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The sun is brutal here. 2025 grow

Here we go for this year. 3rd time's the charm? Started getting seeds into the ground a couple of weeks ago when it decided to rain and then freeze for two days.

Not really trying much new here. I am always finding myself going back to these powders over others. Last year was a huge battle with no rain, wind, no humidity, the never ending sun, aphids, and spider mites. It really does appear that I was extremely spoiled in SoFla with that tropical climate. Learning Texas while working nights for the first 1.5 seasons has been rough. Upgrading from 5gal to mostly 15gal grow bags this year. The misters I've had for a year are finally going to be installed under my grow canopy. As soon as walmart severely discounts promix again some 25 gal bags might get thrown into use.

This year's list:
Sugar Rush Peach
Aji Charapita
Orange Habanero
K.S. Lemon Starrburst
Craig's Grande Jalapeno
Trinidad Moruga Red
Red Savinas
Scotch Bonnet MOA
Thai Birdseye
Dwarf Thai Birdseye
Black Thai
Chilietepin
Sweet Moruga
Pimenta De Neyde
Rocoto Aji Oro
Giant Aconcagua
Hungarian Wax Pepper

As soon as starter trays are available, these are starting
Fetalii
And maybe Gator Jigsaw Purple or Primo x Butch T.
 
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Been a busy few days. Unbagged, mixed up, and rebagged all my mix. At first I thought it'd be easy, but the pile just kept getting bigger and bigger. 350gal of mix to play with this year. Mixed in some decaying mulch that was under the bag sall last year, some leaves from the yard, all the worm castings my bin got, and everything rotting from the worm bin. Sadly the freeze also killed all my worms.

Not looking forward to having to work on my flower bags...

It's way too early but I figured I'd transplant just barely sprouted plants. I have back-ups so no biggie if the upcoming cold snap kills them. Jalapeno, Orange Hab, Thai Birdseyes, Tomatos, Tomatillos, and eggplants went from starter cells to 15gal bags yesterday. Thai Birdseyes are being group planted. Rootballs of the dwarf ones has always been pretty small and I can easily fit 3 or 4 of them around the tall growing one. Will save me some space.

Still waiting for the rest of everything to sprout. Some of the seeds are 5-6 years old so they'll be slow. By then the last of the dropping below the 50*F range should be past. Limited space available in my Amazon special $50 green house.
 
60 more gallons of potting soil recycled and mixed with some of yesterday's batch. The butterfly garden is now only waiting on more plants sprouting. I tried native wild flower mixes last year but mostly got a lot of non-flowering grown cover which out grew everything except some Standing Cypress flowers.

I also decided to transfer the tomatoes to 5gal bags. I already grow way more than I eat in one 5 gal bag, might as well use the soil for something that wont go to waste.

Grow area is still an absolute mess but it's getting better. If it's not too cold out tomorrow I may start the fun of finding and fixing all the leaks in the drip system.

Yesterday AM, way too much for my two small lights and one heat pad. If I saw roots out the bottom of the starter cells, outside it goes unless it's a backup.
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The soil fungi survived the freeze. Really happy about that.
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Mulched area is about 20ftx13ft. It's nice, but new management at this place means another year of asking for forgiveness and not permission. Quietly sneaking another 9ftx9ft in there this year for what will ultimately be too many plants once again.
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Brocolli, onions, and strawberries, all from last year. Everything else seemed like a good idea to get them outside as this cold front was coming in. The squashes are just too damn fast at growing to keep inside. The sun is intermittent, breeze is nice, and it's not too cold. This should be a good time to have started hardening off plants. They'll only grow better out here than inside with no wind and two underpowered T5 grow lights.
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I really hope that papaya at the front comes back. It seems it may. It was great natural sunshade later on the year. Culantro, a Citronella in a completely mislabelled bag, and the papaya are the only not frost hardy plants that seemed to survive. Pretty surprised by the citronella and culantro.
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Baby Habs in their new oversized home. Lets see how they handle temps dropping to the 40s.
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I was thinking to myself earlier. I have 12 more 5gal bags up front of my place. Why am I not growing more peppers there? I always talked about having pepper hedges. I do miss walking through my buckets of plants out front in Florida.
I've got enough NuMex twilight seeds to start a forest. I think some flower cells are going to be replaced with the Twilights, Hallows Eve, Blood Ghost, BBG7 Orange, and Datils. Throw some Christmas lights on them. Good plan me thinks.
Kicking myself in the ass right now for removing fish pepper seeds from my cart.
Edit: I am also kicking myself for having 4 jars of NuMex Twilight, with the name crossed out and replaced with "PIZZA". Welp, seems I need to buy those again too.
 
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Just when I thought all hope was lost, a label in the kitchen caught my eye. I forgot everything that didn't get through the sifter was saved when I ground up all the Twilights. There's some hope I just saved myself paying 4x the price of 10 seeds on shipping.

Temps have also been dropping back down into the high 20's and 30's in the mornings and it's going to be like that for another week. So far everything in the little greenhouse full of holes is holding up.
 

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Red Savinas. Year after year, like it's genetics are set in stone, that unmistakable 1st leaf defect, and possibly a few more to follow. Between my dad and I, we've saved and regrown Savinas seeds since I think 2006. Never isolating flowers for seeds, just saving what ever seeds from random fruits. Almost 20 years of a single, immediate trait. Impressive genetics.
 

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Windchill was in the negatives yesterday and this morning. Sunshade cannopy broke, greenhouse got torn to shreds, and everything aside from winter crops is dead. Good thing I have backups. Last week we were back up to the 80s. Not so much this week.
 

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It seems unlikely to get below the 50's now so everything is outside except a few Rocotos and some more seeds starting. Some of my old seeds have been having germination issues so yesterday I got the rest of those seeds in some sifted soil. I suspect it was more that I didn't burry the seeds deep enough and they kept losing contact with moist soil. Changed my plans yet again. No point going right to 15+gal right away especially when I have more space now. 5 gallon hasn't failed me before. I think I just might prefer growing more plants than a few bigger ones. More plants should help with keeping moisture up and providing more shade when the sun is overhead for 12+ hours just beating down. Everything tolerated direct sun contact all day yesterday so I'm happy. The next few days are supposed to be windy, stormy, and up to the low 80's without dropping below the 50's. Figured this would be the best time transplanting everything outside. I just hope the repairs to the sunshade canopy helps. I gave it the good ol' Red Green treatment at all the broken joints with some aluminum tie wire twisted up and jammed in the PVC before duct taping the crap out of it and painting over it to hide it. I don't need it to last forever, just long enough for me to reframe it.
 

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Yeah, the little greenhouse saw her last day today. She's a gonner. The duct tape is working like a champ though. Probably saved the entire thing my girl mid-day used some bungees, coat hangers, and aluminum tie wire to anchor back the main canopy to a heavy steel table.

Back-up plants are mostly all gonners, though some survived their flights. Only casualties I've seen in the bags are my basil, Thai holy basil, and a tomatillo that was already probably dead from damping off a week ago but was buried deeper to try and save it. Surprising that's all that has happened. I was expecting a lot more casualties. Somehow my backup holy basil cell survived so really only down basil. I'll take this as a win today.

Going from the weld shop to the CNC shop today I saw a 70lb sheet of 3/16" steel go flying down the drive.
 
Hopefully it was just some loose shingles and nothing damaging. They forecasted wind, but I wasn't expecting wind like that.

The little greenhouse will be back. The duct tape worked too well and I have plans for it. The plants survived is all that matters. They're well and truly hardened off now I'd say! lol
 
Things are coming along great. Gotta take some pictures later.

Got a bunch of pallets from work, need to try snagging some more. Cut a few in half and plan on blocking them up to raise the bags up higher and give them something to be tied down to. Getting a crap ton of old pallet 4x4's from him plus all of his mulch/top soil from his beds. He's never home anymore so his garden's just been sitting there unused for some time so I'll make some good use of it all. Certainly going to save me from having to buy a bunch more cinder blocks and mulch.

Also took all the sun shade down for now. No need for it yet and it'll be easier fixing all the broken bits without a giant sail on it. Aside from a few little leaks the drip system is also finally back working. Now I just need to figure out the cheapest idea to get a liner or tray for each bag to catch water from the misters and stop all the water from draining out of the bags into the ground.
 
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