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annuum Zapotec Jalapenos

they look great with loads of pods. i never grew zapotecs. the ones i`ve grown are the standard Jalapeno and the Mucho Nacho. maybe next year i`ll try them. 
 
luvmesump3pp3rz said:
they look great with loads of pods. i never grew zapotecs. the ones i`ve grown are the standard Jalapeno and the Mucho Nacho. maybe next year i`ll try them. 
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Lmk if you need seeds. But ask as soon as possible, bc I am terrible at sending seeds in a timely fashion. . . If you ask me now, you'll have a good chance of getting them right around when it's time to start seeds lol
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
Lewis, mine are nowhere near that nice yet but are damn hot for jalapenos. Ive got most in dirt but i put one late start in a fabric pot. No pods from it yet but its beginning to out grow all the ones in dirt.
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Thank you for turning me on to these Zapos My Friend! I REALLY REALLY Like em!! SOLID heat for a Jalapeño, These were Exactly what i was hoping to find in a Jalapeño. The Plants dont seem to get real Big, at least in my Pots, All 6 of my plants are ABSOLUTELY LOADED with Fruit, I should have a bunch of them starting to turn Red soon. The first one of these i ate Grabbed my attention for a Jalapeño, I thought RIGHT ON!! I will be saving back Plenty of Seed from these Guys, I dont have anything Else that could Cross with them. Kind of a boring pepper year for me
 
Mine just started to get a nice dark green. All the rain bogged them down badly. Even the Mucho Nacho are not doing anywhere near as nice as last year. The first 2 small Zaps i got were screamers which is really odd for early season peppers. We got almost a week of close to 90F and much less rain. They seemed to really like that. I would swear jalapenos like the heat more than many peppers that are much hotter. Never had a problem with jalas setting and holding pods even in brutal summers. Nothing i got in dirt is doing that great but its getting better. Stuff in pots is doing way better. Pretty much all of those look great after the rain eased up.
 
I still got high hopes for the Zapotecs but i sure wish the plants were bigger. Not a deal breaker it just takes up less space and we eat more jalapenos than other peppers. The damn Biker Billy from last year never got as big as others.  Jalas right next to it were 3ft tall or more with 5 times more pods
 
This has been an odd year for around here, June was colder than normal, My stuff is just now taking off good. It is AMAZING to look at my Dads Stuff compared to mine, We both have the Same HIGH 8.0 PH, I treat my water to lower the PH, he doesnt. Dads plants are teeny tiny compared to mine, the difference is truly Staggering. And He got his plants from me, which were all identical when he got them. Mine have outgrown his 10 Fold, its not even Close

I just ran out and Measured the plants for height, These Zapotecs are really Short Blocky Plants, But Man are they LOADED With Fruit!! 4 of my plants are 12-14 Tall is all, and 2 of them are 18-20

A few more more pics, Short plants


Cropped from the photo above to Show the Fruit, They definitely get LOADED!


One of my 2 tallest, about 20 is all, They just arent a Tall Plant
 
That is the entire reason i grow Jalas....Ripe they are great and no one sells them ripe. Ripe they make some of the best hot sauce (almost anyone can tolerate).
 
Just went out to water mine. Might rain but they looked thirsty NOW. I would guess mine are around 12-15" but nowhere near the foliage yet. Good amount of small leaves but nothin like yours. Checked the volunteer. Sure looks like a chichi and its larger than any jalas i got now. Flowers and leaf shape is correct. As far as size goes the chichimeca get huge and production is excellent in pots or dirt. Its just a hybrid and i dont have a clue how stable it is. That is the entire reason to grow the Zaps and good heat of course......Go to the source and get a landrace if you want the real thing.
 
I gotta bring my tape measure out to the Jalapeño patch, see how tall they are. Some of my Zapos seem pretty tall, mostly on the shady end of the bed. Others are short. None of mine are nearly as bushy as IdahoLewis's plants; those look great.... But my bushiest Zapos are also the tallest, so I guess the shade provided by that obnoxious fig tree is beneficial?

But yeah, I will eat the occasional dark green Zapotec from my plants if I inadvertently knock one off while wedding, or just if the mood strikes. Simply put, the green pods at the market are just lame. Little heat, less flavor. So, yeah, I grab the occasional greenie from the Garden just for the superior heat and taste.

I suspect my wife has been smuggling
quite a few green Zapotecs this year. She really likes'm green, plus she's not one for patience.

But, other than that, I wait for >98%*** of my Jalapeños to turn red before I pick them, for all the same reasons SMDSauce listed. Same is true for Serranos, and to a slightly lesser degree, Poblanos and such. But every unripe Chinense I've eaten has been a disappointment, as have the unripe Baccatums and most all the annuums, excepting those mentioned above.

Why pick'm before their time?

***Last year, the local Cantina actually asked me to pick them green. So, there's another exception. I cane thru with a shitpile of green Jalapeños and Serranos for them. Served like such a waste, but they put them to good use.
 
The only concern i have atm...If late season pods are hotter than the first two......Thats gunna be some stupid hot nachos :D I had a Mucho Nacho last year catch me off guard. Chopped a couple for a big plate of nachos and dealt with cramps all night. Jalas do that to me more than lots of other peppers. Now i taste some before covering my nachos in peppers. Just one Zap sliced up thin worked out great and about as hot as i care to eat without much cramping or morning butt burn.
 
Ripe jalas seem less hot and far more sweet so when they are really hot it works out great for hot sauce.
 
Bitd, when I grew Early Jalapeños, I'd her that occasional pod with crazy-hot burns, while most of then we're "normal." The Zapotecs I grew last year, as far as I recall, didn't do that to me. Tbh, though, most of them got smoked or sauced. Like many peppers, I felt like late-August pods were hottest, presumably due to stress from brush summer temps, I guess.
 
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