Received these "bonus seeds" with my Yellow morugas and I have no idea what they are. Plants are about 60-80cm high and the peppers have been full sized for 3 weeks now without any change in colour.
Any ideas what these could be?
- Thread starter bonehead1996
- Start date
They look exactly like some serranos I bought this past weekend at a farmers market.
They are not Serranos. Serrano plants have a pubescence on the stalk, and develop a striation of purple-black on the stalk as well. These are undoubtedly C.Annuum or C.Frutescens, but because that particular pepper shape is so common, it could be any of hundreds of varieties. All you can hope for at this point is that they are hardy, productive, tasty, and with a decent heat. Plant looks lovely 
Thats a reflection, these pictures are about a week old and they're still 100% green as of now.turbo said:
There is quite a bold purple striation on the stalks further down which werent visible on the pictures sorry. I'm not sure what you mean by pubescence on stalks but there are some very small hairs on the main stem too.Hendrix1326 said:They are not Serranos. Serrano plants have a pubescence on the stalk, and develop a striation of purple-black on the stalk as well. These are undoubtedly C.Annuum or C.Frutescens, but because that particular pepper shape is so common, it could be any of hundreds of varieties. All you can hope for at this point is that they are hardy, productive, tasty, and with a decent heat. Plant looks lovely
Definitely agree it looks like a serrano. I freakin' love serranos for salsas.
Thanks for the help with my first post guys, as a first time pepper grower i'm sure i'll have plenty more questions! On that note how long do serranos take to ripen? these havent grown in size for 3-5 weeks now and are still dark green, i'm getting impatient 
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. If they are fuzzy on the stalks (which I could not discern from the pictures), than there is a good chance they are Serranos. Pubescence means hairs or fuzz, to clarify 
Ripening varies depending on whether or not you have them outside. Looks from the images they are indoors, so it could be a few months to ripen them. Out in full sun, from full sized green pods, 4-6 weeks is roughly how long you should expect before ripening to full red. They are soooooo tasty when fully ripe, too, almost an apple-like hint to the flavor, very crisp, fresh, sweet, and tangy, with a nice mellowed out heat compared to the just-shy-of-ripe green pods (which are pretty stingy burn). Good luck with the rest of your season
Ripening varies depending on whether or not you have them outside. Looks from the images they are indoors, so it could be a few months to ripen them. Out in full sun, from full sized green pods, 4-6 weeks is roughly how long you should expect before ripening to full red. They are soooooo tasty when fully ripe, too, almost an apple-like hint to the flavor, very crisp, fresh, sweet, and tangy, with a nice mellowed out heat compared to the just-shy-of-ripe green pods (which are pretty stingy burn). Good luck with the rest of your season 
SavinaRed said:
I make a mild pepper flake for friends using ripe Serrano peppers, I guess I kinda prefer them red myself. To me they are a bit sweeter and more flavorful, its not really about the heat. I do make a mixed pepper flake using Thai and Serrano peppers for my friends, they seem to love it and I also like to smother my pizza with it as well.
cheers
SavinaRed said:
Serranos turn red eventually, the green are just unripe. Flavor of ripe peppers is almost always better as a general rule, since the vitamin C and sugars come in, plus the texture softens a bit, and gets more juicy. Heat will diminish a little, they tend to peak just prior to ripening for SHUs, but they don't lose a ton of heat when ripening to red.
They're not sutpidly hot, but being relatively new to the chilli scene I don't have much to compare too :/ hotter than a jalapeño for sure but bearable sliced in a sandwich or diced up in a salsa. But I've only tried one which was very green and definitely unripe
Oops i really messed that up on mobile but I can't delete it now from my phone, So this will stay in its place
ah right, they may well be a cross of some description considering they were just an unlabeled packet of "free seeds" with my order. I'll report back with pictures and taste when they finally ripen and see if that confirms things.
Buzz said:
There is a local Mexican grocery near me that sells Serrano shaped just like this. Sure, they might be a cross or maybe not as I have no idea myself. I know the Serrano's from Mexican grocery have some pretty fierce heat for being just a Serrano chili. Much hotter than the ones I have grown.
I usually grow the Serrano Del Sol variety. Since the chili from store are usually green, I have never tried to harvest seed as I usually only take seeds from ripe chili. Besides, they are dirt cheap there and I can buy them just whenever.