Stupid Jerk's stupid grow log for jerks

I think it is safe to say that my girlfriend now regrets bringing home a cayenne plant this July. It sparked an interest in me that has lead me to spend countless hours reading about gardening, filling the windows and balcony with plants and seedlings, purchasing a grow light, and ultimately joining a community garden. I've decided it is time I start documenting my journey.

Grow list:
7 Pot Congo Yellow (Denniz)
7 Pot Douglah
7 Pot Jonah (Denniz)
7 Pot Primo (socalchilehead)
7 Pot Red (Denniz)
7 Pot SR Congo (socalchilehead)
7 Pot Yellow
Bahamian Goat Pepper (socalchilehead)
Biker Billy Jalapeno (ajijoe)
Black Pearl
Black Cobra (smokemaster)
Bhut Jolokia
Butch T (Denniz)
Butch T x Douglah (Denniz)
Carolina Reaper
Cherry
Chile Tepin (socalchilehead)
Chocolate Bhut Jolokia
Chocolate Bhut x Yellow 7 pot (socalchilehead)
Chocolate Habanero (ajijoe)
Datil
Fatalii
Fresno (Grocery Store Pod)
Jamaican Hot Chocolate (Pogeys)
Morouga Scorpion (Denniz)
Purple Jalapeno
Red Habanero
Scotch Bonnet (Turns out to be an Anuum, so we'll call these Notch Bonnets)
Scotch Bonnet Foodorama (socalchilehead)
Scotch Bonnet Tobago Yellow (socalchilehead)
Scotch Bonnet Tobago Red (socalchilehead)
Surprise Hot Mix (ajijoe)
Thai (Grocery Store Pod)
White Bullet
Yellow Brainstrain (Denniz)



These are plants that I have obtained as adults:

Aji Yellow (smokemaster)
Habanero (home depot)
Peach Bhut (smokemaster)
White Pearl (smokemaster)
Yellow 7 Pot (smokemaster)

I have a limited amount of space, so most varieties will only have one plant in the ground.

Here is a before picture of the garden:

It's a 400 sq foot plot and over half of it was filled with nutsedge. I have since pulled out the nutsedge and hopefully most of the roots. Filled a massive wheelbarrow with all that I pulled out. I tried eating one of the tubers because I read they were edible, but I wouldn't recommend it. It was the consistancy of an almond, but the taste of a dirty pine needle. Maybe they are good roasted.


Growing in the ground is going to be a new adventure that I am no way prepared for. I suppose I need to do a soil test before I attempt to amend the soil. Completely organic is the plan, but I've seen a few tiny green balls in the soil, and as far as I know that means slow release Miracle Gro. On the positive side(I think?) there is a bark mulch that is mixed through the entire garden that has started breaking down throughout. You can see some of it near the pavement in the first picture. Not sure what kind of wood it is.

If anyone has any advice, feel free to chime in. I built a fence with 2x8's around the bottom. I plan on having a 2' wide 8" raised bed around the perimeter along with 3 raised beds in the center. The ones in the center may have to wait a while unless I find someone getting rid of some wood. In the mean time I plan on just mounding the ground up in those areas. I see a lot of my neighbors still have chili plants with ripe or ripening pods on them, but I think I'm waiting until mid January to early February to plant them out.(edit: planted out in March) It hasn't frosted since I moved here, but I supposed it is possible.(edit: It happened this year)

 

[StupidJerk]

Boooo on the cucumber beetle ID. I should have crushed it when I had the chance.

 

[Devv]

Everything's looking good! First harvest, flowers and pods, can't beat that

 

[StupidJerk]

I hope there aren't too many more days like this coming Monday before I get pods set.

 

[Devv]

I'm in the same boat, started way too late (you didn't), but then there's fall harvest..

 

[DesertChris]

It doesn't really stay hot consistently until July....normally... so hopefully there will be plenty of time for pods to set
Then the plants can put their energy into growing into monsters during the summer, and set a huge amount of pods for the fall

 

[StupidJerk]

I got a top mulch of wood chips and pine needles over everything, so watering will be less complicated now. The mulched stuff before I only ever had to water once a week, but the stuff without the wood top mulch I had to water every few days. I don't know about you guys, but to me there is nothing like sticking my finger into a bed on a dry 95-degree day and feeling cool wet soil. I know the heat will catch up eventually, but I think the thick mulch will buy me some time.

A couple of the pod covered anuums are starting to turn red. A few of the mysteries are becoming not so mysterious. Those Scotch Bonnets are starting to take shape and now I'm more confused than ever. The leaves look anuum to me, but the pod is pretty gnarly looking. It looks like it's probably going to have some heat.

Not what I expected the pods to look like.
Any guesses on what it is?

Nearly everything is flowering at this point, other than the 4 chinenses I haven't put into the ground yet. Those guys are still getting used to the full sun.

Flowering Chocolate Bhut. There is some kind of bug on it, not sure what it is.

Overwinter Hab flowering. I know what kind of bug that is.

Flowering Douglah

No idea what this is. Maybe a Fatalii? It also flowers.

The Reaper? Flowers.

Flowering Yellow 7 Pot x Chocolate Bhut.

This thing has been constantly flowering for over a month now:

Sunflowering.

Well, almost sunflowering. The Sunflowers on the west side of my garden are there to help shade from the afternoon sun during the hottest days of the summer.

Things are starting to pick up. Since I only get to the garden every about every 3 days, changes tend to be noticeable. The jumps in size are getting bigger every week. Now I usually spend the first 15 minutes I'm there staring at everything and admiring the changes.

 

[WalkGood]

Carson, killa first harvest mon, I’m sure there’s many more to come … dat chocolate hab looks like it’s going to be a monster! Every ting looking outta dis world, lacewing eggs, mantis should help out loads. Not sure about the beetle you showed but the brown ones here eat leaves and our lizards eat them so I don’t fret much with the beetles. Keep dat awesome grow going mon!

 

[Devv]

We definitely got flowers going on here! Reaper, Douglah, and 7 pot...Time for payday.

It won't be long before you're rolling in pods.

Plants look great!

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

Nice results of your hard labor. Soon you'll really feel the heat. I have no idea what that NOT bonnet is. Keep cool buddy

 

[StupidJerk]

Carson, killa first harvest mon, I’m sure there’s many more to come … dat chocolate hab looks like it’s going to be a monster! Every ting looking outta dis world, lacewing eggs, mantis should help out loads. Not sure about the beetle you showed but the brown ones here eat leaves and our lizards eat them so I don’t fret much with the beetles. Keep dat awesome grow going mon!

Beetle turned out to be a cucumber beetle according to Shane. Bad guy, but I have only ever seen that one.

Thanks for stopping by.

We definitely got flowers going on here! Reaper, Douglah, and 7 pot...Time for payday.

It won't be long before you're rolling in pods.

Plants look great!

Thanks! A couple more day of >100 temps. After that maybe I can get a little pod set.

Nice results of your hard labor. Soon you'll really feel the heat. I have no idea what that NOT bonnet is. Keep cool buddy

Thanks. I have it set up now where there isn't going to be a lot more work other than planting, weeding, and harvesting. I just plan on adding top mulch every year and seeing where that takes me. Once I get a place with a yard I guess it all starts over.

 

[Trippa]

Looking top notch!! How do you find the Amendments are treating you after all the ground work you put in early in the year?? Looks like they are paying off to me. Any problems as yet?

 

[stc3248]

Damn Carson, you're killing it! Well...not the plants. Hard to tell...but that top bug may be an assassin this time. Your mystery...maybe an anaheim or poblano??? I dunno, but it looks cool so far!

 

[StupidJerk]

Looking top notch!! How do you find the Amendments are treating you after all the ground work you put in early in the year?? Looks like they are paying off to me. Any problems as yet?

Treating me great, thanks for the info early on! I am really liking the wood chips as a top mulch. Most of the people around me are out at their plot watering their bare soil every day. I come and water once or twice a week and my plants never look too thirsty. It's pretty awesome sticking my finger down through the woodchips on a day when it is 103f/39c and feeling cool wet earth. My only big concern right now is the amount of red woodchips that were in my garden before I took it over. They are partially decomposed and are mixed throughout all of the soil. I haven't had any problems yet, but I am wondering if I'll see some nitrogen lock out at some point. Maybe the manure and mushroom compost is taking care of it. I've been giving everything some fish emulsion once every month or so and seaweed extract at about the same rate, I guess I'll increase the fish emulsion if I see any signs of nitrogen deficiency.

Damn Carson, you're killing it! Well...not the plants. Hard to tell...but that top bug may be an assassin this time. Your mystery...maybe an anaheim or poblano??? I dunno, but it looks cool so far!

That's what I thought when I saw it, so I left it be. Honestly, leaving it be has giving me the best results so far. I squish aphids and hoppers if I see them, but for the most part the predators take everything out.

 

[StupidJerk]

So it's time to give an update on the homeschool weirdos. These are the ones I didn't have room for in the garden or decided to keep home for one reason or another.

The Black Cobra on my balcony is now about 3 feet tall and still no flowers.

Some of the lower leaves look bad, but I think they are just covered in pollen from something nearby. Everything on my balcony was covered in it at one point. I took some of the smaller plants and washed them off in the shower. Maybe I'll wait until evening and wipe the leaves down on this guy. I don't have a way of spraying it with anything high pressure on the balcony and it is way to big to lug in and out.

This is that "Yellow Brainstrain" that split at the cotyledons. I'm thinking now that it is not a brainstrain, but some kind of anuum that I mislabeled. It's from the batch where I pulled a few jiffy pellets out of their tray to pot up and quickly forgot which ones I grabbed. I thought I straightened most of it out, but I guess not.

There is also this Butch T that I topped on 4/28

It exploded with growth, but then it got invaded by thrips, so I put it outside. This is the first pest problem I've had inside. Not happy about it.

 

[stc3248]

Looking freaking fantastic SJ! Those lower leaves do that as they age some will yellow and drop, completely normal!

 

[Devv]

I agree, looking very good!

 

[StupidJerk]

I just measured the Black Cobra at 34". Not Quite 3', but it will be by the time the weekend gets here.

 

[DesertChris]

Nice updates
Plants are looking awesome!

 

[StupidJerk]

I noticed a bit of a problem with thrips in my garden, so I purchased and set out 1,000 green lacewing eggs. I noticed a bit of a slow down in the number of beneficial insects, so I decided to go ahead and help nature out a bit. If you notice little white bags next to the plants, those have the eggs in them.

I still can't figure out why some of my upper leaves are on the small side and slightly yellow, while the lower ones come out big and orange. I've been feeding fish ferts because I'm starting to think it might be a nitrogen deficiency caused by the wood chips of the former person in the garden are mixed in with the soil. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Exhibit A:

Here is a full view of one of my chocolate bhut plants:

Here are some upper leaves:

And some lower leaves:

Notice how the upper leaves are partly yellow, look a little thicker, and are smaller? The new growth on the bottom is large and green. Anyone know what it could be? I mixed bonemeal with the beds, so I don't think is is calcium. Could it just be sun scald? Maybe effects from a past overwatering? An insect? Any guesses would be great!

I guess I'll post a few group shots while I'm here.

This is the western half of bed 1. The east and west are blocked by a wall of tomatoes. I think I put those tomatoes in this bed originally because they needed to go in the ground and it was the only one prepared. I justified it by convincing myself that the tomatoes would shade the peppers in the hottest months. Also in this bed, as with the rest of them, I have onions planted around randomly. The person here before me said she had a lot of gopher problems. I haven't seen any problems yet, so maybe the onions are working.
Starting in the upper left going clockwise: Datil, Jamaican Hot Chocolate, Purple Jalapeno, Fatalii, Chocolate Bhut, Notch Bonnet.

I took a picture of the eastern side, but the light difference was so vast from the tomato shade that part of it is blown out.

Here is bed 2. Clockwise from bottom left: Unknown/lost label, Chocolate Bhut, Douglah, Yellow 7 Pot x Chocolate Bhut, Yellow Brainstrain, Red Hab.

And here is bed 3. Clockwise starting top right 7 Pot Jonah, 7 Pot Congo SR Gigantic, Prik Ne Suan(For Growdown), Lock's Reaper(THP user Lock203 sent some members fresh reaper pods that were red and smooth. I am growing out one of the seeds), Congo Yellow, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Butch T, Bahamian Goat Pepper, Red Rocoto, Biker Billy Jalapeno, 7 Pot Red. There is also a Primo I transplanted today after I took the picture.

I think I was suffering from heat stroke when I built this planted out this bed. I should have made it wider and lower, but mistakes happen. At least I'll get to see first hand what actual intense crowding looks like.

I have a few other peppers along the perimeter, mostly high yielding annuals. My thought is that if someone wants to steal some peppers, they'll just take from those on the outside instead of breaking into my locked garden. I realized I had one more spot I could put an anuum, and when I saw this at the nursery for $1.99 I couldn't pass it up.

Now you don't have to hear me whine about my Black Cobra not being in the ground.


This Thai on the perimeter is putting out upward facing pods. If the seeds aren't from the same pod planted that had downward facing pods, they were at least bought out of the same produce bin. I guess you never really know what you'll get when you grow out grocery store pods.

I still don't know what this is. I can't remember anything about this plant other than it wasn't labeled when I put it in the ground. Maybe Serranos? I don't think I planted any of those, but it is possible.

These guys are turning red. Can't wait to pull them off and let this plant have a growth spurt.

Thanks for reading! Please chime in about the yellow tops.

 

[stc3248]

Second to last pic looks to be a thick cayenne variety or maybe a Jimmy Nardello. Your leaf issue is probably just sunburn still happening on a few leaves...pay attention and if the color is worse on areas most exposed that's probably it. The difference in leaf size is normal too. Now that they're getting full sun, they will no longer put out the huge leaves they did when indoors or in more shade. The large leaves will start to ugly up from the wind and sun, then I just pinch them off. I don't see anything much to worry about in your pics...you may be overwatering just a tad, (I am too, just can't get it right this year!) but the weather will adjust that for you soon enough.
 
Looking real good overall, don't sweat the small stuff!