Trippa's 2011/2012 Grow log....

Trippa · Dec 17, 2011

Numex Twilight Pods

Black Prince

Explosive Ember

Sick Blondie pods

My Pumpkin/ pine-nut/ basil/ semi-dried tomato/ feta/ red onion/ fresh tomato/ olive and finely diced smoked bacon with Bonda Ma Jacques Pizza. Tasted awesome

PIC 1 said:
The pods are coming in nicely. Your Bonda's are looking ready,
I packed a bottle with those and filled it with some good olive oil.. Very tsaty results...

Greg

Cheers Greg

Yeah I have had a few Bonda's already off that plant already around 10 already consumed (As can bee seen from the Pizza's above among other things) and I love the taste, would have to be my absolute favourite so far.

But that Olive oil Idea seems like a great idea. I have the perfect olive oil for it as well. How long would you leave it??

Another idea I heard the other day from a Greek freind of mine who said you put some good quality black or green olives (with a small split in each one if they haven't been pitted) and fill a sterilised jar with the olives and a some fresh chillies and then you tip half olive oil and half malt vinegar into the jar to fill it to the top and leave to sit for a few weeks.

Then while drinking some good quality beer you eat the olives as snacks (like nuts or chips etc)... sounds awesome to me

Cheers Greg for the great idea

PIC 1 · Dec 17, 2011

Hey Trippa,
That pie looks pretty darn colorful, and I bet awesome tasting. Nice choice with the pumpkin. Do you prepair your own dough?
It looks nice and thin. I can see that in a wood burning oven.............yum!

Greg

Trippa · Dec 17, 2011

Not on that one. But I used to make fresh pizza dough every morning for 2.5 years as a manager of a restaurant so I much prefer a good home made base. That was a cheat base as I was running late on dinner plans

PIC 1 · Dec 17, 2011

Trippa said:
Not on that one. But I used to make fresh pizza dough every morning for 2.5 years as a manager of a restaurant so I much prefer a good home made base. That was a cheat base as I was running late on dinner plans

That's cool, I've been there, from pizza maker to a dining room cook....many moons ago. Those were the basic flour and yeast doughs. Now especially now, being winter here I can heat up the house with the oven....ha. It's bread making time from Artisian Rustic to San Fran sourdough. Home made doughs are great, especially with a couple day cool rise. The taste really builds. I use different hydration levels depending what type dough is neede. Everything is weighted out . I use to be able to eye-ball the measurements. But with the constant change of humidity there's no way to be accurate and consistant.......opps..sorry for the ramble...mate

Greg

Trippa · Dec 17, 2011

PIC 1 said:
That's cool, I've been there, from pizza maker to a dining room cook....many moons ago. Those were the basic flour and yeast doughs. Now especially now, being winter here I can heat up the house with the oven....ha. It's bread making time from Artisian Rustic to San Fran sourdough. Home made doughs are great, especially with a couple day cool rise. The taste really builds. I use different hydration levels depending what type dough is neede. Everything is weighted out . I use to be able to eye-ball the measurements. But with the constant change of humidity there's no way to be accurate and consistant.......opps..sorry for the ramble...mate

Greg

When it comes to food, beer, wine, and chillies/plant growing you can never ramble ... its all part of the knowledge circle.

gasificada · Dec 19, 2011

Going off, trips! :onfire:

Wish my Bonda would hurry up and produce already. It's flowered twice now and not one single pod.... :mope:

Only ever tried a dried one before (which Neil sent me) and the taste really blew me away. Super keen to try a freshie!

Trippa · Dec 19, 2011

gasificada said:
Going off, trips!

Wish my Bonda would hurry up and produce already. It's flowered twice now and not one single pod....

Only ever tried a dried one before (which Neil sent me) and the taste really blew me away. Super keen to try a freshie!

Yeah I had better make the most of the pods while I have them before that bastard leaf dropping issue ruins the rest of the season. Doesn't seem to be stopping on any of the existing plants and it also seems to have started afflicting a further plant in the past few days ....

Neem and Seaweed extract tomorrow night to try to stem the onslaught some more ....

Also should update .... first fatalii sprout up!! , also have red hab, birdseye htm, purple flash, trinidad bean, most prolific, orange lantern, po cheong, and
Heavy praetermissum; BGH 460 ,Pi 441654 up which is exciting and the failed editing can stay as I can't be arssed changing it

gasificada · Dec 19, 2011

The leaf drops continues... bummer.

Were you using much neem prior to the leaf drop? I was using a lot of eco oil for a bit there and it really looked like it was causing some leaf drop. Still not 100% sure though whether it was the eco oil or whitefly. The leaf drop was only occurring on the plants I had sprayed with eco oil (pointing to the eco oil) but that being said, they were also in fact the plants worst affected by whitefly (pointing back to whitefly).

Are you still seeing whitefly around? I know it might not be your thing but I've been using Pyrethrum and so far it appears to be doing the trick. The stuff may utterly useless against my mites but it seriously kicks some whitefly ass!

Trippa · Dec 20, 2011

gasificada said:
The leaf drops continues... bummer.

Were you using much neem prior to the leaf drop? I was using a lot of eco oil for a bit there and it really looked like it was causing some leaf drop. Still not 100% sure though whether it was the eco oil or whitefly. The leaf drop was only occurring on the plants I had sprayed with eco oil (pointing to the eco oil) but that being said, they were also in fact the plants worst affected by whitefly (pointing back to whitefly).

Are you still seeing whitefly around? I know it might not be your thing but I've been using Pyrethrum and so far it appears to be doing the trick. The stuff may utterly useless against my mites but it seriously kicks some whitefly ass!

No I hadn't been using neem before the leaf drop started. Its more then that anyway, the yellowing and the leaves in a sporadic manner point to something more like pest/disease then a systematic plant issue like a deficiency and I would expect to see the very young leaves to be effected first if it were a neem related issue (which I am 100% sure it is not as I only used neem recently last weekend after the issues started)

I hope it is only whitefly, but I got home tonight and the issue certainly hasn't halted on most of the effected plants and seems to have worsened on 1-2 of them and may have spread to another. Weird thing is 1-2 of my plants (the initial ones effected) I repotted and fertilised last weekend into larger pots and they seem to have recovered somewhat with the pimenta de Neyde even throwing out new green leaves left right and centre and the leaf drop has stopped (although there wasn't much left to drop anyway) , however another 2 I repotted to the smae size pots with the same ferts the 7 pot/pod and the Choc Hab seem to have worsened a little so that doesn't help much or make much sense either.

Must be pests surely ... Another hit with neem and seaweed tonight and we'll see if we have any luck

gasificada · Dec 20, 2011

Double bummer.

I'm so over pests. As if my broad mite problem wasn't enough, it appears I'm dealing with another mite now too... i.e. tomato/russet mite by the looks of it. And the icing on the cake? Found the underside of a leaf today crammed full of aphids. I've never in my life seen more than a few aphids at one time! I'll tell you what I did though, I snapped that leaf off, pulled out my lighter and went to town on them bastages! :flamethrower:

Sadly, between my two new uninvited guests, my victory over whitefly hardly feels like a victory at all anymore.

Hope if what you got is pests of some kind, ya get 'em sorted soon, trips!

Trippa · Dec 20, 2011

gasificada said:
Double bummer.

I'm so over pests. As if my broad mite problem wasn't enough, it appears I'm dealing with another mite now too... i.e. tomato/russet mite by the looks of it. And the icing on the cake? Found the underside of a leaf today crammed full of aphids. I've never in my life seen more than a few aphids at one time! I'll tell you what I did though, I snapped that leaf off, pulled out my lighter and went to town on them bastages!

Sadly, between my two new uninvited guests, my victory over whitefly hardly feels like a victory at all anymore.

Hope if what you got is pests of some kind, ya get 'em sorted soon, trips!

Cheers bro ... and sorry to hear your own plight and fight on the bastard bugs

I think in the new year I am going to be getting myself some Green lacewings ... from bugs for bugs ... see how that sorts the issues out ... might be too late by then ... we''ll see I guess

Trippa · Dec 21, 2011

Ahhhh after a 2nd all out assault yesterday using neem and seaweed the leaf drop issue hasn't halted at all (in fact it seems to have gotten worse) I know its a little early to be seeing any effects from the latest spray I am fast running out of time and patience and leaves. The first signs of it appearing in my Bonda Ma Jacques and another couple of plants also shows it (whatever the issue is) is spreading with no signs of definite patterns of spread at this point in time.

Heading to bunnings now to arm myself with some eco-fungicide, Gogo Juice, and Eco-Oil and whatever other organic goods I can get my hands on and we'll go from there

Good news is that although the leaf drop has started on my Yellow 7/pot/pod the existing fruits are also just starting to turn yellow .... woohooo ...

Trippa · Dec 22, 2011

A Positive update today ,... lifes to short to dwell on the negatives.

Just gave them a nice pre-christmas brunch of Eco-Aminogro, Seaweed Extract and Ocean Mist (now called Complete fertiliser by nutrifield) to try to relieve the poor stressed little buggers and to ready some of them for re-potting

Getting a few pods ripening up so thought I would share

Torro Rosso

Hot Fish

Super Chilli

White Bullet Hab

Yellow 7 pot/pod ripening

and Another

And a nice view from below

Last update before christmas no doubt.

I hope Everyone has an Awesome Christmas filled with plenty of chillis, cheer, beer, bourbon,(insert favoured drink here) family, friends and good times

Cheers
Trippa

PIC 1 · Dec 22, 2011

It looks like you've got a jungle going.............. :cool:

Greg

Trippa · Dec 28, 2011

Well the plants seemed to have responded to my constant attention and new amendments (my early Christmas Dinner mixture seems to be great stuff) and they are looking much better then a week ago. I will hit them with another foliar dose of neem and seaweed and a further eco-amino-gro/ocean mist/seaweed extract combo before the new year and hopefully that will see them through the next couple of weeks with just water in between.

Just picked and ate my first Yellow 7 pot/pod tonight and was not disappointed with either the heat or the flavour. Just awesome (very very similar taste to bonda ma jacques although maybe a little sweeter)

Some show off shots

Can't wait to continue this journey of flavour discovery as my other varieties hopefully come online in the coming months ....

PIC 1 · Dec 28, 2011

Hey Trippa,

That's a cool looking pod and some sharp photos of it!

Greg

Trippa · Jan 3, 2012

Great article about Humates I thought I would share

http://www.calciumproducts.com/articles/Dr._Pettit_Humate.pdf

Trippa · Jan 7, 2012

Some very basic explanations (actually from australian organic school gardens website) of the pH and availability of minerals in soil.
Even though its basic it certainly is basically all you need to know.

I found it interesting that there is no room for error once your soil is in starting to get alkaline as the availability drops right off for most nutrients.

I think this and a small container of food grade citirc acid will make (hopefully) my garden start to hum along a little better as my tap water is around 7.2-7.3 pH so coupled with liquid ferts I was probably adding moderately to highly alkaline liquid to my garden at every watering and feeding.

Also interesting to note that a good majority (of mainly liquid ferts) are all in the alkaline range (esp liquid seaweeds with pH nearing 10) Hence I will no longer be adding any liquid seaweed directly to my soil only foliar applications

I will be keeping the feeding to soil amendments (dry all purpose organic ferts) on the whole with a plant health dependent 2-4 weekly feed of all purpose organic fert pH corrected if needed. and Weekly to bi-weekly foliar applications of liquid kelp and fulvic acid.

Soil pH controls how active earthworms and helpful bacteria and fungi are in your soil. They can all work best in a soil pH close to 7.

The pH of your garden soil also controls the amount of different minerals that plants can soak up and use for food. When soil pH is too high or too low, some minerals become stuck to other minerals or to soil particles and plants can't soak them up.

Plants need lots of major minerals and only tiny amounts of others – these are called trace (or minor) elements. In the chart below, plants need large amounts of the first 6 food minerals, and only tiny amounts of the next 6 minerals. The horizontal white bands in the chart show how much of the different foods plants are able to soak up at each pH number.

• In the dark green area of the chart the pH is between 6 and 7.5. Most fruits and vegetables grow well in this pH range because they can soak up all the food minerals in the correct amounts that they need for good health.

• The lighter green area has a pH of 5.5-6. Potatoes, strawberries and blueberries prefer this pH, and most other plants can manage to grow and produce a crop if soil has this pH.

• In the grey areas of the chart, plants may not get enough of the foods they need in large amounts and will get poisonous amounts of some foods they should only have in tiny amounts.

• Very few plants can survive when soil pH is in the brown areas.

Trippa · Jan 17, 2012

Well I really can't figure my plants as yet. They had recovered nicely but after a sunday dose of pH corrected Fulvic and Kelp in the soil and a further foliar application of fulvic, kelp and Neem they have started to have the dreaded random yellowing and leaf drop again. I am now suspecting overwatering in some and others being root bound in there 9.5 litre buckets. Might be time to bite the bullet and try to upsize some plants into 14.5 litre-20 litre buckets (the 20 litre buckets are actually cheaper and straight sided from bunnings so will take up less/same amount of room as currently)

Here are some pics of tonights pods (small amount)

1st Jalapeno HTM pod

Jalapeno and yellow 7pot/pod

A selection

Jalapeno HTM again

Cheiro Do Norte 1st pods

Hot fish peppers

Pics don't do the Cheiro Do Norte much justice as they are an amazing peach colour (almost fake looking) ...

Thinking of getting myself some of this as well as I want a organic phosphrus and calcium boost for my soil without potassium or Nitrogen

http://www.batphone.com.au/images/articles/ProductSpecSheets/micro-phos.pdf

hornilla · Jan 17, 2012

Cheiro do Norte and Hot fish pepper look really great. How is the taste?