Chocolate Ghost, Lemon Drop, Fresno, and Hungarian Hot Wax are all officially outside and transplanted into pots!
I’m also growing Rosella cherry tomatoes which are absolutely delicious and have somehow even managed to produce a few fruits for me during extreme neglect.
My Tobago x Chiltepin F3 lil plants. Seeds went in Jan 23rd so these are about 5 weeks since germination. Planted 144 seeds and these are the most 15 vigorous and the quickest to germinate. Also culled any weirdos or outliers.
General idea is chiltepin flavor on burlier, squatter, and hardier plants. Also quicker germination and larger size and flesh. Most of these look similar to the selected F2 female. Doing a whole row of 15 large in-ground plants.
The F2 female was probably feet tall and 4ft wide. Handled spring cold and soggy conditions the others didn’t like. Loved full sun. Had conical fruits much larger and fleshier than chiltepin and all the earthy smoky pungent flavor. Still thin and smaller, but hopefully in F3 we can get a bit bigger and fleshier. I use these exclusively for hot sauce so that is important.
These came as Tobagos but one plant in the F1 was an obvious accidental cross of the chiltepins next to it. All dominant wild traits, paper thin skin, tiny fruits, super hot, smokey and earthy flavor, total opposite of the Tobago.
I love how growing pot is the gateway to horticulture and breeding!
Yes, that is an excellent example of the work I am talking about haha!
UConn study in pepper maggot control.
I remember reading this years ago, but did not remember it mentioning there being sprays for the pepper maggots, so I was wrong on that point. But, I personally am not willing to grow a plant I know I will have to spray insecticide on anyway, but that’s just me.
Flip side is the flies like them so much they are used as the trap crop in field trials for pepper maggot control.
I bet you could get away with light row cover if you wanted to, over some hoops or wrapped around a couple garden stakes and bundled at the top. Have to knock the flowers around for pollination though.
I grow some “Boonie peppers” from Guam, also called Donni Sali, or Bird peppers. They don’t get any larger than 2" but they do pack a punch. They grow wild in the jungle on Guam. They have a good flavor to go along with the heat. They are used in marinates and finadini sauce for dipping. Love my marinated chicken and ribs on the BBQ, the smell makes the neighbors hungry.
PS, I hate banana spiders!
Oohh! I would like some to grow for my wife please. She is Chamorro
That hornworm agrees; pests suck
I have been attempting to explain the deliciousness and multipurpose use of finedene to @CADMAN . I hope you can explain it better
Here is a recent order of seeds with lots of peppers, although I save a bunch of seeds from our garden from last year’s harvest.
I usually start about 500 to 600 starter plants inside. The slow starters get
planted first followed by adding other flats as the clock ticks down toward planting
them outside.
The Platinum Dosi in the corner is one that decided on a sex change
early in life. I tried to explain that there was a very good chance she would
regret that decision later in life. She was removed from her classmates and
put in isolation. Male parts were removed, and yet she persisted. Now after
many banana ectomies, I can see that she truly regrets her decision to become a
boy. Luckily, none of the other girls in her class were affected by her decision.
Salsa peppers - This pic reminds me of my recent nanner conundrum.
Our garden is huge. 60’ x 120’. Two years ago we added some garden fabric
and drip tape irrigation. The yield has been many fold from what we were getting before, and the weeding is now back to a manageable level.
The first year we were here, we quickly found out it was way too big for the two of us, so we added a dozen apple trees, two peach trees, and two cherry trees.
We also planted a bunch of red and black raspberries which now has grown to an area about 15’x60’.
The area where the trees and rows of blueberries are now at occupies about one third the garden space. The rest is for our veggies. We can up a bunch of apples and jam from the apples, berries, peaches, and cherries. We get enough for a year or more, and still have some for gifts.
We started selling our excess at the local farmers market in town on Saturdays.
$5 buys us a table which my wife does for a half day on Saturdays. She also
does well with her artwork. Well worth the $5 per week we spend.
Our apple trees last season yielded over 20 5gal buckets which got canned as apple sauce, apples, and then a bunch squeezed into cider. She was selling the great looking ones at the farmers market as well as by the bushel.
Some of the veggies like different squashes sell well for a good price (for us) so
we grow quite a few different varieties.
Length and girth my wife said jokingly.
An average pumpkin contains around 500 seeds. I put 2 pumpkins worth of
roasted seeds in food saver bags and have more than enough to last until the
harvest the following year.
Potatoes
You have my dream garden. I am fan girling. Wow good stuff I’m in love with it.
Does anyone have any Chile Tepin seeds (Sonora, MX) I’m going to have to look for some or wait till next year and steal from my mom’s garden. Maybe I can make a cut.
I did a search on Ebay and found a few. This listing has free shipping and just under 3 dollars for 25 seeds.
If you really want hot, try some of the Carolina Reaper variety. It tests at over 2 million
scoville units and that makes it the world record holder. I tried some two years ago and they were way over the top, even for the hot salsa my wife likes to make. Her salsa is made in a blender that chops up the peppers, but even the smallest piece of one will have you trying the milk trick to kill the burn. Even handling them is dangerous and should be done wearing latex gloves. The ghost peppers and scorpion peppers I can
deal with, although they are smoking hot. However the Carolina Reapers are
deadly.
I ordered them and I’ll compare them to my moms chile Tepin tree with seeds directly from Sonora. Great price thank you so much for going out of your way. I love eating them with every bite of my food. Things are intense ngl
These are awesome, you ever eaten one raw? HOTTTTT
I maxed out the number of pics I could put in my prior post.
Here are some more.
Nanking Cherries - We make jam out of these and “can” them in glass jars.
Red Currants - These also get made into jam.
Peaches
Apples
Blueberries
Spaghetti Squash
Peas mature quickly, so I plant them 3 times during the growing season. The last time
I plant them is mid August and they will finish before the first frost the beginning of November.
Red Cabbage
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds - Two pumpkins worth on a cookie sheet (approx 1000 seeds)
2/3 of a stick of butter cut into pats and put on top of them. Oven set at 225 F
for about a half hour and them turn them with a spatula and then let them go for another 20 to 30 minutes until done. I watch them close toward the end to make sure
I don’t over cook them. Sea salt to taste when done.
Some friends have goats that love eating them. Aside from a few smaller sugar pie pumpkins which we make into pies. The rest go to our friends with goats. They love them and nothing goes to waste.
A snake in the garden with an apple tree.
What could possibly go wrong with that?
Assortment
Whatever peppers you might think are fire, DO NOT try any of the
Carolina Reapers.
your garden looks spectacular
More pepper action. Sugar rush peach is really an impressive variety. It’s one of my favorite peppers and it’s producing really heavily in my tent.
The aji lemon really came around and started producing. Many of the peppers show anthocyanins, which says to me that maybe they don’t like how bright my lights are. I think that’s one thing a few peppers aren’t handling well.
Tough shit I guess, I’m just going to grow the ones that do well. I’ll try some different varieties soon, but the sugar rush peach and shishitos have been productive and earned spots in my tent.
I’m starting some Thai dragons. I also ordered some new stuff from Sandia Seed Co.
ITEMS
1x Fatalii Heirloom Pepper Seeds
1x Chef’s Sweet Italian Pepper 3-Pack: Cubanelle, Jimmy Nardello, and Marconi Red Seeds
1x Mirasol Mosco Pueblo Chile Seeds - Authentic from Colorado
1x Fushimi Sweet Pepper Seeds
1x Guajillo Chile Seeds
1x Chimayo Chile Seeds
1x Pepperoncini Golden Greek Pepper Seeds
1x Goat Horn Hot Pepper Seeds
1x Big Jim Legacy Pepper Seeds
1x Sweet Red Cherry Pepper - Heirloom Seeds
1x Habanada No-Heat Habanero Seeds
Sugar Rush Peach peppers taste so good! Everyone talks about the flavor but what surprised me was the heat! Not a superhot by any stretch but they can hit 100k scovilles. For your average joe, that’s a bit of heat!
