TXCG's 2013 grow log - Big harvest (9/7)

TXCG · Jul 28, 2013

stc3248 said:
Everything picking up some steam for a push in the second half of the season! Gonna be a hot one!

That's what I'm counting on, & we should have another good 3-4 months of good growing weather, at least through the end of October. Sometimes we won't even get a frost until January.

Pr0digal_son said:
Plants have come out of the closet! Really going off now. Sometimes chinense are alittle pickier about food and will abort flowers. Up here,my plants love full sun over shade,we don't get long runs over 100 degrees though. I have my containers lined up so the sun goes directly over top of them and doesn't hit the sides of them. When the plants get bigger,they help shade each other roots and containers even more.

I should have some fatalii pods to share pretty soon if you need some.

I've found that most things that like "full sun" don't really like full sun here. I'm thinking I might have to build a shade cloth cover for my raised bed next year since it gets zero shade. A few of mine have shaded out their entire pots & it definitely helps a lot to soil cool. I didn't bother to mulch my cumari or chiletepin because they both are so short & fat they cover their whole pot & then some.

Thanks for the kind offer too, I'd love a few fataliis if you've got some to spare!

Devv said:
Your plants are looking really good! Mine suffered with Vay-K time, but survived. Now just to get them cranking again...

So are the plants in the felt grow bags doing better than the 5gal containers?

So how do you feed them?

So it's a tough call on the plants in the 5 gallon vs root pouches, I've only got 1 plant in a comparable size root pouch (7 gallon) and it's that "red" yellow fatalii. I definitely was impressed with the root ball on the yellow fatalii I had in the other 7 gallon smart pot when I pulled it out to stick it in that 20 gallon one. Instead of the typical circling roots the outside it was just a mass of branching roots.

I think the difference in 5 gallon buckets & 7 gallon root pouches may be more evident once they get more rootbound. My plants in 5 gallon buckets are still growing & quite huge already. However my plants in the 15 & 20 gallon root pouches are definitely the largest of all. So I'd say having a good large pot makes more of a difference than 5 gallon vs smart pot at least until they get rootbound. One other neat thing about the 3 large smart pots is that the roots grew straight through the bottom & into the soil.

For feeding I use Maxibloom by general hydroponics which is a 1 part dry mix complete fertilizer. Noah (millworkman) recommended it & I'm liking it a lot. No need to adjust pH since it comes out spot on after mixing & it's relatively cheap. $15 for 2.2 lb which makes a ton of food at 1/2 to 1 tsp per gallon of water. Early in the season I was feeding 1 tsp/gallon of water but now that they're going through so much water I'm only using 1/2 tsp gallon. I've only ran into one issue with it & that was a bit of salt buildup from not watering enough to flush out the old stuff, now I water til I get a lot more runoff & the problem went away. I also water with plain tap water like every 3rd watering.

I built a fertigation system with a large trash can, water pump & water wand to make feeding go quicker. Mixing up individual 2 gallon watering cans got old real quick: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/40172-diy-fertigation-water-wand-system/

TXCG · Jul 29, 2013

Well the few flowers that "set" on the cut-back yellow fatalii fell off so perhaps I haven't got this sorted out after all. My "red" yellow fatalii is still setting more flowers so at least that guy's on track. Speaking of red fataliis, I got my first actual ripe red pod off the one in my raised bed. The shape doesn't look much like a fatalii but at least it's red.

However after tasting it I'm glad my other "red" fatalii spits out the yellow pods since I prefer the taste to these red ones. The red ones don't taste bad, just don't have that awesome fatalii flavor & no where near as strong of a taste.

"Red fatalii" & pieces of a trinidad perfume

TXCG · Aug 1, 2013

Posted this in another thread but it fits here too. I need to get some more good close up shots of the varieties I'm growing.

Trindad Seasoning:

Makes decent sized pods:

No heat but a great flavor

Not sure how a bird managed to shit on the lower side of this pole but that seed looks awfully familiar....Damn birds better not let me catch em eating my peppers unless they want to be on the wrong end of a slingshot. :flamethrower:

Typical August in Austin. 40% humidity & 100+ degree heat.

Devv · Aug 1, 2013

Thanks for the response on the pots versus grow bags. I asked that question because of reading posts in other glogs, your observations match theirs pertaining to the roots circling.

Well hell with the pods setting! I have a few new ones, few as in three or four LOL...

Those temps....I know them well, having to double water everyday!

stc3248 · Aug 1, 2013

Too hot man...September you'll be back in business! I would plant that seed and see what turns up! Plants still look nice and healthy!

TXCG · Aug 1, 2013

stc3248 said:
Too hot man...September you'll be back in business! I would plant that seed and see what turns up! Plants still look nice and healthy!

Hhaha I didn't even think of that. If it's still there when I get home I'll put on some gloves & get it in the dirt.

TXCG · Aug 2, 2013

Sawyer · Aug 2, 2013

Must be a bird pepper.

TXCG · Aug 6, 2013

We've got at least another 3-4 weeks of this heat before it starts cooling back off:

Lemon Drop, Trinidad Seasoning & Texas Chiletepin still holding it down in full sun. Everything else is in part shade at this point.

I love looking at a yard full of giant plants

. These are all positioned to get sun til about noon then filtered sun & shade the rest of the day. Got at least a few pods on everything except my Moruga & the yellow fatalii in the 5 gallon bucket. The Fatalii in the 20 gallon pot is still dropping most of its flowers but has maybe 3 pods.

The "red" yellow fatalii has started producing like crazy. 40+ pods as best as I can count, it's hardly dropping any flowers at this point. I'm very happy about this one, I'll get some fataliis this season after all

Harvest from Saturday 8/3:

Clockwise from top left: Cumari, Sweet Datil, Trinidad Seasoning & Aji Lemon Drop.

Pull from this morning in the raised bed at work:

Trinidad Perfumes, Aji Lemon Drops & Red Fataliis

Also I have 3 successful Aji Lemon Drop clones! I probably would have had better success rate if I had stayed on top of misting them early on but this was a shits-n-grins project so no worries. I'm going to be finishing up a hydroponic cloner to take some cuttings before the end of the season.

wahlee76 · Aug 6, 2013

Good looking plants you have. And already a nice harvest. :cheers:

Devv · Aug 6, 2013

Nice harvest and beautiful looking plants!

They're doing well for all the heat they're having to deal with. I'm with you...looking at September to roll in and cool down into the 90's, like 102 here now..

TXCG · Aug 9, 2013

The aphids I was fighting early in the season are back in full force. I've got an army of fire ants carrying the little sap-sucking bastards & depositing them on flower buds & leaves by the thousands. However a lot of swearing & a little safer soap later and the plants are littered with aphid corpses. Now I just need to figure out how to run the fireants out of the pots since they just keep carrying more aphids to their doom.

Luckily this is contained to 3 plants at the moment: Fatalii in 20 gallon pot (like it needs any more problems...), cut back trinidad seasoning that has already fought these bastards off once & my trinidad scorpion.

"Red" yellow fatalii is still going hard in the paint. No aphids on this one but I did lose one pod to a stinkbug poking a hole in it.

Despite aphids my trinidad scorpion has started setting some fruit again. 5 pods at last count:

Devv · Aug 9, 2013

Check into dry molasses for fire ants, they're supposed to hate it. Haven't tried it here as we don't have fire ants..

TXCG · Aug 9, 2013

Devv said:
Check into dry molasses for fire ants, they're supposed to hate it. Haven't tried it here as we don't have fire ants..

Lol after reading your comment this was the first thing that popped in my head:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ38PGV_3wg[/youtube]

I'll have to give that a shot though, I've been thinking of trying borax mixed with some sort of bait or seeing if the local organic nursery has anything worthwhile.

Devv · Aug 9, 2013

We have sugar ants at work and I use a sweet bait with boron in it, it's called Tero. It's effective but this year the ant supply is crazy. The Molasses is supposed to make them move..

For what it's worth:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/organic/msg0120522025612.html

TXCG · Aug 9, 2013

It's been awhile since I posted an update for my community garden plot so I figure it's about time.

Group shot of everything. 5 pepper plants & 2 giant basil bushes. There are a couple of tomato transplants too from clones off my big plant but they're not anything worth pictures yet.

Actual red fatalii. This thing has made quite a few pods for how tiny it is. More than the rest of my 3 big ass fatalii plants combined.

Aji Lemon Drop. Tiny in comparison to the one in the container but still making quite a few pods.

Trinidad Perfume. These are alright & make pretty pods with a neat shape but of the 3 "habanero without heat" varieties I'm growing it's the least tasty. Not bad by any means, but the Trinidad Seasoning & Sweet Datil are both way tastier & more prolific. Don't think I'll bother growing this one again.

Moruga Scorpion. Hasn't set a single pod all season. I got an entire 2 pods off my other Moruga plant. They seem to hate this climate. It is the biggest of the 5 plants in the raised bed but the mystery annuum is quickly overtaking it.

Mystery annuum. Shaped like a jalapeno but about the size of a serrano. Jalaperano? Yep, that's what we're going with. I need to try a green pod, they get pretty soft when left to ripen red & I didn't care much for the texture but it was sweet & tasty with a little bit of heat.

The pods don't get a whole lot bigger than this before they turn.

I'm thinking next year I'm just going to fill this plot to the brim with pepper plants I start from seed. The plants never get big here but with the exception of the Moruga I've never had a plant not set fruit in this bed. I figure I'll just pick a few varieties & plant rows of each. I'm hoping to overwinter the ones already here but we'll see what survives. I'm not going to dig them up, just cut back & mulch them. Last year I didn't do anything & 3 of the 4 I had survived.

Peptacular · Aug 10, 2013

Man that heat sounds oppressive. Your plants seem to be taking it in stride though. Great looking harvests!

Also If the fire ants aren't set up in the pots themselves I've heard pouring boiling water down their nests is a cheap eco friendly solution. Although yours might be resistant to extreme heat entirely judging by the weather haha.

TXCG · Aug 14, 2013

Fuck aphids and the ants they rode in on.

I found this guy guarding my "red" yellow fatalii plant.

He's got that thousand yard stare like he's seen some shit.

Probably having flashbacks to his time in the war:

1920x1080 color version w/ the helmet. This is my new desktop background

The roots on my 3 lemon drop clones have started poking out the bottoms of their cups, just about time to transplant them to some 1 gallon pots.

Dat fuzz (sorry for the huge pics but hard to see detail otherwise):

Beerswimmer · Aug 14, 2013

Love the spider pics

Toofer · Aug 14, 2013

Ahhhh jumping spiders, some of my favorite critters in the world! I could watch 'em for hours.

Those are some pretty amazing close up photos.