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First time growing extra hot peppers

R

ravishingjay

I just stumbled upon this forum this morning and it is awesome!
This will be my 4th summer growing peppers. I have been successful growing many kinds of peppers with a couple exceptions. Last summer, I tried to grow Trinidad Scorpions and Orange Manzanos. The plants looked healthy but these two varieties just didn't do anything. The Scorpions grew about 12 inches tall and made zero blossoms. The Manzanos grew about 8 inches tall and had pretty purple flowers all summer long, but no peppers. I planted 15 of each. All of my pepper plants were started at the same time and were transplanted to my garden at the same time. Let me know what you think.
 
If you could give us a little more info about your soil, how much sunlight and what ferts you have been using that would be useful. Both of the plants you mentioned are much harder to grow than the average pepper. They also take a much longer time to produce.
Thanks
Jamie
 
I live in very fertile farm country in western Wisconsin. My garden is out in the open, so the plants had as much sunlight as possible. I did not use any fertilizer, because the rest of my garden has grown so well for the last 3 summers that I didn't think any fertilizer was required.
 
You may want to have your soil checked out. I have never grown peppers without adding some type of nutrients to the soil. That is most likely why they didn't grow very large and failed to produce. Are you rotating your crops?



Jamie
 
From What I can figure out from growing logs in here the peppers like loose well drained ph 3.4 soil with lots of loose organics like pine tiny mulch.

Maybe your Soil is too compacted or too basic for them---that is my only guess. But just remember that these hot ones are a perennial and make need a couple years to give you good yields. I am going to try some of these hot ones and put the best ones into 5 gal pots and bring them in the house for winter. From the reports on here they will do well if cut way back.

Good luck from the east of WI
 
Could also depend on the time of year you plant your seeds. Many people suggest planting indoors in January so that the plants that take longer to produce will be ready to produce by the summer (as I'm sure you've noticed all of the grow logs that have already been started for the upcoming season by THP members)
 
I started all of my seeds indoors on February 1st. They were planted outside on June 1st. Here is a partial list of peppers that I have grown over the last 3 seasons, some hot some sweet. 4 different colored bell peppers, Jimmy Nardello, Serrano, Black Hungarian, Numex Sunrise, Chinese 5 Color, Sweet Cayenne, Numex Big Jim, Tequila Sunrise, Fish, Banana, Aji Dulce, Jalapeno, Marconi, Giant Aconcagua, and a few others I can't remember. What I found surprising was that the Aji Dulce grew fine and gave a decent yield of peppers, when the Scorpion and Manzano didn't. Why would I need a soil test when everything else seems to grow fine?
 
if you didn't plantout until June 1st, IMO that is the issue...the superhots I am familiar with are long season plants and hard to successfully grow in a short season climate...

all the ones you mentioned are annuums (if I am not mistaken) and are shorter season peppers than most chinense
 
I've had 2 different annuums side by side and one does poor and the other not. Soil, light, water, nutrients, pests and time if you get all those right they'll produce. I would try a couple in containers where you know you have the best handle on all the variables and try a couple different light options. Some peppers like a little shade late in the day, others like full sun all day. Do maybe one in each type location and see what happens. If one is doing much better than the other then you can move it. Containers will also give you the option of an earlier start since you can move them in if a cold snap comes by. I'm new to the supers too...and I am starting half my supers in pots the others in the ground 20-25 each depending on germination rate to give myself the best possibility for success.

Good luck!

Oh...and AJ above your post is kind of a big deal on here! You couldn't get advise from a better source than him. If he told me I needed a longer season I would be shopping for a greenhouse!

Another thing I forgot to mention is that if you pot them up you can also bring them in to winter over. Most of the big supers are not really good producers first year as mentioned earlier.
 
A greenhouse would be nice. Unfortunately, there are not enough funds for that. I have read that the super hot peppers need a lot of calcium and if they don't have enough, their growth and production can be stunted. Is there any truth to that?
 
My thoughts on your situation from a fellow Northern pepper grower:

Your location is USDA zone 4. That could be part of the issue. Your growing season is not long enough. I am in 5b, and have no problem (most years) growing out superhots to an abundant harvest (based on a growing season of June 1 – mid October). Striving to have as fully developed plant as possible at plant out is desirable. I do not go to any extravagant lengths with lighting, etc. to achieve this, just simple T-8 bulb setup in the basement. All my peppers are in the ground save for some ornamental and annums in pots on the deck.

Manzanos (c.pubescens) similar to rocotos that I’ve tried. They require a LONG growing season and I had to over winter to produce an average harvest the next year. Not worth the hassle for me and no longer grow this variety.

Seed stock may be an issue with the T.S. I have successfully grown them based on the above growing parameters. That being said I have excellent yields of the usual superhot suspects (i.e.bhuts, 7 pots, nagas, trinidads, etc.) all growing to what I understand the variety standards are relative to height and yield. You may want to try a different seed source and try other varieties to see what works for you.

Some years are just tough for growing hot peppers. 2009 was like this, with over 50% of my crop never ripening. There was not one damn thing I could do about either; it’s just Mother Nature! Your grow zone exacerbates this potential issue. We are not afforded the luxury of all that hot weather that are southern compadres have (and they can keep their July and August heat :fireball:).

Calcium = bone meal. Apply in the hole at plant out and a side dressing about 30 days later once I see some real growth taking place. Do not have any scientific evidence to support this; bone meal is cheap and that’s what I do. Give the plants a couple shots of half strength Miracle Gro for tomatoes (Gasp!) and that’s it. Water, watch grow and harvest.

P.S. Welcome to the THP. Lots of good people and good infomation here!
 
I have been 100% natural for the last decade, and it serves me well. We no longer worry about soil Ph here in our area, as we have found that the wonderful organic life and growing conditions created by a non chemical regimen are wonderful for growing most peppers. I regularly grow bumper crops of Habanero, for example.

I realize that we can grow peppers from April until the first freeze in mid-November, so time to maturity is not too much of a problem. Of course, planting Habaneros before the soil warms results in them simply sitting with not much growth until the soil becomes warm

Perhaps if black plastic is used for a week or two before planting in the north, the soil temperature would be more condusive to your growth problem.

Here is what I do, just to let folks know.

http://www.hot-peppers.com/about.html

Hope this helps a bit.

Joe
 
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