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.
 

 

 

[saiias]

Welcome Hawkins..

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Arthropods]

Niiice sprouts, Im excited to follow. Looked up weather and wow, I didnt realize how quickly it gets warm in SC! Ill probably wait a while longer before starting tomatoes here in Michigan.

Good luck down there!

 

[TrentL]

Oh, great!!!! I'm happy to see another person making the leap in to larger scale gardening/growing.
 
Misery loves company!
 
Beans are a hard way to make money. We were getting about $10 / peck last year (4 pecks per bushel), and a bushel can take a damn long time to pick. Not counting materials, you might make $10 an hour for your time. Depends on how hard they are hitting, etc. You've *got* to keep picking them to avoid having stuff rot on the plant (draws mice, lets fungus grow if they are touching the ground, etc), and to keep the plants productive. So when they're hitting heavy it's a lot quicker (I was doing about 1/2 bushel an hour at the peak) but on the weeks you are picking slim pickings, might take 2-3x as long. 
 
We've got no choice but to grow some (nitrogen fixers in crop rotation, we are chemical free) but dang, it sucks. 
 
 
 
 

 

[Hawkins]

Oh, great!!!! I'm happy to see another person making the leap in to larger scale gardening/growing.
 
Misery loves company!
 
Beans are a hard way to make money. We were getting about $10 / peck last year (4 pecks per bushel), and a bushel can take a damn long time to pick. Not counting materials, you might make $10 an hour for your time. Depends on how hard they are hitting, etc. You've *got* to keep picking them to avoid having stuff rot on the plant (draws mice, lets fungus grow if they are touching the ground, etc), and to keep the plants productive. So when they're hitting heavy it's a lot quicker (I was doing about 1/2 bushel an hour at the peak) but on the weeks you are picking slim pickings, might take 2-3x as long. 
 
We've got no choice but to grow some (nitrogen fixers in crop rotation, we are chemical free) but dang, it sucks. 
 
 
 
 

 

I forgot to mention the beans. I'm just doing enough for myself some nice cantare green beans, Cherokee trail of tears, and sea island red peas. I'll let the beans and peas dry in the field and pick the green beans daily. I'll also have some sugar snaps for eating in the garden.
 
My main plan for marketability is gourmet blends of cherry tomatoes(Black Cherry, White Cherry, Yellow Pear, Super Sweet 100, and Brad Atomic Grape), I'll also have some herilooms, and for peppers Bells, Jimmy Nardello, and Shishitos. I'll ferment the super hots, and also try to sell flat rate boxes online if there is enough. I only plan to have around 6 plants for each type of pepper, besides the Bells, Nardellos and Shishitos. But I plan to have around 50 varieties, so close to 50 plants when said and done. not counting the ones I'll grow in isolation. For that I plan to have 3 plants spaced at least 50 feet apart around our old cow pastures.

 

[CMJ]

I hope you have better luck with Baker Creek than I did. Out of the 6 varieties that I ordered, 4 were not the correct variety and one was a complete no-show. Anyway, Im contemplating doing something similar next year, so I will be following your progress. Good luck on the upcoming season!

 

[Hawkins]

I hope you have better luck with Baker Creek than I did. Out of the 6 varieties that I ordered, 4 were not the correct variety and one was a complete no-show. Anyway, Im contemplating doing something similar next year, so I will be following your progress. Good luck on the upcoming season!

 
 
I only have a few peppers from there, but I'm hopeful they grow true. The peppers I planted have all ready came up, but some have been a little slow.

 

[Hawkins]

February 15th Update. Everything is going great so far. Almost time to up pot the rest. Also got the tomatoes propagated 2 days ago and some are all ready reaching for the lights.
 
Aji's grow super fast apparently.

 

 

[TrentL]

Yes certain Aji's can grow you right out of room if you start them too early. I started Aji Cereza much later than other chinense last year and they were 2.5' tall by the time we transplanted peppers out. 
 
This year I started them 3 weeks later than c. chinense varieties and they've already caught up, starting to think next year I might start them with round 2 (annuums) in March, instead of in-between chinense and annuums.
 
The crazy thing though, they grow stupid fast early on but then can take for frigging EVER to produce ripe pods once they go in the dirt outdoors. Some of the plants get absolutely enormous. We had Aji Limo's last year hit 7' tall. They didn't really start hitting hard with ripe pods until September, from a late Feb seeding.
 
So I dunno. Ajis are tough in bulk. They get damn crowded indoors, then outdoors some need even more space. Others, like Aji Cereza, grew like thick, viney bushes, which invaded neighboring rows - had Aji's getting mixed up in my cucumber trellising, which was 6' away on row center! Other Aji's (limo, golden, etc) grow like gigantic chinense.
 
Be careful on plant-out spacing.  Give 'em breathing room, they need it. Pack them in too close and you'll have one hell of a hard time harvesting.
 
 
 
 

 

[Hawkins]

Yes certain Aji's can grow you right out of room if you start them too early. I started Aji Cereza much later than other chinense last year and they were 2.5' tall by the time we transplanted peppers out. 
 
This year I started them 3 weeks later than c. chinense varieties and they've already caught up, starting to think next year I might start them with round 2 (annuums) in March, instead of in-between chinense and annuums.
 
The crazy thing though, they grow stupid fast early on but then can take for frigging EVER to produce ripe pods once they go in the dirt outdoors. Some of the plants get absolutely enormous. We had Aji Limo's last year hit 7' tall. They didn't really start hitting hard with ripe pods until September, from a late Feb seeding.
 
So I dunno. Ajis are tough in bulk. They get damn crowded indoors, then outdoors some need even more space. Others, like Aji Cereza, grew like thick, viney bushes, which invaded neighboring rows - had Aji's getting mixed up in my cucumber trellising, which was 6' away on row center! Other Aji's (limo, golden, etc) grow like gigantic chinense.
 
Be careful on plant-out spacing.  Give 'em breathing room, they need it. Pack them in too close and you'll have one hell of a hard time harvesting.
 
 
 
 

 
I didn't even think about separating them like that when I was propagating. I just made sure to put all the super hots together, they are still pretty small compared to these, they are just now starting to get their first true leaves. I'm hoping it'll be warm enough in a month to move them out to a green house. In SC I can grow until October easily most of the time. The Jalapeno Lemon Spice from Baker Creek is also growing freaky fast as well.
 

 

[TrentL]

Yup, some grow MUCH faster than others. Some chinense will take 8 months to have ripe fruit, from date of seeding. Annums (Jalapeno, cayenne, etc)? Hell I've had those get flowers indoors less than a month and a half after seeding! They grow like frigging weeds!
 
Most annuums only get 2 - 2.5' tall, but damn they get there QUICK. 
 
Chinense can get 6-7' tall, and they take their damn sweet time doing it.
 

 

[Hawkins]

Transplanted a few more seedlings this weekend. I know have 5 36 cell trays full.

The Super Hot tray is growing super slow.

 

[PaulG]

 Welcome to the 2019 season!
 
Looks like you have everything dialed in, Hawk.
 
The seedlings are looking nice and healthy.
 
I feel your pain regarding the Aji peppers.  They grow fast
and big, but take a long time to ripen. In our climate here,
we get about 50% ripe before cold weather.  I usually have
50-100 green pods at the end of the season.

 

[Hawkins]

If the weather keeps with the current trend I'll be harvesting into late October, early November, so I'm expecting a ton.
 
My super hot seedlings I'm worrying about, they aren't really gorwing and some are turning black. I think I'm just paranoid though, because others have done that and once they got up potted a week later you couldn't even tell. From what I've read it's normal while they are so small because their roots aren't able to get the nutrients they need. I just transplanted them up today, so hopefully in a week they take off.
 
 

 Welcome to the 2019 season!
 
Looks like you have everything dialed in, Hawk.
 
The seedlings are looking nice and healthy.
 
I feel your pain regarding the Aji peppers.  They grow fast
and big, but take a long time to ripen. In our climate here,
we get about 50% ripe before cold weather.  I usually have
50-100 green pods at the end of the season.

 

 

[Hawkins]

I was excited to grow Dundicuts this year, but they had other plans, I gave up on them and just had them sitting around, and yesterday one decided to pop up.
 

 
Everything else it doing well, finally got most of the super hots transferred to 36 cell trays, now just waiting on them to get bigger.
 

After getting some seeds that did not germinate, I finally have some Datils. Seeds from Baker Creek, came up in just over a week.

The others are still doing good.

 

 

[Arthropods]

Love the big cotys on those Datils and that last shot is a thing of beauty.
 
I feel you on the slow growth and funky patches on superhots. I killed a whole bunch last year because I had that issue and tried to correct, adding extra fert to my already high ppm water. They all just dried out.
 
Hopefully their roots are growing nicely and that belowground growth will translate to aboveground later on!

 

[Hawkins]

When I transplanted to the 36 cell trays the roots were nice and deep, so I'm not too worried about it now. I added a very weak fertilizer, and they are starting to turn green now. From what I've read it's just because they were so close together, and young so they were all fighting for nutrients.
 
 

Love the big cotys on those Datils and that last shot is a thing of beauty.
 
I feel you on the slow growth and funky patches on superhots. I killed a whole bunch last year because I had that issue and tried to correct, adding extra fert to my already high ppm water. They all just dried out.
 
Hopefully their roots are growing nicely and that belowground growth will translate to aboveground later on!

 

 

 

[Hawkins]

A small update, the Aji Charapitas are doing great. 10/10 germination, and all growing very well.

Here is a nice shot of one of the shelves.

It's my first year ever starting from seed, and well I think it's going pretty well.

 

[PaulG]

Looks just great. Nice to have your
first grow from seed be so successful.

 

[Hawkins]

Thanks, I'm very happy with my results so far. I was expecting more to die, or not do as well, but they are doing pretty good. Hopefully I won't have to transplant into 18 cell flats before I go into the ground, but we'll see. They are growing very quickly though.
 

Looks just great. Nice to have your
first grow from seed be so successful.