WalkGood 2013, 2014 and Beyond

stc3248 · May 7, 2013

We got those dang parrots out here in San Diego too....loud, obnoxious...but always fun to look at. The problem I had with neem last year is it seemed to do a great job killing the friendlies and only an ok job of killing the aphids. So without the predators able to move in it was a long battle. Seems as though introducing the friendlies without any pesticide this year built a nice big resident population...just my .02. Don't worry too much about those torn up leaves. I just pinch them off and let the new growth come on in.

stickman · May 7, 2013

Hi Ramon
Glad to see you have your babies set outside in their big boy shoes.

If you have a friend that'll loan you a game camera, you could set it up next to the plants that have been getting chewed. I don't think it'll show pics of slugs and snails because they're too small, but if it's birds that are picking holes in the leaves you'll have pics to prove it.

DocNrock · May 7, 2013

WalkGood said:
I think you could be onto something, crickets are quick, hard to spot and eat a night here AFAIK. Have you done anything to get rid of them?

If you are all organic, you probably don't want to know.

I will say that after I cleaned up the ground space where the plants currently sit, I sprayed the ground only, not my plants. That seems to be enough to keep the crickets and grasshoppers to a tolerable minimum. And I don't have chems on my plants/flowers/pods, and it hasn't hurt the bees one bit (or the Green Lacewings).

WalkGood · May 7, 2013

Al-from-Chile said:
1+ for neem

I managed to fight back an @ssload of aphids with it ... its esp. good if you can do it preemptive ... I understand the neem oil gets absorbed by the plant and any sucking bug later gets a dose of it from the very plant's juices and turns infertile. … …

Thanks for the info Al, greatly appreciated and I’ve got the non sucking bugs in my scope, hehe.

stc3248 said:
We got those dang parrots out here in San Diego too....loud, obnoxious...but always fun to look at. The problem I had with neem last year is it seemed to do a great job killing the friendlies and only an ok job of killing the aphids. So without the predators able to move in it was a long battle. Seems as though introducing the friendlies without any pesticide this year built a nice big resident population...just my .02. Don't worry too much about those torn up leaves. I just pinch them off and let the new growth come on in.

Thank you Shane and dually noted. I noticed the same with me using mineral oil but since its not a daily thing I still see ladybugs, wasps and lizards around. The least I’ve gotten by with using it is once a month, if I don’t the whitefly will come back as I see them everywhere down here, they’re up high in all my trees and get knocked back hard when it rains. If I do go with neem next I’ll use sparingly as I don’t want to loose what little beneficial bugs I have.

stickman said:
Hi Ramon
Glad to see you have your babies set outside in their big boy shoes. If you have a friend that'll loan you a game camera, you could set it up next to the plants that have been getting chewed. I don't think it'll show pics of slugs and snails because they're too small, but if it's birds that are picking holes in the leaves you'll have pics to prove it.

Rick, thanks for popping by as I’ve seen you very busy with the plant out, it all looks great! I believe it’s been crickets this time, killed one I caught last night and great idea on the camera but AFAIK none of my friends have one. Any ideas on cricket repel VS hand killing, hehe.

DocNrock said:
If you are all organic, you probably don't want to know.

I will say that after I cleaned up the ground space where the plants currently sit, I sprayed the ground only, not my plants. That seems to be enough to keep the crickets and grasshoppers to a tolerable minimum. And I don't have chems on my plants/flowers/pods, and it hasn't hurt the bees one bit (or the Green Lacewings).

I have no problem spraying the ground around them, as you might have notice I’m keeping them up high and in pots. Earlier today I sprayed coffee, soapy water and round up around the foot of those brick square stands. The ones on the pool deck are on milk crates but not crazy about spraying where peeps walk barefoot, what you using?

And now for something completely different, someone had asked me a about palms some time ago, all my 4 are grown from coconuts and planted at various places around the yard. I spoke about my favorite one that I’ve grown which I call Wilma after the hurricane and without any further adieu here’s Wilma:

Dshlogg · May 7, 2013

Easy access to the coconuts. Nice! I see you have some gigantic bromeliads too. Ahh the tropics. You got it made man!

WalkGood · May 7, 2013

Dshlogg said:
Easy access to the coconuts. Nice! I see you have some gigantic bromeliads too. Ahh the tropics. You got it made man!

Thanks

Did you see the green iguana in the first shot?

Devv · May 7, 2013

What a shame to see Wilma knocked over, still alive tho eh? How old is she? Looks like she's been around for a while.

We used to have tons, I mean tons of crickets invade (in town) when it rained normally. They were in everything. We used Borax powdered soap along the thresholds of the doors and it hammers them.

Crickets are nasty stinkin' critters...hate 'em!

WalkGood · May 7, 2013

Devv said:
What a shame to see Wilma knocked over, still alive tho eh? How old is she? Looks like she's been around for a while.

No, I love her that way, before she was too straight, hehe. Down here people pay much more for leaning palms, as much as twice the price. She’s in good shape but she’s pushing 19 years now so she’s no spring chicken

Only kidding, coconut palms can live 80 to 90 years but chances are Wilma won’t live the full span with the tribulations in South FL.

Devv said:
We used to have tons, I mean tons of crickets invade (in town) when it rained normally. They were in everything. We used Borax powdered soap along the thresholds of the doors and it hammers them.

Crickets are nasty stinkin' critters...hate 'em!

I have some of that stuff, you think it would work around the base of the stands, the plants are definitely far above them. Heck I’ve already doused the soil with cinnamon to keep the ants at bay.

PIC 1 · May 7, 2013

Everythings moving along nicely, bugs are bugs, and won't overtake the full grown plants. You are obviously ahead of the game preventing them from staking their flag. Certain pests are seasonal, we have them here. The "white flies" were notorious last year. Thet tried to nest their eggs in the creveses of the peppers...sneaky. A good blast of water did the trick.

I had some plants similar looking to your the torn leaved ones. Last year, once all my plants were brought out to harden off we went away for the weekend. Rain was in the forecast....good right?....a hail shoot came through and over 70 pepper pl;ants had major damage. Most eventually grew back the foliage, but some weren't worth the wait.

Hey, man easy on the tree trunk........how would you like somebody pushing you down to the ground.........muscles............

WalkGood · May 8, 2013

PIC 1 said:
Everythings moving along nicely, bugs are bugs, and won't overtake the full grown plants. You are obviously ahead of the game preventing them from staking their flag. Certain pests are seasonal, we have them here. The "white flies" were notorious last year. Thet tried to nest their eggs in the creveses of the peppers...sneaky. A good blast of water did the trick.

I had some plants similar looking to your the torn leaved ones. Last year, once all my plants were brought out to harden off we went away for the weekend. Rain was in the forecast....good right?....a hail shoot came through and over 70 pepper pl;ants had major damage. Most eventually grew back the foliage, but some weren't worth the wait.

Hey, man easy on the tree trunk........how would you like somebody pushing you down to the ground.........muscles............

Thank you and yes you’re right some new growth is replacing the damaged leaves, but those huge ones that took for ever to get that size will probably be gone for good as the new growth isn’t as large. Unfortunately whitefly here is a year round issue and not a good one as they are everywhere ... Even if you don’t have them now the chances the neighbor next door has them are extremely high and it's just a matter of time for them to fly over. I don’t have WF issues now and I rarely spray any oil now, a spot application when needed seems to keep them all away.

Greg, I finally finished up-potting your little gals to their final homes, well they’re not really little gals any more, lols. I ran out this morning to buy a few pots in order to finish current up-potting needs, I purchased eight 15 gallon nursery pots as I haven’t found any left over from landscaping jobs lately. Not a bad deal @ $3.00 a pot. So I get home, carry them out back and see across the river they’re landscaping, all over their back yard are numerous 15 gallon pots, hahaha on me. I'll ~~maybe~~ definitely check them out later … again thanks for seed mon!

Didn’t have any seaweed to mix into soil but that’s ok cause I’ll probably get some over the weekend and use as mulch. I did have some banana skins to chop up and mix in. Plus egg shells, except now I’m testing powdered shells. The birth egg shell is cracked up and mixed in with the first up-potting. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen roots grabbing hold of egg shells during a transplant, which leads me to believe that peppers like them.

Roots, rocks reggae mon, hehe!

Basically I save all the shells we use and allow them to fully dry, pulverize them and store in a jar.

Apologies for this bad picture but I had a hard time transplanting and shooting pics at the same time. Even though it’s a bad picture (too much light, mama sunshine), I included it to show where I put the egg shell dust. Approximately four inches below the top and around the diameter of the old pot size, then I cover with new soil to finish the transplant.

Finished plants, left to right: Chocolate Scorpion, Trinidad Scorpion, White Bhut and Bhut Jolokia

I’ve always liked having my pots raised up off the deck to keep ants or bugs from nesting underneath and it makes it easier to shoot a little bug spray under them to make sure they don’t decide to scale mount pepper.

As always, thanks for looking, commenting and sharing your ideas with me … have a great day!

Devv · May 8, 2013

Things are looking just fine in the tropics! Still puttin' em out eh?

You're gonna have more peepers then the law allows!

The Borax really works, but IMHO not worth it to spread it everywhere unless they invade. Once it rains, it's gone. The place we leased had a fence on one side and it was dark brown solid with crickets, as there was a car wash next door, plenty of moisture. Diatomaceous earth works too. I actually spelled that correctly haha.

WalkGood · May 8, 2013

Thanks Scott, now if we only had a little more rain ... Annie's getting it all now, probably too much :0

I use DE around the ingrounds to keep snails away but not for crickets, never had issue before but this years been full of surprise bugs that haven't bothered my grow in prior years. Hope it's not cause I've increased the plant numbers and it stands out like a sore thumb, hehehe. Good to know on the Borax, never tried it before but I hear ya on the rain, DE also clumps up with rain, looked like football field lines around the peppers a few months back, hahaha.

Al-from-Chile · May 8, 2013

WalkGood said:
Thank you and yes you’re right some new growth is replacing the damaged leaves, but those huge ones that took for ever to get that size will probably be gone for good as the new growth isn’t as large. Unfortunately whitefly here is a year round issue and not a good one as they are everywhere ... Even if you don’t have them now the chances the neighbor next door has them are extremely high and it's just a matter of time for them to fly over. I don’t have WF issues now and I rarely spray any oil now, a spot application when needed seems to keep them all away.

Greg, I finally finished up-potting your little gals to their final homes, well they’re not really little gals any more, lols. I ran out this morning to buy a few pots in order to finish current up-potting needs, I purchased eight 15 gallon nursery pots as I haven’t found any left over from landscaping jobs lately. Not a bad deal @ $3.00 a pot. So I get home, carry them out back and see across the river they’re landscaping, all over their back yard are numerous 15 gallon pots, hahaha on me. I'll ~~maybe~~ definitely check them out later … again thanks for seed mon!

Didn’t have any seaweed to mix into soil but that’s ok cause I’ll probably get some over the weekend and use as mulch. I did have some banana skins to chop up and mix in. Plus egg shells, except now I’m testing powdered shells. The birth egg shell is cracked up and mixed in with the first up-potting. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen roots grabbing hold of egg shells during a transplant, which leads me to believe that peppers like them.

Roots, rocks reggae mon, hehe!

Basically I save all the shells we use and allow them to fully dry, pulverize them and store in a jar.

Apologies for this bad picture but I had a hard time transplanting and shooting pics at the same time. Even though it’s a bad picture (too much light, mama sunshine), I included it to show where I put the egg shell dust. Approximately four inches below the top and around the diameter of the old pot size, then I cover with new soil to finish the transplant.

Finished plants, left to right: Chocolate Scorpion, Trinidad Scorpion, White Bhut and Bhut Jolokia

As always, thanks for looking, commenting and sharing your ideas with me … have a great day!

Top notch work - we didn't expect less of you

How do you grind the eggshells? En la licuadora?

Cheers, Al

WalkGood · May 8, 2013

Al-from-Chile said:
Top notch work - we didn't expect less of you

Thanks Al but I'm not better than anyone else here, heck you've got an awesome grow going too ^_^

Al-from-Chile said:
How do you grind the eggshells? En la licuadora?

Mortar and pestle but if I get too many I’d probably just use coffee grinder like for powder. I’ve also thought about asking the local breakfast spot to save me some eggs but I don’t want to start processing hundreds of eggs, hehe. I've only been making the shell into powder for a few months now so I do not know how quickly it can break down or if its more effective VS the larger hand crushed shells I’ve always used for years. While uou can clearly see the shell particles, some of it comes out like dust that blows awy with wind thus I started putting it down a few inches.

DesertChris · May 9, 2013

Finally had some time to catch up on glogs

Pests...Booooo!!

My latest is a pesky mouse.... it was trying to make a nest in my 32oz cups in the tomato seedlings...
Every morning, it was a different one, all hollowed out....after a couple days of packing soil back into them, I moved all the tomatoes out to the picnic table in the garden.

So in retaliation, the stupid mouse took out a few peppers.... seriously.....a couple maui purple plants were gone from the soil up....and a couple others as well.... luckily I planned ahead for the inevitable losses with a few extras

I was goimg to set a trap tonight, but got distracted and forgot, so tomorrow night will have to be doomsday for the darn mouse.

Hmmmmm... crickets.... I'm thinking you need a bunch of geckos to patrol your plants!! If you see many around locally, catch them, and relocate them to your garden!

If your boy likes catching lizards and geckos you could be extra lucky

PIC 1 · May 9, 2013

Nice root zones and the plants look lush!

Some folks swear by 5 gal buckets, but I agree with you give them 3 times the lovin, bigger is better.

Today's my plantout, I woke up at 3:30 , an hour before usual. I must be excited, too excited.
Now that I'm thinking of all that work I 'm actually getting tired...........ha, the power of suggestion......

koskorgul · May 9, 2013

Looking good man.
Wilma looks awesome, wish we could grow them here in central pa LOL

I was going to leave my plants out lastnight on the porch but changed my mind right before I went to bed. Good thing I did cuse when I went to leave for work, there was a rabbit sitting about 3 ft from where I would have had the plants. i usually leave them out but up on the table on the deck. With all the rain I have been just sitting them on the porch beside the house.
Going to be using about 15 or so 5 gal buckets for a bunch of plants this year, and like the idea of keeping them up off the ground. Will be doing that also, as long as I can find crates or something.

Al-from-Chile · May 9, 2013

WalkGood said:
While uou can clearly see the shell particles, some of it comes out like dust that blows awy with wind thus I started putting it down a few inches.

ohhh .... an early morning BOSTON moment

annie57 · May 9, 2013

I'm throwing in my .02 on the pests, Ramon: crickets or snails. You can go out at night, esp. if slightest bit rainy?--check for slugs. Sluggo Plus is what I've been using. Find dead slugs and earwigs in that little greenhouse every morning on the riser. Riser really sits off ground, no deterrent to slugs, they slime up anything. Unless you have an aversion to spinosad, SPlus is listed as OMRI, not that the label means heck of a lot. On the crickets . . . one way to find out is get a quart jar, 10:1 water, molasses. If you find dead crickets in couple quart jars, near plants, then good bet. But it looks like a-hole slug damage.

Otherwise, beautiful pods, plants, foodie porn

, and so far, not come back from buying nursery pots to find anybody landscaping and tossing 15 gal n-pots. Oh irony . . . dayum! Had you not gone for the pots, nobody would've been having that done!! Peace mi hermano, all is gorgeous and when the sog dries, chances are, whatever's munching on the young will cease. Crickets hit my summer squash last year and took down one entire enormous plant. Jerks. (I caught them in the act at night.) Jerks. AND cilantro is rumored to repel snails: all my cilantro pots surround the little g-house. Also, GREAT idea on the milk cartons . . . need to ask Ma if she can get some from "milkman." (My back/arm/body must be recovering from the dogfight with H20! That mind hath returned! lol)

WalkGood · May 9, 2013

DesertChris said:
Finally had some time to catch up on glogs

Pests...Booooo!!

My latest is a pesky mouse.... it was trying to make a nest in my 32oz cups in the tomato seedlings...
Every morning, it was a different one, all hollowed out....after a couple days of packing soil back into them, I moved all the tomatoes out to the picnic table in the garden.

So in retaliation, the stupid mouse took out a few peppers.... seriously.....a couple maui purple plants were gone from the soil up....and a couple others as well.... luckily I planned ahead for the inevitable losses with a few extras

I was goimg to set a trap tonight, but got distracted and forgot, so tomorrow night will have to be doomsday for the darn mouse.

Hmmmmm... crickets.... I'm thinking you need a bunch of geckos to patrol your plants!! If you see many around locally, catch them, and relocate them to your garden!

If your boy likes catching lizards and geckos you could be extra lucky

Hope you get that ~~mouse~~ rat, hehe. Great idea on the geckos, we have species here that I’ve never seen before, almost prehistoric looking ... including some that look like albinos. Ours only come out at night and relocating wouldn’t work because they’d make their way back to the garage (where they nest & reproduce). Plus there isn’t anywhere near the peppers that stays dark enough for them during the day. As you must know they’re night crawlers and help keep moth populations in our yard, they do a great job. Thanks for catching up on de glog mon ^_^

Edit: I just found an old picture (not great) of one type of geckos we have in da yard. Taken in the dark of the night so sorry for any shake and poor quality ...

PIC 1 said:
Nice root zones and the plants look lush!

Some folks swear by 5 gal buckets, but I agree with you give them 3 times the lovin, bigger is better.

Today's my plantout, I woke up at 3:30 , an hour before usual. I must be excited, too excited.
Now that I'm thinking of all that work I 'm actually getting tired...........ha, the power of suggestion......

How can anyone argue with 3 times the lovin \o/ heck I have some pots much larger but thinking I want to stay with 15 gallons from now on. I’ve been meaning to ask you, is there a way one judges “root zone/s” or as long as they’re good color, not root bound they’re good. Also if they’re bad or root bound is a trim in order?

Great success in your weekend plant out, I'm excited to see all your girls outside in da ground ^_^

koskorgul said:
Looking good man.
Wilma looks awesome, wish we could grow them here in central pa LOL

I was going to leave my plants out lastnight on the porch but changed my mind right before I went to bed. Good thing I did cuse when I went to leave for work, there was a rabbit sitting about 3 ft from where I would have had the plants. i usually leave them out but up on the table on the deck. With all the rain I have been just sitting them on the porch beside the house.
Going to be using about 15 or so 5 gal buckets for a bunch of plants this year, and like the idea of keeping them up off the ground. Will be doing that also, as long as I can find crates or something.

Good call on bringing them in \o/ and thanks for comment on Wilma, we love her and her lean is smexy! thanks for popping in mon ^_^

Al-from-Chile said:
ohhh .... an early morning BOSTON moment

Funny and what I wrote reminds me of
»» Foobar2k ::: Kansas - Point of Know Return (1977) - 07 - Dust in the Wind ::: 1:30/3:29 (•••••••••&bull

::: 482 kbps «« ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

annie57 said:
I'm throwing in my .02 on the pests, Ramon: crickets or snails. You can go out at night, esp. if slightest bit rainy?--check for slugs. Sluggo Plus is what I've been using. Find dead slugs and earwigs in that little greenhouse every morning on the riser. Riser really sits off ground, no deterrent to slugs, they slime up anything. Unless you have an aversion to spinosad, SPlus is listed as OMRI, not that the label means heck of a lot. On the crickets . . . one way to find out is get a quart jar, 10:1 water, molasses. If you find dead crickets in couple quart jars, near plants, then good bet. But it looks like a-hole slug damage.

Otherwise, beautiful pods, plants, foodie porn , and so far, not come back from buying nursery pots to find anybody landscaping and tossing 15 gal n-pots. Oh irony . . . dayum! Had you not gone for the pots, nobody would've been having that done!! Peace mi hermano, all is gorgeous and when the sog dries, chances are, whatever's munching on the young will cease. Crickets hit my summer squash last year and took down one entire enormous plant. Jerks. (I caught them in the act at night.) Jerks. AND cilantro is rumored to repel snails: all my cilantro pots surround the little g-house. Also, GREAT idea on the milk cartons . . . need to ask Ma if she can get some from "milkman." (My back/arm/body must be recovering from the dogfight with H20! That mind hath returned! lol)

A great 2¢ Annie!!! I have been going out at night after I killed the one I found, hard to believe he did all that damage, I haven’t seen more and the damage has stopped for now. Let’s hope he she didn’t plant any eggs anywhere

I’m growing Cilantro too, so when I split some out to get more pots going (or get mas seed) I’m going to follow your advice, one can never have too much cilantro lols. Do you grow yours in pots or in ground? BTW I hope you feel better, get some needed rest as you’ll need it very soon to plant, hehe …

Again and as always ... thanks everyone for popping in, I certainly appreciate every last word you all write ^_^ It’s great to read others advice and positive vibes \o/ Have a great weekend all and can’t wait to see everyone's plants out & in da ground. It sucks that that ~~Mr.~~ Ms. weather is holding you great people at ransom.