2018 Container Garden-Tijuana, México

[Gerardo]

There's no escaping thrips and their gifts. Although I've controlled their numbers with Capt Jack's Dead Bug brew, the massive number of blooms on both citrus trees and the fact they're continually opening makes it tough to eradicate my enemy.

Dousing the open blooms every 5 days with Spinosad has paid dividends, and instead of seeing a ton of thrips on every single bloom, I now see 1-2 on every 6th or 7th bloom inspected, which is marked improvement.

I figure as long as I can keep the numbers down they won't descend like a barbarian horde onto my new tomatoes, and that's about as good as it gets.

I overwintered a bunch of superhots and regular hot peppers. After soil changes and hand-holding throughout the winter, their new growth bears the yellow Cheetara look. Hail Mary was a shot of copper, and it did not improve things. So there was no escaping it, death by blade to two dozen fairly large pepper plants.

One Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate was by itself in a Gro Pro NC-20, and was a monster. It hurt to put it down.

Fortunately, I pooled a bunch of really hot yellows and a bunch of really hot reds, and mass planted them in 1 gallon pots. Superhot bingo sampling will be fun.

[Gerardo]

plants happy

[Gerardo]

plants happy 2

[Gerardo]

in 3 inch net cup, perlite only

[ddsack]

Those are some happy looking tomato plants! And I really want that lettuce head for my salad!

[asmx91]

All is looking very good!!!

[imp]

All the plants look good, but that lettuce is a real scene stealer!

[Gerardo]

Thanks everyone, that lettuce will be the star of a salad some time this week.

[Salsacharley]

I had to look up what a "Cheetara" look is. I'm perhaps a fatal optimist, but I would be extremely hard pressed to put the axe to 2 dozen overwintered pepper plants because they looked like Cheetara. Gerardo, would you be so kind as to explain to my simple brain how you determined the severity the Cheetara situation was.
Thanks mucho.

Originally Posted by Gerardo

There's no escaping thrips and their gifts. Although I've controlled their numbers with Capt Jack's Dead Bug brew, the massive number of blooms on both citrus trees and the fact they're continually opening makes it tough to eradicate my enemy.

Dousing the open blooms every 5 days with Spinosad has paid dividends, and instead of seeing a ton of thrips on every single bloom, I now see 1-2 on every 6th or 7th bloom inspected, which is marked improvement.

I figure as long as I can keep the numbers down they won't descend like a barbarian horde onto my new tomatoes, and that's about as good as it gets.

I overwintered a bunch of superhots and regular hot peppers. After soil changes and hand-holding throughout the winter, their new growth bears the yellow Cheetara look. Hail Mary was a shot of copper, and it did not improve things. So there was no escaping it, death by blade to two dozen fairly large pepper plants.

One Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate was by itself in a Gro Pro NC-20, and was a monster. It hurt to put it down.

Fortunately, I pooled a bunch of really hot yellows and a bunch of really hot reds, and mass planted them in 1 gallon pots. Superhot bingo sampling will be fun.

[Barb_FL]

What do you mean, "Lettuce in 3 in net cup, perlite only"? I have lettuce that needs transplanting, I want to try what you're doing

[Ricky Shaw]

Yeah inquiring minds want to know. Gerardo, you mean in a hydroponic solution? And everything looks great as usual, truly the master of the outdoor container grow.

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

I had to look up what a "Cheetara" look is. I'm perhaps a fatal optimist, but I would be extremely hard pressed to put the axe to 2 dozen overwintered pepper plants because they looked like Cheetara. Gerardo, would you be so kind as to explain to my simple brain how you determined the severity the Cheetara situation was.
Thanks mucho.

It was a difficult decision, and a necessary one. Having cut back and observed the new growth twice, and sometimes thrice, appear spotted puffy stunted, AND (this was the deciding factor) seeing malformed fruit and high percentage of flowers affected, it was no longer feasible for them to hold coveted real estate and not produce. Granted an overwintered at 40% output will beat out a new plant, nonetheless, it is depressing to put in a lot of work and see that kind of result.

Fresh pepper plants with huge leaves make me happy. Large semi stunted plants with leaves the size of the nails on my boys' hand, those have got to go.

The good news is Manzano peppers have shown unexpected resilience in Thrips TSWV land

These pics are from the net, and they illustrate what Cheetara looks like (my favorite Thundercat after Panthro).

The second one shows the puffy stunted growth, mine had smaller leaves.

[Gerardo]

No real secret to it, I mixed lettuce mix from Harris and Park Seed, and dropped a pinch onto wet perlite inside 3in net cups, that sat in liquid with trace amounts of Fe 2+,4-18-38 ChemGro, CalNitrate and Epsom Salts.

These particular ones have been on straight water for the last month or so.

All I did was select the strongest plant in each cup.

My Guinea Pigs are the beneficiaries, they also get dill, basil, citrus leaves and blooms, and a few other store bought items.

Neglect works awesome sometimes.

A few pics

Bottom is Summertime Green

[Gerardo]

Larisa, x4
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Zarca, x4

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Marizol Purple x2

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Cabezón de la Sal x4, weakest one to be culled shortly.


IMG_20180405_074429.jpg

Thrips traps I imbue with spinosad.

IMG_20180405_074845.jpg

IMG_20180405_074813.jpg

[Gerardo]

Doused blooms yesterday with Capt Jack's and inspected a few this AM. Two blooms were like this one (death for all) another one had 4 going about their business. I know they all got equal amounts, die rat b@$tard$s, die!