2019 Pod reviews

[Bicycle808]

Ate my first 2019 pods last night...

After what seemed like forever, watching these things ripen, I picked two pods yesterday. A Sugar Rush Peach and what was labeled as a Yellow NagaBrain but the pod turned out red. It sure appear to be a NagaBrain otherwise.

The SRP was first to be sampled. I've never tried this one before, note has my chile buddies, so we didn't know what to expect. I cut it into three pieces longitudinally, and we wolfed it down. It was sweet, but we all thought it would be sweeter, given its name and reputation. Heat was immediate, moderate, didn't seen to build, really. Just got up front and lingered a bit. I'd read a lot of conflicting opinions on heat; sine say it's truly mild, others say it comes close to have heat. Of day it's in between there, probably close to 30000shu? Maybe less. Definitely too hot for toddlers, but not truly a hot pepper.

We cut the NagaBrain up at the bar towards the end of the bicycle bar hop session. It smelled powerful. Most of the other cyclists wanted nothing to do with it; I cut it into three pieces again, but we ultimately ended up fixing it pretty small and timidly munching it, chasing it with Guinness and hot wings to soothe the burn. It was SuperHot for sure, but we are all totally out of chile-shape after the off-season. So it's hard to say for sure how hot it was. The pod was very gnarly, big for an early SuperHot pod, and we were all impressed that it seemed less bitter than we'd recalled red SuperHots to be....

Next pods turning ripe are more SRPs and Bhut Assam Yellow. Got plenty of little pods forming on most plants and quite a few that are big enough, but still green. I went way too hard this year, with 173 plants(!) but I'm sure they won't all produce a bumper crop, lol

️

 

[PtMD989]

So, those new boxes working out good for ya, eh.


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[Bicycle808]

So, those new boxes working out good for ya, eh.


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I think so. One pod came from an old box, the other came from a new one. Plants all look terrible; between heavy rains, powerful winds, and some very hot and sunny days, most of my plants took a huge beating. They lost plenty of leaves, and much of the old growth that remains is beat up. But they are setting pods and making a lot of new leaves and branches where old leaves had dropped, so I THINK it's still going to be a rad season?

I've been taking weekly pictures every Monday, and the plants are growing quite a bit each week and I'm still way ahead of where I was in mid-June of both 2017 & 2018. But I live right on the Delaware River, and the wind has been far more brutal than in past years, actually ripping thru leaves. Also, I hardened off for longer and more comprehensively than I have in past years, but that hardening-off month was really gloomy... Lots of clouds and rain. As soon as I planted, the sun went apeshit on South Jersey, so a lot of stuff got burned up. But still, eating SuperHots on June 10 wasn't a possibility last year, so I guess I'm doing something right...
I got to eat another ripe Sugar Rush last night..

Coming ripe this week; they're already almost there: Bhut Assam Yellow, Lemon Drop, Brown Naglah, and a suspiciously smooth-looking Red Brainstrain. Oh, and probably a couple more SRPs. I intend to review the first example of each variety this year, for my notes... Even perennial favorites from yesteryear, although I am growing a lot of new-to-me varieties this year.

 

[PtMD989]

[emoji106][emoji16] I hear ya on the rain and wind. There’s parts of my yard that haven’t dried up from the spring melt. Of course my dog won’t stay out of the mud. Lots of farmers still don’t have any seed in the ground around here.


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[Bicycle808]

[emoji106][emoji16] I hear ya on the rain and wind. Theres parts of my yard that havent dried up from the spring melt. Of course my dog wont stay out of the mud. Lots of farmers still dont have any seed in the ground around here.


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Bad weather sucks. Sounds like you have it worse than I do. We just only have rainy days, or scorchers. (Although, to be honest, Wednesday was really nice! Rained a little overnight Tuesday, though...)

But this wind! Most days, rain or shine, the wind is blowing hard. Tends to in the same direction, too, so now most of my plants are kinda growing slanty, despite being staked. Yeah, I always get more wind than a lot of South Jersey, due to my geographic location... But this past month has been excessively windy. Physically tearing my plants apart!

 

[CaneDog]

Lots of hassles with the weather going around, some worse than others. I got the chilly hardening off weeks with some intermittent scorchers, but thankfully none of your wind. And that perpetual soaking many areas are getting is crazy bad.  Glad to hear you're enjoying some early pods. I'm about to be enjoying some ripe Zapotecs from the seeds you sent me.  It hit 90F here today and brought out the very first red on one of the pods.

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

SRP looks like its gunna be a win for me. Plants seem to do well here and ive already got some pods. Nothing near ripe yet but its a good start. All mine are in fabric pots and seem to be handling the loads of rain fairly well.

 

[Bicycle808]

Lots of hassles with the weather going around, some worse than others. I got the chilly hardening off weeks with some intermittent scorchers, but thankfully none of your wind. And that perpetual soaking many areas are getting is crazy bad.  Glad to hear you're enjoying some early pods. I'm about to be enjoying some ripe Zapotecs from the seeds you sent me.  It hit 90F here today and brought out the very first red on one of the pods.

That's outstanding. I'm growing 24 Zapotec plants this year; all of them have a few unripe pods hanging from the branches... Some are quite tiny, while others are course to fill size, but none are anywhere near ripe. I started my annuums dead last; I'm actually getting SuperHots before Jalapeños. Amazing.

Let me know how you like that Zapotecs. I really do feel like they were total GameChangers for my Jalapeño strategy...

SRP looks like its gunna be a win for me. Plants seem to do well here and ive already got some pods. Nothing near ripe yet but its a good start. All mine are in fabric pots and seem to be handling the loads of rain fairly well.

I got two SRPs in a raised bed, and two in fabric pots. The ones in the bed are doing better but, to be fair, those were my best two from the start and the two in pots were culls that I saved last minute. So i can't blame the pots, just yet...

But all of the SRPs were showing multiple pods before anything else was even blooming. They produce early as hell, but they take a fairly long time to ripen. But they're delicious and two pods in, I'm already a believer. They taste great, they hit that magic level for heat where they got a nice bit of burn, but normal ppl can eat them, too. I thought they were really sweet, but I guess I was expecting them to be even sweeter, based on the name, and all the hype.

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

SRP was one of the types ive been wanting to try for a few seasons. I finally remembered early enough to try them. Only thing growing better/bigger atm is the Bolsa de Dulce and they started later....Well, actually the aji oro looks like it will catch up fast now too. Mine also set blooms and pods very very early.
 
My little JPGS had 7 pods yesterday. Not just tiny pods either. Some are probably close to typical size. Its another ive wanted to try for a couple years now. Im thinking a peach colored hot sauce using both but mostly SRP and JPGS to adjust the heat.

 

[Bicycle808]

I got one big but green JPGS pod on the one plant, plus several little ones on that same plant and a second JPGS plant. I feel like a danged fill; should've grown more. I started a bunch of them, but have a lot of the seedlings away. I think that variety impressed more of my chile buddies than anything else last year; everyone wanted to try to grow it...

I am a huge fan of JPGS for the strong and productive plants, the delicious pods, and the slow, loooooong, delayed burn. But, overall, I think that Andy's King BOC is the superior pepper. Tastiest Super/near-Super I grew last year, I think

 

[Tybo]

Congrats on the early SRP and the Red/Yellow Naga Brain.  I'm jealous though.  I only had one SRP successfully germinate so the lone survivor is holding it's own and does have some small pods on it.  No where near tasting size though.
The only ones I have got to sample so far are the Shishito's and the Fushimi's.  Good peppers but no heat.
 

 

[Bicycle808]

Ok, next round of pod reviews. I'm not trying to promise I'll keep up with this running tally; in fact, I know I won't be able to once my plants kick into actual production mode, but here's what I've sampled thus far:
-2 SRP
-1 NagaBrains? (NagaBrains not Yellow)
-1 Lemon Drop
-1 Bhut Assam Yellow

So, last night round 11p, I plucked two more ripe pods and, as usual, ate them at the local pub with friends and my wife.

We started with the Lemon Drop. Baccatums are pretty much new to all of us; we just tried the SRPs fit the first time this past week, and most of us ate a ton of Bishops Crowns last year, from the one plant I grew. But that's it. On the strength of this thing's name and color, I expected it to have a lot of citrus notes. We sniffed it, and it smelled like Baccatums. We ate it, and agreed that we didn't find it all that citrusy. To be honest, I felt like it tasted an awful lot like the SRP, with less overt sweetness and a bit less heat. My buddy Dave agreed, and commented "wait, this isn't the same exact thing as we had on Sunday?"

To be fair, I guess both the SRP and the Lemon Drop have some citrus notes in the flavor profile... But I guess we expected more? I feel like Yellow Fataliis have more lemon flavor in them than this Lemon Drop did. It was still very pleasant; my wife decided that the Lemon Drop has exactly the right amount of heat for pods being snacked on, raw.

So, it seemed logical for us to move onto the Bhut Assam Yellow. Tbh, I feel like I may have gotten one of these in a box before, but I'm not sure. I have never before successfully grown these (had one plant last year that died a mysterious death before producing pods) and, if I ever ate one, I don't recall the details...

Cutting this thing open, it smelled like classic yellow Chinense, and that's basically exactly how it tasted, too. No surprises there. The tail end was pretty sweet, and tasted great. As i got up into the placenta, the heat and bitterness predictably become more apparent.

Dave swore that the Bhut Assam Yellow tasted exactly like a Bonnet, and I don't disagree insofar as Yellow Chinense all taste fairly similar; happily, yellow Chinense is probably my favorite flavor on Earth. But I feel like the Bhut was less nuanced than a good Bonnet, and of course considerably hotter. Definitely not anywhere near SuperHot range, but maybe twice as hot as a typical Bonnet? Definitely had that delayed heat thing going, as I've come to expect from most Ghost-types. My first impression was like "oh, shit. This must be some sort of cross and/or dud; there's no heat!" but the pain crept in after a little while, slowly building to a decent and lingering burn.

As of right now, both of these were good chiles that I'm happy to have grown and sampled, but I don't consider either of them to be "must-grow" varieties. In fact, none of the varieties I've gotten to sample so far this year seen fall within that category, although the SRP might, especially if my plants keep growing and producing like that have been thus far. But the NagaBrains is basically just another also-ran SuperHot. Nothing wrong with it; it's great... But I think I'd be better served growing both Nagas and 7pot Brainstrains, rather than their cross. I'm sure I will grow all of these again, but I don't feel like it's entirely necessary to.

Thanks for reading.

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

The lemon drops i grew 2 years in a row were quite "lemony". Original plants came from Lazy Ox Farms and i got 2 from CCN the next year. I could not tell much if any difference between the two vendors. The 2nd year i grew the CCNs along side plants from seeds i saved.
 
SRP (RFC seeds) however are noticeably different in how they grow. Very thick lower growth and not as viney....yet. More "chinense like" in leaf mass than what i remember from the lemon drops which went UP and OUT at a fairly similar rate. My SRP bulked up first and are now growing UP.

 

[Bicycle808]

Yes, no doubt the SRP grows differently from the other Baccatums I've grown (Bishop's Crown, Brazil Starfish, Lemon Drops) and it's almost enough to make me wonder whether it was cruised with an annuum it connecting, due to growing habits and being relatively early to set fruit and to ripen, relative to other Baccatums. Dude who set the strain still has no idea what the original cross was.

I believe you regarding the Lemon Drops and I'm basing my experience on just one early pod. It's totally possible that later pods will create a totally different experience. Time will tell...

 

[Zippy]

I tasted my first SRP last week. It had heat but no sweetness whatsoever. I attributed it to a partial ripened state. I will wait a bit as I have several forming. I'm hoping the flavour improves. Then again the weather shifted from scorching heat to cold nights again and the baccatums are yellowing in the leaves. I suspect my climate is not preferential to baccatums. 

 

[Bicycle808]

I tasted my first SRP last week. It had heat but no sweetness whatsoever. I attributed it to a partial ripened state. I will wait a bit as I have several forming. I'm hoping the flavour improves. Then again the weather shifted from scorching heat to cold nights again and the baccatums are yellowing in the leaves. I suspect my climate is not preferential to baccatums. 

Yes, I feel like you won't get the full sweetness from any chile unless you allow it to ripen fully. SRPs are new to me this season, so I'm not familiar with the fully ripened color, and going off online photos can be difficult for ANY pepper. But, in the case of the SRP, it seems like there's a lot of variation. Some pics online show almost Orange-Hab coloration with a green calyx. Others are way more "peachy" and some of those show a bleeding calyx. Mine have the bleeding calyx, so...

I got all scientifical with the first pod I plucked. I carefully observed it when the color began to change, and once it stabilized for about three days with no further discernable color change, I picked it. And I cut it up and shared it with a couple friends within an hour of picking. It was, indeed, sweet. Maybe the sweetest pepper I've had, maybe...

But, with everything I read about this thing, I expected it to be the sweetest pepper I've ever had, hands down. Like, miles ahead of any other chile I've tried. As it stands now, I don't think it's sweeter than Habanada or Aji Jobito. That might be an unfair comparison, bc those two are zero-heat and the SRP was decently piquant.

I'm growing Jobito this year so I can definitely do a head-to-head comparison at some point.

As far as your weather conditions go, I've heard that baccatums want a bit more shade than some other species. I do grow many of my annuums and chinense in full sun, but I find that the ones that get some shade during the day tend to do a little better than the guys left out to fry with nothing to shade them, aside from their neighbouring pepper plants. I am currently growing 6 baccatum plants in a very aggressively sunny bed, and despite some purple sun"tan" on the Lemon Drop pods, they are outpacing the chinense they share the bed with in terms of both growth and production.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, on my EXTREMELY limited experience growing baccatums, I haven't found sun to be a problem. The excessive rain we've been getting has made life hard on every chile I'm growing this year. The howling wind has, as well, and it's been particularly hard on the two SRPs I'm growing at home, where things get much windier despite being only three blocks further from the river. But the sun/heat hasn't hurt then any more than it has the annuums and chinense.

Half the reason I decided to grow baccatums this year was bc I bought a single Bishop's Crown plant at CCN last year. After stalling out for maybe a month after transplant, that thing took off like a weed!
It was indestructible. We had both heavy & frequent rains and extreme heat last year, but the Bishop's Crown took it in stride, and took over that bed like it was kudzu. Very vine-like, almost stoloniferous. I'd be picking pods from a different plant on the opposite side of the bed, and find some Bishop's Crown pods growing there, which was very disconcerting until I found that some extremely long-legged branch had grown on the BC plant, snaked its way across the bed to pop some pods up among the Scotch Bonnets.

So far, my baccatums this year are growing more up than out, but I could see the Lemon Drops or more likely the Starfish creeping around and taking over, Bishop's Crown-style, by August.

Dang, that was a long post.

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

Ive grown aji cito, lemon drop and Brazilian starfish in the past. All 3 got fairly viney. The starfish is probably the worst but what a delicious pepper. This year its SRP and Bolsa de Dulce although its a cross and not a true baccatum. The flowers do look like baccatums. Both varieties are doing very well in my climate even with all the crazy amounts of rain we are getting. ATM the Bolsa is growing somewhat like a lemon drop....up a bit more than out (so far) but that changes once the summer really kicks in. They have already forked and maybe forked again. I got a feeling my "aji row" on the steps is going to be a jungle before this is all over
 
ATM im a little more impressed HOW they grow than others ive grown. The suspense of which pheno i will get from the Bolsa is killing me.

 

[Bicycle808]

Ive grown aji cito, lemon drop and Brazilian starfish in the past. All 3 got fairly viney. The starfish is probably the worst but what a delicious pepper. This year its SRP and Bolsa de Dulce although its a cross and not a true baccatum. The flowers do look like baccatums. Both varieties are doing very well in my climate even with all the crazy amounts of rain we are getting. ATM the Bolsa is growing somewhat like a lemon drop....up a bit more than out (so far) but that changes once the summer really kicks in. They have already forked and maybe forked again. I got a feeling my "aji row" on the steps is going to be a jungle before this is all over
 
ATM im a little more impressed HOW they grow than others ive grown. The suspense of which pheno i will get from the Bolsa is killing me.

It's logical and I guess predictable that we'll be hyper-focused on analyzing and comparing various plants' growth habits at this time of year, being that the harvest has yet to come in. What I hadn't expected would be how much more of a priority this factor would become, over factors such as productivity, flavor, and heat, as I become more experienced.

This year, while planting out, I observed each plant's rootball with the sort of dedicated intensity that only high-level nerds can hope to achieve. I'm glad there's no video footage of that, showing me squatting down, trowel in hand, holding the plant, recently unsheathed from a solo cup, aloft... intently examining that rootball as I squint into the sun...tut-tutting and shaking my head at varieties whose root development is less impressive than that of their peers.

Yes, I'm talking about YOU, 7Pot Jonah.

Yeah, how embarrassing. My neighbours are already perplexed at the fact that I've got 70+ chile plants growing in my tiny yard, with 96 more at the very nearby Gloucester Shiddy Community Garden. If they saw me squinting at those roots, posing like a toad, they'd be mortified. And being that I spent hours doing exactly that, on a weekend, it's almost certain that they saw me.

But yeah, few things excite me more than the prospect of an "Aji jungle" growing on someone's steps. I guess bc I am now as much of a grower as I am a consumer/ devourer of peppers, the plants are just as awe-inspiring as the produce. If you showed a basket of your Ajis, ShowMeDaSauce, I'd probably wolf two pods down right-quick, and then immediately ask to see your plants...

For whatever reason, a hardy, strong, productive plant that produces decent-tasting peppers is more appealing to me than a slightly delicate plant that produces a modest harvest of incredibly delicious peppers. At least that's how I feel now, as a relative novice. Maybe that will change when (if?) I ever master this shit, and start craving a challenge?

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

My space is limited so choosing what grows well here is a premium feature. I can only tolerate having a few that dont produce well but are worth it simply because they taste so good. I probably devoted way too much space this year to SRP and Aji Panca.
 
If my current guess is correct, i chose wisely this year other than possibly growing too many.
 

 

[Bicycle808]

My space is limited so choosing what grows well here is a premium feature. I can only tolerate having a few that dont produce well but are worth it simply because they taste so good. I probably devoted way too much space this year to SRP and Aji Panca.
 
 

Are your SRPs not producing like crazy for you? Mine are the early leaders for production, by a mile.

I hear you re: the Pancas, though. Incredibly delicious chiles that simply take entirely too long. I will likely never grow those again unless I move to Florida or Louisiana or some shit. Huge plants that take up so much real estate but produce too few pods.