Lespaulde 2019 Season

CaneDog · Sep 5, 2019

Wow LP. Lots of pods and looking great! Seems like it really paid off getting that greenhouse up and running for this season - plus having all that effort behind you must feel good. It's been an iffy season here and a greenhouse would have made a big difference. BTW I was getting the cherry/button pods on my jalapenos early too and still more of them in the mix than usual.

Hope those Baccatum/Chinense hybrids come through for you. Would be super cool to see the product of that union.

Devv · Sep 6, 2019

Nice work this season buddy!

Your growing season is similar to mine, but in the opposite. My few plants that I've kept going through the last 60-70 days of non-producing heat are still alive; and hoping for a break in the heat. Still seeing non-pod-producing temps above 95°.

My fingers are crossed for both of us!

lespaulde · Sep 13, 2019

CaneDog said:
Wow LP. Lots of pods and looking great! Seems like it really paid off getting that greenhouse up and running for this season - plus having all that effort behind you must feel good. It's been an iffy season here and a greenhouse would have made a big difference. BTW I was getting the cherry/button pods on my jalapenos early too and still more of them in the mix than usual.
Hope those Baccatum/Chinense hybrids come through for you. Would be super cool to see the product of that union.

Thanks CD, and yes, you're totally right I feel good about all the work with the greenhouse, as it has for sure saved my season and boosted my output massively compared to last year, where we even had the best summer on record for >25 years...

I find it interesting that plants get so big, that you only get one harvest, but which is bigger than the 2 rounds combined before. :dance:

Good to hear that the cherry jalapeños are not too uncommon, and I guess really a clear indication of sub-optimal climate conditions. Some even had a little tail which was weird. Heat is a bit of hit 'n miss, with some being nice and hot, and some not really at all. Not sure whether this is common for the biker bill though, but I thought it was meant to be a bit spicier one.

And with the last seeds from the BOC cross not sprouting, I have indeed set my hopes on this year's hybrids, both with BOC and BJ Purple. Should in principle have a higher chance of succeeding, as long as I get seeds - the first 2 pods never grew large and were sterile:

Devv said:
Nice work this season buddy!

Your growing season is similar to mine, but in the opposite. My few plants that I've kept going through the last 60-70 days of non-producing heat are still alive; and hoping for a break in the heat. Still seeing non-pod-producing temps above 95°.

My fingers are crossed for both of us!

Thanks Devv, nice of you to stop by - hope you're counting down the Mondays with great excitement!

Interesting how your heat can also really dampen production, I'd have never thought that! I hope you get a good 2nd round of pods before winter, as you will now also have enough time to process them as you wish...

Finally, also had some fun at work the other day, and brought in some extra pods - gave people a good laugh:

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

Mr.joe · Sep 13, 2019

Lol. Chili Russian roulette. I line the idea, but I'm afraid anyone at my work would just take a to go bag. I wanna see them cry.

Devv · Sep 13, 2019

I used to bring the hot ones to work, but no one will try them anymore..LOL
But they will take them home and use them. They learned from the taste testing :shh:

Thanks Devv, nice of you to stop by - hope you're counting down the Mondays with great excitement!

Interesting how your heat can also really dampen production, I'd have never thought that! I hope you get a good 2nd round of pods before winter, as you will now also have enough time to process them as you wish...

I'm still sitting on about 10 plans that I want pods from. It's getting to around 95° for the highs here and it's not lasting 10 hours anymore. Lows are still around 75°. Another 10 days or so and I can remove the sunshades and let them do their thing. I still can grow until mid to late December if the weather holds. And yes, they just stop here when it gets hot. A few Annuums still set pods during the heat but they make tiny 1/4 sized pods. Gotta give those Annuums some credit

lespaulde · Oct 17, 2019

So unfortunately the time has come that my garden season of 2019 has come to end, but it sounds more sad than it actually is, as I'm all in all extremely happy with the results and all that I've managed to learn, not the least thanks to the awesome peeps in this forum!

The freezer has been filled for the year, seeds collected and a subset of pods dried in the dehydrator, so I'm thankful to be able to explore some other aspects of this hobby and enjoy those over the winter months. Frost hit about 40 days earlier than usual, and while the plants probably did survive the 2 nights of frost, I figured it was a good time to call it quits and tidy up the greenhouse with imminent travels being planned etc. Besides, having already harvested >1,000 pods out of there, and having given away bags full of pods to friends and family, it's not like I needed any more (although, truth be told, I did bring the Numex OS jalapeno plants indoors, together with my now-all-time favorite BJ Purple...

).

Figured it would be nice to upload some pictures of the final moments, but I will keep a little bit of activity going here as of course this now means the indoor season has been called into action (slowly but surely).

Starting to take the plants out of the greenhouse, with the wall of tomatoes in the background:

The Aji mango plant, after its support had been removed. This bad boy gave me 123 pods in pretty much one big final harvest.

lespaulde · Oct 17, 2019

The biker bill in the 60L / 16gal fabric pot, which gave a total of 35 pods after the slugs took out probably >10 of the pods along the way

The biker bill (left) and early jalapeno (right) in their autopots. Combined they totalled > 80 pods. While I'm disappointed in the heat level of the biker bill, their sweetness is almost ridiculous, also why I think the slugs went after this plant the most. The Early Jalapeno had a very good kick to it, and I'll be sure to grown several more varieties of jalapeno next year as I absolutely love their flavor.

The prize for smallest plant in biggest pot after an entire grow season goes to the Bulgarian carrot. This one totalled a measly 17 pods, and while they taste good, they don't seem to be worth the real estate honestly. Still, nice to have tried it.

Lemon Starrburst with some nice stingers. Again, I realize it's my own taste that probably ruined the party a bit on this plant, but the floral chinense taste made me dislike eating these. Dried they are much better though and will probably grind them to a powder, and I do reckon that SB lovers would enjoy this plant a lot. It's certainly very proliferative with >60 pods produced (and making many friends and family members happy):

BJ Purple pods, first harvest of roughly half the pods.

I simply love the look of this plant, and how the pods seem to go through all the colors of the rainbow during ripening:

These ones are less fun to have around with a 1.5 year old running around the garden and loving to put e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. in his mouth... They are pretty though, and keep returning year after year - I believe the wild deer eat them.

Finally, on a really good note, the Aji Pineapple x BJ Purple cross sprouted, and is well on its way towards becoming a seedling! :dance:

I'm going to be super excited once it starts budding, and to see what the fruits will be like. Wlll update progress here, and when back from holidays, will also start the reverse cross of BJ Purple x Aji Pineapple. Hopefully that one will sprout as well...

Now will go back to enjoying the fact that I have a grow tent and get to enjoy fresh pods (and bright lights up here in the dark north) over the winter...

Mr.joe · Oct 17, 2019

Sounds like a very productive year. I have a son the same age. He has put a cherry tomato in his mouth a couple times because he mistakes them for strawberries. He spits the tomato out every time. I'm always cautious of him trying a habanero because that just won't go well for a little guy.

CaneDog · Oct 17, 2019

Hey LP. Sounds like you had an awesome season with the greenhouse - even if it was 40 days short! Glad it worked out so well for you. And nice to be able to take the show inside for the winter rather than sitting out the off-season!

Funny, I'll have a jalapeno indoors this winter too. Not something I've done before - I suppose it's been difficult to justify using limited indoor resources for such a "common" variety. I've finally decided it's worth it for some high-quality fresh, sweet and ripe jalapenos during the winter.

And hey, what's your take on the orange spice? Were yours as hot as they're supposed to be? Good flavor when green/ripe?

lespaulde said:
These ones are less fun to have around with a 1.5 year old running around the garden and loving to put e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. in his mouth... They are pretty though, and keep returning year after year - I believe the wild deer eat them.

And I believe people drink the deer urine after the deer eat the fly agaric. :shocked:

lespaulde · Oct 18, 2019

Mr.joe said:
Sounds like a very productive year. I have a son the same age. He has put a cherry tomato in his mouth a couple times because he mistakes them for strawberries. He spits the tomato out every time. I'm always cautious of him trying a habanero because that just won't go well for a little guy.

Haha, yeah they are a handful! Ours learnt that the wild strawberries growing around our property are very tasty, so during the summer the first thing he would do when coming outside would be to scavenge all the red ones and eat them. We just have to be on top of him to make sure he doesn't put the wrong thing in his mouth. He has tried to pluck a couple of my peppers, but luckily so far managed to prevent him from biting on anything particularly hot...

CaneDog said:
Hey LP. Sounds like you had an awesome season with the greenhouse - even if it was 40 days short! Glad it worked out so well for you. And nice to be able to take the show inside for the winter rather than sitting out the off-season!

Funny, I'll have a jalapeno indoors this winter too. Not something I've done before - I suppose it's been difficult to justify using limited indoor resources for such a "common" variety. I've finally decided it's worth it for some high-quality fresh, sweet and ripe jalapenos during the winter.

And hey, what's your take on the orange spice? Were yours as hot as they're supposed to be? Good flavor when green/ripe?

Ah no way, nice to hear you're also salvaging a jalapeno this year, cannot be easy with all your varieties to prioritize! I know what you mean though with it being deemed such a "common" variety, but I find that the really good ones are actually not easy to come by, at least not here in Denmark. I've gone 'all-in' on jalas for next year, and have the following seeds lined up already:

NuMex Pumpkin Spice (new)
NuMex Vaquero (new)
NuMex Lemon Spice (new)
NuMex Orange Spice (love it)
Early Jalapeno (tried & tested)
and perhaps the JZ?

The orange spice is hands down the spiciest jalapeno I've tried so far, being on par with say, a red Thai chili. I usually like to mix it with a biker bill or early J in my mexican food, to get the best of both worlds. Can't really say for sure how sweet it is, but I think it deserves to be grown every year. Let me know if you'd like some seeds!

CaneDog said:
And I believe people drink the deer urine after the deer eat the fly agaric.

Lol, some people will do anything for a rush eh? Reminds me of the "cheesing" episode on SouthPark!

lespaulde · Nov 4, 2019

So been keeping myself a little bit busy during the off season:

Even though I already cleaned out most of the greenhouse >3 weeks ago due to night frosts, I left my B. O. C. plant in there. It actually ripened a last couple of pods during this time, despite repeated night frosts. So perhaps my ground insulation has paid off a little bit, and I figured that I should therefore give the plant another chance (if it didnt actually die in the meantime), but this time as a bonzai.

Let's see in a few weeks how it does...

The Aji Pineapple x BJ Purple is progressing steadily, and will soon need a transplant:

Not sure whether the purple hint is from the BJ genes, but I am very excited about the F1 pods that will show up eventually.

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

CaneDog · Nov 4, 2019

That BOC looks like a great bonchi candidate. Solid trunk and roots. Glad it survived and will be cool to see how it does.

Really excited to see what happens with the Baccatum x (Chinese x Frutescens) cross too.

PaulG · Nov 4, 2019

+1 CaneDog! That should be an awesome little bonchi bush.

Good luck with your jalapeño grow next season, Erv.

internationalfish · Nov 5, 2019

Wow, those are some gnarly roots! Hope that bonchi grows well for you, it looks great already.

Nice healthy-looking hybrid seedling there, too. Promising start to the winter grow.