2016 is Ohjay's year of the habanero

tsurrie · May 16, 2016

guess you understood the acronym... I had a sore throat and was trying some home brewed medication at the time

my throat did actually not hurt anymore.... right until the next morning when I woke up... he heh

so again ..regarding your plants and the pods in the making... Pretty Fu****g Cool

Ohjay · May 26, 2016

Haha, self-medicating has it's up's and downs tsurrie

And yeah, great acronym. Took me a moment before I got it.

It's been real slow since the last update.
I'm experiencing 95%(if not more) flower drop on all plants. I've come to the conclusion that it's probably nutrient related. The only thing that changed was that I upped the dose of one of the nutrients, all according to the suppliers feeding schedule.
Now I'm sticking to strictly water for a few feedings and then going back to the nute-formula I was using earlier. Hopefully that fixes things.

It's not all bad news though.
This has been going on for at least a week now:

Only two Orange Devil's are maturing but more will follow soon, I'm sure.

And yesterday I woke up to this:

It must've happened overnight because I did not notice a maturing pepper the day before. Granted it's far from ripe since it's sort of orange now and it's supposed to go from green to orange to deep red.
Oh, and it's a Luciferino.

I promise to take a better photo of my tree of death some day soon:

It really is a tree. Since I had it in a window for a while it grew quite tall, and when I put it back under lights it started building a canopy. It looks quite cool to be honest.

Then there's this(Peach Ghost Jami):

Loads of gnarly peppers of decent size. They feel heavy so I suspect they are quite thick-walled. I have no idea of how hot they are but they are supposed to be supers. Probably Bhut territory or hotter.

Comptine · May 27, 2016

Wow, it's insane that you already have ripening fruits! Can't describe how jealous I am, mine are only just about to flower. Have you tried eating any yet? Will you post reviews this year as well?

Ohjay · May 29, 2016

Yeah I'm surprise they started ripening already...

I've tried two the past days, it wasn't planned but more on that in an update today or tomorrow. There'll be a quick review as well, and I will probably do one for every new variety I try.
If a lot of people ask for it I might even do video reviews, although it will be nothing like the reviews of the experts

Student of Spice · May 29, 2016

damn those peach ghost jami pods look awesome!

Comptine · May 29, 2016

Ohjay said:
If a lot of people ask for it I might even do video reviews, although it will be nothing like the reviews of the experts

I vote YES for videos!

Ohjay · May 30, 2016

Student of Spice said:
damn those peach ghost jami pods look awesome!

Yeah they sure do. There's not a whole lot of information about them though so I have no idea about what to expect when it comes to ripening, taste and most of all heat. But as I mentioned, they probably are in Bhut territory.

The promised update then.
When I did my daily pollination run the other day I noticed that the two Orange Devil Hab's that had ripened had already turned soft, like an overripe pepper. Not wanting to risk losing them I decided to eat them. I took no pod pictures of this since they were so soft it would've only been poor images.
The first one I tried was not very hot at all, probably less than 30k SHU. The second one was way hotter, a rough guesstimate is 75-100k. Very front of mouth heat that escalated quickly and the peak heat didn't last very long but the heat was lingering for a good 5-6 minutes.
In terms of taste they had a fresh grassy note with an undertone of citrus flavor. It was quite pleasant to be honest but I would've liked a bit more of that citrus taste.
We'll see if any of the bigger peppers are better in terms of taste later in the season.

As for the softness of the peppers... maybe it's a trait of this variety? I have 3 more fruits that are ripening and all of them have varying degrees of softness but not that overripe softness that the first two had.
One is close to that overripe softness, but not quite there:

As for this, is it false advertising when you call a pepper "Hand grenade" and it's tiny? :lol:

The other peppers on the plant are of better size though. Can't wait to try this:

Yesterday I noticed that my Douglahs had started to change color but I found it weird. For some reason I thought that they were going to be brown when ripe and a ripening cycle of green->yellow->brown seemed weird.
But I must be getting old, they are supposed to be yellow when ripe. :doh:

Still only five fruits on the Douglah. I really wish it would set more but it's not playing ball at all.

Not sure if the Moruga is ripening or if it's sunburn from the lights but I think it's the latter:

Comptine · Jun 1, 2016

First pods seem to often be a little off, be it the shape or heat not living up to what it should be. My understanding is that later in the season you get pods that look they way they are supposed to. Do the other hand grenade habs look like they should?

Ohjay · Jun 4, 2016

Comptine said:
First pods seem to often be a little off, be it the shape or heat not living up to what it should be. My understanding is that later in the season you get pods that look they way they are supposed to. Do the other hand grenade habs look like they should?

Yeah quite true. It was mostly a joke on my part.

This pod here has the more correct shape and size and I have a couple more like it:

Major photo update now then.
I decided to bring out my studio equipment and try to take some good photos. Not sure I succeeded but at least it's pod porn :twisted:

This Antillais Caribbean must've been out drinking:

It's been like that for several days now, it's very slow to ripen.
A couple more Hand Grenades have ripened and more will follow soon:

The Orange Devil is getting more and more ripe pods:

I still have that softness issue with these pods though. Not sure it's evident in the photo below.
I guess I'll have to harvest them before they get to that overripe softness, although I doubt they are overripe.
No clue what to do with them, sauce probably, but until I decide I suppose they'll go in the freezer:

One Paper Lantern started ripening the other day and it's been going fast:

Not sure how visible it is in this photo but I think this Peach Hab is slowly starting to change color:

And the melocotons are starting to ripen as well. Can't wait to try one:

Gambia Orange does not want to be left out. Definitely a darker more pastel-like orange than the Orange Devil:

As promised, my tree of death. I wish the peppers were more visible though:

That red reaper started changing color yesterday and the progress has been more rapid than anticipated:

Then there's my bush (?) of presumed death:

Not as tall, but loaded with gnarly pods. Also think they are starting to change color too:

Both plants together:

I was wrong about the Morugas in the last update. Way wrong:

Very excited to try one of those as well. Scared but excited :fireball:

It's impossible to get a good photo of my Douglahs. There simply is no space outside of the shelf and the plants are quite crowded:

They are now turning more orangey than bright citrusy yellow, as they can do, or so I believe.
Luciferino has several ripening pods and is absolutely loaded. The pods are only about 1.5" long and maybe half an inch wide at best:

Looks like the Cappuccino Hab wants to play too:

One of the best surprises so far is the Habanero Mili. It was "late" with setting fruit but is doing it's best to catch up. But the surprise are the pods. They have an absolutely amazing lush dark green color. The photo does not do it justice at all. I just love the color and shape of them:

Ohjay · Jun 7, 2016

Decided to sample another chili today, the Habanero Hand Grenade Yellow.

I could almost not discern any sort of taste on the first piece I tried and the heat hit me straight away. The heat stayed at the front of my mouth and built quickly. Started tearing up and getting hiccups. Still a novice when it comes to anything over 50.000 Scoville, and this piece was well over 100k.
As the heat dissipated I decided to try another smaller piece but with a bit more placenta...
The taste on this piece was extremely sweet, overwhelmingly so. As the sweetness faded away I thought I could feel a slight taste of peaches. Very tasty pepper in my mind that would be great for sauces, jams and such.
That second piece was even hotter than the first and for once I caved and had to resort to milk to make it somewhat tolerable. It was way hotter than anything I've tried and I can't even try to guess where to put it on the scoville scale.
The heat resided at the back of the mouth and peaked quite quickly but stayed at the peak for quite a bit before slowly fading away.

It's going to be real interesting to try a super when I have a hard time handling a habanero... I suspect I'm gonna hate life for a bit then, but it'll be well worth it :hell:

tsurrie · Jun 7, 2016

oh yeah, your summer is going to be quite interesting.... a big harvest is coming .... make a stash of yogurt, it beats the milk... trust me

Ohjay · Jun 7, 2016

tsurrie said:
oh yeah, your summer is going to be quite interesting.... a big harvest is coming .... make a stash of yogurt, it beats the milk... trust me

Yeah I'm definitely going to stack up on milk products... Better to be safe than sorry :lol:

Another lesson I (re)learned today was that I should not eat peppers(hab's and hotter) on an empty stomach, it's not very pleasant once the heat subsides and you feel your stomach working that pepper :neutral:

OCD Chilehead · Jun 7, 2016

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper said:
just got caught up on your Glog
#following

plants looks great

best of luck to you, though you don't look like you need any luck everything looks fantastic

GIP

Trident chilli said:
Garden looks great Chuck

This is the coolest glog I've seen in awhile. I really like the window plants. Great looking pod's under led. Do you have two led's?

Anyways, your grow looks fantastic. I'm glad I stopped in.

Also, definitely eat super with something in the stomach. Maybe just try a quarter of a pod or less, until you build your tolerance up. It's more enjoyable and you really get to taste the flavor before all hell breaks loose.

Ohjay · Jun 7, 2016

OCD Chilehead said:
This is the coolest glog I've seen in awhile. I really like the window plants. Great looking pod's under led. Do you have two led's?

Anyways, your grow looks fantastic. I'm glad I stopped in.

Also, definitely eat super with something in the stomach. Maybe just try a quarter of a pod or less, until you build your tolerance up. It's more enjoyable and you really get to taste the flavor before all hell breaks loose.

Thanks for the kind words!

Yeah I have two Mars Hydro leds(300W if memory serves me right) but also a T5 fixture that I used in the beginning. I would probably have used the T5 for the entire season if I had space for it.

Good advice regarding eating supers. I always tend to adjust the size of pieces I try to the supposed heat of the chili. Rather start small and build up than start big and regret it for a long time. :fireball:

OCD Chilehead · Jun 8, 2016

That's good to know on the led's.

I remember a couple seasons ago, I was eating powders and sauces all Winter. I ate my first fresh super of the season. Yellow Scorpion. An hour later, I was taking a cold shower, my knees were weak and the endorphin rush was intense.

I think I was in shock. lol!

karoo · Jun 8, 2016

Great glog and good looking plants.!

I have a system for tasting.
Leave the whole pod super pepper tasting to the youtube experts/idiots.

Up to 100 K scovy , I will taste test and eat the whole pod.
Up to 300 K scovy (habs) , I will taste and eat the whole of the flesh , but no placenta or seeds.
Up to 1mil scovy , I will taste test and eat about 2 cm square , usually of the point , not near the stem.
Above that , grain of rice size .

That way you can actually compare "apples to apples". :party:

Ohjay · Jun 8, 2016

Thanks for the input karoo and it sounds pretty similar to how I approach eating peppers. Better safe than sorry until you know what you're up against.

Ohjay · Jun 9, 2016

Quick update.
Decided to harvest some peppers today. I think some where picked a bit too early but hopefully they'll ripen even more on the counter.

Crappy phone pic:

From top left: Orange Devil, Peach Congo, Moruga Chocolate, Melocoton, Gambia Orange, Peach Ghost Jami, Paper Lantern, Hand Grenade Yellow, Luciferino, Douglah Billy boy.

Gonna eat one or two tonight, not sure which though. Probably one of the scary ones(Moruga, Douglah or Jami)

Ohjay · Jun 10, 2016

As you might recall I have two Peach Ghost Jami plants... and the other one gave me a surprise the other day;

Not very peachy at all. I guess it's still an unstable cross and one of the parents showed up. To me it sort of looks like a Bhut, what do you guys reckon?
Speaking of the Jami, here's a slightly better shot of a peach pod:

While we're talking peach, Peach Congo:

So, yesterday it was time to taste a pepper and I decided to go for the Douglah Billy boy:

The kitchen was immediately filled with a chinense smell as I cut it open but it vanished quite quickly.
Since I only ate really small pieces it was hard to discern any sort of flavor. Freshness but that's it. According to other reviewers it shouldn't have much taste.
Heatwise it was a very pleasant smooth burn which was very tolerable despite the heat. By far the hottest pepper I had eaten to date but I could not say how hot it was.
The burn was mostly located at the bottom of the mouth and a bit more frontal than back of the throat.

Today I started with an Aji Melocoton:

By far the hottest Aji I've eaten. If I'm going to guess I would say between 30-50k scoville. Not a very pleasant burn, very prickly and stingy. Did not care for that burn at all unfortunately.
As for taste, there wasn't much to it either. Maybe a slight hint of sweet citrus fruit, like a lime. Perhaps it wasn't fully ripe yet. Gonna eat more of them and see if I can get some flavour of them.

About 90 minutes ago it was time to really step into the big leagues, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion:

As with the Melocoton, I think it wasn't quite fully ripe and developed yet. Going to leave the next pods on the plant longer.
And as with the Douglah I ate such small pieces that it was hard to discern flavor. Not quite the same freshness as other peppers and perhaps a slight hint of smokiness.
Heat... oh the heat!
I ate three small pieces, each larger than the one before. First two was fine, it was hot, way hotter than the Douglah but manageable.
The third piece was insane. I don't know how else to describe it. The heat kept building and building and building. When it finally peaked it dropped off pretty quickly, and then the stomach took over. I almost felt nauseous as the small pieces reached my stomach.
Then came the endorphin rush, holy moly. Never experienced a rush like that with any pepper, not even the Douglah gave me that kind of rush, and it lasted what seemed like 20ish minutes. Crazy!
What about the burn then? It was smooth but with a slight hint of pricklyness, just barely manageable. I felt the heat was located mostly towards the back of the mouth but it did fill my enitre mouth(at least that's how it seemed).
Heat, no idea. Could've been 1 million scoville, could've been 2 million. All I know is that it's by far the hottest pepper I've eaten and that last piece nearly drove me to the yoghurt but I persevered (yay me!).