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P. Dreadie Memorial Group Grow 2016

Long-time THP veterans mourned the loss last August of Amarillo, Texas musician/songwriter/silversmith/chilehead Erin Mason, known to us here on the boards as P. Dreadie. Erin was an enigma, one of the most interesting and creative, yet gentle and loving guys I ever knew. Many of us may be unaware that he played harmonica in one of the original Austin, Texas bands of the early 1970s "Cosmic Cowboy" era, Alvin Crow and the Pleasant Valley Boys. When Erin decided to step off of Alvin's perpetually-touring bus and return to Amarillo, he travelled to Jamaica, fell in love with the Reggae beat, collected the best Scotch Bonnet fruit he could find, and his alter-ego Papa Dreadie was born.

In 2013 Erin sent me a few pods of the Scotch Bonnets he had been breeding, carefully selected descendants of the original fruit he brought back from the Caribbean all those years ago. I harvested every single seed from those pods, and stored them away, as I focused increasing attention on other varieties. When his wife Liz gave us the news last August that Erin had passed, I knew what I had to do with those seeds: a community grow in his memory. I have already shared about half of them, and I will continue to share them with experienced growers of the Scotch Bonnet until they are gone.

Papa Dreadie Scotch Bonnet Select, grown by Erin in 2013:

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Lifetime memories posted by Liz Mason on Erin's FB page. Liz is an extremely talented professional photographer:

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The legendary bus:

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Fwiw, my experience with Bonnets, including Dreadies, is the earliest pods tend to be off-pheno and bs weather conditions can impact the perfect shape, as well. This is more about the cup and saucer shape vs the saggy/baggy shape. Having 3 versus 4 lobes seems to be random, or at least, dependent on other variables that I do not know yet....

Last year, I panicked when my first wave of Bonnets looked wrong, but the later ones mostly looked rad. This year, I got some nice shapes among the early droopy pods, but I'm taking it all in stride. The second wave will likely look awesome...
 
Another day, another picking of P. Dreadies. Some of them are forming some stubby tails. I'm going to save seeds from the one in the middle here to grow out next year. It would be nice aesthetically to have a lot of those pods.

Man, these pods are some good eating! I'm not a big fan at all of habs, but these P. Dreadie scotch bonnets are deeeelicious!
 

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Thegreenchilemonster said:
Another day, another picking of P. Dreadies. Some of them are forming some stubby tails. I'm going to save seeds from the one in the middle here to grow out next year. It would be nice aesthetically to have a lot of those pods.

Man, these pods are some good eating! I'm not a big fan at all of habs, but these P. Dreadie scotch bonnets are deeeelicious!
I just ate 2 of yours! Sweet & juicy flavor at first, then Chinense flavor and a little heat. I'll be growing these next year!
 
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