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Turbo 2015 Pepper Growing: Keeping It Simple (Stupid)

I've been procrastinating a bit this year, and just got around to starting my seed germination.  Last year, I picked just a few varieties and grew 4-6 plants of each variety.  I realized that if a plant does well, one plant would give me more than enough peppers, so this year I decided to go the other way.  I'm growing 17 varieties, but only 1-2 plants per variety, with the exception of Maule's Cayenne which I'm growing 6 plants (I never have enough cayennes).

My final grow list for 2015:
I'm also taking a different approach to growing this year.  KISS, or keeping it simple (stupid).  Last year I played around with a lot of "stuff": germinate seeds in coffee filters vs paper towels, mixed my own soil for each transplant, topping, trimming leaves, cutting early buds off, different kinds of pots once the plants are outside, etc.  This year I'm gonna try and make the process as simple as possible.  I'm just soaking the seeds over night in water then putting them in peat pods for germination.  I'm using Fox Farm's products for soil.  No topping, trimming, or pinching.  And all peppers are going in raised beds.  We'll see how the simple method works for me.
 
All my seeds soaking over night.  I have a germination heat pad, with a towel on top of it, and the seed tray on the towel so the seeds don't get too warm
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Here is the germination pod try I'm going to try this year
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I know I said I was going to try and keep things simple, but I couldn't help myself when I saw this.  Its a thermometer / humidity reader for the germination tray.  Hopefully this will allow me to keep better humidity control of the seedling environment.  Besides, I'm a data geek
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I setup a hoop house on my first raised bed and put a recording thermometer in it.  I'm still a week or two from plant out, but I wanted to get a feel for what the temps in the hoop house can range, and if I need to put ventilation holes in it.
 
Today's high was 77F, and the recorded high inside the hoop house was 133F.  Looks like I definitely need to put some ventilation holes in the cover. 
 
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The raised bed looks amazing, well done you! How are you tracking the temp inside the hood house, do you have a digital thermometer in there tracking it all day? Did you get the night temps as well?
 
Comptine said:
The raised bed looks amazing, well done you! How are you tracking the temp inside the hood house, do you have a digital thermometer in there tracking it all day? Did you get the night temps as well?
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Thanks!  I found a cheap outdoor thermometer at Lowe's that records the high and low temp every 24 hours.
 
Got my new raised bed filled this morning
  • 14 cubic feet top soil
  • 3 cubic feet fish compost
  • 4 cubic feet mushroom compost
  • 4 cubic feet plant material compost
  • 3 cubic feet perlite
  • 1 cubic feet worm casting
I may put another couple cubic feet top soil in before plant out, but I'm done for today.  Whew!
 
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Does the fish compost stink or attract animals?   
I ask, because last year my dogs really got into the habit of eating the soil out of my pots.  I could not figure out why this new strange fascination with my potting soil, but this year I noticed that they only did it to the soil mix that I had added Blood meal to.
 
Nutz!
 
bpwilly said:
Does the fish compost stink or attract animals?   
I ask, because last year my dogs really got into the habit of eating the soil out of my pots.  I could not figure out why this new strange fascination with my potting soil, but this year I noticed that they only did it to the soil mix that I had added Blood meal to.
 
Nutz!
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HA!  Thats funny.  I didn't have any problems with it last year.  The fist compost doesn't smell like rotted fish, it smells more just like really rich soil.
 
I did mix some compost into my veggie garden this year that had steer and chicken manure and my dog was all about that stuff.  I had to close the gate to the picket fence around the veggie garden to keep him out.
 
This is from a few days ago.  Everyone outside for a few hours getting used to the sun.
 
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My Aji Verde's pepper getting bigger.  The Verde are definitely early podders.  My two Verde now have 4 pepper between them, and none of the other plants have pods yet.  I'm kind'a excited about the Verde, since they are often eaten when green before they ripen. 
 
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So these four plants were part of another topping experiment I did this year.  The left two are Aji Cito, and the right are Aji Peruvian.  The ones in the ground were topped back in march, and the ones in the pots were not topped.  The topped plants seemed to take a while to recover from topping and definitely put more energy in developing branches and filling out with more leaves, while the non-topped plants just kept growing.  The size difference isn't the thing I'm concerned about though.  The non-topped plants are full of buds, but the topped plants don't have any buds at all.  In a short growing season like we have in Seattle, I'm more concerned with getting flowers going as early as possible.  Last year the couple plants I topped were full of unripe pods at the end of October, while the non-topped plants had mostly ripened pods by then.
 
Of course this isn't really a good experiment.  While all four plants came outside a month ago, the topped plants were put straight into the ground and the other two kept in pots.
 
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This is my non-pepper garden, though I couldn't help putting a couple jalapenos in...just because
 
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I absolutely love this time of year.  Seattle is just full of flowers everywhere you look.  Here are a few from my back yard.
 
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Plant Out Day!!!
 
My top 24 plants are going into my two raised beds.  No pots this year.
 
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So these two are my white fataliis that have been severely wrinkled since birth, but the one on the left has seemed to come out of it in the past few weeks.  The one on the right never did.  I'm only keeping one...can you guess which one?
 
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Laying them out so the plants will have some space away from the house.  I'll be interesting trying to pick pods that are up against the house.
 
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In the dirt!
 
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I don't have to worry about the house in this bed, so I'm spacing them out a bit more.  Last year I had 18 plants in this bed, but it was just too crowded (for me).  So this year I'm giving them a bit more room with only 12 plants per bed.
 
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In their final home!
 
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Wow! Stepping it up this year. Garden looks fantastic. Great job on the raised beds. Sounds like a nice mix. Good luck with your grow. I don't think your going to need it though. LOL..

I think I'm close to my like limit just in one Glog.

Thanks for sharing.

Chuck
 
Thanks for the encouraging words OCD!  I'm really excited about the mix of peppers I've got going this year.  Already planning the jellies and sauces to make in the fall.  At 27 pepper plants, I think I'm at the hard ceiling of my wife's acceptance.  If I add another raised bed to the yard I think she would pop  :eek:
 
How is the weather in Co for you?  Are you close to plant out?
Ozzy2001 said:
Looks great. Nice set up.
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Thanks Ozzy!  I appreciate it.  I actually really enjoy building these raised beds.  I've offered to build a couple for friends just for the fun of it  :party:
 
turbo said:
Thanks for the encouraging words OCD!  I'm really excited about the mix of peppers I've got going this year.  Already planning the jellies and sauces to make in the fall.  At 27 pepper plants, I think I'm at the hard ceiling of my wife's acceptance.  If I add another raised bed to the yard I think she would pop  :eek:
 
How is the weather in Co for you?  Are you close to plant out?
 
Thanks Ozzy!  I appreciate it.  I actually really enjoy building these raised beds.  I've offered to build a couple for friends just for the fun of it  :party:
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Im going to give it another week. Yesterday we had some early morning rain. I noticed some of it had froze on top of the trash can. It's ok. I'll start with raised beds first. I only have two as we speak. LOL. I need to start the hardening off process this week. I love kitchen projects. I need to make some hot oil this week and ground some powder.
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Im going to give it another week. Yesterday we had some early morning rain. I noticed some of it had froze on top of the trash can. It's ok. I'll start with raised beds first. I only have two as we speak. LOL. I need to start the hardening off process this week. I love kitchen projects. I need to make some hot oil this week and ground some powder.
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Do you have a hoop house setup on your raised beds?  I've found they REALLY help isolate the plants from the weather extremes we get in April.  On a 50F day, its 70F in the hoop house, and they help protect the plants from the wind and rain.  I expect I'll keep them on the beds until June.
 
turbo said:
Do you have a hoop house setup on your raised beds?  I've found they REALLY help isolate the plants from the weather extremes we get in April.  On a 50F day, its 70F in the hoop house, and they help protect the plants from the wind and rain.  I expect I'll keep them on the beds until June.
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I don't right now. Those are good temp changes. That's like being in a different zone. I'm going to make something here soon. I need plastic for the nights and shade for the days. My daytime highs will be in the 90's soon enough. The Chinese don't like that dry heat. The Annuums don't mind so much. Your hoops looks good to go. Plants love that extra soil warmth at night. I might put down some mulch to hold heat. Black plastic and black cloth ground cover would work too. Something that works in my budget.
 
Its 56F and rainy today but my hoop houses are keeping the plants warm and dry.  Why did I not do this last year?!?!
 
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How do you like my little herb garden right in front of the new raised bed?
 
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Its 56F outside, but its 93 inside.  The peppers love it!  I'm usually seeing a 30F delta between outside temp and inside the hoop house when its all closed up.  Which means if its gonna be above 60F I need to open it up wide and it the air flow.  And if its gonna be above 70, I pull it tarp off for the day.
 
Today's outside / inside temp delta was really wide...37F.  Not sure why.  Maybe because it was so humid.
 
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Love the setup.  I plan on building some more raised beds this fall / next spring think I will plan a size to allow this.  Sure would help a lot with hardening off and keep them happy on a cold rainy day like you have.  I have white fatalii growing also, looking like yours.  I though it was something I did, but maybe some trait or something.  It was big fast and perfect looking then I topped and pruned.  New leaves coming in wrinkled like yours, seemed to get worse during initial hardening off but looking a little better now.  White devil's tongue is another with similar issues.  Most other plants in same soil, same everything really not showing this.
 
Its been about two weeks since plant out, and everybody seems to really like the hoop house setup.  Most of the plants have doubled in size'ish already.  Last year after plant out it rained for two weeks and all my plants took about 2-3 weeks to even start growing
 
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My Cheiro Roxa have kept their dark leaves I'm happy to say.  Its got great branching already going on without any topping. 
 
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My dog wishing he could play in the dirt.
 
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Garlic anyone?  I'm only a month or two away from harvest.  Some of the ones on the right already have scapes growing.  Two more weeks and its garlic scape pesto!!!
 
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jcw10tc said:
Love the setup.  I plan on building some more raised beds this fall / next spring think I will plan a size to allow this.  Sure would help a lot with hardening off and keep them happy on a cold rainy day like you have.  I have white fatalii growing also, looking like yours.  I though it was something I did, but maybe some trait or something.  It was big fast and perfect looking then I topped and pruned.  New leaves coming in wrinkled like yours, seemed to get worse during initial hardening off but looking a little better now.  White devil's tongue is another with similar issues.  Most other plants in same soil, same everything really not showing this.
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Thanks JWC.  Yea, the hoop house has really been awesome.  I was able to plant out 2 weeks earlier than normal.  Interesting that you had a similar issue with your white fatalii.  Mine still hasn't recovered, but it keeps growing and it has 5 peppers on it, so I just decided to quit worrying about it.  It'll be a pretty funny looking plant if it keeps those curled leaves once its full grown  :confused:
muskymojo said:
Looks great!
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Thanks muskymojo!
 

 
 
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