garden Progress

[thepodpiper]

Just wanted to share some pics of the progress in the garden. I have all the rows where they need to be and now I am starting to lay down the manifold for the drip irrigation system. After that is done i will lay out the black plastic to keep the weeds and grass from coming back plus it will heat up the soil some. When the drip system gets here I will lay that down. I will be using 1 GPH emitters for everything so I am putting in ball vaves where needed so I can turn off the water to whatever section does not need the water. I am also putting in a controller so that I do not have to worry about turning the water on and off because the melons will need water every day. I am really not looking forward to putting in all those emitters.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_1858.jpg


http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_1857.jpg

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_1860.jpg

Dale

[cheezydemon]

That will be nice! I am using soaker hoses currently. Not as pretty, but they work well.

[Rob]

Thats gonna be handy. My wife has to water our melons manually every day unless it rains.

[AlabamaJack]

Looking great Dale...If I build beds this fall for next year, I will use a similar set up....just have to figure where the beds will go and how many...

[wordwiz]

You guys are making me question my upbringing.:onfire:

Check the ground first and add lime if necessary. Add ferilizer and disc it. Put plants in the ground once it got warm enough. Plow the ground once or twice, until the plants got big enough to cover the ground. If it doesn't rain enough, water it (just the garden part - not the tobacco fields). Add fertilizer after the plants get six inches tall and harvest the crop in summer or fall, whenever the stuff is ripe.

Don't get me wrong - I understand the hobby side of it and the idea to maximize the output. And if I was much younger, had the time and energy and treasury, I might try this. But I can't shake the farm boy part out of my mentality.

But keep on keeping on guys! I love reading about and seeing your projects.

Mike

[thepodpiper]

You guys are making me question my upbringing.:onfire:

Check the ground first and add lime if necessary. Add ferilizer and disc it. Put plants in the ground once it got warm enough. Plow the ground once or twice, until the plants got big enough to cover the ground. If it doesn't rain enough, water it (just the garden part - not the tobacco fields). Add fertilizer after the plants get six inches tall and harvest the crop in summer or fall, whenever the stuff is ripe.

Don't get me wrong - I understand the hobby side of it and the idea to maximize the output. And if I was much younger, had the time and energy and treasury, I might try this. But I can't shake the farm boy part out of my mentality.

But keep on keeping on guys! I love reading about and seeing your projects.

Mike

Mike, I'm not sure I follow you but this is out of pure time saving I don't have the time to water a garden this size. I'm not trying to maximize output, with 300 plants in the ground I will have more than I will know what to do with. It is going to be fun watching the whole thing work though (hopefully).

Dale

[Chiliac]

No matter what you're hobby is, sbd else will always take it a little further. Fun is important and as long as the way we're growing our peppers is fun to us, no method is better or worse. As long as I enjoy what I am doing, my mehtod is good for me and that goes for everybody IMO. :)

[Pepper Ridge Farm]

Dale, all I can say is hope you have a tractor to turn all that dirt. Your irrigation looks great. When is your plant out date where you live? Your garden is going to be beautiful again this year.

[wordwiz]

Dale,

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you or AJ are doing it - I think is'g great to see the ideas and systems you guys are using.

But we me lacking the time to set it up and the money to buy all the stuff, I do the watering the old-fashioned, easy way. Set a sprinkler in the garden, turn the water on and let it run for 20-30 minutes while I'm working on something else. Move the sprinkler and do the same thing again.

Last summer was an abberation in that it was so very much drier than normal. Usually, I need to water the garden maybe twice a year due to lack of rain. I suspect that I will need to water the plants in pots more frequently, but I'll only have about 60 of them. The rest of the plants will be in the ground.

Mike

[JJBagoose]

Awesome setup Dale! I am a total newbie to growing peppers and pretty much gardening in general but I love to see these great gardens.

It is also especially cool to see the solutions engineered to make it easier to take care of those large gardens.

Keep the pics coming!

[chilliman64]

You guys are making me question my upbringing.:onfire:

Check the ground first and add lime if necessary. Add ferilizer and disc it. Put plants in the ground once it got warm enough. Plow the ground once or twice, until the plants got big enough to cover the ground. If it doesn't rain enough, water it (just the garden part - not the tobacco fields). Add fertilizer after the plants get six inches tall and harvest the crop in summer or fall, whenever the stuff is ripe.

Don't get me wrong - I understand the hobby side of it and the idea to maximize the output. And if I was much younger, had the time and energy and treasury, I might try this. But I can't shake the farm boy part out of my mentality.

But keep on keeping on guys! I love reading about and seeing your projects.

Mike

very nice set up 'piper - I hope you remembered to laser level the site also :P

[Sanj]

Nice setup Dale..Please keep us updated on your progress...thanks for sharing.

[LUCKYDOG]

Great idea --- I was thinking of using spray heads at diferent intervals same idea albeit mine will be smaller in scale. Looks great

[thepodpiper]

Well I have the manifold and the controller done and all of the lines in I just have to place all the emitters in. That job is going to be time consuming. One really good thing about this set-up is I can fertilize through the system. Next i will get my Black plastic mulch down.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2001.jpg

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2000.jpg

Dale

[thepodpiper]

Have'nt been on the forums lately but I have been busy in the garden, thought i would post a couple of pics of the progress. All the peppers are going crazy but not many ripe pods yet. The melons and the tomatoes are growing out of control, I have many toms in the 20 to 30 oz. range can't wait for them to ripen. Hope you enjoy the pics.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2738.jpg


http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2750.jpg


http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2736.jpg

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2734.jpg



Dale

[Pepp3rFreak]

WOW very nice progress! Your garden is doing Excellent!

[915river]

Wow Dale that is one vere very nice garden everything so tall & healthy very impresive.

[Baldman]

Beautiful! That is something to be proud of right there!!

[AlabamaJack]

All that hard work is paying off Dale...well done my friend...

[HotPeppersFlyFishing]

Dale
Awesome garden you have there!!!!

[Chiliac]

That's the most impressive garden I have seen in a while. Congrats!

[Pepper Ridge Farm]

Great to see your awesome pepper garden doing so well Dale. Everything looks so nice and healthy it won't be long you will have more pepper than you'll know what to do with. I hope you received the hot sauce from me, that should get you by until the peppers ripen. What do you plan with the harvest from all those peppers?

[POTAWIE]

Very nice garden. Tomatoes are looking great!

[talas]

thats some space you have there,great looking chilli's and tomatoes
and to think of that bare space before..well done :);)

[cmpman1974]

Just incredible....dream garden!

Chris

[Chiliac]

thats some space you have there,great looking chilli's and tomatoes
and to think of that bare space before..well done :);)

...and that wasn't THAT long ago!!!

[thepodpiper]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I am very happy so far with the way everything is turning out. there have been a few scary situations though one is when i procrastinated (sp) securing the tomato cages and woke up one afternoon before going to work and 6 of the cages were knocked over. The plants were already pretty big and my Tidwell German was snapped in half about a foot off the ground so I picked it back up and put paver patio blocks around the cage all the way up just above the break and filled it with composted manure and top soil rerouted my drip system topped with mulch and the plant never skipped a beat. It is doing great. I am definetly having another bumper crop season, my plants are weighed down with peppers. I need to get another camera so I can get some good pics.



Great to see your awesome pepper garden doing so well Dale. Everything looks so nice and healthy it won't be long you will have more pepper than you'll know what to do with. I hope you received the hot sauce from me, that should get you by until the peppers ripen. What do you plan with the harvest from all those peppers?

PRF, yes I did get your sauce and it was "AWESOME". There is not much left. I have to be honest with you though, I was'nt sure who sent it and just today wrote a letter of thanks. I will not send it out now that i know who sent it but again I do thank you. I have to put it on everything I eat I just had some on my pierogies.


These pics are about 10 days old you can barely get down the rows now
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2659.jpg

Chris, these are the Ancient Sweets that I got from the grocery store and planted the seeds from. The plants are all loaded like these two.
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2666.jpg

This is the Tidwell German that busted in half
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2677-1.jpg

This is the watermelon Vines and a pumkin vine all the way in the back. Along the fence is all smaller melons. There are about 20 something different varieties of melons.
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2721.jpg

[thepodpiper]

Biker Billy
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2759.jpg

Jimmy Nardello
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2531.jpg


Black Cherry cherry tomatoes
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2628.jpg

NuMex Pinata
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/DCP_2663.jpg

[lostmind]

That's amazing!

Your garden is bigger then my front and back yard put together!

[CaLoR]

Thats a pretty amazing setup there with some really good ideas. Next year I'm definitely gonna put paper down around my plants to illiminate any pesty weed pulling up close around them. It really hasnt been too bad, but once they get big, its hard to get under them sometimes.

Keep posting pics man.

[chilehunter]

just WOW! :shocked: you have a great garden & you'll have a great harvest :cool: