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annuum Er jing tiao

In the spirit of "you miss all the shots you don't take," this attempt with dried er jing tiao pods appears to be a success! :)

It was 34C in the grow room when I check a few minutes ago (oops) and apparently the heat got the seeds moving, because both the treated seeds and the untreated control batch have sprouts. It's only a few of each so far, but they look healthy. Time will tell on the germination percentages. I'm kind of hoping poor, because I planted a whole lot of seeds and it's going to be a sprout jungle if even one-in-three comes through.

Thanks for the good wishes. I'm pretty psyched to see how these guys turn out.

20221016 EJT-B.jpg


20221016 EJT.jpg
This is really good news! I believe that more members will have it. This saves a lot of trouble than sending seeds directly from China to the United States.
 
This is really good news! I believe that more members will have it. This saves a lot of trouble than sending seeds directly from China to the United States.
That's cool of you to to be willing to do that. Is it challenging or slow in getting seeds in and out of the country or is it relatively straightforward process?

I planted literally hundreds of seeds in two containers. Over a hundred of the pretreated/select seeds in one container and at least twice that number of untreated/unselected seeds in another. All the spouts appeared two days ago, a total of 4 from the treated and 5 from the untreated. Nothing has sprouted since and I've seen no indication anything else is coming. Even if a few stragglers come through, those are pretty weak numbers. From what I read, the pods are first sun dried at the farm location then dried again - mechanically, I would expect and as you suggested - before packaging. It seems not too many make it through the process and remain viable.
 
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That's cool of you to to be willing to do that. Is it challenging or slow in getting seeds in and out of the country or is it relatively straightforward process?

I planted literally hundreds of seeds in two containers. Over a hundred of the pretreated/select seeds in one container and at least twice that number of untreated/unselected seeds in another. All the spouts appeared two days ago, a total of 4 from the treated and 5 from the untreated. Nothing has sprouted since and I've seen no indication anything else is coming. Even if a few stragglers come through, those are pretty weak numbers. From what I read, the pods are first sun dried at the farm location then dried again - mechanically, I would expect and as you suggested - before packaging. It seems not too many make it through the process and remain viable.
Are you worried that the number of these seedlings is too small to be able to persist until the seeds are obtained again?
 
Are you worried that the number of these seedlings is too small to be able to persist until the seeds are obtained again?
Haha, no. I'm feeling pretty good with it. If I can't get it done with 9 sprouts, then I guess that's on me ;) I'll let these grow a bit, watch for uniformity versus variance among them, then likely select the best one from each of the containers and grow out those two.

Getting this number is actually a good balance of having enough to compare and select among yet still few enough that it's not an unmanageable mass of sprouts. That said, when I compare the number that sprouted to the number sowed, 9 out of (a conservative) 300 is a 3% germ rate. If I'd planted just a reasonable number, say 20, then a 3% rate that would mean a 60% statistical probability of getting a sprout; just over a 50/50 proposition. It would have been easy to have planted a good number, had none sprout, and concluded that none were viable. My take-away is that next time I do this I'll again use this method of planting very large numbers of seed in containers with larger surface areas.
 
Haha, no. I'm feeling pretty good with it. If I can't get it done with 9 sprouts, then I guess that's on me ;) I'll let these grow a bit, watch for uniformity versus variance among them, then likely select the best one from each of the containers and grow out those two.

Getting this number is actually a good balance of having enough to compare and select among yet still few enough that it's not an unmanageable mass of sprouts. That said, when I compare the number that sprouted to the number sowed, 9 out of (a conservative) 300 is a 3% germ rate. If I'd planted just a reasonable number, say 20, then a 3% rate that would mean a 60% statistical probability of getting a sprout; just over a 50/50 proposition. It would have been easy to have planted a good number, had none sprout, and concluded that none were viable. My take-away is that next time I do this I'll again use this method of planting very large numbers of seed in containers with larger surface areas.
Although it is about to enter winter, as long as you can ensure enough temperature and light, I think they will grow smoothly. I wonder where this pepper attracts so many people?
 
For me, I've heard good things about it for use in stir fry dishes (supposedly it's very popular in Szechuan cuisine) and I've been growing quite a few of those types lately with the idea of finding a few that I really like. Also, seeing others interested in it got me more interested as well.

I see your point now about the sprouts surviving to produce seeds. I do a smaller indoor grow each winter. This season I'm growing about 40 varieties; mostly just 1 plant of each. It's a great way to try out new/different varieties and to get isolated seeds from those and others without the hassle of bagging or gluing or whatever is needed to block pollinator insects outside. The er jing taio is a bit behind most of the others, but it should be among the faster to develop so it will likely catch up and fit in fine.
 
For me, I've heard good things about it for use in stir fry dishes (supposedly it's very popular in Szechuan cuisine) and I've been growing quite a few of those types lately with the idea of finding a few that I really like. Also, seeing others interested in it got me more interested as well.

I see your point now about the sprouts surviving to produce seeds. I do a smaller indoor grow each winter. This season I'm growing about 40 varieties; mostly just 1 plant of each. It's a great way to try out new/different varieties and to get isolated seeds from those and others without the hassle of bagging or gluing or whatever is needed to block pollinator insects outside. The er jing taio is a bit behind most of the others, but it should be among the faster to develop so it will likely catch up and fit in fine.
Sichuan cuisine is a very popular series in China. I like it. Its main feature is that almost all dishes are spicy. As for what kind of chili peppers are used, I haven't heard of the need to use specific chili peppers. However, Er Jing Tiao pepper may be one of the few peppers in China that can have an formal name.
 
The single dried pepper I ordered from etsy arrived today. One thing that raises concern is question marks on the receipt after "erjingtiao". Is the seller unsure of the pepper? Another thing that concerns me is the size, I thought it was going to be bigger :shocked:

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We can cook with a variety of spices according to our needs and wishes.
 

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After the success in getting sprouts from the er jing tiao, I went back and tried germinating seeds from some varieties of smoked pods I still have that had failed me before (they were sold as "dried pods," but arrived obviously smoked). The percentages have been abysmal so far, but of the literally hundreds of seeds (well over 500, I'm sure) that I planted 16 days ago I got this one sprout from a batch of Guajillo pods. As poor as the seed condition was, this guy came up very strong and looks in great shape. Million Monkeys Method FTW!

Guajillo/Mirasol
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The Er Jing Tiao are cruising right along in the fashion of cultivated annuum. I saw no variance among them, so thinned them to just two plants. Looks like a little bit of edema, but not too bad so far.

@Grass Snake - did you plant any of the EJT you got off etsy or are you waiting?

Er Jing Tiao
20221106 EJT.jpg
 
Yeah i tried germinating the esty seeds but nothing yet. Think I got ripped. The seeds should've germinated by now, it's been two weeks exactly. Maybe I need to plant more than 3 seeds. I'll try your method next but at this point I'm disappointed with my purchase from Wish..I mean Etsy haha. Lesson learned :doh:
@Grass Snake - did you plant any of the EJT you got off etsy or are you waiting?
 
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