AHayastani's ГЛΟГ

I have an urban "garden" on the roof of a house in tropical Chiapas, Mexico. It's the first year that I'm growing plants - mostly Capsicum - in this location. I lived in a temperate region of Europe before, and the adaptation to different growing conditions is not without setbacks. Another issue is that not all material that I would like to use is commonly available here, so at times I have to be more creative than I actually want to be. That being said, it is also unbelievable (for me, at least) to see how some plants manage to grow in this climate even in adverse conditions (despite my bad treatment, that is).
 
I have obtained seeds from various sources (abbreviations in parentheses will be used in this glog): White Hot Peppers (WHP), Towns-End (town), Jayrseyshore Peppers [FB] (jay), Vertiloom (vtl), Badskin (bad), Juan GA [FB] (jga), Semillas La Palma (SLP), Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds).
 
I arrived at this house in january and started my first sowings in february. This glog, however, begins in early June and I will just treat this as "the beginning".
 
 
I re-sowed a few cultivars end May since most or all of my plants of that specific cultivar had perished... My 3 plants of Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion seem to have succumbed to a virus infection, which might have been seed-born. I will soon find out... My Brazilian Mango and Aji Mango Long plants looked depressing, so I sowed the backup seeds. Serrano... I had forgotten to sow them    Trinidad Beans Chocolate, because two out of three plants seem to be reluctant to grow and enter adulthood... Takanotsume is old seed I purchased on ebay, and I'm surprised that anything gets up. Pimenta Moranga and Monster Gum Multicolor (jga) are two cultivars that I was going to sow on March 20, but I somehow lost the seeds... but they recently resurfaced Germination is still OK, even though the seeds were "stored" outside 
 

 
 
I sourced some pequin/chiltepin from the local market, one fruit per tray:
 

 
 
A box of failures... The seed is already old though and has not been properly stored. Cumari Pollux (SLP) is an exception though, and I will await its germination to officially declare the rest as "lost".
 

 
 
Sowed today: Capsicum galapagoense Long (SLP).
 

 

 
 
I had some fun with tomato suckers as well... I put two suckers in water to make them grow roots (cultivar Madagascar) and gave them a baggie of dirt today and placed them with the rest.
 

 
 
I removed some more suckers and put them in water. Hopefully they will make it to tomato plant Three are Midnight Tiger and another Madagascar. The three shoots in perlite below are Aji Tapachula.
 

 

[CraftyFox]

That sounds mouth watering.. What is the difference between rajas and rojos? The color and pepper ripeness? I usually have a rojo sauce over my steak burrito when we (used to) go out to eat. They always laugh when I tell them I want the 5 for heat (hottest they have), and I think of all the guys on here that would probably laugh at the heat it has. I built up a pretty good tolerance last year and made the mistake of telling them the 5 was a little timid.. They remembered me the next time.    
I can cook a little, but I'm still a rookie. I'm definitely going to have to try that.. Hard to beat a pepper sauce over meat. 

 

[ahayastani]

That sounds mouth watering.. What is the difference between rajas and rojos? The color and pepper ripeness? I usually have a rojo sauce over my steak burrito when we (used to) go out to eat. They always laugh when I tell them I want the 5 for heat (hottest they have), and I think of all the guys on here that would probably laugh at the heat it has. I built up a pretty good tolerance last year and made the mistake of telling them the 5 was a little timid.. They remembered me the next time.    
I can cook a little, but I'm still a rookie. I'm definitely going to have to try that.. Hard to beat a pepper sauce over meat. 

 
Rojo is the colour red.
 
Raja is a (long thin) slice. As a dish, rajas in Mexico refers to chile poblano cut in long slices, usually fried with onion.

 

[PaulG]

I often use poblano (green) for preparing rajas:
 

• First, remove the skin (tatemar)

(Just watch what he does...)

• Remove the seeds and cut up the peppers. I prefer long and thin slices but sometimes I dice them in tiny quadrilaterals.
• Skillet with oil > add garlic, followed by onion (thin slices, like the pepper; 3-4 peppers and one large or two small white onions)
• Add chorizo (same (eyeballed) volume as onion).
• Add pepper when chorizo and onion have formed an homogenous paste.
• Leave on low fire for at least 15 min. Stir regularly. Add salt near the end.
• For an extra taste kick, add cilantro as you add the peppers.
• Provecho.

This is a simple but time-consuming dish to prepare. Guaranteed success with my carnivorous other half... I make it as a side dish, e.g. rice, rajas, chayote and steak.

Thanks for posting that video, Dieter. 
 
Very interesting method.

 

[ahayastani]

My pepper plants have suffered from lack of attention the last few weeks since it has been difficult to find time. School (online, distance) has begun again and the kids always need someone around    And the daily afternoon thunderstorms make working outside quite difficult when I finally can free time    But I'm starting to find my way in the new rhythm again, so things should go better again
 
The harvest of this morning: Carolina Reaper, Pico de paloma, Poblano, and Pusa Jwala. They will be dried.
 
 

 
The drying process is very simple: string them on a thread and bask them in the sun until thunderstorms arrive. I cut them open longitudinally so they dry faster and to avoid mould at the inside. Jwala dries relatively fast (~2 weeks), Pico de paloma very fast (1 week), Poblano very slowly... I'll have to dry them in the oven, I guess. Their skin is too thick and they dry too slow, also making them more susceptible to mould. The next image shows Jwala, Pico de paloma and Poblano drying on a trellis with sweet potatoes.
 

 
I appreciate Pusa Jwala's biorhythm. I can harvest all its peppers in two pickings. At the first picking, the plants is already setting out a substantial amount of new flowers. At the second picking, there already are well-developed unripe peppers and still some flowers. By the time the peppers from the second picking have dried, a fresh harvest can be picked from the plant.
 
Small plants from last sowing, mostly seeds from THP and THSC:
 

 

[ahayastani]

Pimenta berinjela, described by THSC as "upper mid heat". I concur. The very first pepper I ate from this plant was somewhat underwhelming, but I certainly appreciate the taste of the new flux of peppers.
 

 
 
One of the few peppers on a Coyote Zan White plant. There were many a few days ago    I can't say it's my favourite plant, but it certainly is a keeper.
 

 
 
A back-up Madre de Rios plant. Since I already have three other plants, I will use this one in a bonchi experiment.
 

 
 
Aji Tapachula, Siamese twins
 

 

[ahayastani]

Naga Smooky Rainbow... I have two different phenos, and based on photos on WHP's website, I believe this is the "correct pheno":
 

 
 
But WHP states on his website that Drax Diego is the creator, and on his website are images that correspond to the second phenotype! I don't know how I should categorize them, perhaps Naga Smooky Rainbow "Drax" and "WHP", to stick to something uncreative... Anyway, the "second phenotype" aka "Drax" (note the different fruit shapes):
 

 

 

 
 

 

[FarWestPep]

Haha.. I've probably used Poblano about every way you shouldn't. I use them in skillets, stir-fry, and eggs.. All of which have much better alternatives. I really like them diced, with onions, seared hard in the skillet with butter.. Until their essence is nice and concentrated, but not totally crispy. Then I spread it out and cover the works in a dusting of powdered mushroom, allowing it brown a bit before slowly adding in a block of cream cheese, allowing it to melt.. Ever so slowly adding milk.. other spices, building it into a nice sauce that I use on a number of chicken dishes, especially rice and noodle bulked ones. 
Sometimes I substitute milk or cream for the cheese, depending on the end dish. This just always sticks in my mind as a sauce pepper, but maybe I'm not versed enough with it. I know I've got a lot to learn about which peppers are best which way and how to get it done. So far I'm 0:2 on ferments.. That's my next hurdle. 
I've heard they are great stuffed, but I've never made them that way. And please know that when I say 'hot', we aren't talking about anything really serious.. Not in my experience. 

 
I'm all for eating peppers any which way, I'm not one to judge    I usually take the lazy way out and eat them raw or grilled, but I should venture back into more complex things like sauces as you mentioned. I can't recommend stuffed poblanos enough, they're definitely in the top 10 for me.
 
What kind of fermentation did you try? I recently fermented some cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. The tomatoes turned out great and I made a good pasta sauce, but the pickles will need some tweaking.

 

[FarWestPep]

I often use poblano (green) for preparing rajas:
 

• First, remove the skin (tatemar)

(Just watch what he does...)

• Remove the seeds and cut up the peppers. I prefer long and thin slices but sometimes I dice them in tiny quadrilaterals.
• Skillet with oil > add garlic, followed by onion (thin slices, like the pepper; 3-4 peppers and one large or two small white onions)
• Add chorizo (same (eyeballed) volume as onion).
• Add pepper when chorizo and onion have formed an homogenous paste.
• Leave on low fire for at least 15 min. Stir regularly. Add salt near the end.
• For an extra taste kick, add cilantro as you add the peppers.
• Provecho.

This is a simple but time-consuming dish to prepare. Guaranteed success with my carnivorous other half... I make it as a side dish, e.g. rice, rajas, chayote and steak.

 
I need to give this a shot! Well, my goal is to get my wife involved so I can have her do some of the hardwork and I can just enjoy the end result   Kidding aside, I absolutely love sauces so it would be nice to know how to make this in the future.

 

[ahayastani]

 
I need to give this a shot! Well, my goal is to get my wife involved so I can have her do some of the hardwork and I can just enjoy the end result   Kidding aside, I absolutely love sauces so it would be nice to know how to make this in the future.

 
The easiest way is to toss them on the burner of your gas furnace and turn them around regularly, to avoid they carbonize instead of char My preferred method, however, is to use oil. I find it easier to remove the skin afterwards if I use this technique. I regularly fry plantain for breakfast and reuse the oil a few times, but before discarding it, I use it once to remove the skin of poblano peppers.
 
I was going to dry some peppers...
 

 
Please Virgencita, protect my reapercitos from evil moulds, bacteria and every other annoying pest from His Creation, but not from unsuspecting humans who want to nick them, believing they are some funny kind of chile de arbol, and want to prepare regular salsa with them  
 
Anyway, weekend will be fun A Baker Creek and two Texas HP orders arrived... Baker Creek was ordered end of July. THP seeds were bought end of July and end of August...
 

 

 

[ahayastani]

It was going to wait till the weekend
 

 
 
All chile seeds are from THP (Texas Hot Peppers). Tomato seeds are from Vertiloom (Tempête de Sable) and the French association Cultive ta rue (Ananas Blue Lignée). Agastache and zaatar seeds are from Baker Creek. I used five seeds for the tomatoes and the chiles, and about a third of the seed package (eyeballed) for zaatar and agastache:
 

 
 
 
I sowed Roxa X pepper seeds on 31/7, with 5/5 germination. I discarded one inferior seedling. The remaining four seem to be of at least two phenotypes (note the stem colour, and don't mind the wrong label):
 

 
Seeds were purchased from THP. Their website states:
 

 
 
This was an off pheno variety from a Bico Roxa, so definitely unstable. Dark foliaged plants with purple pods that ripen to a deep red.  Very high yields even in extreme conditions.

 
Hippy offers Bico Roxa and has reference pictures. Let's see where this adventure brings us  Perhaps we might even discover the identity of the milkman... 
 
I sowed zaatar out of curiousity, and agastache "Navajo Sunset" out of frustration    It's the third time I have sown this herb: the first time was still in Europe, and the cat tumbled down a set of seed trays, including the agastache... I bought new seeds the next year and was going to sow them, but then the news arrived that we were going to move to another continent... So now, they will just sprout, grow, and give flowers, and nothing will happen to hamper that 
 
 

 

[Tybo]

Good luck with your grow!  When I saw the Zaatar Oregano it made me think of some onions we made after watching this video of Brad from Bon Appetite.

The Zaatar we used was a mix of several spices.  Here is Bon Appetite's description.https://www.bonappetit.com/story/what-is-zaatar
 
Hope you like the video of Brad.  All of his videos are pretty funny.  Good editing!

 

[ahayastani]

Good luck with your grow!  When I saw the Zaatar Oregano it made me think of some onions we made after watching this video of Brad from Bon Appetite.

The Zaatar we used was a mix of several spices.  Here is Bon Appetite's description.https://www.bonappetit.com/story/what-is-zaatar
 
Hope you like the video of Brad.  All of his videos are pretty funny.  Good editing!

 
Thanks for the links! I was unfamiliar with both. When I have zaatar to harvest I'll surely return

 

[ahayastani]

Another small sowing batch today... Eight chiles and two tomatoes:
 

 
 
All chile seeds are from THP. Tomato seeds are from Vertiloom (Sinister Minister) and French tomatofifou (Rosado de la Sierra Aracena). I sowed 5 seeds of the chiles, and 8 of the tomatoes. On the right are two small pots of Diente de perro (Dog's tooth), a heirloom from the Guatemalan Pacific coastal plain. I bought a handful from a street vendor. I was careless with the seeds, so I hope at least one seedling finds the strength to rise up    I didn't take a photo of the peppers, but they somewhat resemble pico de paloma in the next image. Reimer offers seeds for sale, but the image on their website does not correspond to what it should be... 
 

 
 
Pico de paloma, a heirloom from the Chiapas Highlands and Tabasco. I have noticed that if it is grown in a shadow-rich environment, the peppers will ripen from green to red. If the plant is exposed to the sun, the peppers ripen from green to yellow with splashes of purple, and further to red.
 

 

[ahayastani]

Big Mustard Mama... Impressive plant.
 

 

 
 
 
Elysium Oxide seems to have more pods than leaves 
 

 
 
Basil going insane...
 

 

[ahayastani]

7 Pot Burgundy, which I recently gave a hyper-professional support The whole setup is still sometimes toppled by strong storm winds, but the support branches also protect the plants from major damage.
 

 
 
Clavo. Beautiful pods. Still haven't tasted them...
 

 
 
Prik Khi Nu, grown from a cutting (see my previous post). It took a very long time for the cutting to become established (my previous post is from 21 June). Only two-three weeks ago it really started to grow very quickly. I transplanted it to a bigger growth bag a few days ago, including support.
 

 

[ahayastani]

Datil x Limon, first pods.
 

 
 
Finally a tomato from Black Beauty! This is the third plant that I'm growing from the same seed with cloning Day and night temperatures have recently decreased slightly (31°C day and 23°C night).
 

 
 
KSLS. Don't know what to expect...
 

 

[ahayastani]

The following pepper plant was sold to me as habanero, though I'm not sure whether I should categorize it as such. Most habanero peppers I have seen look different. Hotness is in the upper habanero range. The plant suffered substantially from a red mite infestation, and it has taken a full four months for the plant to recover. But it is producing pods again
 

 

 

 

[ahayastani]

Weather was terrible for most of the weekend. Lots of heavy rain, thunderstorms, and wind, which complicate working on the roof terrace. I found some gaps to do the sowings that I had put in my agenda.
 
On Saturday:
 

 
Four/five seeds of every pepper (all from THP), green and purple tomatillo, thai basil and another tomato (Pomme d'or de Saint-Jean de Beauregard, seeds from cultive ta rue):
 

 
 
Sunday:
 

 
Again four/five seeds per pepper cultivar (all from THP). Cubo Orange RS (seeds: biodynamic Sativa) and Maor (seeds: Battle) are sweet peppers that I'm sowing for the third time. I don't know whether there is a problem with the seed or with my technique... But since there won't be a fourth time, I used all seeds that I still had available, in the hope that at least one seedling wants to emerge. Baker's Arugula is quite tasty, with quite a pungent kick. Our tropical climate may have to do with that as well though.
 

 
 
First zaatar peeps after three days.
 

 
 
I hauled in a little harvest, mostly peppers of low and medium heat. The whole harvest was pickled, for own consumption (1L) and for sale (8x 250mL). We use a family recipe (secret  ), so far with great success.
 

 

 

[ahayastani]

I grow Scotch Bonnet Beth Boyd (seeds: WHP) but ended up with two different types: some have yellow peppers (as they are supposed to be), but one plant has red peppers. This has been mentioned several times in my GLOG buy also in other threads on this forum. The visiting milkman has not been identified (at least not by my knowledge) but his gene pool makes that his children look red. I find that in my case, the red variety resembles the original yellow quite well.
 

 
Bottoms up:
 

 
I am currently growing seedlings from seeds of the red variant. I'm anxious to see whether these traits can be stabilized. Not sure how it could be named... SB Elisa Boyd, or SB Gimel Boyd, or... Fingers crossed and await results.
 
 
I had the impression that a habanero I bought locally perhaps was something else. Its heat is quite high for a habanero, and I also found that its form was not really what I had in mind of how a habanero should look like. I compared it with another habanero I'm growing (Roger's Habanero, from WHP), but as I put the two side by side, it looks that it indeed is just another habanero and that I have been overreacting/nitpicking. The two on the right are local habaneros, the rest is Roger's Habanero.
 

 

 

[PaulG]

Red Beth Boyd Scotch Bonnets? Awesome!