HabaneroHead Glog 2012 - Better late than never - Picture Heavy

Hi PepperHeads!

It's been a while since I posted anything about my peppers, but it does not mean I was not following what's going on THP. As usual I did not only get inspiration, but also useful hints and kindness from the team members. And on the top of that, I managed to infect some of my friends, my family and my girlfriend with this addiction.

Anyways, ling story short, last december Jack and Ela (aka Superhot and Ela on this forum) was so kind and sent me a batch of seeds (thank you for that, again):
- Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon
- Fatalii Red/Yellow
- Tobago Seasoning
- Naga Morich
- Trinidad Scorpion CARDI Yellow

Unfortunately I could not make the Fatalii and Tobago Seasoning germinated, probably I cooked them with my reptile heat mat.

So the varieties I have now:
- Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon (6)
- Naga Morich (4)
- Trinidad Scorpion CARDI Yellow (4)
- Bishop's Crown (2)
- Golden Habanero (6)
- Red Habanero (8)
- Aji Lemon Drop (7)

I was not taking into consideration the overwintered red habs, since I am not sure how they will perform, but I was giving them a chance, and they are trying to do their best in the ground.

Let's see some pics now!

6th of March 2012

Store bought Golden Habanero, i was taking out the seeds. Out of 10 seeds, 8 germinated, and now I have 6 healthy plants

My Bonchi, which I was making to my girlfriend, and it successfully survived the winter:

1st of April 2012
My babies having sunbath

Bhut doing weird things, I thought the stem may stay in this shape (what a Bonchi!), but in few weeks it straightened.

Superhots are doing well

Aji Lemon Drop: tall, but has strong stem. They were getting the same light, ferts etc, but they are a little bit of leggy.

 

[HabaneroHead]

Oh yes please! Take a look at my trade list and let me know if you see anything there you'd like to try. Cheers

I am sure we can agree. I have already bought 5 or 6 varieties, since I was preparing for the international seed train...then the package got lost between U.S. and Canada.

"Where have you been to Europe? Markets are interesting places everywhere, personally I am the one (suprisingly not my girlfriend) who can spend 2-3 hours with just looking around and shopping"

We lived in Spain for a couple of years, and have spent time in
Austria and Germany with small visits to Portugal, Holland, Italy and France.

Unfortunately it has been 6 or 7 years since we spent time there.
We took my dad to Asturias Northern Spain for three weeks, then.
The vast majority of our 'Europe time' was in northern and central Spain.

We loved every minute!

Wow! I am sure you just made a lot of forum members envy
I love this forum, because you, Guys are the proof that the stereotype, that the all of the Americans eat just hamburger, is not true. I guess when you lived in Spain you tried out the local food. I regard myself as a gastro-tourist, if I visit a country, I insist to find some local restaurant/market, where I can try out the local flavours. I used to work as a receptionist in a hotel during the college years, and the first question of the U.S. tourists was: 'Where is the nearest McDonald's?'. I am not kidding. And we are not an exotic destination...the food is safe, even during summer. I love people who love eating, this is why I feel myself home on this forum

Since tomorrow I am travelling home to my parents, and will have the opportunity to take some photos, and to taste my babies (especially the Bhuts), I just thought till then I'd share some pictures about my in-flat peppers.

Unknown type, flavour is not the best, but it has a nice kick

Harvested pods

Red Hab Bonchi during the winter

Same plant on the 1st of April 2012

And at the end of July 2012
I harvested 4 pods :-)

 

[PaulG]

That bonchi is so cool. I really want to try that!

" I guess when you lived in Spain you tried out the local food. I regard myself as a gastro-tourist, if I visit a country, I insist to find some local restaurant/market, where I can try out the local flavours"

You bet! Our favorite thing was to go to small pueblos and off the beaten path small towns and get into the local culture and cuisine (and beverages!). We both speak spanish, and I butcher german up a bit, so we always had fun making new friends there!

 

[HabaneroHead]

This weekend I got my first real harvest:

Bhut

TS CARDI Yellow

Habanero Red

Naga Morich

The title is misleading... What they are in fact from left to right: Habanero, Scorpion, Bhut, Naga Morich (this Hab is a giant)

I picked these guys today, yellow are the first Lemon Drops

 

[DocNrock]

Nice first harvest there, HH. Looking great! And I'm sure that's just the beginning. It is going to escalate from here.

Bonchi is awesome.

Wondering if that mystery pepper at the top is some Thai variety?

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs
Nice pull! Looks like you're in the groove now. What do you plan on doing with them?

 

[HabaneroHead]

Nice first harvest there, HH. Looking great! And I'm sure that's just the beginning. It is going to escalate from here.

Bonchi is awesome.

Wondering if that mystery pepper at the top is some Thai variety?

Thanks for stopping by, DocNrock.Yeah, it is just the beginning, now I am wondering what I am going to do with the peppers. The bonchi is one of my favourite. Probably I will prepare another one from one of my Lemon Drop bush, since their stem is very woody.
I do not know much about the mystery pepper, what is sure, my father-in-law saved the seeds years ago. What is sure, it has a nice kick, though I did not really like the flavour. (maybe I overwatered a bit)

Hi Balázs
Nice pull! Looks like you're in the groove now. What do you plan on doing with them?

Hi Rick,
Thanks.
On Saturday I made a garlic-Bhut-tomatoe sauce.Well, it is nucelar! The recipe is nothing fancy: garlic, bhut, home-made tomatoe sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar, a touch of black pepper and some preservative. I borrowed one of the pan of my Mom for the sauce-making, after I finished I washed it well (of course wearing gloves) at least twice. On Sunday, my Mom wanted to prepare some rice as garnis, so she washed the pan again, and put it on the range. Then the funny things began. It seems, that despite of all of our efforts making the pan clean, we could not wash the capsaicin off...the heat has blown the capsaicin-fumes into our face, so we immediately started to cough. Then she washed it again and prepared the rice... Well, to be honest, I have never eaten spicy rice before, but I kind of like it Yesterday I tried out the sauce...just touched it to my tongue...I started to hiccup. It is good staff.
I am planning to dry most of my peppers, and to powder half of them. Since my father likes to rub the half-Habaneros into the soups, I have to leave some not powdered. If I can convince him, probably we will make some smoked peppers as well.

Balázs

 

[HabaneroHead]

I thought I would post some pictures...

Lemon Drop fence

This thing is loaded

My dirty feet for the size reference

OW Red Hab1 (pampered by my Mom during the winter)

OW Red Hab2 (pampered by me during the winter)

Same plant, and my feet for the size reference

The different growing strategies of the two OW plants are kind of interesting, and they are coming from the way they were cut back. One of them is a tree-like plant (my Mom's one), it has a lot of pods hanging on it, but there are very few leaves on it, which makes the sun reach the pods easily, and this causes the pods being lightweight, and thin-walled. The other one was cut back drastically, and it is rather bushy, with lots of leaves, which keep most of the fruits in shadow. This one has heavy, thick-walled, juicy pods.
Anyways, both of them are producing like mad, and I am going to OW them this year too. The one which was OW by me produced ony 20 pods last season, and now it is just pumping out the fruits.

Thanks for watching :-)

Balázs

 

[Blue Flames]

Beautifull plants u have quite the green thumb on my first season and looking forward to doing my own glog did u have alot of trouble going from lights to sun ?

 

[HabaneroHead]

Beautifull plants u have quite the green thumb on my first season and looking forward to doing my own glog did u have alot of trouble going from lights to sun ?

Thanks for stopping by K-strain. As you can read on this forum is several threads, you have to harden off your plants gradually. When I took them home I waited 2 days to take them out to the full sun, to avoid the sun damage. Even so, I was quite quick (since I was in hurry, I got only the weekend to do the planting stuff) and some of them got some serious damage which set them back in growing by 2-3 weeks. As I see, not only the amount of light is effecting the plants, but what causes issues is the heat coming from the direct sunlight. It causes issues if you put out indoor plants outdoor. You can avoid these issues with hardening them off (1-2 weeks) or putting them out with shade cloth. I am going to try the latter one next year, since the guys on the forum had some good results with it.
Good luck with your growing season, and with your Glog.
Anyways, starting your own glog is good not only for showing what you got, but also registering the growing habits/timing of your plants, so the next year you can plan your season better.

 

[stickman]

The different growing strategies of the two OW plants are kind of interesting, and they are coming from the way they were cut back. One of them is a tree-like plant (my Mom's one), it has a lot of pods hanging on it, but there are very few leaves on it, which makes the sun reach the pods easily, and this causes the pods being lightweight, and thin-walled. The other one was cut back drastically, and it is rather bushy, with lots of leaves, which keep most of the fruits in shadow. This one has heavy, thick-walled, juicy pods.
Anyways, both of them are producing like mad, and I am going to OW them this year too. The one which was OW by me produced only 20 pods last season, and now it is just pumping out the fruits.
Balázs

Hi Balázs
Outstanding looking Habs and Lemon Drops! I'm thinking of overwintering my orange habs and starting some Aji Limon next season. Good information on the different OW strategies... I didn't know you could do that with the habs. How do you use your lemon drops?

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Balázs
Outstanding looking Habs and Lemon Drops! I'm thinking of overwintering my orange habs and starting some Aji Limon next season. Good information on the different OW strategies... I didn't know you could do that with the habs. How do you use your lemon drops?

Hi Rick
Thank you for the kind words! Seeing the results I achieved with the overwintering, I have to say, that the overwintering is not an option, but a must. It is good to see the results of the different strategies, if you never try, you will never know. I am going to be more drastic with the cutback this year, as I like the bushier plants better. Capsicum Chinense reacts OW quite well, I have seen Habs, Nagas, Bhuts, Scorpions, Fataliis overwintered on this forum. So go ahead, what can you lose? Last winter I tried out 3 strategies:
- some plants were stored on the corridor in my parents' house, where there was 12 Celsius max during winter, limited amount of light
- 3 of them were in my flat, where there was 18-23 Celsius, got some growing light ocassionally (the justification: 'Darling, I will put you rose under the growing lights, don't you mind if the Habs are going with it?' )
- 2 of them were in the cellar

Only the first two worked for me, since the cellar is too humid, and they got fungus...
Besides that, only the plants grown in the pots survived the overwintering procedure, which makes me curious. What can be the reason that the ground-plants did not make it?:
- I waited too long, and the first frost caused some irreversible damage in them? Maybe...
- The rootball was damaged badly, when I tried to dig them out? Maybe...
- The soil contained some bad bacteria/virus, which got activated during the winter? I would not be surprised...

So this winter, since I have only 7 plants in pots, and the 5 times more in the ground, I am going to change my strategy:
- I will not wait until the first frost, and I will cut them back drastically
- I was thinking about a method, how to dig them out from the ground, it is too difficult to explain, but I think I have the solution
- I will remove as much garden soil from the rootball I can, and will put some good quality potting (and fresh) soil into the pots
- I have purchased a sort of mixture which contains 8 typical bacterias living in the healthy soil, and they can make our plants healthier, and kill the non-beneficial bacterias in the soil

Regarding your question on the Lemon Drop, well, I got my first pods last year, which I used for saving the seeds. Now I picked only a couple of them, and donated/ate them. They are very good eaten raw. I am eating them basically for everything: sandwiches, stews, meats, I really like their flavour. I do not really know what to do with them, since I read on this forum, that their Lemon scent and flavour disappears during the drying procedure...
But eaten fresh they are fantastic! They are not too hot (if you leave out the seeds, which take place at the stem, from half of the pod), so I guess even my girlfriend will love them.

Balázs

 

[binford35]

Amazing poddage on your plants. What sort of temps are you getting in Hungary? Has it been a wet summer for you too?

 

[HabaneroHead]

Amazing poddage on your plants. What sort of temps are you getting in Hungary? Has it been a wet summer for you too?

Thank you. They still have 2 good months to show their skills Yesterday we had 40 Celsius.. Today 'only' 29... This year was the most dry one in the last couple of years. We had 2 weeks with temperature above 36. So you had wet summer?

 

[HabaneroHead]

I am going to 1 week vacation, so I thought I'd share as many pics as I can, just for pleasure :-)

Bishop's Crown

TS CARDI Yellow, I love the different pod shapes on one plant

Half of my terrace plants, from left to right: Golden Hab, Naga Morich, Bhut Indian Carbon

Unknown wild pepper

Bhut Indian Carbon: it does not have the 'normal' elongated Bhut shape, it is rather like a Hab, but the surface of it is like a sandpaper

Not pepper related, but it is worth to show, one of our plum tree, within 2 weeks we can start picking the fruits...and to plan what to do with them...

Balázs

Mantis heading my Bhut plant in the garden

And climbing up

 

[stickman]

I am going to 1 week vacation, so I thought I'd share as many pics as I can, just for pleasure :-)

Hi Balázs Enjoy your vacation. Where you going?

Not pepper related, but it is worth to show, one of our plum tree, within 2 weeks we can start picking the fruits...and to plan what to do with them...

Sligovica!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Thank you, Rick! We are going to Paris with my girlfriend.
The Hungarian expression for the spirits made from fruit is: pálinka.

 

[binford35]

Thank you. They still have 2 good months to show their skills Yesterday we had 40 Celsius.. Today 'only' 29... This year was the most dry one in the last couple of years. We had 2 weeks with temperature above 36. So you had wet summer?

Yes. I think we've had two of the wettest months on record in the UK (April and June) it's basically been cloudy and/or raining about literally 90% of the time since April started. I'm hoping for a clearer end to the summer!

 

[Sanarda]

Everything looks so green and healthy. Congrats on those delish looking peppers

 

[DocNrock]

Enjoy your vacation. Those plants are loaded. Be ready to harvest when you get home. But pics first!

 

[stickman]

Hi Balasz
I was watching the women's 500m canoe sprint on TV with a client (I'm a home health aide), and we saw the Hungarian athlete Danuta Kozak take the gold medal in the event. Cool!