Windchicken's Garden 2010

windchicken

windchicken

Considering the high level of botanical and agricultural expertise in this forum, I'm posting these photos with some reservations...so please be gentle with me! I was very late getting seeds started this year, and the midday temperatures in the garden were already very close to 100ºF when I set out the tender little transplants. As you might expect, they are struggling in the hostile environment of the North Louisiana summer, which is especially brutal this year. You will probably also notice that my old nemesis from my home garden, bacterial leaf spot, has now descended on my work garden. I am currently treating with fairly potent applications of Daconil. Don't know how that stuff is considered here, but there it is...Last night we had a very nice thunderstorm, after several weeks of very dry, hot days, so I took the opportunity to snap these photos:

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Garden view looking east: in the pots are overwintered Caribbean Red Habaneros. In the rows, from left to right and front to back: Row 1 is 10x Big Boy tomatoes. Row 2 is 4x Piment d'Espelette, 6x NuMex Española Improved, and 4x Poblano. Row 3 is 3x Caribbean Red Habanero, 6x Tabasco, and 6x NuMex Jalmundo. Row 4 is 6x Thai Red Chilli and 6x Pusa Jwala.

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Garden view looking west. The soil here is basal stream terrace, which in this area means it is mostly red sand, with some red clay and stream gravel, along with some irony sand concretions. The plants are set in "pods" of MG Garden Soil to give them a boost getting started. As you can see, I am in the process of mulching with shredded hardwood.

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Pusa Jwala

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Thai Red Chilli. This is the medium-hot, long pod. I believe in Thailand it is known as Prik Ki Faa.

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Caribbean Red Habanero

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Tabasco. These things do not like fertilizer!

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NuMex Jalmundo

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Poblano, generic Bonnie Plant Farms variety. These are the only bedding plants in the garden.

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NuMex Española Improved. These seem to be the hardest hit by the leaf spot bacteria. It is much more humid here than northern New Mexico...
 
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Piment d'Espelette. These little babies are really struggling in the heat. Lowest germination rate of the 12 varieties I started...

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Overwintered Caribbean Red Habanero, in need of the pruning shears.

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Volunteer Caribbean Red Habanero, with Big Boy nurse tree.

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Volunteer Caribbean Red Habanero. This is where we throw our scraps to the yard dogs. I wonder if one of them hacked out something that burned his doggie mouth. Anyway, all my best efforts in the garden pale when compared with this serendipitous little plant!
 
Beatiful Photos. Things look very good, plants, soil, and surroundings. Too bad about that BLS. I almost resorted to spraying Agrimycin after last years troubles, but this year most plants are healthy. I like your selection and can't wait to see it in a few weeks.
 
Thanks for posting the pictures of your garden. It looks like you have a decent start for this year. We all have to start some where, and truly every year is a learning process. Especially since each years weather pattern seems a little different. I've found that for peppers, I get better results and have more control when I grow them in containers. I'm at the point that even when I get a big garden, I'm going to grow most of my peppers in containers.

One thing you'll want to do is continue to add more organic material / compost to your garden, it will really help improve your soil and your plants. Good luck, and keep updating, as I look forward to seeing your progress through out the season.
 
oh wow. i am envious that you have a whole yard to play with, probably start selling when harvest time comes.

Great pictures and good variety there.
 
Thanks for all the kind words, guys. They really help, especially on those discouraging days!

We had heavy showers again yesterday, so I'm counting on some serious growth now. More photos soon.
 
Great looking garden Wind and thanks for posting. I love getting ideas from the knowledge here. Makes thing a whole lot easier. :clap:

Siling, I'm with you on the land issue. I too am very jealous. Container growing is all I do as well ;)
 
Thanks! It is nice to have all this space here at the company yard; at home my garden is confined, by the shade of a massive pecan tree, to a tiny 4-foot x 16-foot plot. Photos of that little pepper patch later. Here in the country I am limited only by my willingness to fight the Bermuda grass and the burgeoning wealth of weeds, along with the occasional armadillo. We are also blessed with very good soil and a long, hot growing season. The Louisiana summer can be hell, but to me its benefits greatly outweigh the unpleasantness.
 
Wow, awesome setup and great variety. Theyre gonna explode when you start getting some consistent rain.

Those weeds and grass are gonna be tough to tame. I think you're gonna have to break down and get some borders. Maybe a pressure treated 2x8 or cedar wall around it. Otherwise, that bermuda grass will just creep in. And along with weeds and grass come all other issues.
 
It's been a month since my last update. The TV weather people say we're in a drought, but there's been plenty enough rain for the pepper garden. My main garden is in the yard at work; the soil and weather conditions must be nearly ideal, because the plants there are growing at twice the rate of those in my home garden. So I moved several plants from town into the work garden in the country, to "put some meat on their bones."


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Garden view looking west. I know it's blurry...I must need a tripod. The leftmost row are the Asian chiles: Pusa Jwala, Thai Chile, Black Prince (not Asian but that's where I stuck them), Thai Bird Chile. The middle row are the Gulf Coast/Caribbean chiles: NuMex Jalmundo, Tabasco, Caribbean Red Habanero. The third row are classic large-pod annuums: Poblano, NuMex Española Improved, Piment d'Espelette. All the way on the right are the tomatoes.


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Pusa Jwala. There are six of these. Green pod production is very good. No red yet.


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Thai Chile (Baker Creek "Thai Red Chilli"). In 2008 I grew out six plants from seeds labelled the same as these, and got long-pod, pendant, mild-to-medium-heat peppers, on sprawling, short plants. I called them Prik Ki Faa. This year I have six plants like the one you see here: taller, straighter, very robust, with 2", narrow, erect pods. The heat of the green pods is very nice, probably 50K SHU, and tastes like peaches. No red yet.


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Black Prince, a.k.a. Black Cuban. These were transplanted from my home garden. There are 3 of them here in the work garden, and 3 remaining in the home garden. A few black pods, no red yet.


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Thai Garden Bird Seed. These came from Baker Creek, but I believe they originated from a company in Bangkok called Lion Seed Company. These are also transplants from my home garden. The plants you see here are about 36" tall. No flowers yet.

More to follow...
 
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Caribbean Red Habanero. There are 3 of these in the work garden, and 3 in the home garden. I wish I had planted them all here, because they're growing like nobody's business. The lower leaves are horking giant.


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Caribbean Red Habanero, Baker Creek. I grew out 6 of these last year, and they didn't look like this. It looks almost like a Trinidad Scorpion, especially considering the bumpy skin...


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Tabasco. There are 6 of these. Height as of July 29 was about 36". They're just beginning to set the yellow pods.


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NuMex Jalmundo, 6 plants. These seem to grow slower than regular jalapeños or Biker Billys. They are very pretty plants; the leaves have a silvery cast.


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NuMex Jalmundo. No corking yet. These things are chunky...Can't wait to try one.

More to follow....
 
Now that's a growth spurt!

Good looking garden wc, looks like you have a green thumb--or two. I'm going to enjoy following your progress this season.

Do you guys get a frost down there or can you grow year 'round?
 
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Poblano, 4 plants.


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NuMex Española Improved, 6 plants. These are beautiful, robust, bushy plants, and the very first ones to set fruit. The flavor is excellent, and the heat level is definitely higher than the 1500-2000 SHU cited in the literature.


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NuMex Española Improved. When I ordered these seeds I had no idea about the mystique of the Northern New Mexico landrace chiles. Must have been serendipity...


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Piment d'Espelette, 4 plants. These are some very pretty, classic-looking annuums. They remind me of the old "naturalist" drawings of chile plants.

More to follow...
 
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Big Boy tomato, 9 vines.


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Volunteer Caribbean Red Habanero. This thing is growing like crazy.


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Blurry view of my home garden, looking east. This was my lesson in nitrogen tie-up. The bed is raised about 12" above the lawn. I mixed 60 cubic feet of shredded hardwood with the native reddish-brown clay, and amended the heck out of it, but I way underestimated the effects of nitrogen tie-up...After 2 months of stunted, dying plants, I began to pound them biweekly with 10-10-10. That worked, but now I'm trying to get them to fruit before the first killing frost...


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Aji Limon. There are 3 of these in pots, and 3 in the raised bed. A couple of them have green pods.


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Aji Limon

More to follow...
 
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Chiltepin. I put 4 plants in this planter.


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Chiltepin


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Thai Ornamental, 2 plants. These are nice and hot, with a good flavor, but hard as heck to pick...


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Black Cuban, a.k.a. Black Prince. 3 plants in terra cotta pots.


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Black Cuban. I tasted one of the black ones...It was nice and hot, but tasted kind of weird. Maybe the red ones will be better.

END
 
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