dubhelix's 2014 grow blog

[Mad Oshea]

I saved around 200 burlap bags from the last chilli roasting year for free. My wife sets her plants out to early most of the time and I watch the w/report. If it threatens close to a frost, I run out with them and lay them over the plants and pick them up in the morning when it warms up. I guess torn up old T-shirts would work too. BUMMER!

 

[dubhelix]

Cloth would probably work. On the first cold night, right after planting the first 16 madole, I covered 11 with cardboard boxes, and five with plastic pails. The ones under the pails suffered some damage, while the ones under the cardboard boxes were fine. I kept my eye on the weather report, and though it predicted a low of 37 degrees F, the following night, frost still occurred. Apparently frost can occur at above freezing temps, depending on...stuff. Dewpoint or something.

 

[Knucklehead]

Don't discard those plants yet, if there's some life left in the bud head, some of them may come on back. You can try snipping the leaves back to the stalk. Don't clip the bud head. I'm sorry you had that happen to you. Weather predictions can work against you as well as for you sometimes.

 

[Mad Oshea]

Don't discard those plants yet, if there's some life left in the bud head, some of them may come on back. You can try snipping the leaves back to the stalk. Don't clip the bud head. I'm sorry you had that happen to you. Weather predictions can work against you as well as for you sometimes.

I agree, It threatend snow here in NM last night. I was ready- No sleep. Ice cold wind and no humidity. They can take a hit pretty good .I think Knucks is correct, Give them a little snip. I think the sissy is out of them now and will probably do fine.

 

[deluxestogie]

The weather service prediction of temperatures is based on 2 meters above ground. You can't get frost above 32ºF. The surface temp (right at the ground) depends on the minute topology of the planting field, and air flow.

Here above the Blue Ridge, I wait until May 5, then check the 10 day forecast. If the forecast is for all lows above 40ºF for the next 10 days of May, then I go ahead and plant. Last summer, we had a stray frost on May 21. I had to make sure everything was covered in Agribon.

Bob

 

[dubhelix]

Well, pretty much everything is in the ground, though I have one or two plants of a couple "tester" varieties that still need to go in.

50 Madole, 50 Bolivian Criollo Black, 25 Yellow Orinoko, 25 Shirey, 50 Long Red, 25 Vuelta Abajo, 25 Small Stalk Black Mammoth, 6 Aztec Rustica, and 6 Izmir Ozbis.

I've been planting a row about every week. A few plants from the oldest rows are starting to grow some. This Madole was put in the ground on 4.18.14. It's the biggest of the bunch so far.

This is the biggest of the Bolivian Criollo Black.

The Long Red went in at least a week later, but missed the frost altogether. It seems to be catching up to the Madole and Bolivian.

Almost all of the plants that were hit by the frost have recovered to some extent or other. Some seem to have multiple tips now.

 

[deluxestogie]

Some seem to have multiple tips now.

Looks like you're in business now. Enjoy looking down on the Bolivia Criollo Black while you can.

The multiple tips indicates that the primary growth tip was killed by the frost. Pick one of the new tips on each plant, and remove the others.

Bob

 

[dubhelix]

getting bigger.

 

[Knucklehead]

They're growing fast.

 

[dubhelix]

Yeah, but I cherry picked the biggest ones. Some are not nearly as big, but I planted over a four week period, so it's kinda hard to tell. Seems to take them a few weeks after transplanting to get going again.

 

[DGBAMA]

Looking good. Once they get going, you can almost watch them grow. A 2-3 week setback after transplant seems about normal.

 

[Rickey60]

Nice Plants, the one in the picture is growing like crazy. I see some good smoking in your future.

 

[dubhelix]

Some are growing fast, while others of the same variety, planted at the same time, are much smaller. I suspect that turning the soil with a broadfork resulted in poor distribution of soil amendments. Maybe next year I can afford a real tiller.

 

[DGBAMA]

Some are growing fast, while others of the same variety, planted at the same time, are much smaller. I suspect that turning the soil with a broadfork resulted in poor distribution of soil amendments. Maybe next year I can afford a real tiller.

Possible, but I doubt your cultivation method is the cause. At 3 weeks planted, I have a lot of variation in plant size, tiny beside big, even having used a tiller.

 

[Knucklehead]

Possible, but I doubt your cultivation method is the cause. At 3 weeks planted, I have a lot of variation in plant size, tiny beside big, even having used a tiller.

Same here. The first row that I planted was pretty wet at planting and the plants seem to be root bound at the moment. Maybe my amendments fell out of solution? The other two rows were planted when the soil was dryer and they are doing much better. Kinda weird.

 

[dubhelix]

My Vuelta Abajo is starting to flower. It's only 10 inches tall. What's the deal with that?

 

[BarG]

Survival instinct. It wants to reproduce early.

 

[deluxestogie]

My Vuelta Abajo is starting to flower. It's only 10 inches tall. What's the deal with that?

Maybe heavy competition from the surrounding grass.

Bob

 

[indianjoe]

Maybe additional heavy pressure from preditor insects.

 

[dubhelix]

This red brown spotting has appeared quite suddenly on my Yellow Orinoko. Does anyone know what it is? It seems to only be on the older leaves, and only on the Yellow Orinoko.