chinense Edit: Aji Habanero?

[synclinorium]

This has been bugging me for a while. Last year I bought Aji Amarillo seedlings (from Hirt's, gag), described as 4-5" long peppers ripening from green to orange. What I received was a pepper with 2-3" fruits ripening from light green to golden yellow, with the typical Aji Amarillo flavor, or at least what my housemate remembered as being Aji Amarillos. The plants themselves were considerably smaller than what I was expecting, too, though they were abundant producers.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the peppers. I was just annoyed that they weren't the Aji Amarillos I was expecting from the description.

This year while seed searching I ran across a variety called Aji Chinchi Amarillo, which is described as being an Aji Amarillo that produces prolific small pods (2-3") ripening to orange. Has anyone grown this variety before? I'm just wondering if this is what I actually have in my possession. Actually, I now think these may be Aji Habaneros (see recent posts), here are some photos:

Unripened pods and growth habit:

Ripe pods:

This one is almost certainly a cross. Pod shapes are kind of wonky:

I saved the seeds out of curiosity, to see the sort of variability I get in this generation. I'll compare them to actual Aji Amarillos obtained from a reliable source.

 

[harry]

I saved the seeds out of curiosity, to see the sort of variability I get in this generation. I'll compare them to actual Aji Amarillos obtained from a reliable source.

Do you know of any photos of the pods from your other source that show the colour when fully ripe?

 

[Indiana_Jesse]

I know Seeds of Change offer an Aji Amarillo with those characteristics (smaller plant and fruit, etc.). It may in fact be an "Aji Amarillo", just not the "Aji Amarillo" that you were looking for. Sounds like you were looking for the commercial variety from Peru with the large fruit that end up orange.

 

[synclinorium]

Do you know of any photos of the pods from your other source that show the colour when fully ripe?

I got seeds from both Judy at pepperlover and Semillas la Palma:

I know Seeds of Change offer an Aji Amarillo with those characteristics (smaller plant and fruit, etc.). It may in fact be an "Aji Amarillo", just not the "Aji Amarillo" that you were looking for. Sounds like you were looking for the commercial variety from Peru with the large fruit that end up orange.

I realize that now, I just wish naming convention was such that we could easily distinguish between the different strains.

 

[harry]

To muddy the waters a little further I have a variety that was given to me by the name of Aji Amarillo:

Ají Amarillo ripening from green to orange

I found it odd that a variety that ripened to orange and not yellow was described as amarillo (amarillo meaning yellow).

 

[Indiana_Jesse]

Most aji amarillo actually ripen to orange not yellow, so the name is misleading. I wonder if the "amarillo" designation is because of the color of the powder/salsas made from it, not the color of the ripe fruit? No one probably knows anymore, fact is aji amarillo is aji amarillo even if it ripens orange.

 

[harry]

Most aji amarillo actually ripen to orange not yellow, so the name is misleading. I wonder if the "amarillo" designation is because of the color of the powder/salsas made from it, not the color of the ripe fruit? No one probably knows anymore, fact is aji amarillo is aji amarillo even if it ripens orange.

I grew my strain from seeds harvested from dried pods. The dried pods were darker than the fresh pods I've seen. Maybe in their place of origin the people have a different concept of yellow.

 

[TheFanMan]

do you remember where you got the seeds for this guy from?

 

[harry]

do you remember where you got the seeds for this guy from?

His original plant was from Hirts. I can see a listing with photos that very closely resemble the pods at http://hirts-gardens.hostedbywebstore.com/Aji-Amarillo-Chile-Pepper-Plant/dp/B001M5RG4A.

The description now lists 2" to 4" pods that ripen to deep orange yet the photo shows bright yellow pods.

 

[Indiana_Jesse]

I grew my strain from seeds harvested from dried pods. The dried pods were darker than the fresh pods I've seen. Maybe in their place of origin the people have a different concept of yellow.

I also had some dry pods and they were indeed even darker, however when I ground them up into a paste, the paste was much closer to yellow than orange. It was a mustard like yellow (but not the bright yellow mustard).

 

[synclinorium]

I left some of mine on the plants until they started drying on the vine just to see if they ever ripened to a deeper orange, but this is the closest they ever became:

I can't personally confirm how close the flavor compares to a typical Aji Amarillo, but my housemate spent some time in Peru and she made a dish with the peppers and said it left her feeling nostalgic. Growth habit is also kind of funny with these guys- the branches are so thin and they pod so heavily that they tend to droop below the level of the pot if left unreinforced.

My overwintered plants have started podding again- you'll notice the unripened pods never get any darker than lime green (kind of makes me think of key lime pie, actually....)

 

[synclinorium]

Let's throw another wrench into this shall we?

Anyone grow Aji Habaneros before? I just checked Hirt's plants for this year out of curiosity, no "Aji Amarillo" this time around, but they are selling Aji Habanero. Some of the pod shapes and colors seem identical, including the early stage light green pods. Growth habit appears indistinguishably similar.

 

[synclinorium]

I found this image in a blog post on pepperfriends (http://www.pepperfriends.com/forum/index.php?autocom=blog&blogid=6&showentry=164) comparing Aji Habanero (top) to Criolla Sella (bottom). It's weird, when I do an image search for Aji Habaneros I get all sorts of pod shapes, from squat and blocky to the more elongate forms like this. The variability in my plants mimics this. I'm going to hazard a guess that this is what Hirt's actually sold me last year.

 

[FayahBen]

Here's what my aji habanero looked like last year:

Something is weird with the seedlings, i'm not sure why and if it's my growing conditions (it's the only strain doing this), but the leaves (even the cotyledons) are yellow with just a little green around the veins, it disappears (but not always totally) when the plant is bigger.
And yes the pod shape is varying (like with most peppers), sometimes thiner sometimes thicker.

 

[synclinorium]

You mean like this?

I've noticed it with mine too, though in my case it only happens on the lower leaves and I think it's because the plant grows so much faster than my other seedlings that the top of the plant blocks out light to the lower leaves, causing the plant to ditch them. They change to yellow and then off they go. Since I took them outside and get more ambient light they've stopped doing that.

Like I said, I have two of the plants overwintering and a crapload of seedlings so I'll be curious to see if the parents are similar to the children. Could always be a random cross too, who knows with Hirt's.

 

[harry]

Like I said, I have two of the plants overwintering and a crapload of seedlings so I'll be curious to see if the parents are similar to the children. Could always be a random cross too, who knows with Hirt's.

The information about the Aji Habanero on ChilePlants.com lists it having a mild heat and ripening to orange. What was the heat of the pods like last season?

Edited 2013-01-10: Fix CCN link.

 

[synclinorium]

They weren't terribly hot, I remember that much. I just bit into a fresh one from one of my overwinters, it's really underwhelming in terms of heat, almost like the sweeter banana peppers- just a bit of a bite. I think the hottest I ever remember them being is maybe around a Jalapeno. The flavor is hard to place, I'm not familiar with baccatums but it's kind of sweet, almost a bit smoky.

I keep picking the peppers off the plants as they get close to ripe, I don't want them to be bogging the plants down as they start to grow... the one on the far left is kind of on the extreme high end in terms of size.

 

[FayahBen]

You mean like this?

More in the early stages:

But they eventually turn green, the plants are not doing it on new growth when they are bigger. It's quite strange, none of my other strains are doing this. It's still a good yielding plant.

 

[synclinorium]

I almost want to say that looks like sunscald... at least, it doesn't look like any nutrient deficiency I'm aware of. By any chance have those seedlings been recently move into direct sunlight? The banding in the lower leaf of the second photo is particularly telling, if the sun hits at just the right angle the early stages of sunscald it look like white bands around the veins, as some parts of the leaf aren't directly hit by the sunlight.

Weird that it would be isolated to just those plants though...

 

[FayahBen]

These are pics from last year. On the 3 pics it's the same plant, which looks normal. It's not sunscald, because this was happenning before moving them to direct sunlight. This year, it's the same, the seedlings are very young, just growing their first pair of leaves, but the cotyledons had this light yellow color at the beginning, and slowly turn green from the vein. I don't know why, i don't know if it's specific to me ^^, it just seems like the plant takes its time to create chloroplasts.