Stickman's 2016 Gochu Glog- Transplanting is Finished

Datil · May 27, 2016

All plants look great and ready to takeoff!
Being a bhut addict I've grown the 'ancestor' Lotah Bih and loved it (nice taste, very nice kick), i remember also the BIG leaves:

too bad it was a late and moderate producer for me so a lotah x pequin cross would be killer!

Good luck

Datil

stickman · May 27, 2016

Datil said:
All plants look great and ready to takeoff!
Being a bhut addict I've grown the 'ancestor' Lotah Bih and loved it (nice taste, very nice kick), i remember also the BIG leaves:

too bad it was a late and moderate producer for me so a lotah x pequin cross would be killer!

Good luck

Datil

Cheers Datil, and welcome to the zoo! It's too late this season to start Lotah Bih seeds, but it shouldn't be too hard to find a Frutascens seedling somewhere local to experiment with a Pequin cross, then next year I could go for the real thing. You know how it is with Chileheads... there's always room for one more plant somewhere. Lol!

Devv · May 27, 2016

stickman said:
Cheers Scott, that's my hope as well. I've been trying to get the prep done so things can go into the ground quickly. It's been hot and dry here the last week and our sandy soil is like sugar for consistency. I'll give it a good soaking tonight, and again tomorrow morning before planting to try to minimize transplant shock. We have afternoon thundershowers forecast for the whole three-day weekend, so it seems we're jumping from April to July in one go! At least it should keep the ground moist enough for the transplants to get settled in.

Yeah, this spring has been way different with the El Nino showing it face. For us here it's been a real blessing; the lakes and aquifers are happy again, and so am I. I've watered just a few times and half the time was with stored rain water. I have 300 gallons stashed and still no need to water as the garden holds moisture really well now. Your sandy soil is probably a blessing up your way, as the weather is cooler, and heavy soil could cause issues. The only downside is the nutes tend to leach more readily. I don't know if you have noticed this, but before I added heavy soil to my garden, the sand always made its way back on top of the amendments. I could add, and add, and the goodies just went down. Now that I have the "right" (for me) balance of "dirt" the amendments stay better. I can now push a 3/8" piece of rebar by hand almost 18"s deep before it stops in moist soil. Finally, after forever adding goodies.

Have you thought about biochar? I made my own several years ago, I added 3"s over 2,500 square feet. Read up on Terra Preta. You know how charcoal traps impurities, well in a garden it traps and stores the nutes and helps with leaching. I did an experiment and it does make a huge difference. In the Amazon they say...farmers have farmed the same land for 40 years and it's still fertile.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your garden. that's what it's all about

randyp · May 28, 2016

Careful today Rick.Record heat may be upon you buddy.

stickman · May 28, 2016

Devv said:
Yeah, this spring has been way different with the El Nino showing it face. For us here it's been a real blessing; the lakes and aquifers are happy again, and so am I. I've watered just a few times and half the time was with stored rain water. I have 300 gallons stashed and still no need to water as the garden holds moisture really well now. Your sandy soil is probably a blessing up your way, as the weather is cooler, and heavy soil could cause issues. The only downside is the nutes tend to leach more readily. I don't know if you have noticed this, but before I added heavy soil to my garden, the sand always made its way back on top of the amendments. I could add, and add, and the goodies just went down. Now that I have the "right" (for me) balance of "dirt" the amendments stay better. I can now push a 3/8" piece of rebar by hand almost 18"s deep before it stops in moist soil. Finally, after forever adding goodies.

Have you thought about biochar? I made my own several years ago, I added 3"s over 2,500 square feet. Read up on Terra Preta. You know how charcoal traps impurities, well in a garden it traps and stores the nutes and helps with leaching. I did an experiment and it does make a huge difference. In the Amazon they say...farmers have farmed the same land for 40 years and it's still fertile.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your garden. that's what it's all about

I don't think heavy soil is an issue here either. My Mom has heavy clay soil in her gardens and has been adding compost for the last 50 years. You should see what she grows in them! I will say that she doesn't over-winter anything, but that may be because her neighbor ploughs and harrows it for her every Fall. She also has soil that's rich in Calcium and Magnesium from the Dolomitic Limestone underneath, but the abundant rainwater we have here added to all the Tannic and Humic acids in the compost buffer it nicely to a neutral pH. Conditions here in the Connecticut River valley are very different. We have very sandy soil that was heavily farmed up until about 20 years ago. There was only about 2 inches of humus on top and it was heavily de-mineralized... very poor soil. I add compost every year to increase water and nute retention, and natural amendments like rock Phosphate and Azomite to make up for deficiencies. My Mom has a neighbor who makes his own bio-char for his vegetable garden, but he doesn't get as good results as she does, so I haven't been sold on it for my garden up to now but I'll have to read up on it and re-assess. Thanks for the tip!

I've never noticed sand working its way back up to the surface, but up to now I've spaded in my compost when I added it to the garden so it's been stirred up every spring. This year I'm planning on just applying compost as a top dressing so it doubles as mulch. It'll be interesting to see if the sand does work its way back up to the surface next spring. Cheers Scott!

randyp said:
Careful today Rick.Record heat may be upon you buddy.

Yup... 94 degrees predicted for today. I was just checking my glog before heading out to transplant this morning. Got to get everything done early before it starts to "het up".

stickman · May 28, 2016

Gee Scott... you must have powers of prescience granted by some dark god... Lol! I went to the operation where I get compost here in town and they have compost mixed with biochar for sale starting today. It's in a ratio of 2 parts compost to 1 part biochar. I only needed half a yard to finish filling my last raised bed, so I used the biochar mix to try out this season. Talking with the guy I bought it from, he says he's getting the char from a biomass plant in New Hampshire that only burns hardwood. He thought it might acidify the soil a bit so I'll have to test the pH before I plant in it, but that's not much of a delay and it's only the one raised bed.

OCD Chilehead · May 28, 2016

Good luck with the biochar Rick

Stay hydrated. That's pretty drastic temp from night to day. That's how my weather will be soon.

stickman · May 28, 2016

OCD Chilehead said:
Good luck with the biochar Rick

Stay hydrated. That's pretty drastic temp from night to day. That's how my weather will be soon.

S'right brother... It's not quite noon and the temperature's almost at 90 degrees. I got the last of the drip tape installed under the mulch and gave the garden a good long drink of water... the meter I have on the line says I used 244 gallons. I think I'll wait until it cools down a bit this afternoon to do the transplanting to minimize shock to the seedlings... :liar

:

I've gotta say... the mini-split we had installed a few weeks ago is really coming into its own now! Coming inside after working in the sun all morning was heaven! :halo:

OCD Chilehead · May 28, 2016

stickman said:
S'right brother... It's not quite noon and the temperature's almost at 90 degrees. I got the last of the drip tape installed under the mulch and gave the garden a good long drink of water... the meter I have on the line says I used 244 gallons. I think I'll wait until it cools down a bit this afternoon to do the transplanting to minimize shock to the seedlings... :

I've gotta say... the mini-split we had installed a few weeks ago is really coming into its own now! Coming inside after working in the sun all morning was heaven!

I'll look into a meter. It would be nice to see how much water I actually use. Not bad right now, but in a few weeks, it's going to hit your temps. One advantage ti the clay, is that it does hold water well. Haha

I'm doing the same now. Me and the boy are gong to eat something and relax until later. Only 82, but feels dang hot in the sun. Hottest it's been yet this year.

stickman · May 28, 2016

OCD Chilehead said:
I'll look into a meter. It would be nice to see how much water I actually use. Not bad right now, but in a few weeks, it's going to hit your temps. One advantage ti the clay, is that it does hold water well. Haha

I'm doing the same now. Me and the boy are gong to eat something and relax until later. Only 82, but feels dang hot in the sun. Hottest it's been yet this year.

At a cost of $20 plus shipping, this was a bargain! The P3 International- P0550 "Save-A-Drop" water meter http://www.p3international.com/sitemap.html

Customer service was good as well. The first one I ordered didn't work properly. When I contacted customer support they sent me another at no charge. There's no cover for the buttons on the face though, so I'd recommend logging daily entries in a notebook because it's too easy to hit the wrong button and zero out the meter reading.

tctenten · May 28, 2016

I know you know what you are doing, but the 90f heat today had sone of my plants wilting a bit. They were transplanted a few weeks ago. This weather is crazy this spring. Good luck if you plant them this afternoon.

stickman · May 28, 2016

tctenten said:
I know you know what you are doing, but the 90f heat today had sone of my plants wilting a bit. They were transplanted a few weeks ago. This weather is crazy this spring. Good luck if you plant them this afternoon.

When you're right, you're right Terry... it's still 93 degrees at 6:30 pm and my wife and I are going out dancing tonight, so I'm gonna put off transplanting until early tomorrow morning. At least the prep work is all done and they should go in fairly quickly then. Tomorrow's forecast calls for a high of upper 80s, with clouds and possible thundershowers in the afternoon to water them all in. :dance:

Devv · May 28, 2016

I find it very interesting that I mention biochar and you find it the next day

I'm sure it will hog resources until it's saturated, so beware of that. I tilled mine in after the crop the first year, and added composted materials. My experiment was with sweet corn. The treated area received half the nutes and half the water and out performed the plot in the untreated soil. Your results may vary

One thing it won't do is any damage. I wish I could find a source here; I made my own, and it was time consuming.

93° is crazy for up your way this time of year! We've barely touched that mark so far, and our 10 day forecast is for highs of 85-90 through out the week, a chance of rain every day. I'll take it!

Have a blast tonight on your night out!

stickman · May 29, 2016

Devv said:
I find it very interesting that I mention biochar and you find it the next day

I'm sure it will hog resources until it's saturated, so beware of that. I tilled mine in after the crop the first year, and added composted materials. My experiment was with sweet corn. The treated area received half the nutesnd half the water and out performed the plot in the untreated soil. Your results may vary One thing it won't do is any damage. I wish I could find a source here; I made my own, and it was time consuming.

93° is crazy for up your way this time of year! We've barely touched that mark so far, and our 10 day forecast is for highs of 85-90 through out the week, a chance of rain every day. I'll take it!

Have a blast tonight on your night out!

interesting... yeah...

Thanks for the heads-up on the initial nutrient-hogging. It makes sense that a dry sponge will soak up a lot until saturated. The source for the biochar was a biomass plant in New Hampshire. Do you have any plants like that down your way? Even if they burn cutoff ends of lumber and old pallets the char should be good for agricultural use if they kept other construction debris out of it.

We had a great time out dancing last night! We met at the "Contra" dances over 20 years ago, and still like to go when we can. Afterwards we got some ice cream cones and called it a night, old fogies that we are...

Trident chilli · May 29, 2016

Dancing in those temperatures I would need a bucket rather than a cone .... always great to pop in and read your news Rick

stickman · May 29, 2016

Trident chilli said:
Dancing in those temperatures I would need a bucket rather than a cone .... always great to pop in and read your news Rick

Cheers John! We may be older, but we ain't dead...

It was cloudy and relatively cool this morning, great for transplanting! First load... 41 Gochu peppers...

... second load... Tomatoes, Basil, Eggplants, Jalapenos, Pequins and NuMex Annuums...

The El Jefe Jalapeno comes with pods already set

Jalafuego Jalapeno is flowering too

Raised bed out back with Lima Market Red Rocoto, King Nagas, Bhuts, MoA Scotch Bonnets, A Moruga and one of Chuck's Aji Pineapple

One of the Bonnets already has a flower

The King Nagas dropped all their lower leaves due to stress in the grow box, but the crown has forked and new axillary growth is popping out on the sides of the stems... lots of branches later! One has also started budding, but I'll pinch the blossoms to give the plant a chance to grow vegetatively before I let it set pods.

That's it for now. More later. Cheers all!

stickman · May 29, 2016

Hi all, a few more pics from today.

The Lima Market Red Rocoto after a haircut. Looking a little forlorn ATM, but will no doubt perk up with a little lovin'.

Both Bhuts look about like this

The Moruga I came across at a local Nursery and couldn't walk away from...

Chuck, your Aji Pineapples have all perked up after nearly a week hardening off, and look pretty much like this. I found planting room for 3 of them and gave the fourth to a good home.

Lastly, a couple of "Non" pics from the Mock Orange bush in our back yard. It's just beginning to shift into high gear, flowering-wise, and the smell is intoxicating.

That's all for today... hope you all had a productive Sunday. Cheers!

OCD Chilehead · May 29, 2016

Woohoo!!! Transplanting is done. Congrats Rick.

Now, I'll pray to the chile goddess to do her thang for ya.

I was wishing to post the same news. Back has been weak the past couple days. Going to recover and hit hard Tuesday. Took the boy fishing instead.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend as well.

Datil · May 29, 2016

Great job!

Datil

stickman · May 29, 2016

OCD Chilehead said:
Woohoo!!! Transplanting is done. Congrats Rick.

Now, I'll pray to the chile goddess to do her thang for ya.

I was wishing to post the same news. Back has been weak the past couple days. Going to recover and hit hard Tuesday. Took the boy fishing instead.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend as well.

Thanks Chuck. Take care of your back... you'll miss it when it's gone.

When it comes right down to it, your son's more important than a few plants too, so it's not playing hookey when you take him fishing.

Datil said:
Great job!

Datil

Cheers Datil!