pics Dhani chilli - Dried Indian birdeye experiment........

[Englander]

Hi Guy's

I was looking into Indian chilli varieties came across a variety called "Dhani" which belive is there version of birdeye ? I believe again not sure they might be capsicum frutescens ? Anyway I found some dried hot chillies that I thought could be Indian Dhani so I sowed a little pot with a few seeds.......wow ! Germination was 100%

The dried cooking chillies I bought in my local Halal shop good flavour and heat .

Vigorous little seedlings

The upward facing chilli I believe to be Indian birdeye Dhani......? It's hot and very bitter when green, it's open in growth habit I had a little problem with aphids this plant was pretty much untouched !

After tasting them green I decided to let them ripen to red better heat and more pleasant flavour one thing I did notice it seems to have a very long pedical much much longer than other similar looking chillies I've grown. It wasn't as productive if compared to my Ring of fire cayenne but still worth growing better used Red than green in my opinion, unlike the Ring of Fire which I prefer using green in indian curries.

Interesting too how different the dried chillie looks compared to the fresh one, I tend to freeze rather than dry my chillies. This was a fun experiment but also frustrating as I don't really know for sure if which I find very annoying............

 

[MarcV]

Always a fun experiment to try to germinate seeds from dried chillies, done it a couple of times myself. Doesn't always work but if it does, you know you get the real thing and not something that is generations away from the original. I find that especially important when you want to grow some land race.

Of course, when you grow the plants in different conditions, the result may be different also (climate, soil...) so don't expect the result to taste exactly the same...