Trent's 2014 Grow Log - COLD COLD COLD

randyp · Jul 16, 2014

Get a headlamp,you're going to be crawling between the rows to harvest.The plants are getting huge.Great job.

Devv · Jul 16, 2014

Everything is looking just awesome Trent!

You're going to have more pods than you'll know what to do with for sure!

TrentL · Jul 16, 2014

Thanks guys.

I had/have no idea what this crap is on a Naga Morich, except MAYBE pollen from the Rose of Sharon it's sitting under? None of the specs were moving.

Diseased leaves off of a Carolina Reaper overwinter. 4 or 5 overwinters are showing this. The pots of 3 of them were sitting next to the row that has an infection....

It gets in the stem.

Took a lot of pruning to get it all off.

Started pruning off fungus infected leaves in the in-dirt plants, and I got pissed at this Dorset Naga. It's totally hosed up with something.. every single leaf is misshappen, spots, decay... so I ripped it out of the ground.

It was next to the pots with the disease, above. Showing same symptoms.

Then I realized "Man that plant came out of the ground WAY too easy."

Yeah I just ripped it out but still, that root mass is pretty weak.

Then I felt bad. (It was my only "Dorset Naga" that survived from seed.)

So it went in to a pot full of some potting soil that'd been baking / soaking outdoors for a couple months. Slow release fertilizer is going to either kill it, or kick it in to overdrive, because it's been "slow releasing" for 2 months in the summer heat.

I'll keep it isolated and see how it does.

Section of the garden that one was pulled from. Those plants are suffering.

Then the shocker. Another tomato suddenly wilted. So I pulled it out of the ground and examined the roots. The root core, and the main stem, were HOLLOW.

Worse, there were these clear/whitish bugs swarming through the inside. I got a pic before they all fell/ scampered off, and blew it up.

Opportunistic bastards or root cause?

Have now lost over 1/2 of my tomatoes to this, and the other half were butchered from 2' down, to clear a Septoria infection (so far so good there).

TrentL · Jul 18, 2014

Some bounty pics from 2013.. wondering if I'll out do them this year. (Except the tomatoes. I lost too many.)

maximumcapsicum · Jul 18, 2014

Wonderful pics Trent! You really produced a ton of poddage. Looks like some nice sauces and powders too!

TrentL · Jul 18, 2014

maximumcapsicum said:
Wonderful pics Trent! You really produced a ton of poddage. Looks like some nice sauces and powders too!

I've still got a few *pounds* of ultrahot flake from last year. Well, mostly ultrahot. I filled 14 quart jars and 11 of those were ultrahot (bhut and above), while the other 3 were habanero flake.

I use the flake on pizzas (not OFTEN), and batches of Jerky. Still, 1 tbspn of ultrahot flake is MORE than enough to kick up a 5 lb batch of jerky to the point most people can't stomach it, so unless I go in to the jerky production business I won't go through all that flake in a year or three....

I need to make more hotsauce this year than I did last year. Ran out in march. Go through that faster. Also need to tweak and make more varieties. I did one 5 bottle run and figured that'd last me a year. (Wrong). I need to make some milder and some hotter ones.

The 5 bottle batch I did was with sauteed garlic & onions, salt, roasted habaneros, and a handful of roasted moruga scorpions & reapers, in a white vinegar base. It turned out fairly sweet tasting but a little too hot (no one I know could handle it at full strength - it's enough to give you the "next morning blues" on the toilet). A buddy of mine compared the flavor to sriracha .. but he had to dilute it.

This year I want to experiment with smoked peppers in the sauce, and make some milder versions for casual use. (I'm finding my 'hard core heat nights' are more limited in quantity lately.. due to stomach issues.)

Not sure if I'm ready to do any fermenting. I'm kind of forgetful and easy to distract.. and well, I see that ending.. "badly".

maximumcapsicum · Jul 18, 2014

I've been putting Jamison's Goat's Weed flake and hot sauce on pizzas lately. Delicious! Just need to eat more peppers man!

Jeff H · Jul 18, 2014

TrentL said:
Not sure if I'm ready to do any fermenting. I'm kind of forgetful and easy to distract.. and well, I see that ending.. "badly".

Nonsense. When all the sugars are used up, it just goes from fermenting to aging. Remember, Tabasco ages their peppers for years. I wouldn't worry about forgetting about it. I have a quart jar of homegrown tabascos aging in the pantry since Jan. I'll just leave it until I need it.

TrentL · Jul 18, 2014

Jeff H said:
Nonsense. When all the sugars are used up, it just goes from fermenting to aging. Remember, Tabasco ages their peppers for years. I wouldn't worry about forgetting about it. I have a quart jar of homegrown tabascos aging in the pantry since Jan. I'll just leave it until I need it.

Ok... any links to good threads on fermenting?

If you say it's not that hard I'll believe you and give it a shot. Looks like I'm going to have a surplus of Cayenne this year and I *do* love Tabasco sauce on .. well, every-damn-thing.

maximumcapsicum said:
I've been putting Jamison's Goat's Weed flake and hot sauce on pizzas lately. Delicious! Just need to eat more peppers man!

If you guys want some ultrahot flake from last fall, PM me your addy and I'll send out some care packs (6 or so oz. to each). Like I said I have WAY the hell more than I'm going to use!!! Might as well spread the pain.

Jeff H · Jul 18, 2014

TrentL said:
Ok... any links to good threads on fermenting?

If you say it's not that hard I'll believe you and give it a shot. Looks like I'm going to have a surplus of Cayenne this year and I *do* love Tabasco sauce on .. well, every-damn-thing.

Here is a big thread http://thehotpepper.com/topic/23146-fermenting-peppers-101/

What I did was pretty simple. Chop up the peppers in a food processor, added 3-4% salt by weight, a T of sauerkraut juices (fresh stuff from the farmers market so the bacteria was still alive) and enough water to cover the peppers.

Close the bottle and burp it every once in a while if the lid starts pushing out. There is hardly any sugars so the ferment won't be very active and need an airlock unless you added some sweetner. A ferment of a week or so was all I needed with jals to replicate that Sriracha flavor. A month or more for most peppers though.

TrentL said:
If you guys want some ultrahot flake from last fall, PM me your addy and I'll send out some care packs (6 or so oz. to each). Like I said I have WAY the hell more than I'm going to use!!! Might as well spread the pain.

Trent, I have way more than I need here and another harvest coming soon. .............Shit, that reminds me, I need to get those 4-5 gallons of Butch Ts, 7 pots and bhuts out of the freezer and dehydrated before the new harvest starts rolling in. Next week's project.

TrentL · Jul 18, 2014

So wait.. when fermenting you are kind of intentionally rotting the peppers?

Or does the 'kraut bacteria (whatever it is) act so fast that other nasties can't form?

randyp · Jul 18, 2014

I would say your curing the peppers not rotting them.They have been doing it forever.No way to keep things cool back in the old days.If finding a good starter is what your looking for, Rocketman has a great sourdough starter,or you could go anywhere(amazon or something)and get Lacto pills.That is what I am now using and they do the job.Fermenting is a great way to use your harvest,you will flip out when you get your first smell of a good pepper ferment.I am pulling a jar for sauce this weekend that was TS scorpions.
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HillBilly Jeff · Jul 18, 2014

Sorry about your tomato loss this year. It has been a frustrating year for some of my plants.

TrentL · Jul 19, 2014

OK.. I've covered the tomatoes and overwinters enough.

The plants that I put in 5 gal cloth pots deserve their day in the spotlight.

Picked this mustard hab off another forum member this spring;

Brown Moruga (judy)

Trinidad Scorpion Yellow (judy)

Trinidad (wild ; Judy)

I'm SERIOUSLY wondering if I mislabeled this Habanero big sun.. because these do NOT look like habanero. They look.. frigging diabolical. (Judy)

Same with these monster Naga's (Judy)

Mako Akokosrade (judy)

Carolina Reaper taking it's sweet time... (direct from Ed Currie)

7-pot long (odd pheno; really bumpy) (Judy)

Bhut Jolokia Yellow (judy)

That's 10. Will need a couple bumps tonight. Got a lot of pics.

Thanks!

jcw10tc · Jul 19, 2014

Looking good.

TrentL · Jul 19, 2014

Thanks!

OK more pics of the 5 gallons.

Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon (Judy)

Bhut Jolokia White (Judy)

Brain Strain Red (Judy)

Bhut Jolokia Red (Judy)

7-pod Barrackpore (judy)

7-pod brain strain yellow (Judy)

7-pod Primo (judy)

7-pod Chaguanas (Judy) - and WOW.. this thing wants to produce, compared to the others...

Pimento De Neyde (judy) - another big producer

Trinidad Scorpion Smooth (judy)

Have more to go yet, if I get another bump.

Sawyer · Jul 19, 2014

That's some fantastic podding going there.

TrentL · Jul 19, 2014

Wait until I get back around to the overwinters, Sawyer.

I love how all of them are podding up true to form and beautiful specimens so far. Gotta hand it to Judy, her seeds are frigging fantastic. No random crosses like that "other guy that I used to order seeds from...."

JCW1TC - this is one of yours you traded me. Look at how this baby is getting loaded up!!!!

I *never* would have expected this from a little 5 gal cloth pot. That's a strong habanero strain there. Looks like someone may have done a hab/scorpion cross looking at the pheno. Can't wait to see what they taste like.

Another one of yours JCW1TC. (Forgive the spelling on the tags, wife was helping me re-tag and the sticks were nearly unreadable by the time we potted up)

And another one from JCW1TC; these pods are starting to get pretty huge.

True Cumari flowers

True Cumari pods

Carolina reaper overwinter

(Same plant)
It's getting loaded with monster pods.

Naga viper overwinter.

Bhut Jolokia overwinter:

I actually pulled that one out to get a better pic

Have a few more yet.

Sawyer · Jul 19, 2014

Holy moly

, you better get the sauce pots heated up.

TrentL · Jul 19, 2014

Haha! Indeed. I've got a full pallet of woosey bottles in the garage, plan to go in to full on production mode this fall. Going to put back a HELL of a lot more than 5 little frigging bottles for THIS winter.

Flip side of that Bhut in the last post;

Thing is producing like crazy. And... That soil is a year and a half old - it is ONLY living off of nutes I feed it at this point (a half dozen overwinters are a Hydro in soil experiment)

Dedo De Moca flower:

Next time I decide to let a random volunteer tomato grow unchecked, SMACK ME. It took over that whole corner of the garden, invaded my carrots, onions, girl's flower garden, had to move my overwinters because it was smothering them, and started growing up the leftover mulch in the driveway.. it's a good 14 feet across now.

(NEXT year I'm not growing a SINGLE tomato indoors. I'm just going to relocate volunteers where I want them to grow.. I *still* have random volunteers shooting up everywhere.)

Found mole holes under my overwinter pots when I moved them. I have moles worse this year than I've *EVER* had in the past. My entire front yard is destroyed, and the network under the garden is extensive. Anywhere you poke a stick you'll find a tunnel.

Dedo de moca is really pretty:

Goats weed flower

Ok one last photo and I'm done.

Wife took this when I was "precision fertilizing" the plants in heavy clay that are suffering from nitrogen deficiency.

"Bring it on, Rabbits. Bring. It. On."