Sorry 'bout the glitch... still learning how to use my new "smart" phone. Sometimes it seems like it's smarter than me... 
Stickman's 2017 Minimalist Glog
- Thread starter stickman
- Start date
Rick,
I added heavy soil to my grow area for the exact reason you just mentioned. The sand ate all goodies I put in. It was like the sand rose to the top over the winter. The soil I added was REALLY heavy. I added about 3.5"s on top and tilled it under, deeply to an 8" depth. That did the trick!
Nice update! Plants are a chuggin'! Not liking the white either!
I added heavy soil to my grow area for the exact reason you just mentioned. The sand ate all goodies I put in. It was like the sand rose to the top over the winter. The soil I added was REALLY heavy. I added about 3.5"s on top and tilled it under, deeply to an 8" depth. That did the trick!
Nice update! Plants are a chuggin'! Not liking the white either!
Devv said:
Cool! What do you mean by heavy soil Scott... does it have lots of clay in it? I've definitely gotta thank you for putting me onto biochar. It's the perfect amendment to add to our soil to help it retain water and nutes, and it's economical too. I read somewhere that humus only lasts a few years at most in soil like ours, but the biochar lasts 80-100 years per application, so the humus goes further when mixed with the biochar.
Datil said:Jeez what's all that snow Rick?!?
We had about 74F today which is pretty impressive in March...
You got a pretty compact final list of varieties, i should end with similar nummbers but i have 3x that in seedling form atm
I hope to gift a lot to good homes
Fab
I know, winter's supposed to be over, right?
Giancarlo has been posting a lot of snowy pics of his corner of Italy up in the Alps... if it's as warm where he is I don't reckon it'll last long. 
I'll be watching to see what you end up keeping. Boy, we begin the season knowing we need to sow more seeds than we'll end up transplanting, but it doesn't make it any easier deciding which plants get culled. Good on ya for finding homes for them instead of dropping them in the compost. 
Speaking of humus and compost... I came across this download-able Ebook on growing cover crops to add humus to the soil in a no-till garden at this free book website. http://mevaobep.com/freebooks/homegrown-humus-cover-crops-in-a-no-till-garden
I loaded a copy onto my computer to read, and I plan on using what I learn in the garden this year.
Hi folks!
Things were moving slowly enough in the grow box down cellar that I brought the clipped plants upstairs to give them a light and temperature boost on a south-facing windowsill with a CFL to augment the light. Upstairs we keep it at 70 degrees. Down cellar it's 55 degrees ambient and 60 degrees in the grow box when the lights are on.
Sweet peppers are beginning to put out their first true leaves
And all the Mini-Eggplants are up
Other than that, I've been reading up on cover crops, composting and re-mineralizing my garden soil. The snow we got last week is slowly melting, and we're beginning to see bare patches opening up. As soon as the ground thaws in my raised beds I've gotta take a soil sample to send to Logan Labs in Ohio to figure out my amendment schedule.
http://www.loganlabs.com/
Cheers!
Things were moving slowly enough in the grow box down cellar that I brought the clipped plants upstairs to give them a light and temperature boost on a south-facing windowsill with a CFL to augment the light. Upstairs we keep it at 70 degrees. Down cellar it's 55 degrees ambient and 60 degrees in the grow box when the lights are on.
Sweet peppers are beginning to put out their first true leaves
And all the Mini-Eggplants are up
Other than that, I've been reading up on cover crops, composting and re-mineralizing my garden soil. The snow we got last week is slowly melting, and we're beginning to see bare patches opening up. As soon as the ground thaws in my raised beds I've gotta take a soil sample to send to Logan Labs in Ohio to figure out my amendment schedule.
http://www.loganlabs.com/
Cheers!
Next year I bite the bullet and do the soil test. It's about time, it's no longer sand 
Re-mineralize, what does that entail?
By heavy soil, I mean the really nice top soil, not clay. But the sort of soil that gets sticky when it gets wet and you walk on it, you know you get taller My primary garden area is 40x40 and I'll bet I've tilled in over 100 yards of leaves, mulch, and compost over the last 6 years. It just goes away. But, I'll say this, when I plant the cover crop it comes in a nice dark green. I have about 30 gallons of char to grind up. And will cut down some dead wood to make more..
Keep building that soil! Your results show it
Re-mineralize, what does that entail?By heavy soil, I mean the really nice top soil, not clay. But the sort of soil that gets sticky when it gets wet and you walk on it, you know you get taller
My primary garden area is 40x40 and I'll bet I've tilled in over 100 yards of leaves, mulch, and compost over the last 6 years. It just goes away. But, I'll say this, when I plant the cover crop it comes in a nice dark green. I have about 30 gallons of char to grind up. And will cut down some dead wood to make more..Keep building that soil! Your results show it
Devv said:Next year I bite the bullet and do the soil test. It's about time, it's no longer sand
By heavy soil, I mean the really nice top soil, not clay. But the sort of soil that gets sticky when it gets wet and you walk on it, you know you get taller
Keep building that soil! Your results show it
Cheers Scott! This whole remineralization thing is new to me... I have a couple of clients that have a homestead, and I spent all of last year helping them out around their place. I churned butter, made kefir cheese and yogurt, helped with the butchering and housecleaning... and also helped with the sowing and transplanting of vegetables in their no-till garden, tending the plants, harvesting and processing the results. I've gotta say, I was immensely impressed by the results they got from their garden and decided to see if I could profit from using the same methods. This web page gives the basic gist of what it's about. http://bionutrient.org/news/remineralize-soil-grow-nutrient-dense-crops
If you want to get into it in more depth, this book is a good one. https://docs.google.com/document/d/19BcSNb-ogiKOhxbubZVRtcLJ-1t-V9gEa-bJ5SNpyF8/edit
I'm thinking the biochar will help with scavenging nutes and retaining water like humus, but unlike humus will last for decades in our sandy soil. Each year is yielding a better harvest than the last, but I think there's still lots of room for improvement!
Hi Folks!
It looks like moving the cropped plants upstairs where it's warmer is moving them along a bit quicker in growing out side branching.
The Piment Cabri seems to take the cropping much more easily than the others.
I brought my MoA Bonnets upstairs too so they can get more height for Dennish's Bonnet challenge.
It warmed up enough the last few days that we lost a good deal of the snow that fell last week. C'mon Spring!
It looks like moving the cropped plants upstairs where it's warmer is moving them along a bit quicker in growing out side branching.
The Piment Cabri seems to take the cropping much more easily than the others.
I brought my MoA Bonnets upstairs too so they can get more height for Dennish's Bonnet challenge.
It warmed up enough the last few days that we lost a good deal of the snow that fell last week. C'mon Spring!
Hi folks, and TGIF! It's been the usual back-and-forth dance of Spring here. The last couple of days were warm enough to melt a lot of the snow that fell last week, but it's been wet and cold today with more snow, but thankfully just a dusting. I'm noticing much quicker growth in the side branching of the plants I clipped now that they're upstairs in the living area. Compare today's pics with yesterday's and you can see it.
The last of the holdout Nightshades sprouted today, so my Hungarian Pimientos are 3/3. Speckled Roman Plum Tomatoes are 9/9, Principe Borghese Cherry Tomatoes are 4/4, Rutgers Tomatoes are 2/2 and New Girl Tomatoes are 3/3.
Mini Eggplants are beginning to grow true leaves, and so are the sweet peppers.
The Aji Oro is getting an almost perfect tree shape.
"Mutt and Jeff"... the two MoA Bonnets for the Land of Giants competition...
...And the usual other suspects.
That's all for now. Have a great weekend all!
The last of the holdout Nightshades sprouted today, so my Hungarian Pimientos are 3/3. Speckled Roman Plum Tomatoes are 9/9, Principe Borghese Cherry Tomatoes are 4/4, Rutgers Tomatoes are 2/2 and New Girl Tomatoes are 3/3.
Mini Eggplants are beginning to grow true leaves, and so are the sweet peppers.
The Aji Oro is getting an almost perfect tree shape.
"Mutt and Jeff"... the two MoA Bonnets for the Land of Giants competition...
...And the usual other suspects.
That's all for now. Have a great weekend all!
Trippa said:
I'm not re-inventing the wheel here Tristan... this is the method Jeff (Spicy Chicken) used on his Chile grow up in Wisconsin to make his plants really bushy. http://thehotpepper.com/topic/45426-spicy-chickens-mmxiv-glog-hobby-grow/page-6#entry971943
Sadly, Jeff hasn't been around in a few years, but his techique lives on.
stickman said:
I'm not re-inventing the wheel here Tristan... this is the method Jeff (Spicy Chicken) used on his Chile grow up in Wisconsin to make his plants really bushy. http://thehotpepper.com/topic/45426-spicy-chickens-mmxiv-glog-hobby-grow/page-6#entry971943
Sadly, Jeff hasn't been around in a few years, but his techique lives on.
I did take your advise and check out spicey chickens vids. Holy crow was it impressive. It is nice to see the beginning stages of the pruning method he used. I will be trying this on a couple of mine in a few weeks. In the mean time I am working on expanding my growing area a little as I am running out of space Really fast, I believe I am in zone 6a.... I still have some time before planting out. No green house this season.
Looking good, Rick! I notice you had some air pots there. How do you find them?
Good to see you using airpots Rick I used them for the first time last season and the growth in height and width on the three varieties was larger compared to the those grown in 11ltr plastic containers or the cloth pots. I also found a gravity fed dripper worked well as a lot of water was lost through the top holes when using a watering can. I didn't bottom water as the disc that holds the pot together doesn't really allow for this and any container would prevent run-off. Are you using a layer of clay balls above the disc
Blitz527 said:
Glad to see you checked it out Alex. It seem a bit counter-intuitive, but you can't argue with the results. Welcome to the club when it comes to running out of room to grow your chiles indoors. (My name is Rick, and I'm a chile-holic... )
RaelThomas said:
Like John says, I like them a lot. They're much more durable than the fabric air-pruning pots, easier to keep clean, and no root circling. I have to water a bit more frequently but I get excellent results.
Trident chilli said:
Yeah, it takes more time to top-water the Airpots, but I get around it by using a low pressure drip irrigation system and hooking it up to a hose timer. Using a 1 gallon per minute dripper for each pot, I give them 20 minutes of water 12 hours apart and it's adequate even during drought conditions.
stickman said:
Glad to see you checked it out Alex. It seem a bit counter-intuitive, but you can't argue with the results. Welcome to the club when it comes to running out of room to grow your chiles indoors. (My name is Rick, and I'm a chile-holic... )
Like John says, I like them a lot. They're much more durable than the fabric air-pruning pots, easier to keep clean, and no root circling. I have to water a bit more frequently but I get excellent results.
Yeah, it takes more time to top-water the Airpots, but I get around it by using a low pressure drip irrigation system and hooking it up to a hose timer. Using a 1 gallon per minute dripper for each pot, I give them 20 minutes of water 12 hours apart and it's adequate even during drought conditions.
Awesome. I was looking at fabric and air pots just yesterday. Sold on air pots now! I think I'll stick with DWC and flood/drain for now but good to know!
If using point emitters, I run them on top of the IRT because I have to cut holes in the plastic mulch to transplant into, and I just stake the emitters at the base of the plant and let the water drip through the hole. If using a drip hose or drip line with emitters molded in every six inches or so I run it underneath and cut my transplant holes alongside the drip line.bpiela said: