Days till...???

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

Just read a seed company claiming Carolina Reaper is 90 days till fruit.  Puckerbutt's site seems down, but I recall they said 90 days till maturity.  Is there some sort of standard I am missing?  90 days from seed?  90 days from transplant?  90 days after you transplant a foot tall pepper?

Its not just reaper.  The claims on a lot of peppers and produce seem over the top short.  I guess if they also said start indoors two months before last frost and then claimed X amount of time from transplant, then we would have a clue what their claim is.  But as is, there seems to be no sense in the claims seed folk make to hawk their products.
 
That 90 days is assuming you started indoors 8 to 10 weeks before last frost and then 90 days from the time you transplant or pot up outside. 150 days from germination.
 
i been picking some pods about 2 weeks ago not boat loads but enough to enjoy only reapers ripening are from my o.w. plant  , planted out may 18 , started seeds second week of jan. so say  born feb 1st.     :onfire:
 
You can claim anytime but nature runs on it's own time table. Variables on where and how it's grown still factor in.
 
Is there a chart or table with information about how long different chillies need to get ripe - from flower to completely ripe pod.
I'm afraid cold weather this spring managed to destroy my chilli harvest. They are just starting to flower (all the flowers are still falling off) and even if the pods start developing, I'm afraid there won't be much time for many of them to get ripe. Well, if we're lucky, there are still at least 2 months, before temperatures get to 10C or below,  so I'm hoping for a large harvest.  :dance:
 
my first reapers, which werent even true reapers came about 8 months after initial germination.  Now they werent necessarily grown in the best environment either so I know they were stunted, but 90 days, bull shit.  I think I was barely out of solo cups at the 90 day mark.
 
Nobody gives absolute numbers. That is an estimated time frame, based on an average outdoor grow, given as SOME sort of objective basis to compare the length of time it takes to grow one plant, vs another. If you are an experienced gardener, and somebody tells you that cultivar X grows 90 days, and cultivar Y grows 120 days, it's pretty reasonable to base a grow plan off of that, even if the numbers aren't exact. You know that a 90 day grow is a medium length, 120 is long, 75 is short. That is how I have always translated those numbers, and how I will, forevermore.

You can absolutely get reapers in 90 days, even from seed, depending on where/how you grow. Hydroponics? Soil? Are you in zone 9B or 3A? Etc, etc, etc... But again, that number is a much better standard when taken as a RELATIVE figure, rather than an absolute.
 
A couple of cold nights can set them back considerably. In ideal conditions, I think the numbers could be correct. I've seen them race inside under grow lights. They started flowering before I could get them outside. What followed is 1 month or more of decline and now an explosion of new growth. If we would have less cold rainy days and more hot sunny weather, they would not loose that month. Peppers around here are also growing poorly for most of the people I know. Too wet.
 
Yeah I agree with solid7 and Tarzan, those numbers are just rough estimates with good growing conditions. HOWEVER, anytime you see numbers on a seed pack, even like burpee seed packs, it says right on them that those a numbers are from the day you set plants outside for the season, assuming you started indoors (or outside in warm climates) 8 to 10 weeks prior, but again, they are just estimates.

This doesn't mean you will necessarily have ripe fruit by then either. Fruits can hang on a plant for a month or longer before ripening.
 
It just seems like a lot of the claims are wild and over the top.  My rule of thumb is 5 months for most hot peppers and a bit shorter for sweet.  With two months under lights, I guess that could fit into the 90 day claim.  Thing is, if their claimed average is right then the average person starting indoors must be under multiple thousand watt lights.  I really think seed companies make wild claims, but I suppose that is everyone.  Hell, if you believe the marijuana memes that stuff cures anything.
 
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