Yelanfam Farms 2019 GLOG

This year I decided I wanted to bulk up my garden and turn it into a hopefully marketable garden. I've bought a rack and lights, seed trays, seed cells, dirt, seeds, weed barrier, shade cloth, and probably more stuff I'm forgetting.
 
I've probably been given or traded for around half of my pepper seeds. One great person on reddit sent me a huge pack or seeds and I am forever thankful for. A few others on reddit sent me a couple as well. I offered them hot sauce that I made and is finally ready to ship this week. I got here on THP a little late this year, but all ready I have made a few trades with some great people.
 
I have bought from White Hot Peppers, Lawrence Family Farms, Burpee, Baker Creek, Sow True Seeds, MIGardener I'm sure I'm forgetting some other places.
 
My plan is to do rows of 25 feet, and have 4, 25 x 25 foot blocks. Most of that peppers, the rest tomatoes cucumbers and beans. I'll also have a bigger section for corn and melons including the Bradford Family Watermelon that I'm super excited about.
 
I started propagating on January 21, 2019.
My first seedlings appeared on  January 26, 2019.
I up potted the first batch on February 6, 2019.
 
But on to the peppers, this is my current list of what I have.

Here is a pic of how I start them. I do multiple seeds in an 18 cell tray. It makes it easier to manage at first until I can get out into the greenhouse that I still have to build.

 
 
You can see how I use wooden popsicle sticks to hold my labels. I've since changed to includ how many seeds are in the cell as well as tray number on the label.

 
The Cherry Bombs were the first to pop up.

 
Brazilian Starfish coming on strong.

 

 
The Yellow Moruga Scorpion has a Tri Cotyledon, I actlly had about 4 of this from this pack of seeds.

 
So far I have about a third of them up potted to 36 cell trays.

 
Still got a long way to go. I'll be propagating my tomatoes tomorrow. Hoping for a great summer garden this year!
 
***Bonus here is some pics of the early seed test I did. These were propagated on December 27, 2018.
 

 

 

[Hawkins]

Walking around the melons this morning and I finally spotted one of these bad boys.

What will hopefully be one of the $25ish Bradford Watermelons. The Yamato Cream, and Beni Kodima melons are absolutely loaded with tiny melons.
 
And yes, in case you were wondering, I'm going to me making a watermelon hot sauce.

 

[BDASPNY]

awesome! wish you luck on melons. I tried last year and failed.
 
id love to try that sauce when you make it.

 

[Hawkins]

awesome! wish you luck on melons. I tried last year and failed.
 
id love to try that sauce when you make it.

 

Thanks, to be honest I've never successfully grew a watermelon in my life. But the other times I just did one or two plants and never put as much effort into it as I have this year. I'm growing on the same land as my grandpaw, and great grandpaw now though, and I remember as a kid the front porch would be slam full of melons, you couldn't even walk around because of them. Weed barrier, drip irrigation, and a fertigation system was something they would have loved to have, so I'm going to use it all to my advantage.
 
As for the hot sauce, I'm sure we could figure out something, I have to figure out what pepper, or blend of peppers to use for it though. I have to wait to try them, but Datil, Lemon Drop, are some that I have high hopes for.

 

[Hawkins]

The amount of Beni Kodima's I have on the vines right now is crazy. Almost everywhere you look you'll find a cluster of melons.

Also I'll be picking cucumbers starting soon as well.

I haven't updated y'all on my Mini Rocoto in a while, so here it is, hope you enjoy my pubes.

Look at how hairy it is.

 

[CaneDog]

Mini rocoto looking awesome.  Heck, it's all looking awesome!

 

[Hawkins]

Mini rocoto looking awesome.  Heck, it's all looking awesome!

 

Some of my transplants are looking a little rough, but they will fill out soon enough. Luckily I have a long growing season, so I'll be fine.

 

[BDASPNY]

 
Thanks, to be honest I've never successfully grew a watermelon in my life. But the other times I just did one or two plants and never put as much effort into it as I have this year. I'm growing on the same land as my grandpaw, and great grandpaw now though, and I remember as a kid the front porch would be slam full of melons, you couldn't even walk around because of them. Weed barrier, drip irrigation, and a fertigation system was something they would have loved to have, so I'm going to use it all to my advantage.
 
As for the hot sauce, I'm sure we could figure out something, I have to figure out what pepper, or blend of peppers to use for it though. I have to wait to try them, but Datil, Lemon Drop, are some that I have high hopes for.

 
 
sounds like you've got a great head start on family land.
 
hard to decide on some sauce combos to try, I know I have plenty I want to work out this year.
 
 
all of your plants are looking great.  love the rocoto, such interesting plants.

 

[Harry_Dangler]

Walking around the melons this morning and I finally spotted one of these bad boys.

What will hopefully be one of the $25ish Bradford Watermelons. The Yamato Cream, and Beni Kodima melons are absolutely loaded with tiny melons.
 
And yes, in case you were wondering, I'm going to me making a watermelon hot sauce.

Hawk ... what's the key to preventing/eliminating a squash bug invasion in the melon patch?  Every year our pumpkins, squash and melons are invaded by those nasty marauding insects and once there, they're very difficult to eradicate. They can wipe out a patch pretty quickly.  

 

[Hawkins]

Hawk ... what's the key to preventing/eliminating a squash bug invasion in the melon patch?  Every year our pumpkins, squash and melons are invaded by those nasty marauding insects and once there, they're very difficult to eradicate. They can wipe out a patch pretty quickly.  

 

Last year squash bugs got my squash, so far this year I haven't ran into that yet thankfully, but the weed barrier is supposed to help, also early on I spray insecticide(bifenthrin) while they are small. I'll probably spray again once all the melons set and stop flowering. Also heard that rotating fields helps keep to control them as well.

 

[Hawkins]

So I got my first Jimmy Nardello the other day, so I dried the seeds and got them ready to test. I'll grow one all the way out to make sure it didn't cross. Ideally I would like to do that with ever type of seed I save, but due to time it's not always possible.
 

And now we wait, 4 seeds planted hopefully they all come up. This is the seed count from just 1 pepper, I had all ready planted 4 seeds before I took the picture of them.

 

[PaulG]

Hard to describe just how awesome everything looks, Hawk!
 
I loved the pic of the view!

 

[CaneDog]

Good stuff Hawkins.  I'm growing Jimmy Nardello for the first time this season, but any ripe pods for me are a long way away!
 
I'm not sure what level of certainty you're looking for, but since crossing occurs at the seed level not the pod level, how one seed grows out won't be definite as to the rest of the seeds in that pod. It does however suggest a higher level/chance of reliability. It's quite common that a flower will partially pollinate prior to or during opening, but the stigma will remain receptive after opening, which will then be accessed by a pollinating insect resulting in mixed pollination of the seeds in the pod.  Also, if there is a cross, all the dominant alleles will manifest, so the seeds may carry forward recessive alleles that weren't apparent in the plants that grew from the current seeds, but will show in the following generation.  I bag all or a portion of the plant (or physically isolate) in order to be as certain as possible, but a test grow like you're doing will certainly help catch some crosses.

 

[Hawkins]

Finally got around to getting the tomato trellis set up, haven't finished stringing them up yet, but about half way through. It's about to rain for a week straight now, so any chance I get to go out there I will to finish.

This pole was straight before I ran the wire rope, going to have to ratchet it back to a tree or something. Looking back 32" deep wasn't deep enough.

I also have some support braces that I'll be putting every 25' to help with the load. The main thing now is getting the plants strung up, and reinforcing the main poles.

 

[Hawkins]

Good stuff Hawkins.  I'm growing Jimmy Nardello for the first time this season, but any ripe pods for me are a long way away!
 
I'm not sure what level of certainty you're looking for, but since crossing occurs at the seed level not the pod level, how one seed grows out won't be definite as to the rest of the seeds in that pod. It does however suggest a higher level/chance of reliability. It's quite common that a flower will partially pollinate prior to or during opening, but the stigma will remain receptive after opening, which will then be accessed by a pollinating insect resulting in mixed pollination of the seeds in the pod.  Also, if there is a cross, all the dominant alleles will manifest, so the seeds may carry forward recessive alleles that weren't apparent in the plants that grew from the current seeds, but will show in the following generation.  I bag all or a portion of the plant (or physically isolate) in order to be as certain as possible, but a test grow like you're doing will certainly help catch some crosses.

 

These particular ones are from the first thing that I had to bloom, so I'm 99.9% sure they are correct. And for the other plants, I have them in buckets so I can keep them isolated, or hand pollinated as needed. I just want to test the Jimmy because of how fast they grow. I plan to plant double of them and Shishitos for next year.

 

[Hawkins]

Would you just look at these beauties here.

Anyone care to guess what they are? I've talked highly of them.
 
Also might as well hit you with a watermelon update.
 
I've talked about this little bundles of soft rind, sugar loaded joy many times. The Bradford Watermelons are starting to take of.

Also the Beni Kodama, I finally called Baker Creek to ask for the correct spelling.
 
These grow super quick, transplanted just over a month ago, and according to the tendril it's about to be ready in a week or so.

 
I tried to pick melons that would ripen all summer, staring with the Beni Kodama, then the Yamato Cream, followed by the Crimson Sweet, and finally the Charleston Grey, and Bradfords.

 

[saiias]

Cayenne long thin?

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[BDASPNY]

those melons look incredible. not sure which pepper type that is. 
 
 
last year I had many great melons grow but  fell apart at the first touch. so I gave up on them for now.

 

[Hawkins]

Cayenne long thin?

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Nope, Jimmy Nardello, I may have forgot to water a few days early on, and they got a little thin.

 

[Hawkins]

The rain has killed my tomato trellis, going to have to figure out some way to retrofit a brace or something.
 
But here enjoy some pod pics.
 
Khang Starr Lemon Starburst.

The KSLS is loaded all ready.

This is the Fatalii Gourmet Jigsaw, this is a plant I'll be selling at the Farmers Market.

This is hopefully what baby Butch T. Scorpions look like.

This Chocolate Bhutlah pod, looks ridiculous.

Does anyone's Carolina Reapers have black stems like this? I got the seeds from White Hot Peppers.

Also picked a Cherry Bomb and misshapen, and kinda small Jamaican Mushroom today.

The cherry bomb was loaded with seeds, but the flesh tasted very juicy and sweet, no heat at all. The jamician mushroom had a taste I can't really describe, but it was pretty good, with a slight heat.
 
Also here's the mandatory watermelon row pic.

 
 

 

[saiias]

Rain is killing me.. Pouring non stop.. Even my plamts look sad. No sun till friday.. Sad

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