I've tried Bhut Jolokias, and now Trinidad moruga scorpion's. I've had limited success though, getting any significant amount of fruits from them. I live in a fairly short season area, but have really sunny hot days, cool nights, and most of the time, frosts were actually very late (Mid to late October). The best production has been in containers that were only getting sun in the afternoon, and then shaded by other plants a bit then. Is there some secret for these. The Scorpions I put in my main garden last year grew huge, but only produced a few fruits. I had Aji Dulces (same species) loaded with fruits, same with Cajamarca, Locoto's, etc. Do these super hots like less light? Warmer nights? Higher humidity (not much chance to change this however!). Would GA help? I've planted about 20 of them this year - and they look nice so far. I put them in a spot that gets a little shade in the middle of the day, and am planting basil (Arrarat - which is tall but fairly loosely growing) on the south side of the wide row. I may put in some other basil in amoung the row too and see what happens. I use black plastic, and sometimes row covers as well to keep the soil warm, and the night temps higher.
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More Fruits per plant for Super Hots?
- Thread starter loki
- Start date
Well, I'm not too sure of the correct answer - but I can tell you that mine see about 6 1/2 hrs of full sun per day, the rest is all shade. They have all put out more pods than I'll be able to handle. I suppose though it's quite the mix of growing aspects that turns into production, and would be hard pressed to leave it up to the light variable alone.
Hmmm, though that is pretty different from me. The ones that looked large and healthy but green last season were getting 12 plus hours of sunlight - all sun - with practically no clouds, at 4500 ft elevation, all growing season (except at the very end). Even with the latitude difference, I think that's a lot more light! I have a friend with about your time - and will give him a few to grow out this year too. Any other suggestions welcome too...
Good soil. Preferably organic. Compost, worm castings, manures, azomyte(rock dust), using AACT, fish ferts, etc. Also I'd say planting in ground or in raised beds is better than pots. If your soil is good, it will be naturally abundant in earthworms, pooping all over your plants and you can't have that even in a gigantic pot.
I have pretty much the same as spd07d. I grown most of my peppers in the ground, with nearly identical conditions. Most other peppers (including the ones I mentioned above that the same species) did very well, as did eggplants, and tomatoes. A few other C. chinense peppers - an early habanero, an Aju Dulce (different strain than the one I mentioned above which was super productive - 40 plus fruits per plant), and a thick-fleshed one from Brazil were pretty low in production too. But mainly it's the super-hots - but pretty much I've only tried two - Bhut Jolokia and Trinidad moruga scorpion, have real trouble with only a couple fruits per plant. But as I've said the plants looked great. The peppers that did develop were also fairly early (on the scorpions, very late on Bhuts - which I abandoned as not viable here). As I said, the containerized plants (I only put 4 plants in containers, and about 4 miles from the others as well) did best (contradicting Zoli), though most often that is not true. I'm trying some other things this year and I'll let you know. I realize that I also need to put a few in the same conditions (as near as possible) where I've had the problems - for comparison! I grew a little yellow pepper PI 441624, that is C. chinense, that did very well - hundreds of tiny fruits. They were extremely fragrant too. And extremely hot - probably not to super-hot status, but close! http://thehotpepper.com/topic/30061-aji-charapita-peppers/page-2 - they are mentioned here.
I don't remember tons of flowers, but I think there were quite a few? I'll take photos this time. I DO think that I thought they looked like they were going to be really productive - so maybe there were lots of buds. But again most other plants did really well, in the same garden, same conditions, same fertilizers (I fertilize the peppers and eggplants the same, the tomatoes differently as they don't like too much N). Most peppers self-pollinate (about 95 percent - and probably higher here with the dry conditions). But excessive heat can cause floral drop or other conditions where fruits don't form. This is pretty common for me with tomatoes. This could be the culprit - and the reason the containers were more successful. The containers usually are even exposed to hotter conditions, but last year the scorpions were also shaded a bit - so the heat (and brick wall they were against) probably did not get that hot. I grew luffas right up against the wall - lots of heat - and they thrived! I've not experienced this with other peppers that I know of. But there have been some I've dropped from growing due to low productivity so you never know. Maybe some of the super-hots are more prone to this? Most tomatoes have this problem, but last year even though many days went above 95, there were windows of cooler weather when pollination was successful, so I have a huge crop. I think maybe shading may help with this for the peppers. I am going to plant peppers in that garden with some shade, and without. I'm also going to give some to a friend with a shadier garden. I'll try some containers too. Then later I'll report on the results. I think I'll try some GA too. Maybe I'll think of some other experiments too?
For me, bhuts and nagas are about the hottest that produce well. Those are typically choc full of fruit. But once you get hotter, the production seems to fall off. If I read your posts correctly (yes, I'm drinking fine Imperial IPA tonight), I would try some 5-10 gallon pots. In ground may be fine for most peppers in your location and altitude - superhots love warm roots (but not necessarily direct scorching sun). Ok, back to my IPA.
Try more varieties or different seed sources, some are definetely more condition sensitives than others. Also if you get at least a couple mature pods keep sowing your own seeds year after year and select best plants until you get a variety that thrives in your climate. For me Naga Morich is a production machine.
Cya
Datil
Cya
Datil
you know if ur getting too many pods to handle, you can always send them this way!JutsFL said:
me too, nagas in general, most frutescens go crazy here too!Datil said:
A little update - My Trinidad moruga scorpion peppers planted amongst other plants - Korean perilla and Arrarat Basil, are doing really well. They have flowers and are fairly tall for these. I've also been giving them Calcium (Calcium Nitrate from a commercial source from our landfill free shopping mall - I think this was used for growing non-allowed plants - it was sealed) as well as Magnesium (Epson salts). I've started with Calcium chloride now too (I use this for pickles and have a commercially large container). They are both also getting liquid fertilizer and micronutrients also (I give these to all my plants). The 'control' is not flowering yet. Neither shows curling or crinkling on the leaves (but I'm adding all the same nutrients to both). The treatment group do seem larger and 'healthier'. I will get photos next time. I don't know about the other plants being grown by others yet. This is a good sign that they are flowering already. It's early for C. chinense here. We may have three more months for these if the Fall weather cooperates.
Hey Loki, for the most part I've has the same problem in Covina (20 miles east of downtown LA, 1/3rd of the way to San Berdoo.)
The climate here is hot and arid, and I suspect that the superhots, mostly derived from peppers from tropical climates, require more humidity and possibly less heat than my climate provides.
The only thing I can think to deal with these issues is to provide shade (my plants seem to prefer shade to full sun) and posssibly to mist the plants once in a while. Running water like a fountain near to the plants might help produce some humidity too.
The climate here is hot and arid, and I suspect that the superhots, mostly derived from peppers from tropical climates, require more humidity and possibly less heat than my climate provides.
The only thing I can think to deal with these issues is to provide shade (my plants seem to prefer shade to full sun) and posssibly to mist the plants once in a while. Running water like a fountain near to the plants might help produce some humidity too.
It may just be getting too cold at night there, which causes both bloom drop and substantial decrease in insect (pollination) activity. So long as the plant is forking and budding then you have to look at where the process stops.
Huh? I put earthworms in my pots. I have some walkway stones that they congregate under so when the time comes just lift them up and presto, wormo!
Zoli said:
Huh? I put earthworms in my pots. I have some walkway stones that they congregate under so when the time comes just lift them up and presto, wormo!
Every grower is different every garden is different! My pots get way bigger than my in grounds, a large portion of this is because my container mix is lovingly and specifically crafted to grow peppers! And yes I find earthworms in my containers often! The key to good container growing is to create a good living ecosystem and then feed it all season long. Look at pepper gurus 7 ft fatalii tree and the hundreds of pods he gets off that thing and tell me you could grow a better more productive plant in the ground or in a raised bed. Conversely, he also grows big in ground plants as do Kevin(way right) and Alabama jack, they grow in ground monsters that I'd be scared to run into in a dark alley! The point of all this is, if you growing conditions aren't ideal then perhaps you need to think outside the box a little, experiment, grow 6-8 of a couple of superhots and treat each one just a little differently document all of this and figure out what works best for you!
My super hots are not producing well at all. Lots of flowers but losing most. Pretty sure it's the heat. Next year they will be under shade cloth.