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Curry peppers 2020

Growing Trinidad perfume, lemon drop, Trinidad pimento,
and foodaroma scotch bonnet red and yellow.

Started seedlings in February. Poor germination with the scotch bonnets. My seedlings would have done better with more light. Have had aphids since early , and I let the aphids grow for a few weeks before treating.

Peppers have really been doing well outside in full sunlight recently. We had a few rainy weeks and the peppers really improved in health during that period. I may have been underwatering the Peppers - and the rain also seems to have reduced the aphids.

I now have multiple very healthy good sized pimento plants with numerous flowers. Lemon drop looks ok and has many peppers. Perfumes look ok - many distorted leaves - but with steady growth and multiple peppers. Red scotch looks healthy with a few peppers already.

I think my yellow scotches all got stunted from the aphids. Hoping one will recover and make at least a few ripe peppers. Funny thing is that I ordered the yellow peppers from Refining Fire Chiles, and he threw in some red scotch seeds for free. Im glad he did , otherwise I might have ended up with no scotch bonnets this year.
 
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Some wind damage recently, but plants are doing well overall. 
 
I have my tomatoes planted in the dirt in a more protected location. They are growing very well and hardly need watering compared to my potted plants.  I may try growing some of my pepper plants in the soil next year.
 
My spring started pepper plants have been growing rapidly and are setting lots of pods.  They may end up producing better than the plants I started in the fall.   The large fall started plants seem to be adapting to the outdoor conditions more slowly than the smaller plants, with less new growth and less pepper production than I expected.
 
The red and yellow congo varieties seem particularly vigorous and productive.  This week, I cooked with one of the red congo peppers, still green, and it has a nice flavor and was very hot.
 
Red Congo.
 

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Peppers are ripening. Have picked a few red congo, many hot chocolate habaneros, and a couple handfuls of aji cachucha. One yellow congo ripe so far.

The aji cachucha have a better flavor I think if left on the plant a few days after turning red. They then turn a darker red.

Hot chocolates have been highly variable in size and heat level, but have been mostly small lately.
 

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spicy.curry said:
Peppers are ripening. Have picked a few red congo, many hot chocolate habaneros, and a couple handfuls of aji cachucha. One yellow congo ripe so far.
 
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I grew the Congo Yellow a couple of years ago. Really liked the look of the folding and ribbing on the pods and the really deep yellow. So intense it was almost tipping towards an orange. Aji Cachucha look interesting.
 
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Lots of thunderstorms this week. One of the Bahamian goat peppers split right at the main branch point. Maybe coincidence, but both of my Bahamian goat plants have significant wind damage now, while most of my other plants have minimal or no damage. I think I still have a good chance of getting a decent number of ripe pods from these.

Possible observation - do peppers on damaged stems sometimes ripen prematurely with a less fully developed flavor?
 
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I have been picking peppers twice a day, in an effort to pick each one at exactly the level of ripeness I want. Freezer slowly filling up. Will be ready to start sharing peppers with friends soon.

The yellow Congo peppers taste great and are turning into some of my most productive plants.

Still not impressed with the flavor of the hot chocolate habaneros, they are high on heat but lower on flavor.

Too soon to judge the red antillais pepper. Tried first ripe pod this morning. A few slices from the bottom of the pod, which I find usually has low heat, hit me hard with a very high heat and gave me a mild stomach cramp.

Plants are doing well. Harvests are slowly getting larger, and the plants are still adding new pods faster than I am picking the older ones.
 
Season has ended. I decided not to overwinter any pepper plants. I have plenty of peppers. This season was a success.

The plants I started in the spring ended up producing more total peppers than the plants I started in the tent in the fall.

Final thoughts on the varieties from this year.

Bahamian Goat - Really enjoyed this variety. Beautiful pods with interesting shape, color, and pearly white interior. Productive plants. Nice flavor with lots of both fruity and floral character. Made excellent jerk seasoning. Will definitely grow again. I enjoyed to fully ripe pods, but the green pods were not my favorite.

Congo yellow: Most productive variety for me this year. Nice large pods. Excellent taste both green and fully ripe. Nice floral taste, pairs very well with Trini dishes.

Congo red: Good productivity, but less productive than the yellow for me this year. Pods had a tendency to turn soft before fully ripening. Taste was very similar to the congo yellow, and excellent both green and fully ripe. The yellow pods were longer, while the red pods wider. Both had nice large pods. Will probably grow the congo yellow in the future, while I explore additional red varieties.

Red antillais: Average productivity. Nice beautiful pods. Has relatively minimal floral flavor. I tend to prefer aromatic peppers, but I found the flavor of this to be very good, and useful for the times that I am not looking for the strong flavor flavor. Of this year's varieties, the antillais pepper was nicest in my hot chocolates. Ok green, but prefer ripe with this variety.

Foodarama yellow scotch bonnet: Much better productivity than last season. Ended up an average producer compared to other varieties. Nice flavor, works well for Jerk seasoning. Good both green and fully ripe. Nothing wrong with this variety, but I will try probably try growing the MOA and TFM varieties in the future to see how they compare.

Jamaican Hot Chocolate Habanero: I enjoyed the color of these. High heat, otherwise flavor was average to me, and did not really stand out. I am thinking of trying the congo black next year.

Grenada seasoning pepper: Good seasoning pepper with nice habanero flavor. Average productivity. Prefer to use these fully ripe rather than green. For cooking, I slightly prefer the Trinidad pimento and Trinidad perfume seasoning peppers over these.

Venezuelan Tiger: Nice beautiful plants. Average productivity. Large pods with lots of purple sun-tan coloring when green. Pods lack chinense taste. Fruity, somewhat sweet, nice tasting pods - similar to a bell pepper. Pods taste good both green and fully ripe. Really nice plants, but probably will not grow again.

Aji Cachucha and Aji Cachucha purple splotch: Purple splotch was more productive and was a better looking plant. Both types have nice fun pod shapes. Both lack chinense flavor. Both were better fully ripe rather than green. Will not grow either variety again.
 
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