Mahalo for all of your questions.  And best of luck with your newly germinating, or planted Bhut Jolokia pepper plants.   Very good to hear that just about everyone is having great luck.

Hey, you two who did not soak the Bhut seeds overnight before germinating. You know who you are! You gotta listen to the old man. These seeds are a bit strange as far as germination goes.  It helps tremendously to soak the seeds in water the night before.  You will get faster germination and a higher percentage of success.

Out of all of the orders we have received, we have had only 2 instances of sub par germination.  And that’s a tiny percentage of our sales.  So, good for you.  You are listening.  Now soak those seeds!

Even though I have been organic gardening for more than 35 years, I have never grown asparagus.  I always thought that the ground had to freeze in order to grow it.  Well, this is not always the case, so here goes my Hawaiian asparagus bed.

Let’s talk about asparagus for a minute.  No one really know where its origins are (some surmise from Western Asia or Northern Africa and a few other places) but all agree that it has been around for thousands of years and tastes great. The Egyptians offered asparagus to the Gods.  It is rumored to increase the libido in both male and females!  It is low in calories (1/2 cup = 15 kcal) and high in both vitamins A and C.  In fact, asparagus has 6 times more vitamin C than citrus fruit!  It is also high in Folic acid or folate (an essential nutrient for the production of new red blood cells) and is an antioxidant which gets rid of free radicals from the body.  It is a good source for potassium and has trace amounts of copper and zinc.  It is a diuretic, is used in the treatment of high blood pressure, enhances fertility (Chinese medicine) and can also increase the amount of breast milk produced by lactating mothers.    There is plenty more reasons to eat asparagus but I like the taste.

Asparagus is a perennial and will produce for about 20 years.  The bed must all go to seed the first year and only a small sampling can be taken from the bed the second year.  About a 25% increase in yield will result if you eliminate all of the female plants from the bed.

Choose a spot where you have some space.  Asparagus likes to roam so I suggest that you box it in with diamond lathe.  I transformed the corner of my flower bed for this location and am able to access the bed from all sides.  My bed is about 60″ long and 48″ wide and I want the finished product to be about 30″ deep plus the 6″ finished raised bed.

I felt like a grave digger as I worked more than 12 hours removing the soil.  I have pretty good soil in this location but nothing like my organic garden where I have been amending the soil with compost for more than 14 years.  So, there was  a lot of digging to be done!  And of course, there no one around to help me! There was a surprise along the way as I found more than 150 pounds of 1-2″ gravel that had been dumped there by the construction crew while building my house.  Bless their hearts…  Since this bed is going to produce for many, many years, I wanted to basically build it from scratch.  I put the soil I was digging into an area to be composted later. When I hit sand I kept digging until I saw South Africa then I figured that was deep enough.

Now to fill the bed.  I wanted a lot of organic material throughout the bed so I basically built it like a compost pile but below ground.  I started with  a 4″  layer of dried leaves and twigs.  The next was a thin layer of horse manure,  followed by 4″ of green material, 2″ of composted soil, a thin layer of horse manure, 4″ of dried leaves, 2″ of composted soil, a thin layer of horse manure, 4″ of green material, etc.   I added organic oyster shells to add calcium in several places and also organic blood and bone meal near the surface.   Since the bed will shrink quite a bit, I built it to a height of 12″ above grade.  But the last 24 ” of the bed I added only composted soil.  That made the finished bed about 12″ above grade which allows  for about 6″ shrinkage as the bed starts to decompose.  I will have to add more composted soil for the next few weeks to get back to the optimum 6″ raised bed.  While buillding the bed,  I watered after every layer as well.  As a side note,  I sifted every layer of composted soil before it went into the bed. This is because asparagus likes a loamy, well draining soil where it can grow unobstructed.  This results in long, straight, beautiful spears!

Now I am ready to plant the seeds.  Well, not so fast.  I will have to wait about until the bed settles which will take about 2-3 weeks.  I will soak the seeds in water overnight to help germination and then plant.

You may think that this is a lot of work.  Well it is, but it is worth it.  As you can probably tell, I am a perfectionist.  Any job that I do, I do to the best of my ability.  I enjoy the hard labor, but believe me I would rather be surfing, running, mountain biking, etc.  But, I cannot do a half-assed job in anything that I do, it’s just not right.  Mediocrity is everywhere and it is sad that nobody gives a shit anymore.  Well, maybe that’s a little harsh but that’s the way I feel.  Being an employer for more than 22 years has soured me on the “normal” guy.  It’s all about getting the right people for the job, but I can tell you that those people are very hard to find…

So, the asparagus bed is built, and I will start enjoying the fruits of my labor in about 2 years!  Best of luck to all of you out there!  Keep organic gardening and find a passion for something then do it with all of you heart and soul.

Jamie

Question:
Hey Jamie,
Last year I grew them, and the pepper started green then started to yellow and then bright red . . . HOT but this year they started green and ended up all bright yellow. They are the same size and shape so I’m leaving some on the plant to see what happens. They are still totally hot. My question is; what could be responsible for the color change – weather, water or fertilizer. I’ve also seen listing’s for the Naga Morich which looks similar. Is it possible that when I ordered my plants (Bhut) they could have been substituted. I did not order from you but next year I plan to. Do you have an online listing of all plants or a catalog I can get.

Thank You for Your Help,
W. Reed

Answer:
Sounds like you got the old “switcharoo” to me. You have to think about what is happening. The normal color change of a Bhut Jolokia is from green, to orange, then when totally ripe a beautiful deep red. A ripe hot pepper that is yellow is not a Bhut Jolokia. It is pretty easy to identify the Bhut Jolokia, please check out the photos in our photo gallery on thehottestpepper.com/gallery.html

For your knowledge a few words about yellow plants. When a plant turns yellow it is usually from the inability of the plant to get rid of water in the soil (could also be from an iron, or nitrogen deficiency, or a high pH). This is usually caused from a clay based soil that holds the water. If this is the case then you need to add compost to your soil. But I don’t think this is the problem because your peppers are bearing fruit. A clay soil will make it difficult for the plant to extract the nutrients it needs to produce the fruit and mostly likely if this was the case you would have a lot of peppers dropping onto the ground. I suspect that you went sent another type of pepper.

I have been in business since 1986 and I have learned that there are a lot of unsavory characters out there. You are only as good as your word, and all the money in the world won’t repair a damaged reputation because of dishonesty. When you need the real thing, send me an email and we will get them out to you ASAP.

Jamie

COMPOSTING

Composting is just about the best thing you can do for your garden. It is a great thing to do for the earth. It brings full circle the cycle of growing and dying and growing again. It is the perfect ending and the perfect beginning. Composting is the breaking down of organic matter naturally and returning it back to the soil where it can nourish everything it touches. It improves any soil. At my house I have several compost piles, all in different stages of decomposition. My trash is picked up twice a week, but I hardly ever use this service as everything in my home is reused many times and/or recycled at Sunset Beach School. I hate to send anything to the dump; it just doesn’t make sense to me.
So, let’s get started…

Let’s talk about soil basics. There are 3 types of soil: clay, sand, and loam.

Clay is composed of tiny particles that are super compressed. Water has a difficult time passing through it. Plant roots have trouble extracting water and the nourishment they need from clay.

Sand soil is where water passes readily through it. Unfortunately, so do most of the nutrients. Plants have a difficult time getting enough water and nutrients from a sandy soil.

Loam is a mixture of clay and sand. It has the ability to hold some water and most of the nutrients plants need and are extracted when the plants call for them. If your soil has a little too much clay or a little too much sand, don’t worry, just add compost! Don’t worry about the pH; the compost will mellow the soil towards the optimum growing range of 6.5-7.0.

The idea of composting is to recycle organic waste from around your house. It utilizes any organic waste such as fruit and vegetable scraps (no meat or grease please), grass clippings, fallen leaves, twigs, tree trimmings, hedge trimmings, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc. You will need a mixture of fresh (green) which adds nitrogen, and dry (brown) which adds carbon. You will need fresh manure (preferably horse or chicken) and/or blood meal which will add more nitrogen and get the pile going.

Composting depends primarily on particle size, moisture content, and pile temperature. Ratios have to be within certain parameters or the composting process will be too slow.

Particle Size- the smaller the particle the faster the decomposition process as the bacteria can attack on all sides. I break up into small pieces anything that is going into the pile.

Moisture Content- the compost pile needs to contain 40-60% moisture- too dry and the process will be slow, too wet and there will be oxygen depletion to the bacteria. Just feel the outside of the pile and if it feels somewhat moist, you are probably OK. Be careful as the pile will be hot.

Temperature- A good compost pile will be in the 130-160 degree range. Once again feel the outside of the pile. If it is not hot enough you can add more manure and/or put a black plastic tarp over it for awhile. Take the tarp off after it heats up as the pile needs air. You can check the temperature if you would like with a simple “turkey thermometer”
which is available at any grocery store.

How Long? The time frame for the pile to break down the organic material into a dark brown usable substance varies with your geographic location and time of year. It can take as little as 3 weeks in the tropics to 6 months in the northern latitudes in the winter months. If you want to simplify and/or accelerate the process, there are many compost bins, tumblers, boxes, etc. which are available online. You have heard about “6 minute abs”- now they have the “6 minute compost” or something like that. Well it’s probably 10-14 days but they are a bit costly. You can also build a box using four wooden pallets and nailing them together and leaving the front open. This is a cheap, viable way, and it allows for plenty of air flow because of the open spaces in the pallets.

HOW TO COMPOST

What you will do now is build your pile. Your compost pile must be at least 4’x 4’ and at least 4’ high, the higher the better! BUT your compost pile will follow the laws of gravity and the higher you go the wider the pile will become.

LAYER THE PILE

1. Composting should be done in layers-each layer should be at least 4-6” thick of “brown” and “green” material and is added in alternating layers.
a. The bottom layer is composed of brown material—twigs are the best as they will take longer to breakdown AND will allow air to flow through the compost which is essential.
b. The next layer should be green material-table scraps, grass clippings, etc.
c. The next layer should be a thin sprinkling of horse or chicken manure.
d. The next layer should be brown material-dry leaves, woods chips, straw, pruning scraps, sawdust, etc. 4-6” thick.
e. The next layer should be a sprinkling of horse of chicken manure.
f. The next layer should be green material-4-6” thick.

And so on, and so on until the pile is at least 4’ high. I also shovel about 1-2” of soil from finished compost on top of each layer of manure. This “kick starts” the decomposition process as this soil contains a lot of micro bacteria. If your pile needs more action, you can add an organic seaweed mix which aids greatly in fermentation of the pile which accelerates the decomposition process. And don’t forget to keep your compost pile moist. Moisture deficiency will slow the process way down.

TURN THE PILE

1. Your compost pile must be turned every 1-2 weeks in the tropics. On the Mainland you will only have to do this every 3-4 weeks depending on the weather. The center of the pile is the hottest and where most of the action occurs. The trick is to move the material from the sides into the center of the pile. There will be plenty of space in the center of the pile as during this decomposition process, the pile is losing half of it’s size from this location. This moving of material is accomplished by using a pitch fork, shovel, or similar and working from the outside inwards.

WHEN IS MY COMPOST READY TO USE?

1. When your compost is a nice dark brown color and it smells like good, clean, rich soil it is ready for the garden. Just move it out from the bottom of the pile into a wheelbarrow or similar and work it into the soil in your garden.

SOURCES OF SPECIFIC NUTRIENTS

Nitrogen: bat guano, blood meal, chicken manure, cottonseed meal, fish emulsion, kelp meal, livestock manure (composted)

Phosphorus: bonemeal, rock phosphate, super phosphate

Potassium: granite meal, greensand, seabird guano, shrimp shell meal, sulfate of potash, wood ashes

Calcium: bonemeal, chelated calcium, eggshells, limestone, oyster shells, wood ashes

Boron: borax, chelated boron, manure

Copper: chelated copper

Magnesium: chelated magnesium, dolomitic limestone, Epsom salts

Sulfur: iron sulfate, sulfur, zinc sulfate

Zinc: chelated zinc, zinc sulfate

Iron: chelated iron, iron surface

PROBLEMS?

1. Compost pile not breaking down fast enough—Check moisture, and temperature. If both are OK, add more manure or blood meal.

2. Compost pile soggy—Could be from excess water, or acids that are produced as byproducts of decay. Add organic limestone, but be careful, this stuff is potent! Just add a little in each layer and give it a few days. Do not mix with sulfate of ammonia as this will result in the nitrogen being lost as ammonia gas.

Any questions, feel free to email me. Also, I am leaving the country for a few weeks beginning 6/14/09 and will not return until the first part of July. Yes, I am going surfing again to a remote location in Central America where there are only dirt roads and no communication with the outside world. Make sure that you check out “Where’s Jamie” and if you guess my location (after photos are posted on the site) you will win a $50.00 gift certificate to our bambooandtikis.com site. We will be doing this on a consistent basis in the near future. Not a lot of money, but what do you expect from a Surf Rat???

GOOD LUCK AND GREAT GARDENING!!!

Jamie

thehottestpepper.com

I hope that every one had a great weekend! And GO LAKERS!!!

Today’s Blog will be about “The Sifter”. This little garden assistant works wonders when getting soil from your compost pile. The purpose of it is pretty simple- to keep the larger particles of soil on top of the screen and allow the smaller ones to fall into your bucket or other carrying device. It is very important to have a very fine soil composition for certain vegetables like carrots which can be easily sidetracked when they grow. I have seen many a crooked carrot in my day because the gardener did not take the time to sift the soil. You can make a sifter easily and cheaply and it saves a ton of time.

How to Make “The Sifter”

I use a sheet of diamond lath (available @ The Home Depot) or any good garden supply store. They have different thicknesses of the lath, but the cheapest one (about $5.00) will work just fine. It measures 2′ x 6′ and you can just frame it out with 2 x 4 lumber in any size that you want. If you want a higher sifter, then use 2 x 6 lumber. This sheet can makes two 2′ x 3′ “sifters” if you know a friend that needs one. OR, you can just put the sheet of lath on 2 piles of dirt, put a bucket underneath the center and shovel the soil on top of the lath. Use your hands (I wear gloves as the lath is a bit sharp) and rub the soil through the “diamond” shaped holes. Now you have a fine soil that is good for germinating seeds, transplanting, or for vegetables that need a fine, sifted soil

Aloha,

Jamie

thehottestpepper.com