TBG's First Chilli Blitz! (2017-18)

karoo · Oct 21, 2017

Yes 50cm is OK. They will grow into each other but they love that jungle feeling.

1)The best production per plant; space them 60-100cm apart

2)The best production per square meter ; space them even 30-50cm apart

In other words , do the best you can with your available space.

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 21, 2017

karoo said:
Yes 50cm is OK. They will grow into each other but they love that jungle feeling.

1)The best production per plant; space them 60-100cm apart

2)The best production per square meter ; space them even 30-50cm apart

In other words , do the best you can with your available space.

Thanks, that's good to know. I'll just have to be sure to give the Amarillos plenty of space...

KAOS · Oct 21, 2017

Got mine 30cm apart, but that's all I had space wise.

My logic was that would be no worse off than a 10ltr pot and that has served me well in the past.

Like karoo says they will grow into each other, but that makes harvesting all the more fun.

At 50cm that's plenty as long as you can get to all the plants (I only have to reach 80cm at the most to get to all my plants)

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 21, 2017

KAOS said:
Got mine 30cm apart, but that's all I had space wise.

My logic was that would be no worse off than a 10ltr pot and that has served me well in the past.

Like karoo says they will grow into each other, but that makes harvesting all the more fun.

At 50cm that's plenty as long as you can get to all the plants (I only have to reach 80cm at the most to get to all my plants)

Getting to the plants won't be a problem I think, I'll have 4 rows of 10 plants, with the inner two rows right next to each other, but 40cm between the two middle and two outer rows, if that makes sense.

TL;DR I'll have 40cm wide aisles allowing adjacent access to all plants.

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 22, 2017

Been working the pepper patch today. The soil seems better quality than I originally thought.
With chillies, where abouts on the sandy-loamy-clay scale is preferable?
1- Sandy
2- Sandy/Loamy
3- Loamy
4- Loamy/Clay
5- Clay

I'd say that the pepper patch is currently ranging between 2 and 3.5, averaging at 2.5ish.

I plan to add pre-mixed soil, compost and manure, plus feed. Won't be adding too much though, as my wallet can't handle too much lol.

Additional question: Which manure is best? I've got cow, sheep and chicken readily available, but not horse for some reason.

No pics today unfortunately, and not much news is new. Slugs have made a comeback though, the past few days of rain favour the enemy... Strategies are being developed for total annihilation...

:hell:

Thanks for all the help and advice so far!
I think I'm still gonna need a fair bit :rofl:

TBG, over and out.

KAOS · Oct 22, 2017

Hey TBG

Sounds like your soil is spot on really. Maybe just some unbranded compost to give it a boost and some extra mulching.

Take my advice with a grain of salt as I am probably the worlds worst gardener, but I did some tests with the cayenne peppers this year.
Four plants. One in compost only / one in half compost half potting mix / one in potting mix only / one in thirds potting mix compost sand (like river sand).
The first and last were failures (compost too strong ? and the sand made the mix very dense - drained great but very heavy)
Of the other two, the potting mix compost combo seemed to be the best. Good growth from the potting mix only, but stalled after a while.

That's when I played around with perlite in the mix and it was chalk and cheese compared to the above.
Now you can't be working perlite into the garden (too expensive), but it did teach me that it's all about the oxygen to the roots.

So my advice to you is stick with what you got and try adding something the will not only feed the soil, but that will also provide descent drainage without becoming dense (sand test)
I have again this year just mixed in cheap compost (it is just plain bad quality "compost"), but it does a great job of loosening up the soil.
I will then supplement with feeding during the season and hopefully have a win-win at the end.

We have reasonable success with our roses every year and all we use is plain sheep pellets.
Just sprinkle around the drip line avoiding the stem and flowers come busting out.
If the roses love it I'm sure the peppers will do alright also and it's cost effective and slow release.

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 22, 2017

KAOS said:
Hey TBG

Sounds like your soil is spot on really. Maybe just some unbranded compost to give it a boost and some extra mulching.

Take my advice with a grain of salt as I am probably the worlds worst gardener, but I did some tests with the cayenne peppers this year.
Four plants. One in compost only / one in half compost half potting mix / one in potting mix only / one in thirds potting mix compost sand (like river sand).
The first and last were failures (compost too strong ? and the sand made the mix very dense - drained great but very heavy)
Of the other two, the potting mix compost combo seemed to be the best. Good growth from the potting mix only, but stalled after a while.

That's when I played around with perlite in the mix and it was chalk and cheese compared to the above.
Now you can't be working perlite into the garden (too expensive), but it did teach me that it's all about the oxygen to the roots.

So my advice to you is stick with what you got and try adding something the will not only feed the soil, but that will also provide descent drainage without becoming dense (sand test)
I have again this year just mixed in cheap compost (it is just plain bad quality "compost"), but it does a great job of loosening up the soil.
I will then supplement with feeding during the season and hopefully have a win-win at the end.

We have reasonable success with our roses every year and all we use is plain sheep pellets.
Just sprinkle around the drip line avoiding the stem and flowers come busting out.
If the roses love it I'm sure the peppers will do alright also and it's cost effective and slow release.

Thanks very much!
A decent trove of knowledge here! I've seen how your plants are going, so I think your word is definitely with its salt! It all follows the general principles of things, and agrees with most of the glogs on here that I've been following. I've been digging in the books over the weekend - I highly recommend Yates Garden Guide - and they seem to all day the same as you - you can't go wrong with adding compost and organic matter. The glogs here are a testament to that; The Guru's slogan is "feed the soil", and Frank (Moruga Welder) swears by horse poo as the cause of his stellar results.

So I'll definitely be stiring the compost into the patch! It's also interesting to hear that you use just the cheap, basic quality compost, as I've been comparing products and knowing that the cheap stuff still works is a huge relief!

I just finished spreading the pre-planting fertiliser feed on one row in the patch. Used both a generic, All-Purpose NPK Granulised Fertiliser, and an organic-based "Betta-Bloom" fertiliser that's tailored specifically for chillies (or so it says). It was only half way through applying the second one that I realised I was giving two full feeds at once! So that should be quite interesting when I get the plants in there... Fingers crossed the plants don't suffer because of my silly mistake!

I'm gonna try to get one row ready for planting out this week, ambitiously. Might happen, might not. We'll see what happens...

Thanks again KAOS for the advice and anecdotes! You're just one of the million reasons this place rocks! :metal:

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 23, 2017

Can't go too long without pictures!

All the best looking plants are out getting some sun on this glorious day. The rain is now behind us, and everyone is happier for it! Got a great soaking, plus the nice warm weather (mostly) and the grass is greener!

Cayenne X Bhut has done a triple fork by the looks of things?

Or maybe its forked and then forked on the fork? Time will tell, I think I'm too impatient... XD

Some battle scars.

This damage was done the other night, while it was raining. Only a few plants were being attacked, so I moved them so that they were inaccessible (for slimy mercenaries at least) and there hasn't been any more attacks on anything, but it has been dryer since then... we'll see iff the enemy returns...

In the Amarillo Growdown thread, I mentioned that I was considering topping my #1 Amarillo, because it was looking lanky and not much side action happening. And so the other Amarillo starts behaving like this:

Its putting out decent side growth at every leaf!
So I think I'll go ahead and top the #1, and see what happens...

Thanks for stopping by! :metal:

MikeUSMC · Oct 23, 2017

You're off to an awesome start, TBG! :party:

Don't overthink anything, and just 'let it ride,' brother! Everything will fall right into place. Looking great so far! Everything looks nice and healthy

Looking forward to following your grow while I'm buried in snow up here in a few months

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 23, 2017

MikeUSMC said:
You're off to an awesome start, TBG!

Don't overthink anything, and just 'let it ride,' brother! Everything will fall right into place. Looking great so far! Everything looks nice and healthy

Looking forward to following your grow while I'm buried in snow up here in a few months

Cheers!

I've had the pleasure of following all the glogs on the other side of the world for the last 9 month, so returning the favour is the least I can do!

qandeel · Oct 23, 2017

Looking good TBG. How old are the plants now?

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 23, 2017

qandeel said:
Looking good TBG. How old are the plants now?

Thanks!

The oldest, The #1 Aji Amarillo, is about 16 weeks old, and the youngest, the Bleeding Borg 9, is about 4 weeks old. All the ones in the pictures from the last post are around 9-12 weeks old.
As a matter of fact, the two Cayenne X Bhuts will be exactly 12 weeks old tomorrow and the next day! So great timing with your question

KAOS · Oct 24, 2017

Seems like just yesterday the smack talk started with the growdown

karoo · Oct 24, 2017

Looking good. From now on you should see a daily change.
That Aji Amarillo is just waiting to explode. :onfire:

If you look back on my Aji Amarillo pics you will see the side branches developing . At the moment all the sidebranches have passed the main stem in height and all have split and flowered.

KAOS · Oct 24, 2017

Just run through some old posts. Check how that Amarillo has grown since post #88 (less than two weeks).

Can't wait for pod time. Going to colourful :dance:

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 24, 2017

karoo said:
Looking good. From now on you should see a daily change.
That Aji Amarillo is just waiting to explode.

If you look back on my Aji Amarillo pics you will see the side branches developing . At the moment all the sidebranches have passed the main stem in height and all have split and flowered.

KAOS said:
Just run through some old posts. Check how that Amarillo has grown since post #88 (less than two weeks).

Can't wait for pod time. Going to colourful

Thanks guys!

Yeah, the Amarillo is growing at an exponential rate. Because I now have the handy measuring stake in the pot, I have noticed that it is growing roughly 1cm everyday. Haven't topped it yet...

karoo · Oct 24, 2017

Give it one week and you will forget all about topping it.

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 27, 2017

Update Time!!!!!!!!!

Got the Pepper Patch looking organised, its mostly all ready for some slight improvements and then - PLANTING!!!!

Ran out of fertilisers along the way, got 7/8ths done with one, and 3/4ths done with the other, with 1/2 the patch done and dusted, apart from compost.

The Chilli fertiliser I was using is this:

I'll have to try to see if I can find it anywhere, as I bought it a few years back.

Plants are cruising along, although batch one is miserable compared to the others, I'm not expecting to get much off them, but there's still hope. The rest are another story entirely, superb! Currently trending is obviously the Cayenne X Bhut, putting out side shoots and going up, up up!

Its also been doing some forking, as shown here:

Because I'm a nerd with not much better to do, I found the pattern for buds so far.
Start off with 1. (Total 1) Add 2. (Total 3) Add 2 to each of those new ones, 4 all up. (Total 7) That's where it is now. So I'm guessing that next it'll add 8 buds, giving a total of 15. Then total of 31, 63, 127, 257, and so on.

Formula?
Tn = (Tn-1 x 2) +1

We'll see if it follows the maths :rofl:

Meanwhile, Amarillo 2 is also side shooting

And I got gifted some Purple Climbing Beans and Kefler Potatoes from a friend of a friend. I think I'll try to offload some of my extra plants onto them in return

Thats All (for now) Folks!

karoo · Oct 27, 2017

Looks great , those plants should be happy with their new home.
Nothing like planting out , getting your fingers in the dirt.
Enjoy it!

ThatBlondGuy101 · Oct 27, 2017

karoo said:
Looks great , those plants should be happy with their new home.
Nothing like planting out , getting your fingers in the dirt.
Enjoy it!

Cheers!

Hoping to get into town this week and buy some compost, but we'll see what happens...

TBG's First Chilli Blitz! (2017-18)

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