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Post by steev on Apr 9, 2017 20:01:31 GMT -5
Living up to your handle, aren't you?
Gotten around to sampling the Hostas yet?
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Post by taihaku on Apr 20, 2017 3:01:32 GMT -5
My grow list this year did not work out at all. I had issues first with duff germination and then with the loss of almost all seedlings. I grow hydroponically so I often only have one plant of a particular variety which is usually more than enough for my needs. I grow out my seedlings under lights in those little expanding pots of compost and the batch I had this year seemed to have water retention issues of some kind. Seedlings were either too dry or too wet all the time and it was pretty much a disaster. My intended growlist is always divided into 5 categories as follows:
Habaneros and hot chinense: Mostly habaneros as I prefer the fruity heat to the caustic heat of the naga types, I will often grow a single scotch bonnet
Mild chinense: Numex suave, Trinidad perfume and similar types which I use to up the habanero flavour without making the heat of a dish nuclear.
"Classic chilli types": for standard thai type cooking, making powders and flakes
Jalapenos
Mildish eating annums
So the 2017 growlist was intended to be:
Habaneros and hot chinense:
TS CARDI Yellow
Orange Hab
Mild chinense:
Numex suave,
Trinidad perfume
"Classic chilli types":
Lemon Drop
Super Chili
Jalapenos
Cracked
Potato Skin
Mildish eating annums
Shishito
Poblano
Padron
Having failed so disastrously I've abandoned seed for the year and am picking up individual seedlings here and there. Right now we're at:
Habaneros and hot chinense: Peruvian white hab, magnum orange hab, Burkina yellow hab
"Classic chilli types": thai dragon
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Post by taihaku on Apr 21, 2017 2:50:41 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about your pepper germination troubles, hope you have better luck next year. Lots of discussion on the web pro and con regarding those hydro-expanding netted seed starting pots so I won't get into it here. I used them once a long time ago, absolutely hated them, and never so much as considered using them again. I definitely recommend consistently warm temperatures for pepper seed starting, a very important issue that is easily resolved by using a seedling heat mat. In my experience cold and wet is the quick death of pepper seeds. Yep, I've always used them and to be honest my results have never been less than spectacular. I think this issue has something to do with the mix used in their production changing (or varying brand to brand); these look like they have a lot of coir in them which (IMO) is making the water retention an issue. What is really frustrating is that I've tried to do exactly what I've always done and suddenly its gone from simple and highly effective to shambolic. Oh well. It gives me an opportunity to try some new peppers (ie whatever appears at the local stores as a plug!) and there is always next year. Plus it leaves a spot in the hydro-unit in the greenhouse for one or even two of Joseph's watermelons!
I absolutely agree with you re warm temperatures: essential.
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Post by zeedman on Apr 21, 2017 21:54:04 GMT -5
My pepper grow list for 2017, seeds started: I am gravitating towards thick walled peppers because I find them to be more flavorful and more useful. My favorite sweet pepper by far is the pimiento, but I have not been growing pimientos lately because while I love the flavor and texture I have been rather disappointed by the poor yield of the plants. I also really like the flavor of the Jimmy Nardello but I am disappointed by the thin wall trait so I am skipping them as well. Your tastes resemble my own; with few exceptions, I prefer thick-walled peppers. I've been growing many of the round pimento types, the "white" Hungarian types, and the thicker-walled conical peppers. The Hungarian types are very high yielding, but late to mature. My list for this year: Aji Cristal (hot, baccatum) Beaver Dam (hot, my go-to salsa pepper) Doe Hill (sweet) seed sent to me in trade was impure, I grew it isolated & hope to verify purity this year. Small, but incredible flavor. Djuric (a round pimento that I observed on SSE's farm, trial against Greygo) Early Jalapeno (hot) "early" or not, I've had trouble saving seed from this one; my seed is dying, so I'll be growing it under shelter. Greygo (sweet, very large round pimento) Karlo (hot, trial) Numex Sunset (hot, trial) Pelso (hot, dwarf, conical white Hungarian type, really good paprika) PI 315008 (hot, chinense, from USDA) no germination yet, this was supposed to be a comparison growout against SSE's version, which did really well in 2015 & 2016, but may be contaminated (no two plants were the same). I'll keep growing SSE's version regardless, it matures early, and bears heavily even in my short summers. Pizza (hot) Pizza cross F2 (more on that below) Professor Meader's Chocolate (short-season brown bell) Suptol (conical Hungarian) Tennessee Cheese (very thick-walled round pimento) Tequila Sunrise (sweet, orange, trial) Interesting... I'm working on a Pizza cross too, a dwarf variant probably from Alma Paprika as a pollen donor. It popped up in an open planting in 2015, so the F2 was further crossed with Greygo, Beaver Dam, and Pizza. I grew out some of the resulting seed last year, and of 36 plants, over half retained the dwarf characteristic. While the shapes varied (the influence of Beaver Dam was obvious on a few plants) the majority were round or apple-shaped, and all were thick walled. Nearly all retained Pizza's heat & crunch.     While the fruit size is rather small, many of these plants were both early & productive. I will be selecting for the high-yielding dwarves with round/apple shapes. The grow out last year was a trial, to see how much variation there would be in the F2; while I saved seed from the best plants, it probably crossed even further. I collected a lot of the original F2 seed (every ripe pepper on the plant), this year's grow out will be a repeat of last year, but grown under cover. Interestingly, I had another cross show up in 2015, in Greygo - also apparently with Alma Paprika. I'm still trying to figure out how that pollen got into both isolation cages. This cross may be worth working on too; the peppers were smaller than Greygo, but the set was very heavy... could possibly lead to a higher-yielding version of Greygo. A project for another year. |
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Post by zeedman on Apr 22, 2017 16:01:13 GMT -5
" Nearly all retained Pizza's heat..." - I am curious what cross/fruit shape did not retain the heat? Was it just spicy or mild heat? My tastes have really changed, I have become partial to just having a spiciness or "zing" in foods rather than strong heat that overpowers the flavors of foods. I guess I don't see the point of heat simply for the sake of heat. I remember my original growout of Pizza plants produced much hotter peppers than the variety description claimed, which was disappointing to me because it was not what I was expecting nor what I wanted at the time. I only tasted the fully ripe peppers, so they were initially sweet (the Beaver Dam crosses less so), but all had some degree of heat. A few of the apple-shaped peppers were sweet with just a hint of heat. Most of the round/apple types had "stealth" heat... all I tasted at first was the crunch & the sweetness, then the heat built up slowly, and really lingered. Lingered to the point where if I licked my lips later, I felt a burn on the lips (but not uncomfortably so). The original F1 had this effect (part of the reason I saved it) so I was pleased to see it reflected in so many of the F2 generation. I really liked that gradual transition from sweet to heat. We appear to have very similar preferences in peppers, I too don't want the heat of a pepper to overpower its flavor. The few hotter peppers that I grow are either for drying & blending into pepper powders, or to give to the hard-core pepperheads at work. The heat of Pizza can vary considerably. You can control that to a point. If picked green and/or in hot weather, the heat can be more intense. Ripe peppers are not as hot as green, and the heat will also diminish as the harvest temperature drops. I've taken advantage of the temperature/heat relationship for many years... I pick all the fully-grown green peppers from the plants the night before frost, and store those for later use. Those peppers are crisp, and almost totally without heat - IMO, truly gourmet quality. Incredibly good storage life too, I ate the last ones just before Christmas last year. The ripe crosses also lost most of their heat in cold storage. Those photos were taken very late in the season (I have photos for all the plants with matured peppers). By that point, all pepper plants had reached their maximum load & stopped flowering. Since I seldom harvest peppers in the green stage (except at season's end) most of my peppers generally stop blooming somewhere around mid-September. Last year though, with the killing freeze coming so late, many of the immature peppers I left on the plants (writing them off to the frost) ended up maturing, and a few blossoms reappeared. Chances are that I will never again in my lifetime see such an extended growing season, I had buckets of peppers to give away. While I would not categorize the original Pizza as "indeterminate", it certainly does have an extended blooming period. A few of the non-dwarf crosses had extended blooming (probably because of their larger plant size & relatively poor fruit set) but the dwarves quickly set their load of pods & dropped remaining blossoms. My original Pizza seed is from Territorial in 2005. It seems to have quite a bit of Jalapeno in its heritage, to judge by the plant habit, yield, some corking in the ripe peppers - and probably the source of its heat. Its most unique characteristics though, IMO, are its crispness, exceptionally thick walls, and long storage life. Quite a good combination of traits for breeding; if there is a negative, it is the fairly late maturity (probably also from Jalapeno heritage). Based upon my observations of the cross last year, DTM can be reduced while retaining most of the best characteristics. |
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Post by farmermike on Apr 29, 2017 4:26:28 GMT -5
Getting excited about my peppers this year. Got seeds planted late, but should have some ready to go into the ground pretty soon. Hot/Medium -- These are listed in the order of the spiciness in my garden (or where I expect them to fall for the new trials). My experiences do not seem to align with the scoville rating I find on the web. Buena Mulata (new trial) Ethiopian Brown (new trial) Rezha Macedonian (new trial; interesting corky skin) Bulgarian Carrot (grown once before, and this is about the limit of spiciness I want in my garden) Chilhaucle Negro (my favorite hot from last year; ripens brown; early and productive) Pasilla Bajio (ripens brown) Hungarian Black (anthocyanin skin prevents sunburn; I may try to cross with other peppers to transfer this trait) Poblano x Jalapeno cross (from jondear ; these have been the quickest to sprout, and the most vigorous seedlings) Hungarian Yellow (early and productive) Jalapeno (the one I have is disappointingly mild) Poblano Mulato Isleno Padron (new trial) Chilhaucle negro.  This was my most exciting pepper discovery last summer. They ripened early and out produced almost all the other types I grew. They ripened to a nice dark brown color, and had a delicious smoky, moderately spicy, flavor. They look a little like a small poblano. The only drawback I find with these is that they have a very tough skin. Of course, maybe this is because they are meant to be dried and ground up for mole -- which I plan to do this year. But I like the flavor of this pepper so much that I want to chop it up for use in other dishes. I even tried charring the skin over flame, but they did not peel easily like a poblano. I am hoping to do some crosses with this variety and possibly get some offspring with thinner skins. Sweet Midnight Dreams (bell, anthocyanin skin; bell peppers always get sunburned during my hot summers, but these did not) Georgescu Chocolate (ripens brown) Sweet Chocolate (new trial) Marconi Red Violet Sparkle (new trial) Shishito (my favorite and most productive sweet pepper; the strain I have has never produced a spicy pepper) Shishito peppers  I have really grown to love shishito peppers, and whatever strain I am growing has zero heat. I can’t remember, at the moment, where I got my original seed. I’ll check back through my records. toomanyirons , I’m happy to send you some seed if you’d like -- although they have not necessarily been isolated from my moderately spicy peppers in the 2 or 3 years I have been growing them. But I have not seen any crossing...yet. The shishitos we get from our CSA also have never been spicy; some from the farmers market have had about one in a dozen that were hot. I actually have been wishing that mine did have a little spice to them. This year I’m trying out some Padrons, hoping to fill that niche, and am going to start keeping the shishitos more isolated. I’m thinking of maintaining both a spicy and non-spicy version of these thin-walled frying peppers. I also have become very interested in the unique flavor of peppers that ripen brown, but am not really interested in super hot peppers. I have been searching around for brown peppers that range from sweet to moderately hot, but there aren’t a lot of them available. One of my breeding goals is to create more of these. My final harvest from last year after the plants were killed by frost (mostly unripe).  From top/left to bottom/right: Mulato Isleno, Hungarian Black, Chilhaucle Negro, Hungarian Yellow, Pasilla Bajio, Poblano, Shishito. |
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Post by jondear on Apr 29, 2017 21:12:00 GMT -5
Chilhaucle negro.  This was my most exciting pepper discovery last summer. They ripened early and out produced almost all the other types I grew. They ripened to a nice dark brown color, and had a delicious smoky, moderately spicy, flavor. They look a little like a small poblano. The only drawback I find with these is that they have a very tough skin. Of course, maybe this is because they are meant to be dried and ground up for mole -- which I plan to do this year. But I like the flavor of this pepper so much that I want to chop it up for use in other dishes. I even tried charring the skin over flame, but they did not peel easily like a poblano. I am hoping to do some crosses with this variety and possibly get some offspring with thinner skins I've been looking for a thicker skinned, easier to peel poblano, so I'll try some hand crosses as well, but select for the exact opposite. Lol Good to hear the polano/jalapeno cross is doing well for you. |
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Post by zeedman on Apr 30, 2017 16:14:40 GMT -5
farmermike , that Chilhaucle Negro is a beautiful pepper... like T.M.I., I would like to hear more about it. Thick walls & mild flavor, sounds like something worth checking out. I notice that there are several sources on the Web, where did you acquire your seed? I too am interested in trialing some of the brown peppers (other than the super hots). I had a possible trade for several lined up earlier in the year, but it fell through.
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Post by zeedman on May 1, 2017 19:44:20 GMT -5
TMI, count me among those interested in that swap. I only have one brown (Professor Meader's, which I believe will turn out to be the same as Sweet Chocolate), but I have several purple/black cultivars.
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Post by farmermike on May 23, 2017 16:56:45 GMT -5
Yes, toomanyirons, that Chilhaucle Negro pepper is around 3" long and about 2-3" wide. zeedman, I got the original seed from Horizon Herbs in 2015 or 2016. One of my favorite things about this variety is that it is so compact and productive. Most plants last year didn't exceed 2' tall. They began producing quickly, and the fruits ripened to their final brown color quickly as well. Many peppers stop producing during the height of summer where I live, when temps often exceed 100F, but this one handled it better than most. My Mulato Isleno plants, last year, reached 6' tall and didn't fully ripen a single fruit before frost killed them in December. The CN really shined in comparison. They were also much more productive than my regular Poblanos. Count me in for the brown/chocolate pepper seed swap too! |
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Post by swamper on Jun 16, 2017 19:38:45 GMT -5
I grew chilhaucle negro and chilhuacle amarillo last year and was disappointed in the thin walls, just my preference. I liked chocolate cherry the year I grew it.
Here's my pepper list this year:
HOT CHINENSE
7pot white
pimento de cheiro
Devil's Tongue White
Sugar Rush Peach
bonda brazilX red
bonda brazilX oval
bonda brazilX orange
Morupi Red
beni highland
Mako Akokosrade
MILD CHINENSE
Aji Jobito
trick or treat
habanada
aji dulce
NuMex Orange Suave
HOT ANNUUM
Arledge
Bogyiszloi
Peppino yellow outcross'13
Mariachi f1
CvetaX orange f4
Big Bomb
Cascabella
Augusto's Hot n'sweet
BACCATUM
Aji FantasySprkWhte
Aji Ahuachapan
SWEET ANNUUM
Tolstyi Barin
orange temptation
orange temptation(large)
chablis f5
red picnic
Numex sweet
Eros f3
PUBESCENS
Mini Rocoto
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Post by mjc on Jun 16, 2017 20:24:32 GMT -5
I'm interested, but not sure if I'll have any tradable material. I'll do some germination tests on some of the older seed I have.
I'm not really growing much in the way of peppers, this year.
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Post by steev on Sept 19, 2017 18:35:32 GMT -5
Certainly is a splendid chili.
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Post by RpR on Oct 11, 2017 11:49:29 GMT -5
From the size of your yield I assume you have a large lot, or avoid mowing by planting your entire lot.
I have been growing chiles for thirty plus years and rarely get what I call a good crop. This year I planted most of them up on a berm I have surrounding my North garden and while the plants were still, to me short, under two feet tall, those on the berm did far, far, far better than those planted in the garden. Now those in the garden were separated from the berm by a eight foot wide patch of potatoes, the ones on the berm were near disease free even though tomatoes on the berm , for the first time had disease problems that Serenade really did not stop.
How tall do your plants get? How early do you plant, mine are plants not seeds. I used to start them in the basement but results were not worth the effort.
My yield this year was much better than I expected as up into July , even with pretty good weather , they seemed l lack-lustre, but come August they and the tomatoes even with disease started producing well.
I still have five plants in the garden, I covered them at night with insulated bed pads so the fruit on the plants can get a bit larger and more ripe, although I think I will pull the Thai Chiles today.
My North garden is in the ST. Cloud area. What procedure do you use for yours?
I have found that with the sweet chiles, if you leave them on the plant till they very ripe, or as I do some times set them on a shelf on my hose reel and leave them till it is use it or lose it, you get far, far, far more flavor out of the sweet types.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Oct 11, 2017 12:10:30 GMT -5
If you haven't heard of it or tried it yet, google about the Mosco Chili. A locally bred chili with some interesting traits like chilis facing toward the sky which is unusual. denvergreenchili.com/the-mosco-chile-pepper/ |
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