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]

Just noticed this is a wiki site. Corrected the common max height and width to 5 ft x 2 ft. Somebody could spend weeks correcting all of the info on these wikis.

Mine was taller than that before it even made it outside! Lol...I'd guess maybe too heavy on the nitrogen. Too much makes them wanna grow and not fruit. It'll find its zone and start to fruit.

Definitely possible. I keep watching the buds turn brown and fall off at each node, it's just odd because its the only plant I have that is opposed to flowering. Once it decides to fruit I'm going to have a hell of a lot of pods on there. Probably is already split in 100 ways.

Your garden plot looks fantastic, Carson.  Loved the slide show.  I really got a sense of everything filling in.  Its funny, we see our grows everyday and don't see the small changes.  But over time they obviously become big changes.  Those sunflowers grew like weeds!  You've got me thinking about growing a few of those, too...must resist...no more space...

They are certainly satisfying to grow, the multiflower ones are probably about 8 ft tall and the single flower one is about 9 when the stalk isn't bending towards the sun. I bet they are also tilling the soil deeper that about anything else you could grow, although they probably deplete a good amount of nitrogen.

 

[DocNrock]

Just noticed this is a wiki site. Corrected the common max height and width to 5 ft x 2 ft. Somebody could spend weeks correcting all of the info on these wikis.

Definitely possible. I keep watching the buds turn brown and fall off at each node, it's just odd because its the only plant I have that is opposed to flowering. Once it decides to fruit I'm going to have a hell of a lot of pods on there. Probably is already split in 100 ways.

They are certainly satisfying to grow, the multiflower ones are probably about 8 ft tall and the single flower one is about 9 when the stalk isn't bending towards the sun. I bet they are also tilling the soil deeper that about anything else you could grow, although they probably deplete a good amount of nitrogen.

It's funny you say that about the buds.  I had an Aji Panca last year that did just that.  It was my tallest plant, too.  Never made a single flower.  It must have been something about the soil, nutes or otherwise, as I took some cuttings from it and the cutting flowered and is podded up. 
 
I broke down and got some sunflower seeds for the single flower kind.  I sowed them last night after I finished fertilizing the peppers.  I was about to add some ferts to the potting mix until I read the instructions on the packet.  It said sunflowers prefer nitrogen-poor soil.  Weird.  Anyway, didn't add any ferts so we'll see what happens. 
 
In regards to the post at the bottom of the previous page, I thought peppers in general liked a pH around 6 to 6.5.  I suppose if they grew a Goat's Weed in alkaline soil like they stated the max height might be 1 1/2 feet. 

 

[stc3248]

Don't believe your seed packet Brent...Sunflowers are nitrogen hogs...and if you wanna grow it to monster height it'll need lots of ferts and lots of water. I didn't do well on the irrigation part of my sunflower garden so They'll only hit maybe 12-15 feet...so fun to grow. Carson...try giving the plant a little sulfur and backing off on the water a little and see what happens.

 

[StupidJerk]

(Just posted this same thing in a thread about c. frutescens)
Here's a picture of the Thai pepper I grew from a pod that I picked up at an Asian grocery store.

I transplanted the seedling as a test on February 12th, just to see how it would do in the conditions. I didn't know what the hell I was doing and I didn't even harden it off to the sun:

It hit 31f(~0c) the next week, and looked like this on February 23rd. It was sunburned and frostbitten and eaten up by aphids:

And here it is now:

If it keeps on as healthy as it has been, my uneducated guess is that I'll get at least 1000 pods off of it this year. It is one tough little bastard. That night where it hit 31 was the coldest night of the year, so I guess I'll just overwinter it in that same spot and see what kind of monster it can be next year.

 

[Trippa]

Looking good bro ... its all coming together nicely .. well done

 

[StupidJerk]

I don't know what this is. I found the seed on the floor when I was germinating seeds and decided to throw it in a peat pellet. It is growing very healthy, but I have no idea what it is. It could have been about just about anything. I'm thinking maybe a tepin?

This mystery is starting to darken up. They are ripening way faster than the other plants. Still don't know they they are:

Some of the purple Jalapenos are starting to ripen as well:

I gave everything a foliar feed of seaweed extract and fish emulsion today. It is all starting to look much better. I think I let the ground get too wet before. It's just now starting to get dry. The sprinklers run tomorrow morning, so we'll see how it all goes in a few days. It has been almost a month since I watered manually, and I think my holding back is starting to pay off.

 

[Sanarda]

Love love love the variety of everything you have going on.  Plants look happy happy happy (In my Phil voice).  Keep up the good grow.  Did you decide to toss those infected plants or just separate them?

 

[StupidJerk]

Love love love the variety of everything you have going on.  Plants look happy happy happy (In my Phil voice).  Keep up the good grow.  Did you decide to toss those infected plants or just separate them?

Thanks! It's my first year, so I want to grow as much as I can to decide what I like best.

I tossed the suspect plants, didn't think it was worth the risk, and I had extras anyway. I'm actually watching your vid on my TV as I type this reply on my phone. You have a ton of plants!

 

[Sanarda]

Its my first year growing from seed also.  I had many hiccups and could not toss the extras for fear of not having what I wanted to try.  I plan on making hot sauces and powders to have for winter time.

 

[DocNrock]

Dude, that Thai is one tough mo-fo!  Productive as hell, too.  I can't comment on the first unknown, but I think the second one is an Anaheim.  Love 'em!  I have one growing from last year whose pods have zero heat, but they are sweet as fruit!  Grown from seed taken out of a grocery store pod.  All the Anaheims were bagged, and they were all green.  But I found one bag that had a single red pod in it, which I bought.  It must have ripened off the plant as I sowed probably 20+ seeds and only one germed.  So happy it did. 

 

[Devv]

loved the series of pics showing the Thai's progress.
 
I say success!

 

[StupidJerk]

A very chocolate update:

That mystery annuum is maturing brown. I didn't have any brown annuum seeds that I know of, so it's got to be some kind of cross.

The Aji Joe Chocolate Hab mix plants are ripening.

Choc Bhut x Yellow 7 Pots are taking shape

That's it.

 

[Sanarda]

Very nice.  Did you do a mostlly choc grow this year?  I had planned on doing that but received so many great seeds I couldnt.

Oh nvm.  I went to your first post and saw your grow list.

 

[StupidJerk]

If anyone wants some of those multihead sunflower seeds, send me a PM and I'll give you my address to send a sasbe. Just harvested 4 of the heads and got a ridiculous amount of seeds.

Very nice.  Did you do a mostlly choc grow this year?  I had planned on doing that but received so many great seeds I couldnt.

Oh nvm.  I went to your first post and saw your grow list.

I didn't plan on it, it just kind of happened that a lot of what I planted that thrived were chocolate varieties. I have other varieties doing well, but I started them either earlier when I didn't know what I was doing, or when after and they haven't matured enough. The time I planted the brown varieties was in the sweet spot of when I first figured out how to water, fertilize, and what soil to use. They ended up being my best plants.

 

[Dot Com]

your plants look very healthy especially that mystery (Tepin) plant.

 

[DocNrock]

Wait a while before harvesting that unknown pod.  I have a few red varieties that turn brown on their way to red (green + red = brown).    It may very well be a chocolate pod, but just to be sure.  Just a thought.

 

[StupidJerk]

your plants look very healthy especially that mystery (Tepin) plant.

Yeah, I can't believe how great that plant looks. It's in the part of my garden that has had the most time to "rest", so I think that has something to do with it. I also put it in the ground when it was very small, so maybe there is something to say for that. I hope whatever it turns out to be is tasty, because I have a feeling it is going to put out a ton of pods.

Wait a while before harvesting that unknown pod.  I have a few red varieties that turn brown on their way to red (green + red = brown).    It may very well be a chocolate pod, but just to be sure.  Just a thought.

Good note, I'll check on the progress when I'm out there tomorrow. Did your anaheims do this? I didn't have any anaheim seeds to begin with, so it must be a mislabeled seed or a cross.

 

[Devv]

All I can say is good job, everything looks really healthy...AND pods maturing...way cool!

 

[StupidJerk]

This little hero has been sitting on this balcony Reaper plant for weeks, quietly protecting it from evildoers. Every time I check out the plant I find it, if I look long enough. Never seems to move far.

I don't think I have ever posted a picture of a lot of the plants in the last bed I built. I planned on taking a picture of a few of them, but got distracted. Only one I managed to take was this Primo:

Today's massive pepper harvest, including my first ripe chinense of the year(other than the tiny peach bhut with no seeds, heat, or flavor, but we don't talk about that):

Sorry Doc, I couldn't help but pick one of those brown annuums. I'll wait and see if the others turn red, though.

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

Nice harvest. Most of those browns usually turn red in the end. But nice bounce back for your plants