most homes in the residential area's are on 30/40 ft lots. Easy walking for the kids. Back then there were mostly only single income families where the wife would be at home. So most homes would have somebody home to answer the doorbell. Now adays either folks aren't home early enough or they just avoid the decorating and candy purchases. Too bad for the youth............and the dentists....... :lol:

I guess what may help nowadays is the changing back of the clocks (daylight savings) has been moved into the 1st week in November. It has been prior yrs to happen before Halloween........meaning it would get too dogone dark too early..Sorry for the rant.......time for me to check some other glogs.....enjoy your weekend

stickman · Oct 27, 2013

PIC 1 said:
Hey Rick,
Sounds like you have the OW's in control, good luck with the indoor process, plants and seedlings.

.....enjoy your weekend

Thanks Greg, will do... things are already moving with the OW plants! The Yellow 7 shows it the most, but there are new leaf clusters on the Butch T and Douglah, and the Manzano is beginning to show the first small buds at the nodes.

One question I have is, with 6 months to go until I replant them outside, should I dial the lights back a bit to encourage a more dormant habit? I can't use ambient light here since there are no windows in our cellar. ATM I have 2 droplights set up over the plants, each with a 23 watt 5000k CFL lighting the plants in a roughly 8 square foot area, and the lights are on a timer set for 10 hours on and 14 hours off. Any knowledgeable input would be appreciated.

Have a great rest of the weekend all... Halloween's coming!

stc3248 · Oct 27, 2013

Howdy Rick! Can't speak on the light schedule for the OWs I am always trying to push them at Mach-12 under my lights during their early weeks, and I haven't overwintered any. My guess would be that you could cut to an 8 hr cycle for a while though. Once January rolls around you could hit the throttle again with more light and a longer cycle??? Good luck I will be here to learn through this experiment!!!

stickman · Oct 27, 2013

Jamison said:
Hey Rick! Things are looking good. Starting to get threats of frost over here too. Be careful since you left them outside, you might just have some bugs left on them now. I'd watch carefully now that you brought them in. Good luck man. Can't wait for next year already!

I think I'm OK for having clean plants Jay... I cut them back pretty severely before I moved them down cellar, and they were outside for a few nights before that when the overnight low dropped down to the low 30's. The northern climate has to be good for something, eh? Even if it's just killing off the pests before bringing the plants inside...

stc3248 said:
Howdy Rick! Can't speak on the light schedule for the OWs I am always trying to push them at Mach-12 under my lights during their early weeks, and I haven't overwintered any. My guess would be that you could cut to an 8 hr cycle for a while though. Once January rolls around you could hit the throttle again with more light and a longer cycle??? Good luck I will be here to learn through this experiment!!!

Thanks for the input Shane... it's more or less what I'd planned, I just don't know how much is required to keep them dormant but alive until it's time to put the hammer down sometime in late January or February.

PIC 1 · Oct 27, 2013

stickman said:
Thanks Greg, will do... things are already moving with the OW plants! The Yellow 7 shows it the most, but there are new leaf clusters on the Butch T and Douglah, and the Manzano is beginning to show the first small buds at the nodes.

One question I have is, with 6 months to go until I replant them outside, should I dial the lights back a bit to encourage a more dormant habit? I can't use ambient light here since there are no windows in our cellar. ATM I have 2 droplights set up over the plants, each with a 23 watt 5000k CFL lighting the plants in a roughly 8 square foot area, and the lights are on a timer set for 10 hours on and 14 hours off. Any knowledgeable input would be appreciated.

Have a great rest of the weekend all... Halloween's coming!

Rick any amount of light helps..........even an incandescent over a slop sink in the basement works. About 2 yrs back I OW'ed the most pepper plants indoors around 25...repotted indoors in 2 gal containers. 23 of them lived to make another round outdoors. Around 3 of them were already 2 yr in the running. I had them in my cooler sub basement. Left them on the floor, around 65 deg at the time in Nov. I stripped most of the visible growth back early. By early Dec the plants started to take off again. At that point I fired up my T8's. The growth was lush and I left them at that. Its less of a challange but more of a maintainence project to work with them. No ferts at the early stages....when I did it was foliar only...no tender root burn with that method. I didn't have any insect problems.....no gnats either since I would occasionally bottom water only. Like tropical house plants, they don't need much care through the winter. Most indoor mediums are soiless or peat based..The water wicks up from the bottom pretty fast. Keep the top layer of soil dry by all means. No need for major lighting unless you want monster plants indoors...with no room for seedlings. The idea is to keep the plants in a "coma " stage until you can move them outdoors.
Good luck, man.:

stickman · Oct 27, 2013

Thanks for the input Greg... I guess I'll cut the light by one CFL and see how it goes. If I need to cut back again, I'll dial the timer back it to 8 on and 16 off. Cheers!

Tonight I finally smoked my windfall peppers. I seeded and froze them last week, after clearing out my Honey-do list I got a small charcoal fire going (18 briquets) and added green sticks of cherry wood to provide the smoke. The resulting temps inside the horizontal barrel smoker were right around 200 degrees F. Sorry about all the smoke in the pic, but it was taken just after sundown and the low light levels triggered the flash and illuminated the smoke...

Here's some of the green Cherry wood I used Shane. It's just some cut-up inch and a half branches.

Have a good evening all!

Devv · Oct 28, 2013

Looks good Rick!

LB came home with some Apple and Cherry she scored in SA. Hopefully this weekend. I have the bulk of the winter garden preps completed, looking forward to a break soon too!

PIC 1 · Oct 28, 2013

Now that's some smoking Rick !

I'm a big fan of Cherry, with the food or mixed with Birch in the fireplace.........How's dem OW's looking ?

stickman · Oct 29, 2013

Devv said:
Looks good Rick!

LB came home with some Apple and Cherry she scored in SA. Hopefully this weekend. I have the bulk of the winter garden preps completed, looking forward to a break soon too!

I hear ya brother... Good luck with the smoking project, I'm sure you'll like the results!

PIC 1 said:
Now that's some smoking Rick !

I'm a big fan of Cherry, with the food or mixed with Birch in the fireplace.........How's dem OW's looking ?

Hi Greg!
They're doing pretty good I think... I've been looking for signs of pests, and so far haven't spotted any. The pics look a bit sharper when the camera isn't competing with the grow lights...

Douglah... getting new growth slowly, but just beginning to push out a few small leaves at the nodes.

Butch T... You can see the lighter green of new growth pretty well.

Manzano... I pruned back the branches so the canopy was no larger than the root ball, and that removed all the primary nodes, so I didn't take off the leaves remaining. This was such a slow-growing plant that I'm gonna try to OW it like this. They're too small to see in pics yet, but there are some miniscule buds forming at a few of the nodes. We'll see how it goes...

The rock star of the bunch is the Yellow 7. It was such a beast at the end of its first season, and I liked the taste of the pods so much that I decided to OW it at the last minute. I was out of potting soil though, so I bought another bag, and the new soil was saturated with water. I think that (and genetics) are why it seems to be growing more vigorously than the others. It's in a fabric "Dirt Pot" though, and the soil is beginning to dry out at the surface.

Have a great week all!

Devv · Oct 29, 2013

Good luck Rick!

I'll be watching your OW project for sure.

PIC 1 · Oct 30, 2013

WoW !..........55K views..+1 more

Rick your OW'S look healthy. I'd strip all the old leaves off the Manzano. As much as you'd probably like to give the plants additional water, air pots or not, keep the top layer of soil bone dry. Especially in an area that may be damp or high in humidity. I'd only water my OW's once every 2 weeks. The evaporation rate is slow unless its in a 85+ deg growroom.
Heck, I think you're going to have great success...one more tip, keep a quality magnifying glass available. You'll be happy to find no bugs on the plants.....always a sign of relief before the seedlings get started.

poypoyking · Oct 30, 2013

Nice to see your OW's are doing well. My Yellow 7 was such a beast I had to bring that one inside for the winter too. Looks like our seasons ended about the same time. I still have a bunch of pods in the fridge that I need to do something with soon or end up on the naughty list.

stickman · Oct 30, 2013

Devv said:
Good luck Rick!

I'll be watching your OW project for sure.

Thanks Scott, I appreciate the good vibes.

PIC 1 said:
WoW !..........55K views..+1 more

Rick your OW'S look healthy. I'd strip all the old leaves off the Manzano. As much as you'd probably like to give the plants additional water, air pots or not, keep the top layer of soil bone dry. Especially in an area that may be damp or high in humidity. I'd only water my OW's once every 2 weeks. The evaporation rate is slow unless its in a 85+ deg growroom.
Heck, I think you're going to have great success...one more tip, keep a quality magnifying glass available. You'll be happy to find no bugs on the plants.....always a sign of relief before the seedlings get started.

Thanks muchly for the info Greg! The soil in the bulk of the pots is mostly bone dry... the odd one out is the Yellow 7. The soil I used to fill the pot was saturated with water since the bag was left outside on a pallet in the rain by the folks I bought it from. I set the "Plant Nanny"in that pot but won't be adding any water until it dries out enough. I did strip off the mature leaves from the Manzano and was surprised to see quite a bit of new growth that was hidden by the leaves. It's still quite small, but as the English Coppers say, "It's a definite result"...

I'll have to go through some boxes to see if I still have the magnifying glass I used when I was still collecting coins 40-odd years ago. I never threw it out, and if I recall correctly, it was about 40x. Think that's enough magnification when looking for mites?

poypoyking said:
Nice to see your OW's are doing well. My Yellow 7 was such a beast I had to bring that one inside for the winter too. Looks like our seasons ended about the same time. I still have a bunch of pods in the fridge that I need to do something with soon or end up on the naughty list.

Thanks Ben, and the same back at ya! Boy, it was a crazy season wasn't it? No complaints though... I feel your pain when it comes to dealing with a prolific harvest... I have to cook up a batch of sauce with the latest round of smoked peppers, and I have a ferment down cellar that's ready to process as well... The good news is that after that I'll be done with putting away this year's pepper crop and can take a bit of a break (barring this winter's OW experiment) until it's time to start next year's seeds.

I came home from work to find a SFRB from brother Shane in the mailbox... :woohoo:

There's some great-looking stuff in there Chief... Thanks so much! I tried one each of the Wild Brazil and Charapita Yellow pods when I opened the box... I think the CY was a bit milder and sweeter, but both made great snacking peppers. I'm gonna dry all the wilds on the kitchen windowsill and collect enough seeds to start a few plants, then powder the rest. Are the next pods up in size the Pequin crosses? Do I see any Goat's Weed pods in there too?

Have a great Hump Day all!

Devv · Oct 30, 2013

Nice score Rick!