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So, different sizes and shapes. How about flavor? Do Datil have a specific unique flavor, or do they just have a generic red habanero type flavor?

The 4 plants I started early are starting to form their first branches. Something is satisfying about observing the first branching. Growth is fast. Probably time to repot them soon. I bought some small grow bags that have Velcro so you can open the bags and remove the plants. That might be...

Alternatively, you could do the 18 hours, but start later in the year. Energy efficiency can be improved with a reflective grow tent or other method of reflectors.

Started my tomato seeds today. Growing black cherry, sunrise bumblebee, Cherokee purple, and Kellogg’s breakfast. Sunrise bumblebee was delicious, beautiful, and prolific when I grew it before. The other 4 varieties are new to me.

Scarlet kale.

Trinidad pimento seedlings have mishapen cotyledons this year. Hopefully nothing to worry about. I thinned out the seedlings to one or two per pod this morning. People talk about selecting the most vigorous seedlings, but to me they generally all seem equally vigorous unless they are affected...

I got at least one seed from each variety to germinate. Overall things are going smoothly.

I am skeptical that there is enough chlorophyll to affect the taste significantly. If you chop up a brown habanero and add it to your burger, you are already getting plenty of chlorophyll from the lettuce and cucumber. I am growing a sweet annum brown pepper variety this year. This should...

I grew Jamaican hot chocolate habanero. It was good, but I didn’t find the flavor to be particularly unique compared to red habaneros. The reds also made a more appealing sauce color. My Congo black seeds didn’t germinate.

Peppers that have stood out as good when green to me include red Congo, yellow Congo, Trinidad pimento, Jamaican scotch bonnet, and orange habanero.

Have you grown culantro before? Any tips for growing it? I have grown culantro several times. Slow germination, slow growth, bolts quickly, short lived, dies if too wet or too dry. Seeds will not germinate without light. This year I am going to try growing culantro in 80:20 coco perlite in...

I started 4 pepper plants in late December, and I started the rest of my pepper seeds last Sunday. This year I kept the seed starting simple and planted directly into coco pellets. No soaking the seeds in water or peroxide. Thermostat on heat mat set to 85F. I checked them this morning...

I can’t find my source, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that Caribbean farmers started with new seedlings after 18 months or so. I heard on a Khang Starr video that he prunes his older plants to encourage continued production.

Having learned the hard way, I now think that overwintering peppers offers few benefits and is generally a mistake. The priority should be maintaining a pest free space for new seedlings or for indoor growing. My understanding is that commercial pepper growers in tropical climates, despite...

I have Jimmy Nardello, sweet chocolate pepper, Craig’s jalapeño, and lemon spice jalapeño started already. Also kale, escarole, basil, and parsley. I started in coco plugs and then move into premixed 80/20 coco perlite. I was surprised how little water this mix holds. The coco is mostly...

At my current location, animals (mostly groundhogs) have eaten everything I have grown other than peppers. The groundhogs dug under the fence I put up in 2021 and ate my tomatoes. This year I have put a fence up on the patio, where they can’t dig under. This is a fence from Amazon advertised...

I have not tried a fermented Chinese sauce. Any recommendations available for online order to try? Too many pepper varieties, too many sauces, too little time. My approach to dealing with this - I try to, for the most part, avoid the pepper varieties and sauces which will be forgotten in a...

I see people online making fermented habanero or scotch bonnet sauce, but is there any tradition of fermenting these peppers? We have Louisiana style fermented sauces that have been around for over 100 years using frutescens or annum peppers. In the Caribbean, chinense peppers tend to be used...

Hard to pick only one. So many are essential to the cuisines of the world.

I used to think that yellow, red, and orange bell peppers from the grocery store tasted distinctly different. I told someone this. She challenged me to a blind taste test - and I guessed the colors wrong.