CaneDog 2019 Hirsute Pursuit – Rocotos, Wilds & Moar

So, here's the new glog for the coming season.  With the indoor grow culled pretty hard now I can focus more on getting ready for what's ahead.  Hoping for a great year, but I’m already a bit behind - the germinators are packed right now and I've still got a round of annuum seeds waiting for their turn.  I guess it wouldn’t feel much like pepper growing though if everything were going perfect.
 
My focus was going to be rocotos with a side of bonnets and some other stuff, but I found I kept planting more and more wilds. Eventually I just kinda went all-in with them and they took on co-main event status. 
 
I’ll start things off with some pics of some of the earlier pube’s.  There’s not too many at this point. Unfortunately, the vast majority just went into germination.
 
First off, Costa Rica Red.  This is the CRR with flattened triangular pods.  I also have an OW CRR that’s a 3-4 lobed “boxy” variety.  I didn't get true seeds off this one last summer, so I have a few of these growing and crossing my fingers they grow true.

 
Rocoto DeSeda.  These guys were from a bush I’d OW’d a few years in a row, but it didn’t make it through this winter

 
 
Rocoto San Camillo

 
 
Gelbe Reisen Variant.  These are from true seeds off a plant I’ve been growing for a few years that was supposed to be Gelbe Riesen, but the pods are more orange vs yellow, rounder/less boxy, and just a touch smaller. I don’t know if it’s a natural variation or it might have crossed with a Costa Rica Orange, but it's a great plant. I have a few of these started and am curious what comes of them.

 
 
Giant Yellow Rocoto.  Suppose I should pinch that bud off.

 
 
Recently hatched Gelbe Riesen sprouts (the parent plant has been a beast for me for a while now) and CAP 217 Hyper-Pube.

 
That’s it for the rocotos for now.  Will try to post up some pics of the early wilds in a little bit. 
 
CD

 

[CaneDog]

Making a little pineapple vinegar.  Just finished the main fermentation and strained out the pineapple from the pineapple wine.  Added a little Bragg's and now will put the strained 1/2 gallon away for the acetic acid fermentation.  I think there's more sugars left in the pineapple chunks, so I mashed them down and consolidated, adding a little water and sugar.  There's a really nice slurry in the bottom of especially the one jar so I'm hoping it will jump start the ferment again. We'll see how it goes.
 
I'm hoping this works.  Haven't made pineapple vinegar before.  I'm planning a batch of banana vinegar next.  The pineapple smells great.  I'm betting the banana will smell good too.
 

 

[dragonsfire]

Sounds great!
Have some Pineapple frozen too and have been wanting to make some for some time now.

 

[CaneDog]

Sounds great!
Have some Pineapple frozen too and have been wanting to make some for some time now.

 
Nice!  I've seen two main ways to make the pineapple vinegar, either using pineapple chunks in water with some sugar or cutting off the skin and blending down the flesh to mush. I did the chunks this time, but plan to do a batch blending down the flesh and see if one works better for me than the other.  I think I'll use a little Champagne or RedStar Montrachet yeast for the blended batch as the skin will be cut away and it may benefit from a jump start to the alcohol fermentation.
 
Do you have a method in mind for this? I'm pretty sure you've made a lot more vinegar than I have and I'm curious how you'll approach it.

 

[dragonsfire]

Yup, blitz the whole thing and let sit.
I got some dry Organic Mango thats super sweet, Still have some Trinidad Congo Habs from last year and use those, the only hot peppers I have right now. Will pick my Current Caribbean Habs in a few weeks, want to give them as much time as possible. Still might have some yeast but have to check

 

[CaneDog]

Thanks DF.  After doing the chunks I've been thinking the blitz is likely the better method. 
 
I'll definitely give that a try next.

 

[internationalfish]

I'm planning a batch of banana vinegar next.

 

 

[CraftyFox]

 

Had me at pineapple.. lost me at banana. Still "poke it with a stick" curious though. 

 

[BDASPNY]

I haven't heard of this before, sounds interesting.

what are the uses of the finished product?

 

[CaneDog]

 

 
If we stopped to think if we should, we'd never get done all we could.  Plus we'd all have missed out on a lot of fun times! 
 

Had me at pineapple.. lost me at banana. Still "poke it with a stick" curious though. 

 
I hear you.  I think the banana is going to be really good though.  I bought 5 pounds of bananas today.  Once they're fully ripe I'll break out the testing stick and we'll see what's what.
 

I haven't heard of this before, sounds interesting.

what are the uses of the finished product?

 
I'm thinking mainly about alternative vinegars for pepper sauces.  Maybe I'll get other ideas too.  I figure the shelf life on these should allow for building up a stock of a number of different types of vinegar, even if each one isn't getting used all that often.

 

[BDASPNY]

If we stopped to think if we should, we'd never get done all we could.  Plus we'd all have missed out on a lot of fun times! 
 
 
I hear you.  I think the banana is going to be really good though.  I bought 5 pounds of bananas today.  Once they're fully ripe I'll break out the testing stick and we'll see what's what.
 
 
I'm thinking mainly about alternative vinegars for pepper sauces.  Maybe I'll get other ideas too.  I figure the shelf life on these should allow for building up a stock of a number of different types of vinegar, even if each one isn't getting used all that often.

pineapple vinegar sounds perfect for sauces. great idea!

 

[CaneDog]

The BOC seeds I got for this last season were apparently crossed, which left me with an interesting and highly productive plant.  These pods are poor representations (they were under ripe last pulls at frost and get more orange) but they're good-sized pods with a bigger calyx and the calyx bleeds progressively more orange as the pods ripen.  Kinda cool.  I plan (currently anyway) to grow out a few of the F2's next season to see if anything worth pursuing comes from it.
 
Some pics

 

[PaulG]

Very nice, CD, even if it's a not BOC.

 

[BigCedar]

Caught up! What a ride that was  Fantastic work on all fronts CD! The vast array of varieties that you grew is incredible, I feel like such a boring bland grower when I roll in here lol. Very entertaining to say the least. I know I say this everytime but your photography skills are tip top shelf my friend, amazing shots all over the board. The flower shots and wild pod shots were jaw dropping, loved the spider too. I have a couple tarantulas I would love to send your way for a photo shoot lol. Maybe I missed it.. Did you happen to hoop house your community plot and you're still pulling pods or are you done for the year? If I didn't bring mine inside I would have lost a lot of green when the frost showed up, was curious to see if you were in the same boat. Your Brainstrains have my attention, how did they turn out? I've been hunting for real deal cappy-authentic seeds. I'd love to have a specimen plant. Glad your season turned out so well CD, well done! I am thoroughly impressed!

 

[CaneDog]

Caught up! What a ride that was  Fantastic work on all fronts CD! The vast array of varieties that you grew is incredible, I feel like such a boring bland grower when I roll in here lol. Very entertaining to say the least. I know I say this everytime but your photography skills are tip top shelf my friend, amazing shots all over the board. The flower shots and wild pod shots were jaw dropping, loved the spider too. I have a couple tarantulas I would love to send your way for a photo shoot lol. Maybe I missed it.. Did you happen to hoop house your community plot and you're still pulling pods or are you done for the year? If I didn't bring mine inside I would have lost a lot of green when the frost showed up, was curious to see if you were in the same boat. Your Brainstrains have my attention, how did they turn out? I've been hunting for real deal cappy-authentic seeds. I'd love to have a specimen plant. Glad your season turned out so well CD, well done! I am thoroughly impressed!

 
Hey Big Cedar.  Thanks.  Was great to see all the new pics in your glog.  How well you did with the local weather this season is impressive.  
 
I had the hoop houses up and it helped with a good amount of final production, but the community garden's something of a cold pocket.  I shut things down recently when the plants were looking pretty ragged after too many cold nights.  Now it's just the container plants at home where it's materially warmer than the plots and I bring them into the house or garage every night.  Finally though, every variety has at least begun ripening pods.  What an odd/slow season this was.
 
Gotta run now, but I'll shoot you a PM later of the background of the brain strain seeds.  I think of have some of the original ISO seeds remaining (2018 seeds) and, if so, I'd be happy to send you a few.  If you think they can safely travel such a huge distance, that is.

 

[PaulG]

The BrainStrain I grew this year came from Pepper
Guru after the lemon drop grow down. Not sure where
it fits in the pedigree, but it made some great pods this
season. Glad to swap a few seeds.

 

[CaneDog]

I just dropped green seeds from 2 varieties of Jalapeno and a rocoto last night.  I picked the seeds that looked mature and left out those that didn't to avoid those rotting during attempted germination.  I may try a few others later, but we'll see how these do in the meantime.

 
Some follow-up on germination trials of seeds from unripe pods.
 
I checked in on the "green seeds" this morning. Somehow I missed one of the bags of Jalapeno, but the rocoto and other jalapeno (jalamundo) are both popping.  And the rocoto quite well. The rocoto in this case is a mini brown x unk rocoto F2 which had just started to flash a little red when I pulled it. In both cases I culled any seeds that didn't at least appear mature in order to avoid potential rot contamination.  I don't usually use the scottex method, but it seems easiest for this.
 

 
I have another few packets of green seeds that went in a few days later and include seeds from a "hard-green" rocoto and an annuum x chinense cross.  Nothing from them yet.
 
Hard-green AxC

 
I also bought these two peppers at the store a couple days ago.  Rather than pull the seeds immediately, like the hard-green rocoto and AxC, these had each just started to flash and I decided to leave them on the counter to get as ripe as they will before starting to soften.
 
Poblano, Serrano, and hard-green rocoto cusco showing range of rocoto's seed development.

 
What I'd like to get out of this includes:
1.  How reasonable is it to expect germination from seeds taken at various stages of ripening.
2.  How badly are germination %'s affected in more apparently mature seeds taken from green pods.
3.  Will plants grown from green seeds thrive as normal.
4.  Will letting a separated (from the growing plant) pod ripen further off the plant improve seed development and viability.
 
I'm just looking for getting a better feel for what's possible, rather than trying to tie anything down specifically.  I don't expect to get much meaningful data for #'s 3 and especially 4 given limited room for #3 and too lazy to invest adequate resources in #4.
 
So, that's what I have so far.

 

[PaulG]

That's awesome testing, CD. I have been thinking about
my fiasco with the Trippaul threat F6W seeds that were
horrible germinators. I thought I had cooked the seed
drying them, and that may still be the case. But, lately
I have been thinking I let the pods go too long on the
plant, so many seeds had dark centers.This season, I
didn't let the pods stay ripe on the plant for so long,
and the seeds in general looked better. WDIK, just
thinking out loud.

 

[CaneDog]

That's awesome testing, CD. I have been thinking about
my fiasco with the Trippaul threat F6W seeds that were
horrible germinators. I thought I had cooked the seed
drying them, and that may still be the case. But, lately
I have been thinking I let the pods go too long on the
plant, so many seeds had dark centers.This season, I
didn't let the pods stay ripe on the plant for so long,
and the seeds in general looked better. WDIK, just
thinking out loud.

 
Thanks, I'm just checking a few things out, but I think it will help me in the future with eyeing immature pods and immature seeds and having a better feel for what is and isn't likely to germinate.  
 
It's hard to pin it down the reasons sometimes.  My experience has been good with dehydrated pods, at least over relatively short term storage, though I prefer room temp dries for longest term storage.  Something the article stated was that in certain cases the seeds germinated best at an intermediate stage and the conclusion was that pathogen development after continuing to ripen on the plant too long was the reason.  Then again, most seeds did at least marginally better with at least some extra time.    

 

[CaneDog]

Doing another round of seed saving today, including 3 different sources of Aleppo pepper and a bunch of rocotos.
 
Have a couple sauces underway on the stove, rocoto yellow and rocoto red.
 

 
Thought this Rojo San Camillo pod looked pretty good split open. And a photo bomber hovering over its shadow as it comes in for a taste of the rocoto - NOT!

 
And these may not quite be as big as raisins, but the gelbe riesens can definitely have some pretty big seeds.

 

[BDASPNY]

you're making me hungry with those pod pics.