Photo Update: Roots!

While taking down the pepper plants this afternoon, we got a couple of shots of the root systems of the plants, and I thought you might find these interesting to look at.

This photo shows the root system of a bucket which had both an Ancho Magnifico and an Early Jalapeno plant in it. As I noted before, had I known how large these plants would eventually get I would certainly have given each their own bucket, something I'll be sure to do moving forward.

As you can see, the root systems of the two plants became co-mingled into one large network. Ideally the entire root system would be pure white like the bottom tips of the roots in this photo. The dark-colored portion at the center mass of the root network is slightly less healthy tissue, which hosts a small amount of algae. This is bad because the algae competes directly with the roots for resources in the nutrient solution. I have rectified this in the most recent bucket design by adding a wafer of mylar insulation to the top of the bucket lid to prevent light from penetrating the lid and supporting algae growth in the solution and on the roots.

Photo Update: Pepper Harvest

Today we harvested all of the peppers in the Bucke Farm, since each of the plants was in physical stress of one sort of another.

Here's a snapshot of the peppers we collected. We got around 80-100 pepperoncinis, 8 nice Anchos and about 40 Jalapenos.

Some of the peppers weren't quite ready to go, many of the Jalapenos had an unripe flavor and no heat. Others were tasty and plenty hot. Most of the pepperoncinis were green but you can see that a couple of them matured enough to pick up some red color, and they taste delicious, with just a tiny, tiny amount of heat.

I have already pickled and canned about half of the pepperoncinis and will probably can the rest tomorrow evening. They're just barely unripe enough to be useful in any fresh recipes but they'll be great pickled.


After picking all of the peppers, we completely cleaned out the growing area, upgraded the lamp to 600 watts and installed a very large reflector. Currently only two plants are in the growing area right now- a butternut squash and a miniature bell pepper. I need to get busy germinating new seeds so that I can fill up the farm and get the most produce for the energy we're using on lighting.

The plan:

-Babylon Cucumber (trained to climb the trellis)
-Roma Tomato (also trained to climb the trellis)
-Miniature Bell Pepper (already underway)
-Butternut Squash (already underway)
-Ancho Magnifico (these were so nice I have to grow them again)

When I start germinating the new seeds I'll do an update about the procedure I follow for germination.

Photo Update: Ancho Magnifico

Here you can see where the Ancho Magnifico (left) and another jalapeno plant (right) are plugged into their bucket, and how they have overwhelmed the wire supports that were supposed to hold them.

As you may have read, I have lost three great plants as a result of the stem snapping away from the root system. This photo really illustrates how the stress of an overweight and undersupported plant becomes concentrated at the base of the stem. The ancho plant (left) has uprooted its coco cup and started to pull it from the net pot. This plant will definitely snap and fall soon, which is why I kicked off the emergency harvest to get as many peppers as I can this week before the plants start to snap.

The next generation of buckets are going to feature a cylindrical 'cage' attached to each lid which should provide plenty of solid support for big heavy plants.

You may wonder why I don't simply support these plants by tying them to the ceiling of the growing area. One answer is - I can't. The entire ceiling of my 4x4 growing area is a huge umbrella reflector that blocks access to the crossmembers on the ceiling that I would tie the plants to. The other reason is that tying the plants only supports them when they are in their bucket and the string connecting them to the ceiling is held taut. Keep in mind, these plants have root masses that are about 24 inches long. When the reservoirs are changed, I have to lift the lid (containing the plant and its roots) completely out of the old bucket and into the new, clean one. If the plants are tied to the ceiling, they will not be supported at all when the plant is lifted and the support string goes slack. It's best for the plant and for my ease of maintenance if the bucket lids have built-in support for the plant and don't rely on being staked or tied to any other structures.

Photo Update: Pepperoncini

Here is the bucket that contains one jalapeno plant and two pepperoncini plants. A lot is going wrong here. Firstly, I had no idea how large these plants would eventually grow and each really needed to live in its own bucket rather than share root and foliage space with two other plants.

The other problem is that the pepperoncini plants went absolutely nuts growing stems and foliage and I failed to keep that under control so that the plants could focus on producing fruit. I knew that I should have pruned them a bit more but being new at this, I decided instead to let the plants go so that I'd have a good idea of the 'baseline' production. In the next generation I'll have to keep these guys tamed and focused on pod production.

If you look at the bucket lid, you can see that the net pots are being yanked from their holes and the lid of the bucket is being warped by the weight of the plants. The only thing stopping them from toppling completely is the sheer weight of the root system.

On the left side of the photo, you can see a pair of pepperoncinis which are maturing and changing color from green to red.

Emergency Harvest

Yesterday, whilst replacing all of the pepper reservoirs, an awful snap indicated that the Ancho Magnifico stem broke away from a portion of its root system.

It's been a constant struggle to keep the pepper plants supported in the bucket farm. The latest design, which I felt certain would be strong enough to support the plants, has failed under the tremendous weight of the growing ancho pods. Now I'm certain that I know how to build buckets that can support these plants but the job is not a simple retrofit.

Since most of the plants have suffered some sort of stress or another as I tried (with varying success) to keep them supported as they grew larger and heavier than I had ever anticipated, I have decided to rush the current crops to harvest this week and start new crops in buckets that have a better design for supporting the plants.

Yesterday I changed all pepper reservoirs out with fresh nutrient solutions, a little heavier than usual on bloom enhancers:

Into four gallons of water:

-Five teaspoons General Hydroponics "Maxi-Bloom"
-Two teaspoons General Hydroponics "Kool-Blooms"
-Two tablespoons Technaflora "Sugar Daddy"

Adjusted pH to 6.0. PPM: ~1350

Starting Saturday morning, I'll flush the plants with Flora Kleen (more on this later) for two days and collect all of the peppers Monday morning. Many of the peppers will not be ripe, so they are probably better candidates for pickling than for fresh cooking.

I will post photos and instructions this weekend when I construct the new buckets.

Photo Update: Jalapenos

Look at these delicious specimens! This photo was taken when the plants were still a bit stressed from pH problems (which are now corrected). The fruits are all very healthy!

Photo Update: Pepperoncinis

I am having some problems with layout using this iPhone app for blog updates, but at least I can update from bed and you guys get to see pictures.

Here's a pepperoncini with my thumb in the photo for reference. There are about 50 (!) pepperoncinis between the two plants. They look outstanding!

Photo Update: Ancho Mangnifico

Here's a photo of the Ancho Chilis coming along nicely! These two are about four inches long.

Also, this is the first time I have tried making a post from my my iPhone. Hopefully nothing is different (worse).

Back on the farm!

My surgery went well! I'm off my feet for a few more days but once they heal, I'll be getting around better than ever!

A lot happened while I was away. Firstly, my wife took great care of the farm and learned a lot about how to keep it operating. Because of her, all of our plants are doing terrific.

I will get photos soon but for now I'll do a text update:

-The pepperoncini plants have about fifty peppers on them. The most mature peppers are nearly seven inches long! We're going to continue to let them grow until they start to turn a bit orange, then we're going to taste-test again.

-There are no baby bell peppers! Apparently I mislabeled my plants because two plants (which I thought were baby bell peppers and long thin Cayenne) both appear to be Jalapenos. I'm not upset- the fruits of both plants are plump and shiny, extremely healthy and delicious-looking.

-The Ancho Magnifico is named appropriately! This one has about twenty fruits. The largest is about 4.5 inches long and two inches in diameter. Like the jalapenos, these have an extraordinary dark green color and are very smooth, blemish-free and healthy looking!

-There was a lot of blossom drop while I was away. For a couple of days the water levels dropped quite low and the pH got a little low. I'm not too worried about this because all of the plants still have plenty of healthy flowers and no shortage of fruit. The adverse conditions have been corrected.

-Each bucket drinks about 2 quarts of water today. Very vigorous fruiting is taking place!

-I have no control group, but based on the accelerated and vigorous fruiting, I am happy with the performance of the Kool Blooms bloom enhancer.

-Of the seedlings that I planted before I went to the hospital, I have one very health specimen each of Butternut Squash and Babylon Cucumber. Today we're going to prepare a bucket for the Butternut Squash.

-The Baby Bell Pepper seedling was almost dead when I returned home, but I prepared a tonic of Maxi-Grow, Trinity (Roots Organics) and Hygrozyme (A new enzyme product that I will discuss in a future update). Literally overnight, that pepper seedling straightened up and pushed out its first set of true leaves so I'm going to say that plant is saved.

-As I get more experience keeping this blog, I'm adding lots more categories to the posts so that I'll end up with a nice searchable database for myself and for you.