Insanity - The Girls

Okay, back to the thread.

Here are a couple plants I'm not sure which they are. The first hasn't had any ripen yet, so I'm curious to see what color they come out.




Now my poor brain strain, which got hit pretty hard when a hail storm came in recently. Amazingly enough, it's not dead. Still looks like that, but the pods that are there are hanging on, and the branches that remain still look good.


A couple harvest pics from this morning:
My little crop:


And the little twisty girl:


THAT is one wild child!

PS - I'll be candying a load of trnidad perfume in the morning - WOOT!

Great looking harvest, crazy pod! Can you just stake up the downed branches on the brainstrain? If not, I hope it recovers.

What is your recipe for candying the perfumes?

Matt

Well, the odd thing is that the downed branches don't really seem to want to come up - they resist to the point I think they'll break if I pull up any more, so have decided to leave them.

Here's a link to RichardK's thread, which is basically what I follow, except as noted at the very end, I turn the temp down and keep them in the oven a bit longer to retain better color.

Sweeet! Good luck with the BS... that is one crazy looking pod

Candied some trnidad perfumes with a few aji habanero last night, and posted a couple pics this morning in RichardK's thread: Candied Peppers

Cool Pics G, that poor BS!

Well, that one actually looks much better than the other, which got hit even harder. Amazingly though, both still survive at this point!

Picked another nice little harvest yesterday and today, and shipped off some in care packages. I started thinking about next year, since the temps have started to cool off here (we're down in the 50F's at night), so here is some "thinking out loud."

While I enjoyed having a large variety this year, since it was my first year growing a lot of pepper plants, I think I would rather have fewer varieties next year, but more of the same plants. Also, I have plenty of dried hot pods - probably enough to cook with for 3 years at this point - so I think I'll do fewer hot varieties next year. I really enjoyed snacking on the milder pods (read that as plowing through them), but also, I really enjoy sharing them. (Most of the people I know here won't touch the really hot pods, so it's hard to share them.) So with that in mind, here are my thoughts on a preliminary grow list for next year:

- Cayenne LTR: A good staple. I use a TON of cayenne in my cooking, frequently even when using other varieties, so this one kind of just goes without saying. I'll try to overwinter the ones I have now, plus up the number of these. As a side note, the purple cayennes were too small and FULL of seeds for my liking, so I probably won't do those again.

- Jalapeno/TAM Jalapeno: These were overwintered from last year, and have been good producers. I'll try to overwinter them again, but this time not cut them back so far.

- Purple Jalapeno: Loved the flavor of these. They're much smaller than a regular jalapeno, and also rather seedy, but the flavor made up for those factors.

- Aji Habanero: Also really enjoyed the flavor of these, and good gosh, they were just too fun to snack on while I was picking pods. I only had one of these this year, but would definitely want more next year. They take a while to ripen, and I never had a whole lot ripen at the same time, which is part of why these were pretty much relegated to snacking. Still - such tasty snacking!

- Datil Sweet: I did not grow these, but ordered some fresh pods from CCN and really liked the flavor. I only ate two fresh, though, as all the pods arrived a bit beyond peak condition, so I ended up candying the rest. Note that although this pod is labelled as "sweet" by CCN, it still has a mild heat to it, and actually some of the pods had more heat than the trinidad perfumes. I would not exactly put this in the same heat category as, say, a bell pepper.

- Trinidad Perfume: I had 2 of these this year, and will try to overwinter them, plus up the count next year. These are also excellent candied, and it was really fun to share them.

- Red and Yellow Rocotos (Mazano and Canario): I liked the flavor of these when I had the opportunity to try a few pods last year, and have 3 plants growing this year. These plants have been very prolific bloomers, but have produced only a few pods so far - the first one is even just now starting to ripen (a canario.) I am curious to see if they start setting more pods now that the temps have cooled down. I will try to overwinter these, but will only add to their numbers if they start setting more pods soon - no use keeping a non-producing plant.

- Bonda Ma Jacques: I got some seeds for these a bit late, so did not germinate any this year, but definitely want to give them a try.

I will also try one or two varieties I have not yet tried, and will make up my mind regarding which ones later. On another note, I figured out the top pic on page 7 is probably an Aji Limon, or possibly just a Limon. I am thinking just a Limon, as the ChileMan database indicates the Aji Limon pods grow horizontally, and you can see above that mine aren't doing that. None have ripened so far, so the jury is out as to whether I will grow them again next year.

Edit: Oh yes, almost forgot. I had intended to grow some poblanos this year, and further intended to pick some up at the local nursery. For whatever reason, though, no one had them in stock until after I figured I had enough plants. Will definitely keep these on the list for next year.

Edit again: Well, silly me - forgot some. I also plan on overwintering the douglahs, and possibly increasing their count, too. Plus I want to add some Nagas. Like I said, "fewer" hot varieties - not "none"! LOL

Sounds like your next growing season is already well planned!! Good luck with the final parts of this season and best of luck for next. The varieties you have all sound like you have thought about the flavour and use of them to your personal taste. Its nice to see rather then just going for a pure power heat grow as many people seem to do nowadays (probably myself included this season seeing as its my first with a lot of the varieties.

Coming down to the end of October, and the temps are dipping into the low 40's. I have pulled out a few plants in the last couple weeks, and will pull out more this weekend. However, the ones that are still going are doing just that - still going. The baccatum and pubescens seem to really like this dip in temps, and I even found some flowers on the jalapeno this morning. Go figure. At any rate, a good number of the plants still look really good and are heavy with pods, especially the late-season plants. Picked a nice little harvest this morning, and will get more tomorrow.

Sounds good. I am really surprised the big bad F is still holding off.

Yes, the lake is one of those double-edged-sword kind of things. It keeps the temps a bit warmer than equivalent areas away from the lake, but it also dumps a ton of snow. Can't live with it, can't live without it..... But yeah, I know "F" is on it's way!

Blurgh - it's supposed to get down into the upper 30's at night, starting Thursday night. No more procrastinating regarding where to put the plants I'm going to try to overwinter! So here's my situation:

- TAM Jalapeno: 1 plant overwintered last year, has been a heavy producer, and still has pods on it which are not quite ripe. No problem for this one, as it's a small plant.
- Jalapeno M: 1 plant also overwintered last year, and ditto on the other facts.

Not previously overwintered:
- Jalapeno Purple: 2 plants, one may/may not be tossed, but also small plants so not a biggie.
- Billy Biker Jalapeno: 1 plant only would be brought inside, if at all, ditto on the size.
- Douglah: 3 plants, as these are late-season producers, are still full of pods and very green and leafy.
- Aji Habanero: 1 plant, medium-sized, is winding down so will be easy to prune back and repot
- Rocotos: 2 red plus 1 yellow, full of pods right now, for the first time this season. Apparently these like really cooler temps for production. Rumor is that they take the cold fine, but don't like snow or frost, so I may leave one outside but sheltered a while, to see what happens. Probably will bring in if it gets below 30 though. Also very green and leafy.
- Trinidad Perfumes: 2 plants, have been heavy producers from mid-summer until now. The plants are still very green and leafy, which is surprising for this variety given how chilly it's been lately.
- 2 plants I'm going to say "not sure" on. Probably a cross. Was told dried pods the seeds came from were brain strains, but the resulting pods look more like scorpions. Here's the deal with these - they were both extremely damaged by some bad wind storms that moved in late Spring. One broke off the main stem down to just above the lowest branch, so it's pretty much been a stump plus a branch. Well, gosh darn it, that girl was a significant producer, given her handicap. She did start to put out some new growth at the stump, but focused most of her energy on producing pods on that one branch. I just have a hard time with the idea of tossing her, given her extreme efforts in producing pods. The other one was hit almost as hard, but not quite as much, and has also been a good producer, all things considered.

Do I have room inside my house for 15 plants?!? Honestly, not really. Yes, the logical thing to do would be to eliminate the disabled plants, but I am having a HARD time with that idea. (Yeah, I'm a softie in some ways....) The next logical thing would be to eliminate some of the jalapenos, especially the kind we can readily get at the grocery store.

Ok - done rambling for a while!

Sure geeme, it's tough to toss out some plants, keep the best or most unique, then give yourself the needed room to start some new varieties,

You'll feel better when you see the ravishing growth with your new seedlings...!

Got down to 41 last night, and is supposed to get down to 35 tonight. BRRR! On the note of "let's see what happens", I left the plants where they are. This means about 12 plants just inside the open door of the garage, and the rest (about 30) out in the open. Most of the ones out in the open are winding down and will be culled out, anyway. The ones in the garage (separate from the house) are intended to be brought inside to be overwintered, which I am targeting doing this weekend. The ones in the garage were fine overnight - they still have most to all of their leaves, and seemed no worse for the wear this afternoon. The ones outside varied, even within a single variety. For example, I have 2 Limons, and one looks fine, while the leaves on the other are all droopy now. I'm going to leave them where they are tonight again, and will see what happens. Here's the thing - most of the ones in the garage are native to cool temps, so I'm thinking they'll be fine as long as we don't have a hard freeze. And push come to shove, I can always start over next season - start seeds in December/January, and/or pick up plants from CCN and the local nursery - not a huge deal if they don't make it. And my curiosity is peaked about the cold natives - rumor has it they just don't like snow - we'll see!

White Bhuts, White Hab's, they LOOOOVVVVVE snow! haven't you heard? that's why they're WHITE!
Our season is OVER. We've been hitting low 20's for over a week now. 3 weeks ago, I swear I was still wearing shorts!
It seems like forever since I've seen this thread. My bad.................................ass-ness!


geeme, has anyone ever told you, you have beautiful pods?
True Story.

LOL Scovie.

The rest of this is kind of pondering out loud.
As of today, 4 jalapenos, 2 douglahs and 1 aji habanero have been repotted and are now decorating the inside of my house. The 3 rocoto plants, 2 trinidad perfumes and 2 whatever-they-are (probably T Scorp crosses, rather than BS) are still inside the garage. It's supposed to get down to 34 tonight, which they've handled before, and 30 tomorrow night, which they haven't. The story I've heard about rocotos is that they don't mind cold, they just don't like snow. They're full of pods which are JUST starting to ripen, so I'm not keen on the idea of repotting them just yet. However, I'm also not keen on the idea of bringing them in the house without first repotting. That said, I figure I can always order more from CCN for next year if they don't make it at some point. They don't carry douglahs, though, so that's why they got first dibs on coming in the house.

I am puzzled about the trinidad perfumes. Trinidad isn't known to be cold like it gets here, but the trin perfs are still green, still heavy with pods, and are even still budding and blooming - impressive! The douglahs were just barely starting to lose their leaves before I cut them all off (I remove the leaves to help prevent nasties from coming inside), and the jalapenos were the same. The rocotos also still have all their leaves, as well. The plants that I haven't brought into the garage, however, have lost most to all of their leaves. Some still have pods, but I am working my way through pulling and pitching them.

Ok - that's enough for now. I'm curious to see if, when I refer to this log next year, I end up gleaning something from all my ramblings!

geeme said:

Well, the odd thing is that the downed branches don't really seem to want to come up - they resist to the point I think they'll break if I pull up any more, so have decided to leave them.

Here's a link to RichardK's thread, which is basically what I follow, except as noted at the very end, I turn the temp down and keep them in the oven a bit longer to retain better color.

Click to expand...

It still looks green/healthy so you're prolly right.

My process for overwintering this year includes to first do a severe pruning, though not as severe as last year. This includes removing all the leaves. Then I repot with fresh dirt, and prune the roots in the process. Pretty much the order the plants came into the house are 1) 4 jalapenos, 2) the aji habanero, 3) 2 douglahs, then 4) 1 rocoto. I am surprised to find the douglahs and aji habanero are already starting to put out new growth - tiny little leaves are popping out everywhere.

The purpose of repotting and removing all the leaves is to reduce the chance of nasties. Nonetheless, yep, first aphid found tonight. And so the battle begins! At least this time I'm prepared for them - they don't know what's coming!

I brought in one rocoto last weekend, but still haven't brought in the trin perfs or the two other rocotos. That will happen this weekend at some point.