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)

 

[smileyguy697]

What's the plans for the first super? If its not already gone. Lol

 

[saugapepper]

Damn! Your garden looks amazing. And yes, what's the plan for the first super?

 

[StupidJerk]

Probably something very stupid, with lots of alcohol involved. I imagine I'll bring a few to a friends house, maybe a couple of us will try a sliver of one, then a tough guy will eat an entire one and I'll video the aftermath.

Other than that most of the supers will end up in chilli, curry, salsa, or dried for powder. Maybe a few more drunken bad decisions as well.

 

[stc3248]

Hey...looking at where your Cobra/Weed is sitting, try giving it a little more light. How many hours direct does it get right there?

 

[saugapepper]

Dried supers are my favourite as they last so much longer than anything else. Gives a kick year round to whatever you want...
 
Do provide us with video if one of your friends decides to be a hero.

 

[StupidJerk]

Hey...looking at where your Cobra/Weed is sitting, try giving it a little more light. How many hours direct does it get right there?

It gets the most of anything on the balcony. The light hits there about 1 pm until sundown. Some of the time the light is dappled through trees. I wondered that too, but the brainstrain next to it is flowering and podding, and so are the rest of the plants that get much less light. The only way I could give it more is by moving it to the garden. I could put it where the sunflower that got its head ripped off by a raccoon is, but I would have to dig really deep, the container it is in is 18" tall.

There is good news, though! There is are a bunch of buds on the cobra that looks like it might not abort! They are probably the biggest ones I've seen so far at about 3 mm, most of them seem to brown and fall off at 1 mm or so.

 

[Trippa]

If you want a really good robust hot annum that sets pods easily and pods well even when it gets cooler next season take a look at The hippy seed company's NTR variety ... Great plant

 

[StupidJerk]

If you want a really good robust hot annum that sets pods easily and pods well even when it gets cooler next season take a look at The hippy seed company's NTR variety ... Great plant

I'll look in to that, Trippa. Next year I'd like to have a really prolific hot annuum on my balcony. The black cobra was supposed to be that plant, but it has proven to be stubborn.

I have an actual camera with a macro function coming in on Monday, so I'll hold off on posting any pics for now. Nothing fancy, just a point and shoot, but it should be able to handle pod pics better than my phone.

Most of my superhots are finally podding up, the Douglah, red 7 pot, Jonah, Congo, yellow brain, reaper, and a few others.

I pruned back some tomatoes and I hate to let anything go to waste, so I emptied out about half of my compost bin, which I unintentionally turned into a worm compost bin, and spread the stuff around the base of a few plants, on top of the mulch, then gave everything the first manual watering in a few months. I can't believe how many worms were in that bin. I tossed 2 or 3 in a few months ago and they multiplied like crazy. It was doing a lot better than the actual worm bin I have at home. I have some more dirt from old potted plants I'll throw in next time I can make it out. I don't want the mix to get too hot and kill the worms.

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

believe it or not that pepper puya is acutally from smokemaster =D

 

[StupidJerk]

believe it or not that pepper puya is acutally from smokemaster =D

Speaking of that, everyone was right, the ones I left on the plant turned red:

 

[stc3248]

Great pull! Harvest getting better and better everywhere I look! I see some cucumber salsa in your future!

 

[WalkGood]

They look great, nice harvest ^_^

 

[DocNrock]

Forgot to mention, the cat + choco hab story had me rolling!
 
Your garden plot looks awesome.  Funny how much they grow into each other's space.  Mine are becoming a single canopy...kind of like a "unibrow." 
 
Cool harvest!  It will start growing exponentially!
 
Looking great, Carson!

 

[Devv]

Nice harvest, it's just the beginning Bro!

 

[StupidJerk]

Great pull! Harvest getting better and better everywhere I look! I see some cucumber salsa in your future!

I'm probably pulling off 3 lbs of cucumbers each day, but half of them are horribly bitter. I think I put them in a spot that gets too much sun. I made some pickles earlier. A few were amazing, then I'd bite into a bitter one and have to spit it out. I can still taste it in my mouth. I now have a fear of cucumbers
 

They look great, nice harvest ^_^

I'm just getting the hang of things and my soil seems to be settling down a bit, so hopefully I'll have some real harvests soon.
  

Forgot to mention, the cat + choco hab story had me rolling!
 
Your garden plot looks awesome.  Funny how much they grow into each other's space.  Mine are becoming a single canopy...kind of like a "unibrow." 
 
Cool harvest!  It will start growing exponentially!
 
Looking great, Carson!

 
I hope so. Things are looking pretty good in there, and I'm finally starting to pod up on plants where you guys have already harvested. This is certainly a learning year.

 

Nice harvest, it's just the beginning Bro!

Thanks, I'll look at your garden for inspiration. I think we need to switch signatures!

My superhots are finally all starting to pod up except for the Chocolate Bhuts. They are big plants probably 3 feet wide and 2.5 feet tall, but they just don't want to set pods.

Yellow Brain is podding up and they are starting to look brainy:

7 Pot Congo SR Gigantic:

Datil:

Fatalii:

Lock's Reaper(Grown from seeds that from lock's pods that were smooth):

"Thai" peppers I got from the grocery store must have been f1s, because the seeds have produced very different plants. One is growing very small upward growing pods that have an extremely thin bumpy skin, they almost look like they are going to dry before they even turn red:

And the other has much larger smooth pods with a thicker skin that hang downward. I've tasted these and they are HOT, the others I haven't tried yet.

I've also noticed that the Black cobra in the garden is quite a bit fuzzier than the one on the balcony. I don't know if that is due to the sun, or if the one on the balcony might be a hybrid. The one in the garden is one of the only two plants I bought instead of growing from seed.

The one on the balcony I got from a pod on smokemaster's plant. I believe his mother plant was from the same nursery chain, but purchase a few years earlier:

If you look closely, you'll see that it is finally about to produce a flower.

The future bonchi chiltepins with a knot at the bottom are also starting to pod up:

 

[laynlow]

Your garden is looking great!   Those brains are going to be soo good!!

 

[StupidJerk]

Your garden is looking great!   Those brains are going to be soo good!!

Thanks! From the looks of it my first ripe superhots will be those or these Chocolate Bhut x Yellow 7 Pots:

I had took much fun with the new camera today, so I'll post some more pod porn:

Black Pearl

Purple Jalapeno

Notch Bonnets

Here's a group shot. You can also see the chair where I hide out.

Next year I'm not planting so many tomatoes, they are taking up pepper space.

 

[DocNrock]

Dude, that garden is growing like wildfire!  Love it!  The pods are looking great!
 
FWIW, my Chocolate Bhut and Black Naga only set like one or two pods until recently, contrast to most of the other plants that are podded up.  Those two are finally starting to set more pods. 
 
You are still going to have more pods than you know what to do with.  I'm already there and it's only June!

 

[StupidJerk]

The pathway between my neighbor's bean wall and my cherry tomato wall:

It sort of reminds me of this:

It also reminds me that I need to build a taller fence next year.

 

[stc3248]

I had to trim back some of my tomatoes last year...won't hurt 'em! Or just lay them over away from the peppers! Everything is looking freaking awesome! Your Fatalii looks to be a cross though??? Should be more pointed...great looking pods none the less! Your neighbor's spot is rockin for sure!