Megamoo's 2012/2013 Glog

megamoo · Feb 21, 2013

harry said:
The pods on my Beni Highlands plant are smooth and symmetrical. Those pods appear twisted and gnarly. I interested in seeing what colour they end up one month after the initial colour change.

I got my seeds from peppermania
Here http://www.peppermania.com/chinense_4.html
From their picture I can see mine are more gnarly but theirs aren't completely smooth and symmetrical. Do you have a picture of your ones?
I think my plant had started to put out some pods and then I fed them and it suddenly got a boost making the pods freaky. It was definitely suffering for a long time before podding up. It is well behind most in its group.

Stefan_W · Feb 21, 2013

The highlands look amazing! Are they like aji lemondrops?

harry · Feb 21, 2013

megamoo said:
I got my seeds from peppermania
Here http://www.pepperman...chinense_4.html
From their picture I can see mine are more gnarly but theirs aren't completely smooth and symmetrical. Do you have a picture of your ones?
I think my plant had started to put out some pods and then I fed them and it suddenly got a boost making the pods freaky. It was definitely suffering for a long time before podding up. It is well behind most in its group.

Some Beni Highland photos from my 2011/2012 thread:

Beni Highlands (Fruitful Plant)

Beni Highlands (Ripening Pods)

Beni Highlands (Pod Halves)

Beni Highlands (Harvest)

DocNrock · Feb 21, 2013

Great update, MM. You have your own Amazonian jungle in your backyard! Have you tasted the Beni Highlands yet? I'm growing them also but have never tasted one. And who wouldn't be mezmerized by a levitating soccer ball?

PeriPeri · Feb 22, 2013

Awesome garden Megamoo! NIce variety going on there.

megamoo · Feb 23, 2013

Stefan_W said:
The highlands look amazing! Are they like aji lemondrops?

Haven't tried one yet. They are bigger than my Aji Lemons from last season. My Aji Lemon seedlings for this season didn't survive to plant out, because I used saved seeds from a weak plant.

harry said:
Some Beni Highland photos from my 2011/2012 thread:

They look shorter than mine. It is as though mine were stunted, then they got everything they were missing and put on a spurt. I did a harvest today but left them on to mature a bit.

DocNrock said:
Great update, MM. You have your own Amazonian jungle in your backyard! Have you tasted the Beni Highlands yet? I'm growing them also but have never tasted one. And who wouldn't be mezmerized by a levitating soccer ball?

Thanks

It's a jungle complete with masses of insects, good and bad! Haven't tried one yet, but it will be interesting.

PeriPeri said:
Awesome garden Megamoo! NIce variety going on there.

Cheers. I've already started thinking for next season it might be better to have less overall variety so I can get larger harvests of one type and make dedicated powders or sauces etc.. But I like growing all the different types so much it will be hard to resist planting everything I can

Today's harvest.

I've noticed some have done really well like Dorset Naga and others have cut back a lot. Not sure whats happened to the Bih Jolokia plants but the pods have dried up. The ones I did get are small too. Although there are only 4 Bhut Jolokia pods there are a ton of new green ones, and there are no signs of the bug damage that was decimating them before.

Bucket of badness.

Quite a few otherwise amazing looking pods had holes. :hell:

I think the strategy of picking any pod with some colour and then letting it ripen inside was working to reduce bug damage. But I didn't cut those pods open, they went into the freezer so they are probably full of that eggplant caterpillar that Super David got the info on.
Also lost a lot of pods to sun scald because we've had a couple of really nasty hot days here last week and the plants haven't grown a canopy to protect the pods since I took down the shade cloth.

I'm about to cut some pods open and save some seeds so will see what the real damage is.

DocNrock · Feb 23, 2013

You continue to amaze me with your harvests, MM, especially with the numbers from what I gather are single plants. Some, like the Peach Hab, seem incredibly productive. I think I see what you are saying about less variety and more plants of what varieties you choose to grow. I may go that route next year, as well, but with so many cool varieties, it is hard to pare down that list! Sorry about the damaged pods, but it is what it is. Just take those frozen ones and throw them in a blender without opening. Mmmm, eggplant caterpillar puree! Seriously though, I hope they are pristine inside.

stickman · Feb 23, 2013

Rats! No "unlike" button for insect damage...

Stefan_W · Feb 23, 2013

Very colourful harvest, I like it a lot!

megamoo · Feb 24, 2013

DocNrock said:
You continue to amaze me with your harvests, MM, especially with the numbers from what I gather are single plants. Some, like the Peach Hab, seem incredibly productive. I think I see what you are saying about less variety and more plants of what varieties you choose to grow. I may go that route next year, as well, but with so many cool varieties, it is hard to pare down that list! Sorry about the damaged pods, but it is what it is. Just take those frozen ones and throw them in a blender without opening. Mmmm, eggplant caterpillar puree! Seriously though, I hope they are pristine inside.

Thanks. I am also amazed at the growth and production. It's not me doing it, just luck I the right stuff is in the garden bed. The Peach Habs have been loaded with pods for a long time and they all finally ripened together. It will be some time before I get that many again.
Most of the ones processed were fine. I've thought about it but can't bring myself to use unchecked pods after seeing some of the brown and rotten insides. I only freeze them whole when I don't have time to process them, which is often

It's not always bug damage, sometimes its just rot inside the pod, so there is no mark of indication at all.
The good pods are still far outweighing the bad so its no biggy to toss the bad ones, just feels like a waste.

stickman said:
Rats! No "unlike" button for insect damage...

It drives you crazy when you pick a big fat ripe pod and there is a tiny little hole in it. I had to bin half of the Douglah pods, and they looked awesome too.

Stefan_W said:
Very colourful harvest, I like it a lot!

Thanks

I processed over half of the ripe pods and only found two bad ones. My initial inspection seems to be catching most of the bug signs. Took some pictures of the juicier ones.

Douglah

I think this is a Yellow 7Pot

Some of the Dorset Naga pods literally poured juice out in a puddle. Didn't take anymore photos because had my gloves on and was covered in capsaicin. I've got some garden update photos I'll post later

stickman · Feb 24, 2013

Love that pod porn Moo, you're definitely in full swing! It's kind of a drag having to toss half of what you pick, but it's better than losing the whole thing... sort of like the difference between taxes and slavery in a "glass half full" kind of way...

harry · Feb 24, 2013

megamoo said:
They look shorter than mine. It is as though mine were stunted, then they got everything they were missing and put on a spurt. I did a harvest today but left them on to mature a bit.

The ChilePlants.com Beni Highlands listing describes the length as ranging from 1.5 to 2 inches (~38 to 51 mm). Mine probably range between 35 to 40 mm. The shape of the pods in their photo is a match to the shape of my pods but the final colour here is not lemon yellow.

What are the chances of a pod surviving a month more after first turning colour given the moth issue? I too am interested in how your Beni Highlands rates taste wise. The orange variant here was one of the only varieties that hit the flavoursome, hot and sweet combination..

megamoo · Feb 25, 2013

stickman said:
Love that pod porn Moo, you're definitely in full swing! It's kind of a drag having to toss half of what you pick, but it's better than losing the whole thing... sort of like the difference between taxes and slavery in a "glass half full" kind of way...

Nothin like a bit of juicy pod porn

The way I see it nature never has a completely bug free harvest of anything. There are always losses, and there are always natural checks and balances. It's unrealistic and unnatural to chase after a completely bug free grow with extreme chemicals etc. When you artificially create a large monoculture which would never occur naturally then bugs will interact with it on a similar scale. Then if you use chemicals it just creates further problems, which require more attention. I mean you can do it but it takes all the fun out of it, and the effect of poisons on what you are going to eat isn't fully known. I've heard talk of growing 9 plants worth for yourself and one for the bugs and just accept it.

My chilli grow is an unnatural monoculture, plus I did it wrong by planting too close together. Other than that I've tried to keep it as close to nature as possible so it will take care of itself. For the most part it has. Next season I will plant the further apart and make an effort to do companion planting.

harry said:
The ChilePlants.com Beni Highlands listing describes the length as ranging from 1.5 to 2 inches (~38 to 51 mm). Mine probably range between 35 to 40 mm. The shape of the pods in their photo is a match to the shape of my pods but the final colour here is not lemon yellow.

What are the chances of a pod surviving a month more after first turning colour given the moth issue? I too am interested in how your Beni Highlands rates taste wise. The orange variant here was one of the only varieties that hit the flavoursome, hot and sweet combination..

I've found a lot of "yellow" varieties turn a tint of "orange" in the Australian sun, its not an exact thing. One of my moruga yellows on the other hand is definitely orange and not remotely yellow. So its a mixed up seed or a cross or mutation etc.
I haven't noticed a correlation between ripe pods and moth attacks. I get plenty of green pods that are eaten from inside by maggots. They aren't normally picked until they are ripe but if you check the pods on the plant for holes there are as many green ones. The moths do seem to like some varieties more than others but that might just be an access issue.

Took some garden pictures just for the sake of it.

This is after a harvest so everything is very green.

Cut down two Orange Habaneros (centre) to allow more air through and ease the crowding. Their stumps are still there so they should grow back. Also pruned the Orange Lanterns right back. One here on the right.

The other Orange Lantern was all up in the face of my only Pimenta De Neyde and it was badly mited so it really had to go.

Bhut Jolokia is looking real good. There are a lot of green pods here but hard to see.

Beginning of Fatallis

Smaller Yellow Moruga plant only has three pods but they look great!

The seeds from the pod processing session are drying. Right above the aircon so if it gets hot they are the first to cool down.

Sorry about the blurry pictures. The sun makes it hard to take a good photo and it was windy.... but I dropped the camera the other day and think its taken some damage somehow. Still good enough I suppose. Need to get a real good camera.

PeriPeri · Feb 25, 2013

All looking great... awesome stash of pods! That is some heat you got going there. I would love to grow plants in my garden... but it is whitefly central and anythings grown there just gets decimated. Awesome to be able to grow them close to home though

TheFanMan · Feb 25, 2013

what are those seeds in? tea bags?

megamoo · Feb 25, 2013

PeriPeri said:
All looking great... awesome stash of pods! That is some heat you got going there. I would love to grow plants in my garden... but it is whitefly central and anythings grown there just gets decimated. Awesome to be able to grow them close to home though

I have had a lot of luck to get such a great garden space and the landlord who is happy for me to do whatever with it.

TheFanMan said:
what are those seeds in? tea bags?

Bingo! Got them off ebay. They are `make your own herbal tea bags`. I got them for isolating but they're pretty useless for that. Worked well drying my first lot of saved seeds, this is round two. I left them up for over a month and that was probably too long.

stc3248 · Feb 26, 2013

Mega your hedge row is freaking awesome! Every time I visit I just stare at it for a while. I had no problem spotting all that ghost goodness on your Bhut plant. Wow...you're 'bout to be loaded with pods. Great harvest too. Keep it up brother...no more nagging about the GRASS PROBLEM I promise! I actually let the grass get tall on one side of my containers last year to keep the pots from heating up...so it ain't all bad!

Stefan_W · Feb 26, 2013

The dorset naga was crazy juicy!

Your bhut is so big it looks like a tree. I'm betting you will get well over 150 pods per plant on that one.

megamoo · Feb 27, 2013

Thanks everyone for dropping in and checking out my glog.

stc3248 said:
Mega your hedge row is freaking awesome! Every time I visit I just stare at it for a while. I had no problem spotting all that ghost goodness on your Bhut plant. Wow...you're 'bout to be loaded with pods. Great harvest too. Keep it up brother...no more nagging about the GRASS PROBLEM I promise! I actually let the grass get tall on one side of my containers last year to keep the pots from heating up...so it ain't all bad!

I spend more time than I should sitting and staring at the chilli hedge

We keep getting these sporadic hot spells just after the Bhut buds up and its been dropping tons of flowers. Uncannily bad timing. It should be truly covered in pods, and it gets too much sun. Almost from dawn to dusk, that's why its leaves are small and you can see right through the whole bush. So it doesn't look lush and healthy but I'm hoping come Autumn it will just keep on going strong.
Pretty sure you're right, the grass is shading the pots and doing them a service, but its getting too big and now some of the plants are being swallowed! I trimmed back the grass along the base of the wall but I'll need a whole day of no kids to sort out the pots. Need to shift all the pots and the retic, remove part of the fence, shovel stuff for a hour and put it all back together. Can't do all that, and change nappies and monitor crazy kids at the same time. As soon as the deadbeat ex does what she said she'd do stuff will happen. <expletive> :crazy:

I shouldn't say any more or I'll never stop... :whistle:

Stefan_W said:
The dorset naga was crazy juicy!

Your bhut is so big it looks like a tree. I'm betting you will get well over 150 pods per plant on that one.

There was no picture of the Dorset Naga that I mentioned, but it was juicier than the ones pictured!

I don't mind if my bhut is big, in fact I welcome it

, but you maybe shouldn't say that to the female growers on here

Hoping to get that many pods

StupidJerk · Feb 27, 2013

Love the pictures of your garden, everything is looking good. That's a raised bed that is built to last! It's great you have a land lord that lets you have that many plants. Keep up the good work.