The Pacific Northwest GLOG 2016

Roguejim · Jul 25, 2016

Is it your climate? Not too difficult in southern Oregon.

megahot · Jul 26, 2016

Roguejim said:
Is it your climate? Not too difficult in southern Oregon.

Well yes, shorter grow season due to cooler temps where I live it was in the high 60's and low 70's for 2 or 3 weeks straight but now the temps are higher. I also noticed that most of the pods grow small here. It really pays off to get a jump on the season and start seeds early imo.On a positive note Im off to my best start ever. Which isnt saying much sadly lol

ScottsBonnet · Sep 10, 2016

edited - my apologies, newbie still trying to figure out what is or is not of interest on the forum.

turbo · Sep 29, 2016

I haven't posted much this year, but it doesn't mean I didn't grow peppers! (just been super busy). So here is my 2016 pepper story told with images

This is sometime in March. I had really poor luck with germination this year. Probably 1/5 of my seeds either didn't germinate or died within a month. I had entire varieties, like Fatalii (one of my staples) that didn't make it. It's a good thing I plant quadruple redundancies or I wouldn't have as many plants as I wanted for plant out!

My little guys getting some sun in April. Look at the pot labeled "10". This was a Guatemalan Red Rocoto. It grew vertical about 4 inches, and then started growing out horizontally. By the time I planted it, it was 2.5 feet wide and only 5 inches tall. It eventually started growing vertical once it was in the sun, and looked like a normal pepper bush by August.

Plant out! Thanks to the hoop house I'm able to get my plants in the ground in early May. In Seattle I'm getting temps inside the hoop house in the upper 80's to lower 90's. This has made a huge impact on my harvest volume at the end of the season.

My first hab of the season. A tiny little Trinidad Scotch Bonnet. It's size didn't diminish its flavor or heat!

So I did something new this year. I purchased jalapeno and cayenne starts from a local nursery instead of growing from seed (because none of my jalapeno and cayenne seeds germinated). The nursery had the starts in early April, so I bought 5 each, transplanted them into 2 gallon pots, and put them inside my hoop house. A month later, when I was ready to plant all my peppers, the jalapeno and cayennes had huge root balls filling the entire 2 gallon pot. These were the healthiest jalapeno and cayenne plants I've ever had. And got really good production from them.

Here is my mid-season cayenne harvest. Made an awesome cayenne garlic sauce from this mess, with a few Caribbean Red Habs thrown in for added heat.

My first true sized Congo Trinidads. Love the flavor of these guys...really pungent.

The first bunch of Aji Cito to ripen. I really love this pepper. Great citrus flavor that goes well with a pineapple hot sauce. Next year I'm going to not grow Aji Lemons and plant a few more of these instead.

If someone can give me a bump, I'll post the rest of my pictures

ColdSmoke · Sep 29, 2016

Looks great

Roguejim · Sep 29, 2016

Turbo, I never have good luck with jalapenos, or other Numex varieties. They never grow as large as what I can buy in the supermarket. You did well.

turbo · Sep 30, 2016

ColdSmoke said:
Looks great

Thanks! I've been a total slacker on getting anything posted this year.

Roguejim said:
Turbo, I never have good luck with jalapenos, or other Numex varieties. They never grow as large as what I can buy in the supermarket. You did well.

Thanks Jim. This was by far the best harvest I've ever had. Getting them in a greenhouse early seemed to do the trick. We'll see if that works next year, or if it was just a fluke

turbo · Sep 30, 2016

This is around late July. Starting to get some good peppers. My starfish really did well this year

Had this crazy double Starfish growing off the same stem.

My first 7 Pod White!

Early August. The raised bed looks pretty good. My Guatemalan Red Rocoto really took over the right side of the bed.

Trinidad Scotch Bonnets!

Lots of 7 Pod Whites coming in mid August. I'm thinking a 7 Pod White Peach Jelly would be fun.

The Guatemalan Red Rocoto had LOTs of pods in late August. Though so far (in late Sep) only 2 have ripened

In early Sep I pulled all the jalapenos off the plants. Got a pretty good haul of other pods. The orange habs in the lower left are MOAs. After 3 years of harvesting my own seeds I think I got a little cross pollination in there. None of the MOAs have the tell-tail 4 leaf clover shaped bottom.

Picked this three days ago. Caribbean Red Habs came in strong, as well as some more 7 Pod Whites. That lonely little Bhut in the lower left of the picture was the ONLY pod on the entire plant.

These two are my pride and joys of the season. Huge and beautiful!

Devv · Sep 30, 2016

Very nice!

I sure hope you guys continue this glog next year. A fantastic representation of 'yalls skills up there in the North West!

turbo · Oct 3, 2016

Devv said:
Very nice!

I sure hope you guys continue this glog next year. A fantastic representation of 'yalls skills up there in the North West!

Yea, this glog had a good representation for a couple years, but for some reason this year a bunch of us fell off. I myself just got busy. I kept taking pictures to post every couple weeks, but never actually got around to posting any. Hope to be back next year, and hope to see some of the old regulars.

The Pacific NW is an interesting grow area. Its definitely an optimization game up here.

Blister · Oct 4, 2016

I agree completely. You really have to adapt to the conditions and optimize your grow if you want to be successful in the PNW.

Neil

PaulG · Oct 4, 2016

turbo said:
Yea, this glog had a good representation for a couple years, but for some reason this year a bunch of us fell off. I myself just got busy. I kept taking pictures to post every couple weeks, but never actually got around to posting any. Hope to be back next year, and hope to see some of the old regulars.

The Pacific NW is an interesting grow area. Its definitely an optimization game up here.

I have to apologize for not posting in this grow log this season, Jim.
It's just been sort of a topsy turvy one with the BLS infestation in
June and really spotty harvests all summer. I think this is the fewest
pods I've collected in five seasons. I haven't even posted much in my
own grow log. Oh well, time to drop back 10 and punt. When I get on
my phone, I'll throw up a few pics from the season just to catch up.

I'm with Turbo - would be a shame to let this thread go. For my part, I'll
try to be more of a PNW good guy next season and post here. I'm getting
sort of tired of my grow logs - they are basically the same every year, and I
don't want to just keep repeating myself. Maybe I'll just have a grow log to
sequester data, and do the fun stuff on this thread.

Thanks for your efforts getting this going this year, Jim. Best to you for the
rest of the season.

PaulG · Oct 4, 2016

Okay - just a few pix.

Spanish-seed Padrones were a bright spot
this season. These plants had ripe pods
in May:

Tristen's PDN X Bonda Ma Jacques F4 got off
to a great start:

So did these Aji Amarillo:

Despite the BLS, the BJs did pretty well.
Not many pods, bot some very nice ones.

The PDN cross really loaded up this Summer.

Some 7 Pot Burgundy red and brown phenotypes.

ColdSmoke · Oct 5, 2016

more!

turbo · Oct 5, 2016

PaulG said:
I have to apologize for not posting in this grow log this season, Jim.
It's just been sort of a topsy turvy one with the BLS infestation in
June and really spotty harvests all summer. I think this is the fewest
pods I've collected in five seasons. I haven't even posted much in my
own grow log. Oh well, time to drop back 10 and punt. When I get on
my phone, I'll throw up a few pics from the season just to catch up.

I'm with Turbo - would be a shame to let this thread go. For my part, I'll
try to be more of a PNW good guy next season and post here. I'm getting
sort of tired of my grow logs - they are basically the same every year, and I
don't want to just keep repeating myself. Maybe I'll just have a grow log to
sequester data, and do the fun stuff on this thread.

Thanks for your efforts getting this going this year, Jim. Best to you for the
rest of the season.

Yea, I felt the same. After 3 years, my personal glog was just a repeat of the same things. I didn't post there because it was the same ole stuff, and I didn't post here because I felt guilty about not keeping my glog up to date. I think next year, I'm just going to skip the personal glog, and post in here the more fun pictures, as well as any lessons learned.

Roguejim · Oct 5, 2016

I'd say you guys did very well. Did anyone have bug problems this year? I noticed Paul had a marigold planted next to a pepper plant.

My harvest was good, except that my Big Jims, Hatch, Poblanos, and Jalapenos grew small. They never match what I can buy at the store. I didn't tend to my soil like I did past seasons, relying on liquid ferts instead, but I'd like to know what those commercial growers are doing to produce such large peppers at the market.

I'll continue the PNW Glog for 2017, probably starting it in December, again. I started it, initially, because I didn't want to maintain a personal glog. Looks like some others are experiencing the same feelings. It's work! A community glog like the one we have here takes a load off. My grow will be small again because I want to take some vacation time away, and can't trust anyone to water...I really grew too much last season...bags of peppers still in the freezer. This is one reason I cut way back. Anyway, we'll keep this glog running. Devv won't leave me alone, if I don't!

FGpepperguy · Oct 5, 2016

My peppers didn't grow very well this year compared to previous years. Not sure why though. Half of my peppers still aren't ripe!

PaulG · Oct 5, 2016

Not many bug problems this year, Jim. IDK why, but
we have been relatively bug-free for three seasons.
Knock on wood!

I feel your pain, Brady! I think the June weather really
affected my grow this year, exacerbating the effects of
the BLS infestation. Hopefully next year will be better!

ColdSmoke · Oct 5, 2016

I went organic this year and my yields were much lower (as expected)...It is much less work so it's a give and take. I'm gong to do my "big" harvest this weekend so I can get to processing. I just finished dehydrating like four bags of peppers leftover from last year. I already have a few bags of peppers from this year in the freezer. It's been a good season but I'm a bit disappointed in a few plants...mostly my cracked jalapenos ( I was really looking forward to them) I think I only have like six ripe pods.