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chinense Best Scotch Bonnet??

Hello everyone!

Its been a long time Ive taken a big hiatus being a traveling healthcare worker on the road for the last five years. We recently built a house in Phoenix, AZ and Im ready to get some heat back into my life.

Who has the best Scitch bonnet these days? Is it still Judys MOA over at pepperlover.com?? Are those MOAs of hers orange? Or yellow??

P.S. If anyone lives here in the valley, could I plant one of these bad boys straight into the ground with no shade cloth (but amended soil) and have them survive the desert heat??

. Or maybe they wont survive. It is brutal here in the summer. Its been 110-115 deg all week. Ouch!

TÍA!
 
For clarification, I was planning on digging a hole, maybe 3x3 and filling it up with an amended soil mix and planting directly in there. My yard gets little shade at the moment though and Im not sure these plants could handle the desert heat and direct sun all day. Even if I did have it directly irrigated
 
I've been growing Judy's MOA SB's for the past 7-8 years.  Shoot, I've not even looked elsewhere.  They just grow!
 
Year after year, the consistency of flavor and heat probably played into my calculus of not looking for other sources...
 
dlsolo said:
I've been growing Judy's MOA SB's for the past 7-8 years.  Shoot, I've not even looked elsewhere.  They just grow!
 
Year after year, the consistency of flavor and heat probably played into my calculus of not looking for other sources...
Glad to hear it! What color are yours? The reason I ask is I dug into my old seeds that have been stored in the freezer all this time and found some MOA scotch bonnets. I remember they produced yellow pods however, and when I looked at Judys site their SBs look like they are orange so Im not sure what the source is.

I also remember not being happy with the size of the pods, they were very small compared to what I see elsewhere.
 
OZZZ said:
Glad to hear it! What color are yours? The reason I ask is I dug into my old seeds that have been stored in the freezer all this time and found some MOA scotch bonnets. I remember they produced yellow pods however, and when I looked at Judys site their SBs look like they are orange so Im not sure what the source is.
 
Mine grow more yellow than orange.  I've got some non-MOAs from Judy (circa 2014) that would grow a bit more on the orange side.  Haven't touched those since.  May look at sprouting a few seed to grow in the grow tent over the winter.
 
Just a heads up....
 
Pepperlover.com has changed hands.  As I understand it, Judy is not longer involved, and it was passed on to someone else.
 
There's a long thread on the trials and tribulations of pepperlover.com in the Vendor Vault.
https://thehotpepper.com/topic/25776-pepperlovercom/
 
I've never ordered from pepperlover.com, but from what I gather, I hope the seeds in your freezer are still good.  ;)
 
DontPanic said:
Just a heads up....
 
Pepperlover.com has changed hands.  As I understand it, Judy is not longer involved, and it was passed on to someone else.
 
There's a long thread on the trials and tribulations of pepperlover.com in the Vendor Vault.
https://thehotpepper.com/topic/25776-pepperlovercom/
 
I've never ordered from pepperlover.com, but from what I gather, I hope the seeds in your freezer are still good.  ;)
Thanks for the heads up.

Who would you recommend then if someone was looking for MOA SB stock?
 
I really like the yellow Bonnets from CARDI (I got my original seeds from Juanitos who ordered them directly from CARDI in Trinidad and Tobago). They might just be the hottest yellow Bonnets that I have tried, and they have a wonderful fruity flavor like you would expect from a yellow Bonnet. The only negative really was that mine didn't have a classic Bonnet shape; they had a somewhat more elongated Hab or 7 Pot look to them. 
 
I am growing a couple of them again this year, and they are doing fine so far. My Bonnets are not currently flowering in the summer heat, but they are still green and growing fine. Like you, our temps have been close to 115 for a good part of this week (114 today), and the forecast is predicting 118 on Saturday and 117 on Sunday, oh joy. But my peppers are still all growing pretty well under their shade cloth. I feel that shade cloth really helps in our hot summer climate, especially in the absence of much natural shade.
 
dlsolo said:
 
Mine grow more yellow than orange.  I've got some non-MOAs from Judy (circa 2014) that would grow a bit more on the orange side.  Haven't touched those since.  May look at sprouting a few seed to grow in the grow tent over the winter.
You know the more I think of it they very well May be from Judy, and they probably were from around 2013-2015. Im going to throw some down tonight and see what comes of it. Iirc they were kind of an in between yellow and orange and I think saying they leaned more yellow is accurate. I just remember being really disappointed in the pod size.

But I Also remember threads mentioning that pod side can change from different environmental metrics. So I figure it cant hurt to try. Threw down 5 seeds each of the MOA SB, red morouga, and regular old orange habanero. All seeds are from 2010-2015 but have been stored in the freezer with indicating desiccant beads so should certainly remain viable. I put all five seeds of each strain in the same hole in the same pot (one pot per strain) with the idea if more than one come up Ill simply cull the others. I have plenty more seeds and this heightens my chances of getting germination
 
BlackFatalii said:
 
 
You might check out https://www.whitehotpeppers.com/https://www.midwestchileheads.com/, and https://texashotpeppers.net/. They are all reputable members here, and they all have a selection of different Scotch Bonnet varieties to choose from.
Excellent!! Thanks a ton for the suggestions Ill look into them. So sounds like a shade cloth is definitely needed then. Weve only been here for three weeks and a few weeks ago I bought a ghost pepper plant from Home Depot as a sacrificial plant to see if I can get my bearings here growing in this insane heat. I use parentheses because you never know what youll actually get from the big box stores.

Anyway that thing cant take more than two hours of direct sun even after a full two weeks of hardening off, it completely wilts every day when the sun hits it. Ive got it sitting underneath a patio so it only gets a few hours of evening sun and still it wilts.

That said I do know that plants started from seed in harsh conditions fare much better than transplants that have been babied in a shaded garden center. Still its a bit concerning.

We will see if all these seeds I put down sprout and if so how the plants do. A learning curve is definitely necessary growing here in single digit humidity and astronomical temps. The good news is I can easily grow them as perennials here and 8 months out of the year they should be very productive once I learn the ropes.
 
The best bonnets I've ever tasted and grown where from Jamaica and luck for me I had a local source who brought them over and distributed them around the U.K and was only a few miles from me.
I've grown yellow,red and Orange from seed suppliers from all over the west indies and the Jamaican grown (Blue Mountains area) peppers where great to grow and I grew like champions with the best taste.
 
Nice! It worked. Placing an order for the TFMs and the Freeport Orange.

I went back and found that my MOAs did in fact come from Judy. I threw some seeds down again of the MOAs and when I get these Ill throw these down too and just grow all three kinds and decide which I like best for myself.

Honestly to be fair I guess maybe I should grow three plants of each type to make a selection on what plant to keep moving forward, but maybe Ill just do one or each for the time being to get an idea of pod taste.

Coming from the Bahamas, Im guessing the Freeport orange might be a cross with the goat pepper? What do you guys think?

https://www.superhotchiles.com/product/scotch-bonnet-freeport-orange-seeds/?v=312cffb6c6bb
 
Nice! It worked. Placing an order for the TFMs and the Freeport Orange.

I went back and found that my MOAs did in fact come from Judy. I threw some seeds down again of the MOAs and when I get these Ill throw these down too and just grow all three kinds and decide which I like best for myself.

Honestly to be fair I guess maybe I should grow three plants of each type to make a selection on what plant to keep moving forward, but maybe Ill just do one or each for the time being to get an idea of pod taste.

Coming from the Bahamas, Im guessing the Freeport orange might be a cross with the goat pepper? What do you guys think?
 
Nice! It worked. Placing an order for the TFMs and the Freeport Orange.

I went back and found that my MOAs did in fact come from Judy. I threw some seeds down again of the MOAs and when I get these Ill throw these down too and just grow all three kinds and decide which I like best for myself.

Honestly to be fair I guess maybe I should grow three plants of each type to make a selection on what plant to keep moving forward, but maybe Ill just do one or each for the time being to get an idea of pod taste.

Coming from the Bahamas, Im guessing the Freeport orange might be a cross with the goat pepper? What do you guys think?
 
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