Bump. Seeing if anyone harvested these this year. Mine are green but still not ripe. Hoping to get a flush. Mine are labeled as chinenses via chileplants.com
The Aji Panca listing on thechileman.org has a photo of the Capsicum Chinense Aji Panca from chileplants.com plus another photo that may be the Baccatum:Chileman.org lists them as baccatum. This may not be the end all in classification; however, this is my go to source for plant information. Had four plants in the ground this year. Tthey were definately late ripeing in my grow zone. They are worth the effort though; make a mighty fine powder.
I had a dig for brown Baccatum varieties after the idea of a Chocolate Starfish was raised and found none. Odds are if it ripens to brown then it's not a true Baccatum. Alas the Chocolate Starfish remains elusive.If they were Baccatums they will have gold specks in the petals of the buds.
Finally someone has had a look at the flowers!Mine are definitely not baccatum, based on flower morphology.
I still have a whole bunch of extracted seed, but I think they were dried at too high of a temperature for quality seed.
Got a bag of dehydrated Aji Panca's, i'm nearly positive they are Baccatum. Around here they sell them in foreign food stores and supermarkets with foreign food sections. They are dirt cheap for the quanitity you're getting, i wouldn't doubt if there were 500 seeds in the bag.
Are commercial seed lots dried at a higher temp than ambient summer?
I've seen pics where they lay out tons of these ajies onto the desert sand to dry in the sun. Not sure how hot the peppers get using this method. The ajies were dried for consumption not seed saving, so I don't think they are concerned if the temp gets too high for seeds to stay viable.
Your findings with the flowers is the reason i used the phrase "nearly convinced", i still sorta wonder myself. Maybe there are a bunch of crosses floating around, or that the word Panca is used for different species. That one Panca pic floating around looks more like a shrived/wrinkly annuum and not the peppers i have in this bag.Now you're making me second guess myself on the flowers. I could've sworn they were not the classic baccatum interior petal "spot".
Or...I've heard Panca is used for the same brown color in multiple species. Dunno.