Tay's Glog 2013: Electric Boogaloo

Love the site and glogs here! bout time I created my own. Guess I'm starting this blog out on the left foot, since I'm kicking off with pics of my plants yet to meet real terra firma. Only 4 peppers, 2 maters, and a gaggle of cucs in the ground anyways. This will change in the next couple days.

Here's my potted hab I plan on OW. Putting out massive amounts of buds and branches, despite losing almost half it's stem and foliage to my inexperience and wind.

Base and stems:

First fruit I've seen, on a cherry mater plant:

Rest of the plants that need transplanting:

Pablanos putting out flowers despite stature. Just going with it.

 

[WalkGood]

Finally got caught up again, great pictures, plants, peppers, bell, cucumbers, popper’s look killer and it’s lucky I ate lunch already or I’d be running for da kitchen, hehe. Dam you’ve got it going on brethren Taylor. Tings looking great at tu casa \o/
 
Bloody Mary looks great, wife and I had some this weekend. Do you put pepper in yours? We use JA Hab right into the vodka if we’re going to have a bunch but otherwise we’ll use around a ¼ pepper per tall glass or mix up a pitcher of them. Here’s the pictures I had posted in my glog long ago prep picture and in da glass picture.
 
Are you using that solar mulch that Rick uses?
 
 
Purple stem on cubanelle is common as Rick stated earlier, I have them on my Jalapeño too. Nice to see you are growing a Hab, it doesn’t look as bad as some of mine that still produce nicely. That pepper on the little Pablano is very cool, have you picked it yet? Love romy6’s kindness (Jamie), there isn’t anyone here as generous as he, here’s a hat’s off for each of you guys \o_
 
Great picture of the whole garden and I agree, beautiful jungle mon! Great job and keep up dat great grow Taylor. Oh and have a great week mon!
 
Edit: 7/2/13 just popped in to check for update but guess I'll have to come back ...

 

[Peptacular]

Unfortunately just the puréed jals that were store bought went in the Mary. Your drink looks like itd blow mine outta the water! No ripe pods for me yet, all the better reason to start real early with the seedlings next season. And I'm not sure if its the same solar mulch, just plastic sheets but does look similar. Haven't picked the pab, but maybe I should to encourage more growth.

Thanks for checking out tha glog, I appreciate it! ill try to keep up on it more! Just not much to show at the moment. Almost nonstop rain for a week, and looks no better in the future week. Getting some yellowing from nature overwatering. Wettest early summer I can remember. I can only assume ms nature wants me to prove myself before I continue into the future!
Oh and also I may have misspoke it wasn't Jamie it was Jamison. Apologies all around! I'm sure you are both awesome dudes!
Also Rickman has sent me some exotic seeds. Best people around on this here board! I can't wait till harvest this season and next to return the love!

And since I don't want to go out in the wet an dark to get pics, here's my cats instead.

 

[Peptacular]

Here's my disproportionate harvest for the day, still no ripe pods.

I've actually had quite a few of these early cherry tomatoes ripening one every couple days but its too tempting to eat them straight off the vine. Now that the plants are putting out multiple clusters of of up to ten it will be much easier to share some lol.

 

[PIC 1]

Cool man,
I haven't been following many glogs lately but this one shows interest. From the garden to cats and cukes.....and a Henn with a BM chaser......don't laugh , my glogs similar.
Nice stuff, I hope the garden drys up a bit, we also had our bout with rain....

 

[Peptacular]

Appreciate it man!

 

[stickman]

Hey Tay, That's a lotta Cuke... do you like kimchi? You could make some with them... http://koreanfood.about.com/od/sidedishesbanchan/r/OiSobaegi.htm

 

[Peptacular]

I used to hate it when I was young but I love it now. Never had cucumber kimchi though. Ill have to give t a try! Looks pretty intense. Thanks for the recipe, if I make some ill be sure to take a picture.

 

[Peptacular]

I made spicy chilli and ginger coated chicken kebabs. Meant to take a pic, but holy f**k they were so good that neither me or anyone else could stop eating them after the first. Also made cucumber and cherry tomatoe salad with today's harvest.

Finally had a day with no rain and more than an hour or two of sun. See one of these guys everytime I go out there.

007: Goldenfly

Also, happy Independence Day! God bless America, even with its flaws.

 

[stickman]

I made spicy chilli and ginger coated chicken kebabs. Meant to take a pic, but holy f**k they were so good that neither me or anyone else could stop eating them after the first. Also made cucumber and cherry tomatoe salad with today's harvest.

 
Sounds like a good feed! If you like chicken kebabs and unflavored yogurt, try an Iranian recipe called Joojeh Kebab. I like it so much I made my Thanksgiving Turkey that way last year. The combination of good olive oil, yogurt, lemon juice, onion and saffron in the marinade is just amazing, and I intensify the lemon/saffron flavor by using melted butter with more lemon juice and saffron in it to baste the kebabs while grilling. It's a fairly expensive spice, but I save money by buying the saffron grown in India that I find at our local Asian market. It doesn't taste any different than European-grown, and it's half the price.
http://turmericsaffron.blogspot.com/2010/09/joojeh-kabab-persian-grilled-saffron.html

 

[Peptacular]

Sounds awesome. I've never used saffron before and it is pricey so I'm a little scared to try haha. Good tip on the India grown though, ill keep an eye out for some. I also did some basting/brushing as I cooked the kebabs. I think doing that makes a big difference.

 

[Peptacular]

Ate that little pablano pictured earlier because the plant bearing it was lagging way behind the other pabs. It was a bizarre experience. Pablano a are only suppose to have around 1000-2000 scovilles. And accordingly the pod flesh was like the sweetest most flavorful green pepper I've ever had from a store with an almost hidden note of heat. But the pith inside was hotter than jalepeno pith! I can only assume it was stress induced. Usually arid means hotter, but I think 2 and a half weeks of rain stressed it out alot. Very delicious all around.

 

[stickman]

I love Poblanos too, unfortunately mine turned out to be nots this year. Note to self... next time use commercial seed... If yours are as productive as mine were last year, don't make the same mistake I did... make sure to stake them well. I had a wind squall come outta nowhere last year and none of the peppers were staked. One of the Poblanos was so loaded with pods it was extremely topheavy, and the wind blew it over so sharply that it snapped the main stem off flush with the ground, and it was game over just like that.

 

[Peptacular]

My like is for the advice not the ourtcome. That's a major bummer dude. I got all my bigger plants caged so think I'm good to go for now.

 

[WalkGood]

Nice updates and good advice Rick, my White Bhut snapped the main ... I was lucky two side branches didn't and I've still not learned my lesson, only the White Bhut is staked ... Have a great day!

 

[Peptacular]

Just noticed a not so friendly looking bug after I looked at this pic and the effer was gone when I went back out to look for him:

(Edit: it wasnt a total loss, went out to look for him again and found a stink bug on that exact pictures pepper. My hand smells like crap but it was worth it to squish him)

Here's how those little thai peppers look ripe:

They were very tasty. Slightly fruity. hotter than I expected, like a mild habanero (if it were that tiny I guess lol) but a very instense, short lived and localized mouth burn. No sweating or runny nose.

At least I have plenty of good bugs too. Harvestmen, spiders, an long legged flies everywhere. Just spotted this guy today:

Pretty sure he's a nymph of an assassin or wheel bug, since I saw a similar shaped bug wandering around yesterday that I know is beneficial (aside from eating pretty much any bug they find, even good ones. But I haven't seen a ladybug all year so no biggy to me). Didn't have my camera but he looked like this:

Must be doing something right with the cucumbers. Yesterday's harvest next to a 12" ruler:

Cubanelle podding up:

Bad news is my habanero is succumbing to aphids and disease, I don't know why when everything else is doing fine. Also, a couple tomato plants took a beating in a storm. My fault for not staking them after they outgrew the cage. One without a cage snapped at the base.

Here's the lost branches:

Some branches still on the plants are bent and broken open but not completely snapped, is there some way to "bandage" them?

 

[Peptacular]

Found this guy again or one if his kin and got a pic this time. His proboscis is huge:

Unfortunately a rabbit got under my fence and put a real hurting on my smallest pablano plant. I like rabbits. But I like rabbit stew and my garden too. So the 12 gauge is coming out if I catch little Peter cottontail:

I wonder if I have more nitrogen in my soil than peppers like, or not enough potassium. Because these guys grow like crazy but taking a long time to really pod up (although the wind that broke some tomato plants also knocked buds, flowers, and proto pods all over the place which prolly didn't help):

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

I am making sure all the rabbits eat well as I will be eating 50 to 75% of them this winter. 
 
I love these bugs!
 

 

[TXCG]

Man Tay I'm digging those insect pics & I wish I had seen this a few days ago cause i woulda told you to root them broken tomato branches! Just got done cloning tomatoes for the first time this year and it was super easy, hooked up friends, family & coworkers with plants just from pruning suckers. 
 
Are those cukes for eating or self-defense? You could club somebody with one of those monsters!
 
Are all your plants taking forever to pod up or is it just that one in the pic? I'm having the same problems here on a few of my plants but I think it's due to the 100+ degree heat.

 

[Devv]

Tom's are easy to clone, just stick em in dirt and water.
 
The rest looks great!
 
Fantastic bug pics, figure out what the heck it is yet?

 

[Peptacular]

Well I had typed approx 500 words but my iphone decided to refresh a second before I posted. I'm sure no one wanted to hear about my uni and work bullshit explaining my absence so prolly for the best. But on the bright side my hab recovered after losing 9/10th of its leaves.

Looking damn good comparatively, if not stunted. I just hope it has time to produce. It had lost 9 out of 10 leaves so it looks amazing now considering.
The bad news is pests had a field day on my grounded plants. I spent 3 hours poring over my garden. Found 3 hornworms but no bennies so I sprayed with pyrethrin. I know it's harsh but after the thrips did massive damage I got all kinds of bullshit coming in. I took care of the powdery mildew within a couple days. But all the flea beetles, hornworms (tobacco), white flies, spotted cucumber beetles, brown stink bugs, aphids, and so much more came out of the woodwork all at once. And with all the rain for the past week and the next week I went ahead and went for knock down. I looked for beneficials. Not a ladybird, assassin, mantis, pirate, big eye, long legged fly to be found anywhere. So fuck em. Went with both barrels blazing (after dusk to preserve pollinators).

I'm sure my soil network isn't in tune or some shit, but fuck it I'd had enough. I've been nothing but organic and they ripped my arse hole wide open.