Deolater 2019

Howdy all, new guy to the forum here. This will be my second year growing hot peppers. Last year I got into the hobby when a friend gave me some of his extra plants. It was a ton of fun and I had some good results, but this year I'm going all in.

Grow list:

I kind of covered myself in glue and rolled through the catalog on fataliiseeds

Fatalii Gourmet Jigsaw
Carolina Reaper x 7pot Douglah
Carolina Reaper x Clavo Red
7pot Primo x Purple Bhut
7pot Bubblegum Yellow
Purple Bhut Jolokia
White Fatalii
Numex twilight
Pink Habanero
Ramiro
Lemon drop
? (Saved seeds from last year, forgot to label)
?? (Saved seeds from last year, unlabeled)
Chocolate Bhut
Golden habanero
Montufar
Pequin
Cayenne fiesta mix
Jalapeno
Anaheim

I started out in those Jiffy trays, and started 5 cells of each variety, for 100 total.

This is way more than I can grow, but I've got scars from last year when I only had one plant of each variety. I'll probably be begging people to take some of these off my hands are some point.


The first tray of ~50 are now in Solo cups under a grow light in a tent in my basement, and the second tray is mostly sprouted.

I live in a wooded suburban neighborhood, so while I have plenty of space outside, I don't have a lot of space that also gets light. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep about 25 total plants, with some in ground and some in containers.

 

[PaulG]

Well that one pod has a really uncommon and cool look to it. I'm definitely interested to see how things develop.

Me too, looks like an elongated Bishop's Crown to me.

 

[PaulG]

Well that one pod has a really uncommon and cool look to it. I'm definitely interested to see how things develop.

Me too, looks like an elongated Bishop's Crown to me.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Okay. Double post for the page topper  

Egads!!

 

[deolater]

Quick update:

I picked a bunch of peppers from some plants I gave to my mom. She just didn't know what to do with them. Her loss is my gain, and I really need the peppers now that my little pepper-tasting group at the office has grown to 6 people and they drift over to my desk every afternoon looking for more pods.

Pink Habanero, jalapeno, lemon drop, and cayenne.

The pink habanero has good chinense flavor but almost zero heat. My wife and 4-year-old report that there is heat up by the seeds, but I can't taste it, and neither could the office crew. But maybe we're broken,

Beautiful pods

Our taste buds may be broken but we can taste the reaper.

I thought the other ripe pods I've had so far were hot, which included some reaper crosses, but the reaper is just so much hotter. It was a shock.

Also I made my first hot sauce of the year! 12-ish ghost (???) pods, two mangoes, onion, garlic, and vinegar. Delicious and sweet

I still need to make that brown hot sauce.

 

[PaulG]

Say, Deo', that sauce looks yummy. Love a sweet hot sauce. 

 

[deolater]

Say, Deo', that sauce looks yummy. Love a sweet hot sauce. 

Not to toot my own horn too much, but it does taste pretty good.

Though here's something I've never said before about anything: it has a bit too much garlic.

 

[deolater]

I should probably harvest this plant soon. How long do ripe peppers keep on the plant?

https://i.imgur.com/LEhvCe7.gifv

Sadly the video tag didn't work with the gif, so here's a still

I'm getting to where I have more ripe pods than I know what to do with.

Here's white fatalii. I really like these. Bright and hot and tasty.

This year's reapers are from a different source than what I had last year. They look a bit wrong to me, but it's a cool kind of wrong, so I don't mind.

I wish purple ghosts stayed purple when ripe. This Primo X Purple Ghost is just so cool looking

Last, and certainly not least, I FINALLY have pods on my Bishop's Crown bush. The plant is huge (overwintered) but only just now is setting pods. I was afraid I was going to have a repeat of last year when it only made like 3 pods. Well, I guess that could still happen with a good pest infestation or something.

 

[deolater]

I'm starting to plan a little for next year.

My very favorite pepper this year has been 7 Pot Bubblegum Yellow. It's just really tasty and a heat level I can sort of stand.

What else tastes like that? I've read that yellow peppers have a particular flavor, is that true? Should I try more yellow peppers? More 7 Pots?

 

[CaneDog]

Good stuff Deo!   That sauce looks great. Glad it turned out. I'm looking forward to getting into some good sauce harvests myself soon enough - slowww season with this year's weather. 
 
I'd totally recommend considering a plain old Yellow 7 Pot or Y7P Large.  Not always my biggest producer, but darn good.

 

[deolater]

Those ??? unlabeled seeds plants keep throwing weird peppers.

Here's another from the plant I gave my boss: https://i.imgur.com/LDx34n3.gifv

 

[deolater]

Picked a bunch of ripe pods yesterday

 

[Mr.joe]

Great looking harvest. Those white pods stand out.

 

[deolater]

I made some pepper jelly today, with a couple of bell peppers and about 10 hot peppers that I picked this morning.

Getting ready to watch a movie (or let's be honest, spend an hour looking for a movie on Netflix and then give up) with the wife.

Should have remembered fancier crackers when I was at the store, but the Ritz will keep me grounded.

 

[deolater]

Oh man it has been ages!

I don't know why I haven't posted in so long. Maybe the mature plants don't feel as interesting as the growing plants and first fruits.


Speaking of fruits, here's what I picked yesterday:

That's 37 ounces (1 kg) of peppers there. I had let the plants go a while without picking because I had been hoping to have some groups to enter in the North Georgia State Fair. Unfortunately I didn't have anything that was likely to win a ribbon, so maybe next year.

Part of the problem is that the categories were clearly not composed by chiliheads:

Maybe some of my peppers could pass as habaneros, but most would be "other" or "novelty".

Next year I'll grow some more of the peppers on the list.

The plants are looking good, here's an overview with a minivan for scale:

For next year, would I have better yield if I had fewer plants but more spacing?

A couple of weeks ago I stole my mom's dehydrator and got a couple of gallon bags of peppers out of the freezer. The plants have since completely refilled the freezer.

If you're ever making coffee at my house, make sure you use the correct coffee grinder!

 

[Mr.joe]

Looks like your season was a success. Funny you mentioned the coffee grinder, I was thinking the same about moms dehydrator... her banana chips are gonna have a kick next time.