TXCG 2016

After a couple years without a garden I'm really looking forward to having stuff growing again. We're getting the community garden started back up at work & since we had a few members give up their plots I now have doubled my space and have two 4'x8' plots to work with. The new plot is in pretty sad shape compared to my original one so I have a lot of work to do in the next couple weeks to get things ready for planting out at the end of March.
 
 
Don't really have any pictures yet since I didn't start seeds this year but ordered 24 plants from Cross Country Nurseries. I had really good luck with the plants I bought from them back in 2013 so I'm hoping this year turns out at as well. I've never had plants get anywhere near as big in this raised bed as they do when I grow them in containers so going to try and make up for size with volume.
 
 
Plants on order (arriving week of 3/28):
Texas Chiltepin (4)
Chupetinho (2)
Cumari (2)
Datil (2)
Sweet Datil (2)
Devil's Tongue (2)
Fatalii (2) 
Orange Jalapeno (2)
Lemon Drop (2)
PA 353 Red (2)
Shishito (2)

 
Now I just have to figure out how I want to space these things out. I'm thinking about putting 16 in my one good 4x8 bed and picking 8 to stick in a 4x4 section of my not so good bed leaving me a 4x4 space to plant some other things. After seeing Joyner's 16 plant 4x4 square foot garden I'm even kinda considering cramming all 24 into the one 8x8 bed especially because my plants never get more than about 2 feet tall here.

 

[TXCG]

Not sure if it was the tomato tone or all the rain but plants are looking greener and happy as can be. Lots of pods on the shishitos now, a few more orange jals, lemon drops, the pa 353 & the chupetinhos. Datils, sweet datils, fatalii & devils tongue all have flowers open or almost open & the chiltepins are showing buds. 
 

 
 
This orange jalapeno is a good 18"-24" at this point. Growing like crazy compared to the other plants. 
 

 

[Devv]

Wow!
 
I wish my plants looked that good! 
 
My pepper grow is mucho rata for some reason this year   Never knew they ate pepper plants, and all plants...LOL
 
Keep it green!

 

[TXCG]

Went out and sprayed some Azamax & spinosad again trying to knock down the last few pests that are still giving a couple of the plants hell. Wasn't supposed to rain til midnight but of course it started raining the second I got back home. Going to have to spray again tomorrow evening. 
 
Pretty much just the devil's tongue & sweet datils are still struggling at this point, everything else has grown out of it. 
 
Annuum bed is looking great:
 

 
Chinense bed was having most of the pest issues but hasn't slowed down growth & most new growth is coming out looking fine. Getting pretty big, most plants are almost touching.
 

 
 
Orange Jalapeno next to a 1 gallon jug. Thing is up past knee height now. Going to have to start staking things soon. 
 

 
Shishitos flowering like crazy. Not sure what to do about the flowers about 1" off the soil line. Hopefully those branches will grow up a bit before those peppers get big.
 

 
Shishito pepper
 

 
PA 353 pepper
 

 

[FiresOfNil]

I notice you have a few plants that have leaf edges curling up, I have 1 cultivar that is notoriously doing this in multiple mediums though it's otherwise growing fine and has no notable nute imbalance or PH problems. In your experience have you had cultivars prone to this? Or are your temps high there?

 

[Chilima]

Everything looks awesome and green TX   bet there will be a lot of peppers in a month time.

 

[TXCG]

I notice you have a few plants that have leaf edges curling up, I have 1 cultivar that is notoriously doing this in multiple mediums though it's otherwise growing fine and has no notable nute imbalance or PH problems. In your experience have you had cultivars prone to this? Or are your temps high there?

 
Temps are still low here, hasn't even been in the 90s yet which is a bit odd for this time of year. Most of the ones I have that are curling were suffering pretty good from thrips & mites earlier in the season but the ones that look particularly rough over in the chinense bed (4th plants from the left) are sweet datils and last time I grew them they also had some kinda funky leaves that tended to curl up. 
 

 
This is what they looked like back in 2013 and despite the ugly appearance were extremely prolific producers, produced straight through 100+ degree heat & were only slightly outdone by the Lemon Drops. 
 

 
 
What cultivar are you having issues with leaf curl on? 

 

[FiresOfNil]

Fatalii... but my temps have been 85-105F with 30-40% humidity. Only Fatalii, same growing set up across all other plants, one non-Fatalii had leaf curl cuz the PH was too low but I fixed that one since it was a fixable scenario.
3/3 fatalii have the curl. But 4/4 Aji Dulce are deformed too so not sure if genes.

 

[TXCG]

Time for a little update on the balcony grow. My balcony gets shit for sun so I don't expect these to do all that well but we will have to see. I ordered 8 plants from Juanitos knowing full well I had no room for them but he had cool varieties and I have zero self discipline. They got a bit beat up in transit because I got them shipped to work and they arrived on a Saturday so they sat in the box until Monday afternoon. Most have finally recovered, only one of the plants died because it got blown over in a rain storm and snapped off at the base.
 
I got 4 varieties with 2 plants of each: MOA Scotch Bonnet, Cumari do Para, Bubblegum 7 & Paper Lantern Habanero. The one that died was one of the 2 Cumari do Paras. 
 
When they arrived I transplanted them into 20oz solo cups with some crappy miracle gro potting soil I had left over. Today they got potted up into 1 gallon pots of Fox Farms Ocean Forest.
 
Lilly came out on the balcony with me to roll around in the dirt & chatter at birds:
 

 
MOA Scotch Bonnet:
 

 
Cumari do Para:
 

 
BBG 7:
 

 
 
Paper Lantern:
 

 
 
Lilly supervising the operation
 

 
 
This Paper Lantern was a bit too tall for the shipping box 

 
 
Cumari do Para originally had 2 plants in 1 cup but one of the two was showing this weird browning near the soil line. I cut it off and then cut the top off it to try and clone it. I think this is some kind of rot from the plants getting a bit too much rain and not getting a chance to dry out. I'm going to start moving them back underneath the awning during rain storms.

 

[Devv]

For just arriving the plants look really healthy. They will do just fine.
 
That one looks like it survived a damp-off attempt by Ma-nature.
 
Keep it green!

 

[TXCG]

For just arriving the plants look really healthy. They will do just fine.
 
That one looks like it survived a damp-off attempt by Ma-nature.
 
Keep it green!

 
They actually arrived a bit over a month ago. Shipped March 31st arrived on the 2nd & I finally managed to get them from our mailroom on the 4th of April.
 
So far the cutting looks alive, with any luck it will clone & I'll have a 2nd plant. This will be better anyway since there was no way I could separate that plant from the first one since the roots were grown together.
 
Here's from back when they first arrived:
 

 
And shortly after getting transplanted into solo cups:
 

 
Nice and healthy plants but I should have got them sent to my house instead of to work so they wouldn't have had to sit in the mailroom so long. Can't beat the price either, I think it was $25 including shipping for all 8. 

 

[Devv]

You know this cooler weather this season is a major plus for us!
 
And i see it's serving you well!

 

[TXCG]

Got three 2 cu. ft bags of Texas Native hardwood mulch and covered both plots. Of course I got a little over halfway done and a storm blew in out of nowhere and I got soaked. And then the second I got done it stopped raining. Also somehow managed to knock a decent size branch off one of my Cumaris. Brought it home to take some cuttings off it for clones and stuck it in a glass of water while I prepped some cups of soil. Turned my back for 30 seconds and my asshole cat ate half of it. 
 
Garden does look much nicer now 
 

 

[Chewi]

Forgot to ask if you still are using the Maxibloom? Was browsing your 2013 glog. Man it is about to get hotter than hell outside here shortly!!

 

[TXCG]

Forgot to ask if you still are using the Maxibloom? Was browsing your 2013 glog. Man it is about to get hotter than hell outside here shortly!!

Not for my raised bed. I don't have access to power there so I can't use my water wand pump system. Still got some for my container plants but this time they're in pretty hot soil so won't need feeding for a bit.

Raised bed it's just cow manure compost, turkey manure compost, and a bit of tomato tone.

Sent from my LG-H900 using Tapatalk

 

[TXCG]

Beds really starting to fill in. Loads of pods on everything except the big chinenses (Fatalii, Devils Tongue, Datil & Sweet Datil)
 
Annuum bed:
 

 
Chinense bed:
 

 
 
Native Tepin patch growing short and wide:
 

 
 
Chupetinhos:
 

 
Cumaris:
 

 
PA 353 Red growing some funky pods:
 

 
Shishitos absolutely loaded. The other plant has even more but hard to get a pic decent pic:
 

 
Lots of Lemon Drops:
 

 
 
Leaf Hopping bastards:
 

 

[Guatemalan Insanity Pepper]

fantastic update
 
 
lotsa pods in yer near future  
 
 
 
 
 
moar pics
 
 
 
 
 

 

[twiasp]

Surprised those Leaf Hoppers let you get a hand that close to them, they are skiddish little buggers.  Do they hurt plants?  I know there are lots here and probably in TX also.

 

[TXCG]

Surprised those Leaf Hoppers let you get a hand that close to them, they are skiddish little buggers.  Do they hurt plants?  I know there are lots here and probably in TX also.

 
I had to put my hand there cause they wanted to hide behind the stem. They are pretty shy little things. I've got squishing them down to an art though, have to fake them out with the fingers then mash them with the thumb since they like to run circles around the stems. 
 
I'm pretty sure they do hurt plants but I haven't noticed much damage lately.
 
Also recently started seeing stinkbugs (I think) on my plants the last couple days. I've squished about 10 of them so far. They have me a bit worried since they seem to hang out on the pods instead of the leaves.
 

 

Both azamax & spinosad say they target stinkbugs though so sounds like its time for another spray.

 

[twiasp]

Yeah I am pretty sure they say stinkbugs hurt plants.  Looks like a stinkbug.

 

[cubbieblue82]

looks great. got the same batch from juanitos - couldn't resist, haha. way too much going on but just had to have them! we're -FINALLY- settling into "normal" summer weather here in central IL. can't wait to eat.