Trent's 2014 Grow Log - COLD COLD COLD

TrentL · Aug 29, 2014

You're welcome!

Should have a pretty good harvest this weekend. Went walking around the garden after work trying to get some idea in my head of what I'm in for this Sunday; will be a big pick based on the colors I've seen. The dirt plans have pods on forks 1-3 nodes which are ripe now. With 2-4 pods per fork and 2-3 forks per node, should average around 18-20 peppers per plant this pick. Times 87 plants. (Should yield about 1500 chinense species pods, habanero and up)

And that's just the dirt crop; on top of that I still have 30x 5-gal potted plants, 17 overwinters in 15" pots, 4x 2014 plants in 15" pots, and 62 spares in 5" pots. And the even dozen in the rock garden.

So... 212 pepper plants kicking out ripe pods if my math is correct. Harvest this weekend should total around 2,200-2,500 pods. It will be the first of 6 "big picks" before the killing frost comes. It will take me the better part of 8 hours a shot just to pick and keep sorted, another 3-4 hours to box, bag, or freeze. Dehydrators will get cleaned and turned on Monday, and run 100% duty cycle through December making flake.

Free Small flat rate box offer still on the table...

TrentL · Aug 30, 2014

Took some pics of my 5-gallon cloth potted peppers today

7-pod Primo (oh man, those look evil...)

"Not" orange habanero! (it's making brown pods?!!)

Trinidad smooth (I'm REALLY hoping these have trinidad flavor but less heat... I love the flavor but I'm not able to tolerate some of the ultrahots now, "intestinally")

Pimento De Neyde showing ALL of it's various colors..

Some of the jwc10tc habanero plants I traded for:

Mustard Hab

Carribean Hab

Lemon Hab

Cappuchino Hab

Moruga Picante Hab

Giant Orange Hab

(Got about 20 more pictures I'll post up tomorrow)

kgetpeppers · Aug 30, 2014

Yeah the Chile de arb. Was very good. Flavor and heat. Sweet and then packs a hit lol

Devv · Aug 30, 2014

Plants are loaded down and looking good!

Verivus · Aug 30, 2014

Hey Trent, just wanted to say thank you for the box of pods! I received them a few days ago, but haven't really had a chance to drop by.

Your plants are looking great!

dlsolo · Aug 30, 2014

Those totally loaded plants will be keeping you busy for awhile. I've gotta get my hands on some of Giant Orange Habs. They look awesome.

tctenten · Aug 30, 2014

I was away for a few days and when I got back today, there was a great box of peppers waiting for me. Thanks Trent. The pods look great and will be put to good use. :party:

TrentL · Aug 30, 2014

kgetpeppers said:
Yeah the Chile de arb. Was very good. Flavor and heat. Sweet and then packs a hit lol

There's a trick with those - the bottom half of the pods (without seeds) are not hot at all, but have good flavor; the top half with the seeds have flavor and heat. If you chop the bottom half off you can use them in dishes with heat sensitive folks, and save the top halves w/ seeds for your dish (e.g. doing tacos up with two different pans of ground beef, or whatever).

They also appear to dehydrate very well on a string; I'll be using them for pizza flake a LOT this winter

Devv said:
Plants are loaded down and looking good!

Thanks Devv. It's about to kick in to high gear here for the next 4 weeks.

Verivus said:
Hey Trent, just wanted to say thank you for the box of pods! I received them a few days ago, but haven't really had a chance to drop by. Your plants are looking great!

Thanks!

dlsolo said:
Those totally loaded plants will be keeping you busy for awhile. I've gotta get my hands on some of Giant Orange Habs. They look awesome.

PM me your addy and I'll send you some when they're ripe.

tctenten said:
I was away for a few days and when I got back today, there was a great box of peppers waiting for me. Thanks Trent. The pods look great and will be put to good use.

Hope so! If you like any of them lemme know and I can send another box (all I ask is that you pay SFRB or MFRB shipping costs - I've got waaay more pods than I know what to do with this year!!!)
Some more of the 5-gal potted plants; I have to admit, these cloth 5 gallon pots *really* surprised me this year. First time I'd used cloth pots, didn't know what to expect.

I think next year I'm going to do some even bigger ones.

"7-pot Original"

7-pot Chauguanas

Butch-T

7-pod brainstrain (yellow), not turning yet:

Bhut Jolokia (red)

7-pot Brain Strain (red)

Bhut Jolokia (white)

Bhut Jolokia "Indian carbon"

Bhut Jolokia Yellow

7-pot Long

I can already tell you guys what my overwinters will be; I have 30x 5-gallon cloth pots going in the basement this year.

The size is "just right". I'll knock them back to 12-16" tall and move 'em indoors this fall.

Then they'll be the "first in the dirt" next year, making 3 rows. (depending on what survives.. I lost 7 of 30 last winter, but some were annuums and those are really fragile, compared to chinense)

dlsolo · Aug 30, 2014

Those look like the "Lifetime" grow bags from Mega Greenhouse (or something like that). I bought a total of 65 3-4 years bags for this year and next. Great deal, just don't know if they will make it 3-4 years. Time will tell...

HillBilly Jeff · Aug 30, 2014

Plants are looking good. That is a crap load of OW to keep alive and then grow out new plants. Good luck.

TrentL · Aug 30, 2014

dlsolo said:
Those look like the "Lifetime" grow bags from Mega Greenhouse (or something like that). I bought a total of 65 3-4 years bags for this year and next. Great deal, just don't know if they will make it 3-4 years. Time will tell...

Yup, that's exactly what they are, and where I got them from

https://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/root-pouch-boxer-brown-fabric-pot-longest-lifespan/growing-pouches-and-bags

I don't know how long they'll last but given how fast I crack/break more expensive plastic pots hauling them around, they're proving to be a hell of a lot more durable!!!! Big bang for the buck, no rootbound plants. My row of bagged plants has actually rooted in to the ground a little under the plants; when I move them to mow, there is a "tearing" sound as dozens of thin roots that sunk in to the ground are broken... !!!

(Next year I'm laying down a 3' strip of weed block UNDER the pots, with circles cut out. That way the pots can tap in to the dirt without having all the grass growing up around them..)

Continuing on the 5 gallon row;

Carolina Reaper:

Mako Akokosrade (man I REALLY love these pods... nomnomnom)

Monster Naga

Habanero Big Sun (odd note; I have about 6-7 of these growing and *each* of them are sending out different shaped pods.)

Fatali (Yellow)

Giant Mexican Rocoto

Trinidad (wild, PI281317)

Trinidad Scoprion Yellow

Brown Moruga (These things are EVIL hot)

Hmm. That's 29. I missed one somewhere along the way.

That's all for now; harvest pics will be *monday* this time.....and I'll probably do a scouting mission and get some dirt crop pictures Sunday..

HillBilly Jeff said:
Plants are looking good. That is a crap load of OW to keep alive and then grow out new plants. Good luck.

Same quantity I did last year; but in bigger pots last time. To say they were a "handful" would be an understatement. Kept me busy all winter long, fighting aphids, etc.

Learned a lot of lessons again last year, and I'm setting things up different this year to make it easier on me (and easier to control aphids!)

Last year I sealed the room off with plastic and duct tape to "nuke" the bastards - by releasing 1500 live ladybugs indoors.

Will do likewise this year but I plan on using shelves instead of tables so I can pack more in to the room.

HillBilly Jeff · Aug 30, 2014

Pic1 had an awesome layout of how he treated his OW before bringing them in. No bug problems at all. Kill the punks before the plants come in and start out clean. I think it was in his 2012 glog or maybe last years. Don't quite remember, but he has it down to a science.

lucilanga · Aug 30, 2014

Hey Trent,

seeing the foliage room,
I hope you do not get any funny ideas on getting away without showing us your shack.
You did get away with it this summer, but that's it!
I think it;s about time you come clean with whatever it is you're hiding.

I'll start this:

TrentL · Aug 30, 2014

LOL! Challenge accepted. When I get some time free I'll give you a rundown of my electronics stuff. I've got a system at work I'm going to try to adapt for micro.net framework for embedded apps, so this fall I'll be neck deep in wire and solder.

HillBilly Jeff · Aug 31, 2014

Let me guess you've built your own transistor radio from scratch.

Devv · Aug 31, 2014

Plants look great Trent!

Glad to see your season leveled out and is doing well.

Enjoy the weekend!

TrentL · Aug 31, 2014

HillBilly Jeff said:
Let me guess you've built your own transistor radio from scratch.

No but I did once build an FM transmitter you could stick under a meeting room table and listen to the meeting from out in your car in the parking lot.

TrentL · Aug 31, 2014

Boy.. I don't know what these "Orange habaneros" got crossed up with, but DAMN they are hot.

Four of them were ripe today, I picked one, and started eating it.... chewed up a chunk, very very sweet tasting, no heat.. spit it out. Chew another chunk, very sweet tasting... good stuff, chew it up, spit it out.
Take a third chunk, trying to pick out the more subtle notes.

And it all started hitting real gradual.

Hot. Hotter. Even hotter. "What the...."

Sit down in the shade... STILL growing hotter.. "sonofa..."

Walk in to the house, mouth is absolutely TORCHED, rolling sweat off my face.. Get the milk out, pour a glass.

Take a drink swish it around... STILL getting hotter. "Oh no."

Finish the glass of milk, gut is burning from the saliva and milk I've swallowed.. STILL hasn't peaked in intensity yet.

"F**** S**** these are hot!", I say to my wife.

That was a REALLY bad 10 minutes of my life.

Whatever those ARE, they are sweet and tangy like habanero but pack the heat of a damn moruga scorpion.

HillBilly Jeff · Aug 31, 2014

Sounds like a good pepper to use in dishes...get that sweet flavor and a burn.

Loved the play by play too.

TrentL · Aug 31, 2014

Tonight's dinner was breaded tenderloins topped with dill pickles and a half of a fresh sliced Cappuccino Habanero, with a side of baked beans and corn.

MAN that was good eating.

The kid are going through a quart jar of my dill pickles every 2 weeks .. I canned 22 quarts, so we'll run out again before next year.

I could have done another 7-8 quarts but got sidetracked with work and let the last batch of cucumbers I picked go bad on the counter. I hate wasting food.