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Hangjiao (Chinese space chili)

Hi,
 
Did anybody grow any of the space chilies?
Read a review about Helix Nebula that says it has an incredible taste. Wonder if it's worth trying?
 
R014ND3R said:
Hi,
 
Did anybody grow any of the space chilies?
Read a review about Helix Nebula that says it has an incredible taste. Wonder if it's worth trying?
 
 
I grew the Hangijao 5 last year.  I hope to grow it again this year.  It was a big producer.  I remember it tasting similar to a cayenne, so I dried a bunch.  I don't remember what the pods tasted like when they were green.  
 
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The bunch as a whole are generally said to be sweet, fruity and cayenne-like, ideal for salads and stir frying. I haven't had chance to grow them yet though, so won't be able to give my own views until the end of the 2017 season.
 
They're nice wherever you would normally use bell peppers, in my experience.  I don't particularly care for cayenne, but I grew these things for the novelty and ended up liking them quite a bit.  I grew the HJ5 (Helix) and HJ6 (Pulsar, I think).  Both were worth growing.  The things look like mutant cayenne, produce prolifically, and have decent flavor to them.  Mine all had less than serrano heat.  I'd say the HJ5 did have better flavor, but they're very similar.  Fruity, kinda cayenne and bell pepper-y.  Virtually no heat until near the stem, like maybe an inch or so.  I grilled them and used them both on salads a whole lot.
 
(Because I had a lot.  Just the two plants dumped out buckets of ridiculously warped looking giant cayenne style pods in a season.  It was pretty cool.)
 
The one small variety, I think it was the Afterglow, is apparently quite hot but it's still not Hab level. The others aren't much at all heatwise.
 
I have seeds for big bang, total eclipse, super nova, after glow, comets tail, meteor, corona, pulsar and helix nebula. debating which one to grow this year. 
 
Can I ask where did you get the seeds? :)
 
D3monic said:
I have seeds for big bang, total eclipse, super nova, after glow, comets tail, meteor, corona, pulsar and helix nebula. debating which one to grow this year. 
 
 
D3monic said:
I have seeds for big bang, total eclipse, super nova, after glow, comets tail, meteor, corona, pulsar and helix nebula. debating which one to grow this year. 
 

I checked and the HJ6 Pulsar was indeed the 2nd variety I grew that year.  So I can vouch for the Helix Nebula and Pulsar being worth growing and great producers.  If you grow one of the others and like it, remind me to beg seeds off of you at the end of the year.  :)
 
Are they really all that much different from each other? I would love to see the 'original' strains before they went into space to see the actual difference it made..
 
Jase4224 said:
Are they really all that much different from each other? I would love to see the 'original' strains before they went into space to see the actual difference it made..
 
The two I grew were definitely different both in look and in flavor, but they all originated from some sort of cayenne so they remain similar.  I think the originals were just a slightly larger cayenne that had resulted from previous experiments on either a Russian or Chinese satellite.  I know the tomatoes they grew on that same mission came from seeds of plants that had been on Mir for like 6 years, but those got mixed results.  The bell peppers they did, however; averaged 750 grams and had no less than twice the vitamin C of a standard.
 
Fun fact:  Prior to sending chile peppers into space to mutate them, the Chinese were trying to mutate them on the ground using Cobalt-60 (yikes).
 
Fun fact 2:  The Russian and Chinese space programs have both experimented with growing stuff in space on satellite or space station for over a decade in hopes of solving various world food crises.  The Americans have worked on mutating roses so they could get a higher oil yield for perfume.
 
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