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In the last few years, local nurseries (e.g., Plant Depot and Green Thumb in Orange County) have been stocking a nicer variety of peppers in 4" pots, and up until now they have all grown true for me. This season though, I bought a plant labeled "datil"--C. chinense, that is pretty obviously a C...

I decided to evaluate a few kinds of plants for potential use in an experiment to run with my bio classes--the objective is to have students make predictions based on a model that beneficial microbes have a positive effect on plant growth, and then to set up an appropriate experiment and...

so lately I've been making rocotos rellenos with chorizo, ground beef, onions, potato, fatalii and scorpion powders as well as other spices, garlic, cream cheese, and shredded cheese for my 19-year old son and me, and the last couple of times he's polished off the whole thing (a pyrex pie dish...

My plants have been heavily podded since May/June--I thought I was going to have an early crop. Hah!   Just got my first one today. A few more are in the process of coloring up now.

This is my first attempt at growing yellow scotch bonnets. I got some seed, and after a failed attempt, I got a couple of plants going. The one on the right is "big sun" the one and looks as I expect it to. The plant on the left should be "foodarama," but I'm guessing it's either a seed mix-up...

I sent a bunch of people seed from a charapita plant that I grew from seed I collected in Peru. I had presumed that given how the pods I got in 2012 looked true to the pods I had eaten while there, it was a pure landrace plant.  Now that I am growing out three of its progeny (from the same stock...

Last few years I have lost half or more of my tomato crop to towhees and rats. Traps do kill a few, but in order not to kill too many birdies I've got to deploy at dusk and disarm by day--a big pain in the rear. My plan for this year is to stake and prune so that the ground stays clear up to...

if I get any new starts in the ground at all this year, it will be pure perseverance. Ah well, at least the overwinters are leafing out.

Send me a PM if you want any of the following. All of my seeds are from plants grown in 2012 and open-pollinated. Carefully collected and dried--I'm 100% sure that the seeds came from the pods I named. Not completely sure of the ID on the Peach Hab or the Naga Morich--those are best guesses on...

Here's the only C. chinense that grew from Vladan's mystery mix packet. The pod at the bottom is starting to ripen to a sort of creamy yellowish color. Shape of the pods is hab-ish, but they are quite large. Haven't tasted yet, as I want to see what the final color is going to be. Can someone...

Both of these plants are from seeds I got from the same source. They have similar growth habits--upright but bushy--but one has smaller leaves and narrow fruit, while the other has larger, wider, and lighter green in the leaves. See pics below. Plant A: Pod A: Plant B: Pod B: Are either...

After an enthusiastic endorsement from my sister, I agreed to germinate some seeds for her. I kept a couple for myself as well. This is basically a fuzzy tomatillo with marble-sized, intensely sweet fruit. The plant grows like a monster, and I yanked out the one I had in the ground because it...

They're on chocolate bhuts (from Matt), yellow scorpionXyellow 7pots (from Joe), and Naga Morichs (from a supermarket). I've got other plants that are also podding up, but these three set pods much earlier and seem to be overdue to ripen. Haven't harvested a single seed-grown C. chinense pod...

Here are a couple of C. annuum I have question marks on. The first is a mystery mix pepper from Vladan. It is small in stature but upright in growth (not like the Iskra plant that Vladan identified for me in an earlier post). It looks like an ornamental, and I have not tasted the pods, which...

I picked up some of these at Mitsuwa market in Costa Mesa last December to make a batch of Geeme's Molasses Nut Chews. They've re-stocked and I bought another packet. I also have a plant growing from the seeds I collected in December. As you can see the peppers are grown in the...

Based on Vladan's glog I think so, but I thought I'd put this up just to make sure. I didn't take a pic of the whole plant, but it's a small, low-growing C. annuum. Pretty flower. I haven't tasted yet, as the pods are still immature. Thanks.

Today my voice was in really crappy shape but I needed to record a lecture, so I came up with this: juice of 2 lemons sliced hot green chile (I used an unidentified green my wife found at an Indian market, which is about four times the size and heat of a serrano) steep that in 1.5 cups of...

So one of my fish pepper seedlings developed a weird twist early on, and here's the state of things now. As you can see, the stem is totally flat, but the lateral branches so far do not have the flat appearance. Is anyone familiar with this pheno? I know most growers here would have culled...

Last couple of days I haven't been able to get a stable connection to this site on Chrome. Safari and Firefox work fine. Is anyone else seeing this? Is there a fix?

My late, great Griswold #8. It made it through two World Wars, dodging the draft (i.e., successfully avoiding being melted down in war efforts). I didn't survive the Darwinmas feast of 2012. Rest in Pieces, old friend.