ehc's 1st grow season - 1st aji pineapple

As a younger man I used to love hot foods, but over the years sort of drifted to the mild. After and extended trip through South and Central America with my wife I started getting back into foods with heat and in particular chillis. When we finally got back we started a little herb garden on our balcony. After chatting with my cousin (Nee), i decided to give pepper growing a go.

I started with two seedlings from a local big box store, an orange hab and a mystery chilli called razzamattaz (i think). The raz fruited well, but the hab flowered a small bit, but that was that. They started to get a bit mangy at the start of winter so I pruned them right back and brought them inside. They withered a bit in May/June and I thought they were just about gone. Any way, I repotted the hab and gave some slow release ferts and it has come back strong, more foliage than ever and even some flowers. The other has come back a bit more slowly, but I only gave ferts to this one and not re-potted. Pretty happy really as have used no tech and it has been a bit cold here (down to 0 celsius) overnight.

Having the bug I also planted some store bought seeds and also some from Grant from JungleRain at the start of winter. A bit crazy as I have no tech, but I was keen to give it a go. The results, I had 3 of the store boughts sprout which was cool and also a manzano red and one the raz's (seeds i took from a grown pod). I had to separate two of the store boughts as they were in the same pot. Things were going well for awhile, but we went away for one weekend and when we got back one was dead, one was dying and the other needed a bit of love and the manzano and raz were dead as the fungus gnats had gotten at them. Was pretty shattered. But it happens really. The remaining two store bought seeds are fighting back and hopefuly they get stronger as the weather starts warming up. They are both still small, maybe 5 centimeters tall with 15-20 leaves each, but considering that they had to fight their way through winter, i'm stoked.

The plan now is to plant a whole bunch of jiffys in August and hope that I have a good little balcony garden ready for spring/summer. My grow list for this year is small, but i think that is probably best for a beginner:

Birds Eye (seed taken from bought pods)
Pimienta Pitanga (seed from JungleRain)
Aji Dulce Yellow (seed from JungleRain)
Aji Pineapple (seed from JungleRain)
Bahamian Goat Pepper (seed from JungleRain)
Habanero White Jellybean (seed from JungleRain)
Razzamattaz/Big Box Special (seed taken from grown pod)
Aji Cachaca (seed from JungleRain)
Manzano Red (seed from JungleRain)
Bishops Crown (gift from nee)
Olho de Peixe (seeds from eBay)
Orange Habanero (big box store)
F1 Super Hot (nursery seeds)

I will update with some photos of the existing plants soon and will update with the August grow as it goes.

Would greatly appreciated any feedback, tips, etc as I go. As being a newbie help is required.

Cheers all

 

[nee]

Hey Bernard....great to see your plants doing great things!! Loving the progress!!!

Also, i meant to ask last time we saw you........what colour Habs are those that you have growing? Are they orange ones like mine or something else?

Oh, and when i ordered the Fish Eye seeds for ya from Brazil, i got a few for myself too....so i sowed a couple and have a 2 week old seedling for you here, to give you a bit of a head start I'll take care of it until we next see you, and after that it's yours...

 

[el hombre chilli]

Been awhile since the last update and there has been a few changes. I chucked the big box mystery chilli that I over wintered. It was struggling a bit and seeing as I have grown a couple of seedlings from seeds pulled from pods I was ok with letting it go. I also gave away one of the F1 Super Hots that I grew from seed over winter. My mate loves chillis and wanted to start growing so I gave him a plant and some seeds to start.

As for the grow, everything is going well, some more well than others, for instance check the difference between the Aji Dulce Yellow and the Bahamian Goat Pepper which were planted at the same time. I have some pods starting to ripen on the F1 Super hot and have 30+ pods on the Habanero which is awesome. None are ripe yet, but I'm being very patient.

Now to the one bad thing. I have found aphids on some of the seedlings. I haven't got photos as I squished them straight away. I have also sprayed everything with Pyrethruem, but don't want to continue this going forward, any tips?

And to the photos:
Bird's Eye

Bahamian Goat Pepper

Aji Pineapple

Aji Cachaca

Aji Dulce Yellow

F1 Super Hot Pods

Habanero Pods

Cheers

 

[DocNrock]

Very healthy looking young plants. Nice you're already getting pods!

 

[el hombre chilli]

Very healthy looking young plants. Nice you're already getting pods!

Thanks Doc. The pods are on the overwintered plant and the seed I planted last autumn. I can't wait for them to ripen to give them a try.

Speaking of giving pods a try. Was at my cousins (Nee) place tonight and tried a bit of a 7 pot/pod that he had picked. I tried a sliver on my tongue first and found it not too hot and quite sweet, it burnt a little on the way down the throat but not too much. I was really surprised as I was expecting it to brain meltingly hot. I mean I tried one of the macedonians Neil is growing and really struggled with it, but liked the 7 pot/pod, enough to put a few bits on the burgers that we had for dinner.

Another good thing about seeing Neil was that I got to pick up the Olho de Peixe seeds that we picked up off eBay. Neil has already sown one seed for me, so I got my seeds and a seedling, wicked. All we have to hope now is that they are Olho de Peixe, fingers crossed.

Cheers.

 

[stickman]

Hi Bernard
Great progress on your grow so far... your Hab in particular looks good... 30+ pods on one plant is fantastic! It took mine almost a month longer to get ripe pods as compared to the Annuums I planted, so hang in there, it'll happen for ya! Cheers!

 

[el hombre chilli]

Success. I finally have a ripe pod. It's a hab. It's on the small side, but I figure this early in the season they may be on the smaller side. Am very happy. Told the wife that i'll be cooking fetuccini amatriciana tomorrow with the pod and she was pretty excited. Sweet.

And here it is:

And another view

Cheers.

 

[nee]

Bonus!!!

 

[DocNrock]

First ripe pod! Win!

 

[megamoo]

Dude that pod is so cute.

Don't be fooled, small pods can be really hot!

 

[Jeff H]

that is one small hab. Interesting.

 

[stickman]

Don't be fooled, small pods can be really hot!

+1 on that! Entering production mode is the nads!

 

[nee]

that is one small hab. Interesting.

All of mine have been around this size too so far. It's still really early days for us in Australia..

 

[el hombre chilli]

Haven't been around much in the last couple of weeks and had a friend watering our jungle for us. But on coming home I have found that most of the pods on the Hab have ripened (all fairly small) and the F1 super hots are starting to ripen. Even though the pods are small, the flavour is good and the heat is manageable. I probably need to get onto the Sauce Forum to find a recipe or two so I can make use of all the pods. Here's a question for the group, what's the best way to store the pods? I'm currently keeping them in the freezer, but have heared about storing them in jars with vinegar? I'm also thinking about a dehydrator, but because we don't have any real outside space i'm not sure. I mean I don't want to make our flat unliveable if the dehydrator puts out a lot of fumes.

Also, before we went away I potted up my seedling and they all have had a big growth spurt. Very happy with the season thus far.

So some photos.

Hab pods (orange) and F1 Super Hot pods (red)

Bahamian Goat Pepper

Bird's Eye

Bahamian Goat Pepper

Aji Cachaca

Olho de Piexe

F1 Super Hot (left) and Aji Pineapple (right)

Aji Pineapple (back left), Big Box Mystery (back centre), Bird's Eye (back right), Aji Dulce Yellow (front left) and Manzano Yellow (front centre)

Cheers

 

[stickman]

Lookin' good EHC. Small pods or not, keep up the good work!

 

[DocNrock]

Yup, all looking good. The dehydrators are great! Picked one up a few months ago and virtually all pods that land in the freezer usually end up being dehydrated and powdered. I do recommend running the dehydrator outdoors, though. It does put off "fumes."

 

[nee]

Hey up Bernard!

Looking good there mate! The Fish Eye is looking way more advanced isn't it? Good stuff

I do recommend running the dehydrator outdoors, though. It does put off "fumes."

Nice to know DnR as i was planning on this being a Christmas prezzie...and although the family are getting used to me cutting fresh pods in the kitchen, a 24 'stench' of drying pods may prove too much!
Plus it looks like i am going to buy a 'dads special chilli cutting board' and 'dads special chilli cutting knife'....as they keep using stuff i have previously used to cut my pods and getting a real bad burn... (oops!)

 

[sicman]

lol,wait to you grind your powder! you going to need a whole dads special house. plants looking great.

 

[DocNrock]

Hey up Bernard!

Looking good there mate! The Fish Eye is looking way more advanced isn't it? Good stuff




Nice to know DnR as i was planning on this being a Christmas prezzie...and although the family are getting used to me cutting fresh pods in the kitchen, a 24 'stench' of drying pods may prove too much!
Plus it looks like i am going to buy a 'dads special chilli cutting board' and 'dads special chilli cutting knife'....as they keep using stuff i have previously used to cut my pods and getting a real bad burn... (oops!)

Yes. Already have the chile cutting board and chile cutting knife.

lol,wait to you grind your powder! you going to need a whole dads special house. plants looking great.

This. I do the grinding in the back yard with a dedicated coffee grinder. I recommend a surgical mask at minimum. I will start using one. Hacked up a lung a couple of times. If not coughing, then sneezing fits. Also, a cap is not a bad idea. One night after grinding powder I used my hand to brush my hair out of the way...then touched near the corner of my eye. Seems some of the airborn powder finds its way to your hair.

 

[el hombre chilli]

Well there has been a lot going on which has kept me away from the glog, but I have a day spare here to give a quick update. Most of the plants are going well except for my manzano red which is being attacked by something (caterpillers I think), but i'm not round enough to investgate and my plant waterer wouldn't know or want to look for bugs, so i'll have to let it be and investigate next week.

I've given away a few plants, one F1 Super Hot, 1 Aji Pineapple, 1 Bunnings Special, so my garden has come back to a manageable size. Everything that I still have has had a massive growth spurt and are all now getting quite tall. The plants that I overwintered are now producing their second harvests for the season. The F1 Super Hot is putting out lots and lots of pods and the Habanero is putting out a handful of absolute monsters. The rest are forming buds/starting to flower which is really cool. Thus far, i'm very very happy with my first grow season.

So to the pics.

Aji Cachaca

Bahamian Goat Pepper

Olho de Peixe

Big Box Mystery

Aji Dulce Yellow

Bishops Crown

Bird's Eye

Aji Pineapple

F1 Super Hot Pods

Orange Habanero

Cheers.

 

[stickman]

Looking good EHC! It looks like you should be picking some pods now, on the Annuums at least. Good on ya!