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Mama Chile Tepin is Busting Out

Thanx Ya'll, Yea I am fixing to give that old clay pot a light whack with a hammer next week and transplant into the biggest pot I can find...It has been in that ole clay pot for 5 years....I am sure those roots are ready for some fresh soil..
 
Yeppers, that is NICE. I have one (pequin) in it's third year. Look at my Avatar... Man they put out some chiles don't they?
 
LUCKYDOG said:
Sawdust- That is a Pequin
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Ok Lucky do not make me bi%$#slap you for stirring up a hornet's nest.. ;) .Actually if you want to get all technical about it it is a Chile Jepin :dance: I crossed it so I guess I can call it whatever I want. :onfire:
Lot of people here already know the story on this hybrid. But in a nutshell here it is, this 5 year old Mama's, -> Grandma, was the Grandma Chile Tepin and she was loaded down with the little round bb-shaped typical Tepin and I would estimate that she was well over 20-30 years old judging by the size of her stem/root base which was bigger around then my wrist. It took forever to pick a pound of peppers off her cause they are so small.

I was out fishing, hiking, and scouting out some land to use my Texas Veterans Land Board loan on...and...
I found my original Grandma on a remote section of riverbank in Central Texas and directly across the riverbank on the other side was the old site of an 1840's Ranger fort called Bryant Station, it was in a huge patch of them around the base of an old tree directly below a broken part of a dense canopy. It looked like these plants had been there for a long time, and they were loaded down with the little round peppers (bird's eye) with no telling how many years they had grown here, the bases of the plants were huge and gnarly but you could see where every year they died back and re-grew from the base every year. Anyway I liked the land and bought 12 acres and built a cabin about 100 feet from the pepper patch. I planted a little garden and grew tomatoes, jalapenos, squash, etc...and many times when I picked the garden I would also walk down and pick the chiltepin pepper patch. and here begins an interesting little story, I believe when I picked the jalapenos and then went and picked the chile tepins, I accidentally crossed the two. It was by accident I discovered it. After that summer's harvest and winter came and the remaining chiltepins fell to the ground, the next spring there were a bunch of little sprouting plants around the bases of the wild pepper plants in the sandy river loam, so I thought cool, I will dig these up and transplant these into some pots and give them to friends or spread them around, so I did and they grew big and when they fruited I had a little surprise. The fruit was about an inch long and shaped like a minituare jalapeno even though the parent plant's fruit were like little bb's. That really threw me for a loop and I had to scratch my head on that one? But they are alot hotter then a jalapeno and I love them. I sold that land and had to move but took six plants with me, and every year they come back and those little jalapeno shaped chile tepin's are my favorite. I do not let any go to waste so I keep them picked, eat most of them, and save the rest for seed. I would like to get them registered one day with NMSU, I think I will call them Frank's FireCrackers....they make some awesome salsa, there is a pic at http://www.moonlightnet.com/images/tepin-japs.jpg

Don't get me wrong I like Pequins and I have seen them in South Texas but I always notice the peppers kind of stick straight up like an ornamental and they have a slighly different heat and flavor. I have seen Pequins or peppers listed as Pequins at nurseries during Spring and the stems did not seem the same, kind of fuzzy-looking and more like an annual plant, where the stem of the Tepins are much more woody-like in nature and my Tepins or Jepins have been coming back every year like a perrenial. The whole experience has been very interesting and I can definitely see firsthand how Pequins came about, as well many different types of peppers.
 
USMC8411 said:
Big Mama rocks Saw! Giver some new dirt. Make her happy. :dance:
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Thanx USMC, my roomie just brought me the mail with your envelope, awesome bro! Thanx, I am real glad to get the Biker Billy's!! :dance: Happy Memorial Day Bro you earned it! :cheers:
fireface said:
Very nice plant you've got there. Do you know the size of that clay pot that it's in?
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Thanx! Yea it is "Too Small" :P naw it is about 16 in diameter and 14 high and I just noticed that crack getting wider, I bet the Mycorrhizae is making those roots bust, Oh well I spotted a big one at HD yesterday that is square that way I can use a dolly to move it , hehe
 
Niiiice. I can only hope mine is that big someday.

I too have an accidental Tepin x Jalapeno, pods seem a bit squatter than yours though.

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