Stickman's 2014 Glog- That's all folks!

Hi All,
   I've got Manzanos sprouted and my Bhuts, Lotah Bih and Donne Sali seeds planted so it looks like time to leave 2103 behind and begin to concentrate on 2014. Last year I started some of my late-season varieties right after New Year's Day, but our season was too short to bring the pods to full ripeness so this year I started 2-3 weeks earlier.
 
Manzano seedlings...

 
Fruts and Bhuts ...

 
There are many more varieties yet to plant in the proper turn, and I have 4 overwintered pepper plants from 2013 that I'll report on later. Have a great weekend all!

 

[Devv]

Looking good Rick!
 
Glad to see all those flowers that will soon be pods. We had some heavy rain last night and the ground in the garden is loaded with dropped flowers. BUT a ton of lightning, that and the rain will promte a flurry of lowers that I hope set before the heat kicks in here.
 
Have a great week!

 

[stickman]

Wow Rick, that is incredible buddy - awesome work there. Such a smooth operator - you make it look like child's play my friend. Peri Peri is looking mighty fine and set to just thrive from here. Naga is looking nice and bushy... but definitely will want to go skywards. Hell all your plants are looking splendid - man you going to be rolling in chillies!

 
Shoot Lourens... I've got enough varieties planted that at least some of them should do well.   But I agree.. the King Naga and Peri Peri look eager to grow and produce. Our overnight temperatures are still pretty low ATM, but the Hungarians and Alpine chiles are all flowering anyway because they're adapted for it.
 

It looks like the plants don't mind the plant out at all, they look great. Had some leaf drop over here, which was probably caused by humidity to low I suspect. Are those the Datterini, Rick? Mine are setting fruit already I noticed today.

 
Sorry to hear about the leaf drop, but I'm sure you've got a handle on it. No Datterini in the pic of my tomatoes, but I do have a couple planted. The smaller pair in that pic are the Costolutos... the larger pair are yellow slicing tomatoes called "Dagma's Perfection" that Scarecrw turned me on to last year.

Looking good Rick!
 
Glad to see all those flowers that will soon be pods. We had some heavy rain last night and the ground in the garden is loaded with dropped flowers. BUT a ton of lightning, that and the rain will promte a flurry of lowers that I hope set before the heat kicks in here.
 
Have a great week!

 
Thanks Scott... you too!

 

[Trippa]

looking great Rick .... must be nice to have them in the ground !!

 

[stickman]

...

looking great Rick .... must be nice to have them in the ground !!

 
Hey, Tristan's in the house! Thanks for the good vibe buddy! Your Douglahs are doing great... I managed to over-winter the one I had last year. It still hasn't put out any leaves, though I notice the stems are greening up since I replanted in the raised bed outside. I added another seedling started this winter, so I'll have 2 of them if the OW catches.
 
This spring has been all over the place temperature-wise and the cold definitely hung on longer this time around. It's a great relief to finally have everything in the ground and looking healthy!

 

[SeanW]

 
We're close to what you're having for weather Sean, but the differences are mostly due to altitude I think. Tonight's supposed to get down into the mid 40s, but the rest of the week should be in the 50s. If that trend holds for the extended forecast this weekend, I'll take down the low row cover and stake up my chiles.

Yep, I said that and then the temperature literally halved. 89 degrees Monday, mid 40s on Tuesday night. We're in the 60s and 70s for the rest of the week, but the plants seem to be doing fine outside, other than the damn rabbits.

 

[HabaneroHead]

Amazing job, Rick! And they are already flowering, wow! Keep up the good work, my friend!

Balázs

 

[meatfreak]

The Costolutos are good for salads and makes an excellent basic tomato sauce I'm just wondering what you think of the Datterini since it's our big favorite over here

 

[stickman]

Yep, I said that and then the temperature literally halved. 89 degrees Monday, mid 40s on Tuesday night. We're in the 60s and 70s for the rest of the week, but the plants seem to be doing fine outside, other than the damn rabbits.

 
Well... you don't need an FID card for a pellet rifle...   I prefer spring guns for varmint control, though it rules out head shots on anything larger than a squirrel.
 

Amazing job, Rick! And they are already flowering, wow! Keep up the good work, my friend!

Balázs

 
Will do Balázs, but some of the credit goes to the seed you picked out! I'd read that the Hungarians would do well in fairly chilly conditions, and now I've seen the proof of that with this year's spring weather conditions.
 

The Costolutos are good for salads and makes an excellent basic tomato sauce I'm just wondering what you think of the Datterini since it's our big favorite over here

 
I'll be sure to let you know as soon as I get some ripe tomatoes off of each plant Stefan. I'm psyched about all 3 varieties you sent... the Costoluto, the Datterini and the Russian Plum.
 
The purple pheno Pimenta Lisa has nearly doubled in height in the last week... it really likes being outdoors. The green pheno is still struggling, though it's setting flowers. I hope it perks up when the weather finally warms up at night.

 

[SeanW]

FID? I've got an LTC-A
 
Sadly, all that gets me is things that would attract WAY too much attention if I started vanishing bunnies I'm just hoping to get some fencing up, they are cute hopping around out there, but the cuteness rapidly is overshadowed when they just massacre my garden. I saw one chewing on some weeds yesterday, I wanted to run out and say YEAH KEEP THAT UP. I don't mind when they eat the dandelions and clover. My lot is way too small, with direct line of sight to my porch from my neighbors though, so I'd have to be pretty sneaky if I wanted to start picking them off. I'm also hoping that when I clear out my back yard jungle, it'll give them less cover and the hawks and coyotes will have a field day. 

 

[annie57]

Glad to see the babies in ground! Nice thick stems, Rick! Some beasties too. I think "branchy" Douglah may surprise and if it takes off, wow! Mr. Naga is big boy!
 
That watering method, did you leave tops on bottles and drill holes in or just take off?
 
Everything flowering after days in 90+, nights in 70's here but NOW we get some mid-40's few days . . . flowers will drop but . . . like TripJ, I feel safe with mid-40's : : . Lookin' good, Rick!

 

[stickman]

FID? I've got an LTC-A
 
Sadly, all that gets me is things that would attract WAY too much attention if I started vanishing bunnies I'm just hoping to get some fencing up, they are cute hopping around out there, but the cuteness rapidly is overshadowed when they just massacre my garden. I saw one chewing on some weeds yesterday, I wanted to run out and say YEAH KEEP THAT UP. I don't mind when they eat the dandelions and clover. My lot is way too small, with direct line of sight to my porch from my neighbors though, so I'd have to be pretty sneaky if I wanted to start picking them off. I'm also hoping that when I clear out my back yard jungle, it'll give them less cover and the hawks and coyotes will have a field day. 

 
Heck, you don't need an AK or a 9 to take down a rabbit... .177 pellet will do the job just fine if you're accurate with it, and it doesn't make any more noise than a popped balloon. If the neighbors have a problem with you shooting "Thumper", just set up a "blind" by opening a window and placing your rest well inside the room with a clear view of the target area. Someone to keep an eye out for the neighbors while you focus on aiming point would help too...  just like Fallujah... just make sure you don't take the shot if there's the possibility of stray rounds.     But perhaps you're wisest to clear out the cover in the back yard so nature can take its course...
 

Glad to see the babies in ground! Nice thick stems, Rick! Some beasties too. I think "branchy" Douglah may surprise and if it takes off, wow! Mr. Naga is big boy!
 
That watering method, did you leave tops on bottles and drill holes in or just take off?
 
Everything flowering after days in 90+, nights in 70's here but NOW we get some mid-40's few days . . . flowers will drop but . . . like TripJ, I feel safe with mid-40's : : . Lookin' good, Rick!

 
Thanks for the good vibe Miz Annie!   We're supposed to get a slow, soaking rain with overnights in the 50s over the next few days, so I took off the sheet poly from the low row covers until it cools off again... maybe on Sunday night. Everything looks better after a natural rain!
 
I just remove the caps from the water bottles before burying them... I'll always go for the easiest solution I can.

 

[annie57]

Thanks for that info, Rick on the caps. I got two liters plenty . . . but might give those to cukes--hot water at night over next couple days??? (Peppers will prob do okay here with sudden night dips . . . the weather's always "greener" on the other side.) I believe Thich Nhat Hanh wrote (paraphrase), "love of the irregular is the sign of true quest of freedom." And David Gates . . ."freedom, keep talkin, keep on ya toes and don stop talkin bout . . ."
 
Couldn't resist that one (these youngsters need to understand some good music!). Why was that song smart? 2 minutes (not) long. Great beat, lyrics, and had to play it again and again because it was so short. Contrasted with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" . . . but stoned and a drummer around . . . maybe got more than one long play . . . yeah. Have great rest of week and hope temps are good to you!

 

[stickman]

I think the soil prep before plant-out is starting to do its job... When I first transplanted the Aji Limon plants, they were very yellow, but are greening up nicely like the rest of pepper row.

 
A few pics of the Hungarians buds and flowers...

 
One of the Sweet Paprikas already has a few pods on it!

 
cmpman's Dilley Street Tamworks have blossoms coming in too

 
Here's the pics of the Datterinis and Russian Plum tomatoes Stefan... the smaller plants at the bottom of the pic are the Datterinis.

 

[stickman]

They're predicting 2 inches of rain between today and tomorrow afternoon, so to give the seedlings the biggest boost possible I gave them a drink of diluted fish emulsion and sugar beet molasses this morning. I figure between the natural rain and that shot of nutes I should see a big jump in growth in the next week or so... I just need to make sure the plants don't get beat up, so the seedlings that don't have thick stems all get a bamboo skewer for support.
 
TGIF all!

 

[meatfreak]

Thanks for the picture, Rick. Although they are smaller, they will catch up very quickly. It's a very vigorous grower, they were the smallest over here as well when I planted them out but now they are the tallest and loaded with flowers. Have a good weekend!

 

[Devv]

Looking good Rick!
 
Glad to hear some nice Ma Nature coming your way too!
 
The Sweet Paprika was my first plant to pod as well.
 
Have a great weekend!

 

[stickman]

Thanks for that info, Rick on the caps. I got two liters plenty . . . but might give those to cukes--hot water at night over next couple days??? (Peppers will prob do okay here with sudden night dips . . . the weather's always "greener" on the other side.) I believe Thich Nhat Hanh wrote (paraphrase), "love of the irregular is the sign of true quest of freedom." And David Gates . . ."freedom, keep talkin, keep on ya toes and don stop talkin bout . . ."
 
Couldn't resist that one (these youngsters need to understand some good music!). Why was that song smart? 2 minutes (not) long. Great beat, lyrics, and had to play it again and again because it was so short. Contrasted with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" . . . but stoned and a drummer around . . . maybe got more than one long play . . . yeah. Have great rest of week and hope temps are good to you!

Thanks Annie... you too!
 
I have to admit... I had to look up David Gates on wiki. Bread wasn't something I listened to much back in the day... I was involved in a 40 watt high school radio station when I was taking classes there. My ;yearbook photo was taken in the studio.

WTHS then, and now called WTBR in Pittsfield. The studio was a small room in the back of the library and we had some older equipment that was donated by local commercial stations when they upgraded. In all, there were about 30 kids that took part while I was there. We got the money for the gear we had to buy ourselves by doing bake sales, car washes and similar, went to the FCC office in Boston to take our 3rd class radio operator's licenses and wrote letters to the record companies asking for promo albums so we'd have content. I loved diving into the record library and got some pretty wide exposure to lots of different genres and artists. I could listen to pop anytime, so I concentrated on the stuff that didn't get much airplay at the time. That's how I found Thin Lizzie, Rush, Jethro Tull, Foghat, The Clash, Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. I never cared much for Nashville-style Country Music, but made an exception for Johnny Hartford and John Prine. I took a liking to the British Folk that came out about then too. Bands like Steeleye Span, The Chieftains, The Bothy Band, Sweeny's Men, etc. Some folks are just in a class by themselves, like Jeff Beck, Leo Kottke, Sonny Landreth, Derek Trucks, Robben Ford and Jesse Cook... it's all grist for the mill.

Thanks for the picture, Rick. Although they are smaller, they will catch up very quickly. It's a very vigorous grower, they were the smallest over here as well when I planted them out but now they are the tallest and loaded with flowers. Have a good weekend!

 
Good to know Stefan, thanks!
 

Looking good Rick!
 
Glad to hear some nice Ma Nature coming your way too!
 
The Sweet Paprika was my first plant to pod as well.
 
Have a great weekend!

 
Thanks Scott! The weather is still predicted to go back and forth for the next week or so, but the daytime highs and night-time lows are slowlhy moving up the scale.

 

[Devv]

Good lord, Bread! That's some old stuff, just a bit before my time. But I had a few 8 tracks back in the day, was a good play on a date

 

[JJJessee]

^5 Rick, Looks sweet. A lot of work getting everything in place.
 
Your Tansy looks like a modern cultivar and it should stay put in that tile.
I grew the plain old Tanacetum vulgare.  I loved the smell of it.
 
I'm with Louren, I wanna see that N King Ramp. It. Up.
 
Good work up there in MA.

 

[stickman]

Good lord, Bread! That's some old stuff, just a bit before my time. But I had a few 8 tracks back in the day, was a good play on a date

 
Heck, I was 4 years old when the Beatles made their first trip to America. It would have been off my radar then, but our neighbors had a teenage son who played the electric guitar, and I'd hear him practicing, and playing the rock music stations from Albany. I may be an old dog, but I can still bury a bone...

^5 Rick, Looks sweet. A lot of work getting everything in place.
 
Your Tansy looks like a modern cultivar and it should stay put in that tile.
I grew the plain old Tanacetum vulgare.  I loved the smell of it.
 
I'm with Louren, I wanna see that N King Ramp. It. Up.
 
Good work up there in MA.

 
Thanks JJJ... According to the seed packet from Baker Creek, Tanacetum Vulgare is what I planted. I started the seeds indoors under lights in March and they got a little crowded in the pot I had them in. That's probably why they look different to you. Once the rain and the nutes kick in they should look more normal.