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Extensive Database Brainstorm

I am a noob. I've freely admitted it before, but just to preface this... I've got a good amount of gardening experience but have never ventured into territory hotter than habanero until this year. I ended up stockpiling seeds for about 220 varieties. Many are just 5-10 varieties I've traded with various THP folks. In my recent obsession to learn as much as possible, I dove head first into this site and spend hours upon hours looking at pictures of peppers & reading up on them. I'm hooked big time.
 
One slight frustration I've had is not having a clear resource to go to for uniform pepper info. I think it would be really helpful to have an online spreadsheet with the following information:
 
* Name
* Species
* Photo
* Color
* Plant size
* Pod size
* Country of origin or history
* Best uses
* Taste
* Scoville Units
* Days to maturity
* Productivity of plants
* Anecdotal narrative
 
And this list would cover not just the 50-75 varieties that seem to pop up often on people's grow lists- it would be as exhaustive as possible. Semillas site comes closest to this that I've seen, with a huge list that's easy to navigate, but I haven't found one site with all of the information I'd like. I'm a high school teacher & track/cross country coach. In an effort to pass time, allow me to work on cross country stuff during class, put together a pepper resource I wanted, & maybe teach kids a tiny bit about something for my Global Awareness class, I had them fill in a google doc I created with the above information for about 120 varieties of peppers I was looking to grow at the time. That was over a month ago & there have been a lot added to the list & a few taken off. Also, I'm not sure I can trust much of the info kids found. For Chocolate Habanero, a kid typed in that the pods look like a "gnarly poop ball." Then again, I guess that is accurate. :)
 
Along with the basic observations of each variety, I'd also like to have a sort of ranking system of families of peppers that relies on visitors' input. Categories that I see questions about on here a lot: Best Superhot, Best Great Taste/Mid Level Heat, Best Habanero, Best 7 Pot, etc. I've got to admit when it comes to something like which 7 Pot to plant: Jonah, Barrakpore, Primo, Brain Strain, India Carbon, Mad Ballz, Bubblegum, etc., etc., etc... It's difficult to get a feel for which direction to go. They're all red. They're all hot. But which do people who know prefer & why?
 
I don't think it would be outlandish to think you could come up with 400+ varieties to feature on a site like this- a lot of work for one person. I'd hate to have such a valuable resource in a public Google doc- open to anyone to alter, but perhaps there's a method I don't know about that is similar to that that would allow people to add info but not delete anything or alter anything others added. T'would stink to have someone wreck everything maliciously or otherwise. ...or maybe there's a way for people to submit info and an administrator approve it before it was added.
 
Any interest in something like this? Ideas?
 
I am interested.  Would love a 'go to' pepper wiki fed with the knowledge of and edited by the likes of some of our members here.  Open shared google doc or MS Online doc would need to have different level admins who approve additions/deletions/edits on an as needed basis.    
 
i was updating wikipedia list of capasicum cultivars, but after much work, it's really hard and clumsy to update.
 
I think a public google sheets file is the best solution.
multi-user edit/viewing, change/revision tracker, comment on stuff, its a great tool easy to use if you know excel.
can have multiple worksheets for different sorting, like a-z, heat , specie
 
as far as taste / best stuff goes that's super subjective and don't think you can do that. (people could include it in comments)
 
Nightshade said:
im currently working on one as we speak im growing out around 1500 varieties and doing a very thorough database
Whattt? I am super impressed with the database & incredibly excited about that but you're growing 1500 varieties. I can't imagine. I thought my life had been taken over by peppers & I have but a tiny fraction of that. Just out of curiosity, when are you planning on releasing the database? Also, how much land are we talking? Annnd, approximately how many of each variety?

Impressive.
 
coachspencerxc said:
Whattt? I am super impressed with the database & incredibly excited about that but you're growing 1500 varieties. I can't imagine. I thought my life had been taken over by peppers & I have but a tiny fraction of that. Just out of curiosity, when are you planning on releasing the database? Also, how much land are we talking? Annnd, approximately how many of each variety?

Impressive.
probably going to take a few years but plan on releasing a couple hundreds mid next season. I have a partner that's helping me also. I grow one maybe two of each dont know about my partner.
 
If we all knew where everyone was at (X user has a lot of annums cataloged, Y user has chinsense) we could help 'create the map' for what else needs to be covered.  Would keep us from doubling up the work.   
 
SmokenFire said:
If we all knew where everyone was at (X user has a lot of annums cataloged, Y user has chinsense) we could help 'create the map' for what else needs to be covered.  Would keep us from doubling up the work.   
yeah in google sheets everyone edits at the same time, which can be kinda crazy (trolls can delete other peoples stuff) but best imo.
 
i can put it in growing FAQ.
 
This is something interesting, last winter I did  web page form the list of  http://www.cayennediane.com/BigListofPeppers/Big-List-of-peppers.html
did translate it in French and I have had many species on it, also search about all the web to find the more real info on each species for the Shu and description. I did stop to it to create  My pepper ID card web app
 
more info : http://thehotpepper.com/topic/48831-pepper-id-card-index-web-app/
 
163912safi2.jpg

 
I will look if I can do a user personal database that can update in a Global database
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
There have been a few such databases and used to be a very good one....thinking it is gone now. 
 
Keep it scientific and it would be very useful, too many made up crosses and names out there today. 
 
http://www.thechileman.org/
 
I really can't imagine where things are going to be in the next 5 years. It seems like 20 new crosses are coming out every week. Some crosses have 10 different names for the exact same cross. I have no problem with creating crosses or naming a cross you've made but with the way things are going it's going to be interesting. The whole "world's hottest" and "next big thing" race has gotten out of control but hey there's major $$ to be made from it so I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. Would be nice to see what crosses are currently out there so someone isn't making a 30th version of it with a 30th different name. I find it fun to cross so this isn't meant as a cross bashing. I usually list the cross by the parents and generation number though.
 
juanitos said:
what do you think we should list for peppers that haven't had their SHU officially tested? guess? leave blank?
Not sure. I'm not really stating an opinion, but should we even worry about specific SHU if they vary so widely anyway or would it be better to rate them 1-10 on heat with ranges for those values? I'm not sure what would be the best option. Noob perspective, but aren't we really talking about: 
No heat
Slightly less than Jalapeno
Jalapeno range
Between Jalapeno & Cayenne
Cayenne range
Between Cayenne & Habanero
Habanero range
Between Habanero & Superhot 
Superhot range
 
Maybe I'm oversimplifying & not being very scientific. Obviously, there's a bigger jump from Habanero to Superhot than the 3 steps from No Heat to Jalapeno but it seems to me these are how we categorize.
 
SHU when available could be more precise but aren't there conflicting reports out there? I've seen Fatalii as listed from between 150,000 to 800,000 to being called "one of the hottest in the world."
 
great idea!  I was planning on making a post asking for the size of the plants I'm getting. All I've found so far is that reepers are huge, and scotch bonnets are tiny.
 
Since you posted this, I will keep looking for my others, and wait a couple days, at least, before asking about the rest. Hopefully someone will post a good source here.
 
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