harvesting My Oct 25, 2010 harvest.

[mega]

Harvested a pretty nice pile of peppers today - October 25, in Virginia!! Kinda expected things to be over about a month ago, but the pods keep comin' and comin'. The total Aji Limon count is now north of 250!! Wish I knew what the cause of this was, so I could repeat it next year! All the peppers in this pic were just pulled this morning!!

 

[ZanderSpice]

Beautiful harvest there, everything looks good sized and nicely ripe. What are those funny shaped yellow things in the bowl?

 

[Moshman]

They look like tomatoes.

 

[franzb69]

looks like yellow pear and red pear tomatoes. =D

 

[mega]

Haha, yep, good call -- they're yellow pear and red pear tomatoes. Nice tasting little tomatoes, easy to grow too.

Incidentally, the peppers are (starting at 12:00 and going around clockwise more or less)
- grand marconi hybrid - great taste; slightly disappointing yield in the low 20's
- aji limon - ridiculous yield of nearly 300 now, and still going strong, from just two plants
- hotties (actually, there's a few orange habs mixed in, but not many - maybe 3 or 4; the hotties are larger and milder than the o. habs, not quite as tasty but very productive, 100+)
- a few different kinds of jalapenos. Late season jals are kinda small and bland still edible, although I'll probably just toss them
- mariachis. Stink bugs consider these the chocolate fudge sundae of the pepper world - simply irresistable!
- Caysan (the orange-y ones; from Australia)
- hot fingers and hollands (the red ones toward the left; they look about the same I guess).
- mesillas (green, upper left. SUPER successful, productive year for the mesilla. One of the easiest peppers I've grown)
- the orange ones just to the left of the hotties are costeno amarillos from Peppermania and man do they rock. Beautiful plants too - tall, like mini-trees.
- there's one Morouga Red leaning against the tomato bowl

 

[franzb69]

Haha, yep, good call -- they're yellow pear and red pear tomatoes. Nice tasting little tomatoes, easy to grow too.

got a couple yellow pears growing thanks to siling_labuyo. =D

got quite a few tomato plants myself.

 

[Yaargh!]

Harvested a pretty nice pile of peppers today - October 25, in Virginia!! Kinda expected things to be over about a month ago, but the pods keep comin' and comin'. The total Aji Limon count is now north of 250!! Wish I knew what the cause of this was, so I could repeat it next year! All the peppers in this pic were just pulled this morning!!

Wow, Mega. This is pretty damned impressive considering my plants outside on my balcony keeled over this past weekend. I would understand your success if you were located in southern VA but if you're in my area in and around Alexandria I guess I should feel jealous and a little ashamed.

Question 1: Are Aji Lemon and Lemon Drop the same? They're very similar in appearance.

Question 2: How did you combat your stink bugs? Find and squish, spray, or some other method?

 

[mega]

Wow, Mega. This is pretty damned impressive considering my plants outside on my balcony keeled over this past weekend. I would understand your success if you were located in southern VA but if you're in my area in and around Alexandria I guess I should feel jealous and a little ashamed.

Question 1: Are Aji Lemon and Lemon Drop the same? They're very similar in appearance.

Question 2: How did you combat your stink bugs? Find and squish, spray, or some other method?

1. There seems to be some debate (on this board) about Aji Limon vs. Lemon Drop. Some say they are different. I've grown both, and they seem like the EXACT same thing to me, kind of like asking "Is a House the same thing as a Casa?"

2. The closest I came to a formal stink bug strategy was this:

Though a bit tedious, the above method will prevent about 50-70 % of the stink bug damage. That is, it won't protect every pod, but it will cut down on the losses. It's much like a house alarm, which won't keep out a determined professional burglar but will deter the neighborhood riff raff from bothering.

Here in Virginia, stink bugs are at epidemic proportions. There's really no way to combat them, except one bloody battle at a time. They destroyed about 1/3 of my garden this year, and well over half of my jalapenos, mariachis, and orange habaneros. My main strategy has been to outlast them through sheer force of numbers - have so many plants, and so many pods, that no matter what they do, there's still plenty to eat. Plus, whenever it looked like the stink bugs had found a plant they really loved, it was immediately converted into a decoy plant and placed right smack in the middle of whatever I was trying to salvage. This is easier to do with pots, of course, than plants in the ground.

However, next year I will be breaking out the pesticides. I hate to do it, and have never used non-organic products in my garden before, but you cannot fight stink bugs with insecticidal soap. I fear the stink bug problem is only going to get worse next year and the year after that - they have the momentum, that rare combination of prolific reproduction, limitless food supply, and lack of natural predators.

 

[ZanderSpice]

Spinosad might work on the stink bugs. It's better for beneficials that a strong pesticide. Hope I never have a problem with them here.

 

[roper2008]

Larry. I had a quite a bit of stinkbugs, but I wouldn't say epidemic
porportions. At least not in my back yard. I'm in Virginia Beach.

 

[OZZZ]

Nice!! What are those lighter colored pepper pods in the lower left hand corner? I see those at the grocery store all the time labeled white chillis.

 

[mega]

The light-colored ones are Mariachi's. They are not sold in many places - primarily at Burpees - and I've never seen them in a supermarket. I think the white chillis are something very different. Mariachis are thick-fleshed stuffing or roasting peppers, with a trace of heat, enough pungency to satisfy civilians but not most chiliheads. I grow them for my wife, who's a bit burnt out on habaneros and fataliis. The only thing I don't like about them is they're not very productive - 25-30 pods max per plant. Also, they are exceedingly preferred by garden pests of all types. Growing Mariachis in bug-infested Northern Virginia is a bit like hanging big slabs of raw steak in a garden next to a tiger park.

[[Larry. I had a quite a bit of stinkbugs, but I wouldn't say epidemic
porportions. At least not in my back yard. I'm in Virginia Beach.]]

May they bypass you in VA Beach, my friend. Actually, the epicenter of the stink bug phenomenon is in central PA, just north of me about 50-75 miles. It is thought they were introduced there from East Asia in 1998 and have been gradually spreading out in ever-wider concentric circles. At this point, northern Virginia is pretty much Ground Zero or very close to it. They've had cases this year of houses in my area with 4 to 5 MILLION stink bugs in the walls (how they count that, I can't imagine. Sounds like a good make-work program to solve unemployment, though!). One thing I noticed this year that I haven't seen anyone talking about is their mutating eating habits. Last year, it was strictly sweet peppers, thick fleshed, and that makes sense, because there's more to eat and they don't (or didn't) like the capcasin. This year, they were decimating habaneros from Day 1, literally climbing over my sweet peppers to get to the habs (they later came back for the sweet peppers, of course). So sometime in the last year they kind of mutated to be more flexible in a hot pepper garden, and man, now there's like nothing they won't nibble on.

 

[AlabamaJack]

I have grown both Aji Limon and Lemon Drop and what I grew had two definite different pod shapes...the aji limon was more pointed and shorter than the lemon drop...I didn't like the Lemon Drop taste but loved the Aji Limon taste...

 

[NorTexChiliJs]

I have grown both Aji Limon and Lemon Drop and what I grew had two definite different pod shapes...the aji limon was more pointed and shorter than the lemon drop...I didn't like the Lemon Drop taste but loved the Aji Limon taste...

Bummer...I just acquired some lemondrop seeds and was planning on growing them out next year. Guess I will look for some Aji Limon.


I also grew the mariachi this year and NEVER had a pod without a few spots left by stink bugs. Not sure I will grow these again unless they will work as a "trap" plant to keep stink bugs off my other plants. However, I think I would rather not have ANY stink bugs at all!!

I started buying "Safer" brand garden bug spray. I dulite it with a hose-end sprayer at about 10 Tablespoons per gallon. This makes it go alot further and doesn't leave the plant sticky like some other sprays or neem oil. Seems to keep stink bugs to a minimum..aphids too!!

 

[mega]

I have grown both Aji Limon and Lemon Drop and what I grew had two definite different pod shapes...the aji limon was more pointed and shorter than the lemon drop...I didn't like the Lemon Drop taste but loved the Aji Limon taste...

I of course defer to your expertise in such matters!

I think it *may* be that last year I got aji limon seeds that were incorrectly labeled lemon drops, because to my eye they look exactly the same and yet there are many here who say they are different.

NorTex: exactly where I'm headed with the Mariachis!! that is, possible use as a trap plant, otherwise pointless to grow until someone comes out with a true stinkbug decimator in a bottle.