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Anyone Growing the Helios Pepper?

hottoddy

hottoddy

A local farm is growing the Helios pepper (a habanero hybrid) this year to supply to local restaurants and a sauce company. I had never heard of it, and it appears to be a new Johnny's Seed hybrid marketed as an "extra early, larger pods, and big producer" with an 95K SHU. Generally, I'm not a huge fan of the orange hab flavor but this may taste different. I'll will watch how they grow this year on the farm, and may help myself to some pods and seeds later in the season. 
 
I wondered if anyone is growing this variety this year or has other info (what are the parents - orange hab x ?).
 
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http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-9646-helios.aspx
 
It's certainly worth tasting one. and if you have the space it's worth growing them to see what comes up. My completely unqualified guess is that it's crossed with an annuum for faster production.
 
That's not 95K SKU though. it's 95K seeds/lb.
 
Transient Exuberance said:
 
That's not 95K SKU though. it's 95K seeds/lb.
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Oops! I automatically thought that was an SHU. That's a lot of seeds! The people at the local farm thought it was going to be hotter than the standard orange hab - but I have my doubts. You're probably not going to have bigger and earlier production without sacrificing some heat. We'll see...
 
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Interesting! The only other hybrid Habanero I ever saw was on Twilley Seeds website quite some time ago. They offered it for a few years than "Poof!" it was gone, I think  a few years ago it disappeared.... At that time  I looked around and didn't find anything in the US, only overseas availability at`Pepperseeds EU
 
Keep us posted!
 
The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
The only other hybrid Habanero I ever saw was on Twilley Seeds website quite some time ago.
 
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Larkseeds.com lists four varieties, including the Helios, although I don't think they offer seeds for sale.
 
https://larkseeds.com/products/Hot%20Pepper/Habanero/Hercules
 
https://larkseeds.com/products/Hot%20Pepper/Habanero/Megalodon
 
https://larkseeds.com/products/Hot%20Pepper/Habanero/Spartacus
 
https://larkseeds.com/products/Hot%20Pepper/Habanero/Helios
 
I believe the Spartacus hybrid is the one that Bonnie sells as their orange habanero now. I have tried that one, and it didn't seem quite as hot as a classic orange hab to me. I wasn't particularly impressed with it. OTOH, both Spartacus and Helios are supposed to be resistant to mosaic and spotted wilt virus. So there is that.
 
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