Hello from Cabarete, Dominican Republic

Hey guys
I am new to growing chilis and even newer to the forum. I guess I am in a pretty enviable position - growing chilis in the caribbean, but I still have plenty to learn. I am on a very small budget, but I am blessed with an awesome climate for growing so here's to lots of fresh hot chili peppers in the future.

So far I have 2 plants that I started from seed. I did have many more but I selected the best 5 seedlings and weeded out the rest. Of these 5, I gave 3 away to friends (gotta spread the love right?!?) so I have my 2 left. They are unknown variety since I took the seeds from a bag of shop-bought chili flakes. I doubted they would germinate, but they did! SO right now I have these 2 plants that are looking great and stand about 10inches tall after a month or so.

I have been carefully harvesting seeds from any shop-bought fresh chilis I can find, and now have seeds for 6 varieties; Jalapeno, Aji Gustoso (sweet local variety), Chocolate Habanero, Big Sun Habanero, and another unknown variety that seems kinda asian style (small narrow green pods that ripen to bright red). I am attempting to germinate seeds from all of these varities as we speak - In damp tissue paper inside a sealed Jiffy bag in a drawer. SO far after approx 1 week I have had a bunch of the unknown (asian) variety germinate, and also the Aji Gustosos. As yet none of the Jalapenos or either Habanero varieties have germinated. So I am gonna try and switch it up and keep the seeds a little bit warmer to see if that helps the Habaneros germinate. SO i have put the jiffy bag near to the warm part at the back of my fridge as it seems nice and warm down there. I know this sounds pretty "budget" but that is how I roll. Anyway in this country it is quite difficult to get hold of seemingly "normal" household items such as a heating mat, because this is still very much a developing country.

So I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself and ask for any advice going from any of the chili-heads that dwell here. I love the forum and have spent the last 2 days reading up on all sorts of chili stuff here.

I have ordered 6 more varieties online so I am committed to this now... Woohoo!
 
... SO my grow list for this year reads;

Chocolate Habanero (My fave)
Big Sun Habanero/Scotch Bonnet
Jalapeno
Aji Gustoso (sweet)
Unknown (from chili flakes)
Unknown (from fresh Thai Green chilis?)

and in the post;

Bird's Eye
Red Scotch Bonnet
NuMex Twilight (I love the look of those purple fruit)
Cayenne
Mexican Pequin
Datil
Super Hot Thai

Hope fully these will give my cooking a nice mix of heats and flavours this year :cool:
 
Nice grow list you have, and good that you can get those kind of chiles where you live. Here in the US, all I find are jalapenos, poblanos, and occasionally orange habaneros and fresnos. As warm as it is in the DR, can't you just sow your seeds and put them outside? As long as the temp is about 86 F, they should germinate in 10-15 days.
 
Oh nice!
Gotta love melb!
I've been here on/off for about 6 years now :)
Great food! great music!
We do lack in the Chilli department though :(
Where abouts did you live in melb?

I taught kitesurfing in St Kilda so I always lived around St Kilda, Elwood, and Port Melbourne. I loved living there - such a great city. I wasn't into growing back then but I guess with Melbourne's crazy weather it would be hard to do any serious growing without a good greenhouse where u can control temps etc. I can remember days that fluctuated by 10 or 15 degrees in a matter of hours, 45C days, Very strong and erratic winds etc etc
 
Nice grow list you have, and good that you can get those kind of chiles where you live. Here in the US, all I find are jalapenos, poblanos, and occasionally orange habaneros and fresnos. As warm as it is in the DR, can't you just sow your seeds and put them outside? As long as the temp is about 86 F, they should germinate in 10-15 days.

Thanks buddy. TBH I only found some of them fresh in the supermarket. The Big Suns I actually bought as seeds during an outing to the local city, and the Chocolate Hab pods were gifted to my by a local farm. I am having mixed results so far with the seeds harvested by me from acquired pods. I can't wait for my seeds to arrive from chiliseeds.co.uk, as I feel like I might have a better success rate with those seeds harvested by the pros.

Thanks for the advice. Right now I have seeds in tissue that just won't seem to germinate (mostly the Big Suns, Chocolate Habs). I even moved the ziplock bag to the top of my cable box where it's warm, but still no cigar.

Anyway I just made up a new soil mix today so i think I will try and do as you say and just sow them into pots and pop them outside and see what happens. The reason I prefer the tissue technique is because it's nice to know exactly what stage they are at all the time. Trouble is right now they are at stage zero, and not looking like changing. I am trying to get hold of a thermometer so that I can get a better idea of the day and night temps here.

Anyway thanks for the advice and encouragement - I am thoroughly enjoying the journey so far :)
 
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