HabaneroHead Glog 2012 - Better late than never - Picture Heavy

Hi PepperHeads!

It's been a while since I posted anything about my peppers, but it does not mean I was not following what's going on THP. As usual I did not only get inspiration, but also useful hints and kindness from the team members. And on the top of that, I managed to infect some of my friends, my family and my girlfriend with this addiction.

Anyways, ling story short, last december Jack and Ela (aka Superhot and Ela on this forum) was so kind and sent me a batch of seeds (thank you for that, again):
- Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon
- Fatalii Red/Yellow
- Tobago Seasoning
- Naga Morich
- Trinidad Scorpion CARDI Yellow

Unfortunately I could not make the Fatalii and Tobago Seasoning germinated, probably I cooked them with my reptile heat mat.

So the varieties I have now:
- Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon (6)
- Naga Morich (4)
- Trinidad Scorpion CARDI Yellow (4)
- Bishop's Crown (2)
- Golden Habanero (6)
- Red Habanero (8)
- Aji Lemon Drop (7)

I was not taking into consideration the overwintered red habs, since I am not sure how they will perform, but I was giving them a chance, and they are trying to do their best in the ground.

Let's see some pics now!

6th of March 2012

Store bought Golden Habanero, i was taking out the seeds. Out of 10 seeds, 8 germinated, and now I have 6 healthy plants

My Bonchi, which I was making to my girlfriend, and it successfully survived the winter:

1st of April 2012
My babies having sunbath

Bhut doing weird things, I thought the stem may stay in this shape (what a Bonchi!), but in few weeks it straightened.

Superhots are doing well

Aji Lemon Drop: tall, but has strong stem. They were getting the same light, ferts etc, but they are a little bit of leggy.

 

[HabaneroHead]

Thanks Pinoy!


Aji Lemon Drop Row in the right (7 plants Aji in front, 1 Bishop's Crown and 1 Unknown at the other end)

Overwintered red Hab, getting back to life

Bishop's Crown looking like a tree

Aji Lemon Drop (out of the 7) with my foot as reference (sorry about the crappy shoe, but it saved by father's foot from the axe...

Maybe I mixed the seeds somehow, but this little guy was labelled as Hab...well it is not...for sure. But I am curious to see what it is in fact.

Bishop's Crown in the polytunnel, already flowering

Same plant, with a pod

 

[Pinoy83]

your plants gonna be bushy pretty soon

 

[HabaneroHead]

They have to speed up, since we have quite short growing season: June-July-Aug-Sep from now, and the pods have to ripen, which take some time.

 

[HabaneroHead]

Just thought would share some new pics about my babies :-)

17th of June 2012

Naga Morich - Already 2 feet tall, my biggest plant, loading some flowers

TS CARDI Yellow - Nice bush with fat green leaves

Bhut Indian Carbon - Smaller and bushier than the others

Red Habanero - In 2 gal pot, which is going to be the her permanent home

 

[stickman]

Looking good HH. Your Hab looks like a giant compared to mine. My Orange Hab is only a little over a foot tall but the side branching makes it about a foot and a half wide.

 

[HabaneroHead]

Thanks Stickman!

My Hab is still a midget compared to her last year's parents. Those were 3 feet tall... Based on my limited growing experience, we can control the height of the plant in different ways:

- Amount of light: the stronger, the more compact plants we are growing. In the ground with 12 hours of direct sunlight the plants were growing smaller but bushier. The ones on the terrace get only 4 hours direct sunlight.
- Type of the soil. In the pots I tried to make a well draining potting soil, in which the roots can easier develop, and fill out the pot. In our garden, which has clay soil, the roots have to struggle to get through. This also means that the plant focuses more energy to form the roots than the foliage
- Controlling side-shoots/branches: if you pinch out the lower ones, the plant grows taller.
- Nutritients and water supplied during the growing season

Last year I grew only Red Habs, two in pots, 4 in the ground. In the pots they were 3 feet tall, in the ground only 1.5, but overall the ones in the ground yielded more pods. (cca 300 compared to 80-90).
I am still experiencing, to see the differences among the different growing techniques.

Balázs

 

[stickman]

Thanks Stickman!

My Hab is still a midget compared to her last year's parents. Those were 3 feet tall... Based on my limited growing experience, we can control the height of the plant in different ways:

- Amount of light: the stronger, the more compact plants we are growing. In the ground with 12 hours of direct sunlight the plants were growing smaller but bushier. The ones on the terrace get only 4 hours direct sunlight.
- Type of the soil. In the pots I tried to make a well draining potting soil, in which the roots can easier develop, and fill out the pot. In our garden, which has clay soil, the roots have to struggle to get through. This also means that the plant focuses more energy to form the roots than the foliage
- Controlling side-shoots/branches: if you pinch out the lower ones, the plant grows taller.
- Nutritients and water supplied during the growing season

Last year I grew only Red Habs, two in pots, 4 in the ground. In the pots they were 3 feet tall, in the ground only 1.5, but overall the ones in the ground yielded more pods. (cca 300 compared to 80-90).
I am still experiencing, to see the differences among the different growing techniques.

Balázs

Thanks HH
I was wondering if I shoulld cut out some of the side branching. I planted the two Habs in the ground about a foot apart and they look like they'll interfere with each other if I don't do something. I think I have the ideal growing conditions for this zone... sandy loam for soil, plenty of nutes and water, and full sun all day. Looking at other people's pics I thought my Habs might be stunted or something, but all of my chiles are bushy this year.

 

[capsidadburn]

Wow, what a wonderful garden and container plants HabaneroHead! Good luck with your season.

Mike

 

[HabaneroHead]

Thanks HH
I was wondering if I shoulld cut out some of the side branching. I planted the two Habs in the ground about a foot apart and they look like they'll interfere with each other if I don't do something. I think I have the ideal growing conditions for this zone... sandy loam for soil, plenty of nutes and water, and full sun all day. Looking at other people's pics I thought my Habs might be stunted or something, but all of my chiles are bushy this year.

The ones in the garden are doing the same for me. You should try to control them. If you count more than 6-8 side branch on the stem, you should cut some of them. The lower ones should be removed, just to promote the vertical growth. You can do it on one of your Hab, and leave the other as it is to make a side by side comparison. It would be really interesting to see the results.

Wow, what a wonderful garden and container plants HabaneroHead! Good luck with your season.

Mike

Thank you, Mike!

 

[stickman]

The ones in the garden are doing the same for me. You should try to control them. If you count more than 6-8 side branch on the stem, you should cut some of them. The lower ones should be removed, just to promote the vertical growth. You can do it on one of your Hab, and leave the other as it is to make a side by side comparison. It would be really interesting to see the results.

Naw... I just cut down all the side branches at the soil surface below the main fork. Still has a nice crown of leaves, and when I freed them up I saw about half a dozen flowers open next to the main stem on each plant. Many more leaves and buds coming, so I don't think there'll be any shortage. Thanks for the advice. Cheers

 

[HabaneroHead]

Naw... I just cut down all the side branches at the soil surface below the main fork. Still has a nice crown of leaves, and when I freed them up I saw about half a dozen flowers open next to the main stem on each plant. Many more leaves and buds coming, so I don't think there'll be any shortage. Thanks for the advice. Cheers

Can't wait to see the results, Stickman! I was cutting back the branch of my Red Hab Bonchi, since it stopped growing, and now it is pumping out the new leaves, and buds.

Aji Lemon Drop - I have 7 of these plants, getting extremely bushy. It is wilting because the heavy rain was followed by extreme heat (32 Celsius), and by the next morning it recovered

Bad pic taken about the Lemon Drop flower

Overwintered Red Hab has more flowers than leaves

Same plant, closer pic about the flowers

Other OW Red Hab, already has a pod!

Red Hab doing OK in the ground

 

[HabaneroHead]

Update time, Folks! :-)

24th of June 2012

Capsicum Baccatuum

The Lemon Drops started to be too bushy, so we need to stake them

Closer look at the staking

Lemon Drop Pod

Bishop'S Crown in the ground

Bishop's Crown in the polytunnel

Bishop's Crown in the polytunnel - Pod

Bigger bed - the biggest plants are the Baccatuums :-)

Thanks for watching, THP!

Balázs

 

[stickman]

Hooey! Looking really good HH! What sorts of things do you make with your chiles? Also, what kind of traditions do you have for barbeque? I have a collection of sword skewers with wooden handles and a grill that looks and works a lot like a mangal. Do you do Shashlik or something like it?

 

[HabaneroHead]

Growing superhots in our climate is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get So until I see the first serious harvest, I do not dare to thing about what I am going to do with them. Based on the last year, when I dehydrated most of them, and made some sauce from some of them, I might do the same this year. And of course to sell some. In the office my colleagues are interested in them. You know there are always some 'strong' guys who think they could eat any pepper, then a normal Habanero kicks their ass.
Last year my Red Habs got two persons to hospital, one thought he would eat a whole pod (his wife called the ambulance seeing his state), and the other one had haemorrhoids operation on the following day... Of course I warned them, but they did not listen to me...
Barbecue is kind of a new thing in Hungary, and has a lots of international and of course U.S. influence. Traditionally most commonly the open-air cooking is the custom, (bográcsozás, maybe Mezo recalls the expression ) when gulash, and different kind of stews (for example 'pörkölt') are made. If you want I can share some recipes, so you can try them out. Nothing fancy, but they are really delicious, and you can do it on your range, too.
Regarding the sword skewers: we use to make a fire (like camp-fire), put homemade smoked bacon (big pieces) on the sword skewers, and hang them above the fire. In a couple of minutes, the smoky fat starts flowing out from the bacon. Prior to that we prepare toasts, rub them with garlic, and put some chopped onion on the top of the toasts. Then we are putting the bacon-fat on the top of it, continiously as the fire melts the fat out of the bacon. We serve the toasted bread with the fried bacon and with lots of vegetables.
And of course we do Shashlik, that is one of my favourite.
Dang, it is almost 1 AM, I am writing about food, and just started the be hungry

 

[stickman]

Hi HH!

Growing superhots in our climate is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get So until I see the first serious harvest, I do not dare to thing about what I am going to do with them. Based on the last year, when I dehydrated most of them, and made some sauce from some of them, I might do the same this year. And of course to sell some. In the office my colleagues are interested in them. You know there are always some 'strong' guys who think they could eat any pepper, then a normal Habanero kicks their ass.
Last year my Red Habs got two persons to hospital, one thought he would eat a whole pod (his wife called the ambulance seeing his state), and the other one had haemorrhoids operation on the following day... Of course I warned them, but they did not listen to me...

Boy, I hope the guy with the hemorrhoid operation didn't pull any stitches the next day!!!

Barbecue is kind of a new thing in Hungary, and has a lots of international and of course U.S. influence. Traditionally most commonly the open-air cooking is the custom, (bográcsozás, maybe Mezo recalls the expression ) when gulash, and different kind of stews (for example 'pörkölt') are made. If you want I can share some recipes, so you can try them out. Nothing fancy, but they are really delicious, and you can do it on your range, too.

If you'd like to share them, I'd definitely like to see them. I've always been interested in the regional differences in the foods people have available to eat and how they prepare them.

Regarding the sword skewers: we use to make a fire (like camp-fire), put homemade smoked bacon (big pieces) on the sword skewers, and hang them above the fire. In a couple of minutes, the smoky fat starts flowing out from the bacon. Prior to that we prepare toasts, rub them with garlic, and put some chopped onion on the top of the toasts. Then we are putting the bacon-fat on the top of it, continiously as the fire melts the fat out of the bacon. We serve the toasted bread with the fried bacon and with lots of vegetables.

Now I"M drooling...

And of course we do Shashlik, that is one of my favourite.

Do you marinate pork in onions and red wine vinegar to make Shashlik?

Dang, it is almost 1 AM, I am writing about food, and just started the be hungry

Cheers!

 

[capsidadburn]

Looking good Habanerohead! You are certainly going to be loaded with Lemon Drops.

Good luck, Mike

 

[Pinoy83]

looking awesome HH, everything is coming nicely and all bushy

 

[HabaneroHead]

Looking good Habanerohead! You are certainly going to be loaded with Lemon Drops.

Good luck, Mike

Hi Mike,

Thank you, I hope so :-)

looking awesome HH, everything is coming nicely and all bushy

Hi Pinoy,

Just like you said it before! You said it!

Balázs

24th of June 2012 Continued

OW Red Hab Setting Pods

Lemon Drop

Bhut Bush

Another one

Bhut Pod

Bhut - More pods

TS CARDI Yellow - Setting pod!!! Look at this little guy!

Naga Morich pod

Thanks for watching!

Balázs

 

[Sanarda]

Things look great!!!! Happy pods makes a happy person

 

[Mezo]

Coming on nice Balázs,

I was a bit behind on your Glog, for some reason the "follow" button un-followed, yet again?? so i didn't get an email notification.
I want to try tartare with Bhut Jolokia this year Balázs, had it with cuz Zoli earlier in the year & thought it could do with more heat.

Good luck for the rest of the season, i think you should get a good harvest & next year will be interesting in your parents garden after the train has stopped by.

Mezo.