glog NJChilehead's 2025 GLOG

Before we get started, I wanted to post this image for the GLOG cover. This was one of the last harvests I got from my 2024 plants, which were picked later in December:

This is probably the earliest I've ever started pepper seeds! Usually seeds are started between 3/1 and 3/15, but this year I'd like to experiment a little.

My reason for starting this early is that I'd like to get split crops from my C. pubescens next year (a spring and a fall crop). Looking at the average temperatures for my area, it looks like the best temperatures for fruit set are from about 4/15 until about 6/1. Afterwards, it would be too hot for fruit set until September:

Considering the typical 8-week time frame between germination and plant-out, I figure if germination is between 1/1 and 1/15, I could grow indoors for a few weeks, do an intermediate up-potting, and then plant in containers somewhere between 3/15 and 4/1. This would give them a few weeks to get their roots settled and start putting on a little size for flowering. The plant might still be a little small around 4/15, but I'm hoping it'll wake up sometime around then and 5/1 to give me at least a few solid weeks of fruit set and growth. Time will tell!

I'm starting seeds for Rocoto Aji Largo for the experiment. I've read that Aji Largo is relatively easy to grow compared to some Rocotos, so I figured it would be a good candidate. I'm also attempting to germinate 20 year old seeds for Rocoto PI 593930 and Rocoto GRIF 9345, I believe neither of these are in circulation anymore. There are pictures of GRIF 9345 online, but nothing about PI 593930. The only thing I could find about PI 593930 is the following:

"PI 593930. Capsicum pubescens Ruiz Lopez & PavonCultivar. WWT-1371-A; Aji picante. Collected 11/03/1995 in Ecuador.Latitude 3 deg. 41' 49'' S. Longitude 79 deg. 41' 12•• W. Elevation 1060m. Provincia El Oro, Canton Pinas, Parroquia Pinas, Localidad Pinas. Locally grown. Purchased in market. Fruits oblong conical, 5-7cm long, 4cm wide, constricted at base, red when ripe. Piquant. Seeds black."

From: https://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/pi_books/scans/pi205.pdf, page 163

Pre-soaking the seeds from GRIF 9345 and PI 593930 (below). Eventually, all of the PI 593930 seeds and more than half of the GRIF 9345 seeds sank to the bottom. I don't know if there's any truth to the old float/sink test for potential viability, but maybe this could be a decent sign that at least one or two seeds might germinate for me. I have at least 30 seeds for each. I'd really like to resurrect these, keep them in circulation and share seeds with others!

I'm also overwintering an Ecudarorian Red Pepper from Hell and a Rocoto Turbo, to see if I can also get a spring harvest off of them. They were both prolific and tasty, and relatively easy, so I thought these would be good candidates! The ones pictured are actually my Ecuadorian Red Pepper from Hell (foreground) and Rocoto de Seda (background). I'm going to give the de Seda to a friend who really liked them when I gave them to him. My big concern with these is keeping them outside in the garage so that they don't bring any aphids inside!

Thanks for looking! I'll keep everyone posted as the season progresses!

 

[NJChilehead]

Ugh, hasn't been a good two weeks. Lots of rain and cooler temps than normal. Some light rust and fungal issues from the lack of sunlight and the excessive water. This is way too early in the season for this crap, usually it hits in September .

Because of the colder temps (high 40's at night) I haven't even put my anuums and chinenses out yet, and I've still got a few backup Rocotos waiting in the wings because two of the potted ones are not looking as healthy as I'd like.

Here are a few pics of what's happening in the garden at this point:

Here are the chinenses and anuums. They're looking healthy but now getting root bound. I'm planning on putting them out Sunday or Monday.

My Aji Guyana. It's not quite as frail looking as in the photo, the wind was blowing it a bit as I took the pic.

Sugar Rush Amarillo. Hasn't grown much because of the temps, but it's early in the season.

Baccatums and Aji Panca in the garden. Clockwise from bottom left: Aji Chinchi Amarillo, Aji Mango, Aji Panca, Lemon Drop:

My Rocotos in their cages. I'm hoping for massive harvests from these later in the season to share with others.

My fig trees, which are looking better than I expected despite the rain and cooler temps!

Hopefully I'll have better news in a few weeks!

 

[CaneDog]

Hope the weather comes around quickly for you. It's been similarly cruddy here, but it's just now coming around. Those rocoto cages are awesome. I suspect you're going to really need them this season! The figs remind me of a tropical desert island. Pretty cool!

 

[NJChilehead]

Hope the weather comes around quickly for you. It's been similarly cruddy here, but it's just now coming around. Those rocoto cages are awesome. I suspect you're going to really need them this season! The figs remind me of a tropical desert island. Pretty cool!

Thanks! Yup it looks like it's coming around for me now too!

 

[NJChilehead]

Okay time for an update!

The annuums, baccatums and chinenses are all in the ground. Baccatums were put in ground a few weeks ago (photos above). Two weeks of unusually cold weather may have set the baccatums back a bit, but I am hoping that it didn't. The chinenses and annuums were put in ground last week (May 27th/28th) and, despite two unusually (and unpredicted) cold nights, they have been growing fine. In fact my Zapotec Jalapenos have already set fruit! Here is the layout:

Annuum bed. From L to R: Zapotec Jalapeno (2) from Baker Creek, Jeromin Paprika (thank you @MarcV ), and Chile Chocolate (thank you @ahayastani ). The tomatoes in the background (L to R) are Sweet 100 and Sungold.

Chinense bed.

From L to R foreground: Scotch Bonnet Orange, Congo Black Habanero, Mayan Red Habanero

From L to R background: Bahamian Goat, Petenero, Aji Chombo

I have a few native plant beds. Here's a nice shot of some blooming Beardtongue that I got yesterday:

Carnivorous plants are doing well. I have some larger planters in the front that I didn't photo, but here are some of the plants in the back:

A nice shot of some sundews. They're doing a good job on the gnats!

Fig trees are growing well and producing! Here are the fig trees in pots, mostly second year:

Breba (figs that grow on old wood) from my Italian Honey Fig. This is not the desirable main crop that grows on new wood, but these figs will be earlier and are still good tasting!

Some figlets from my Naples Dark UNK. fig:

I will update about the Rocotos in a little while!

 

[NJChilehead]

Okay now an update about the Rocotos!

In the beginning of this thread, I described two little experiments that I was doing with some C. pubescens:

1) To see if I could get any sort of a spring harvest from plants that were started in early January, and
2) To see how an overwintered plant would perform this year.

Regarding the spring grow, I chose Aji Largo and Aji Oro as my types to play around with. Aji Largo started blooming back in March, and set the first fruit in mid-late March. Aji Oro didn't really start flowering until the last week of April, and set the first fruit in early May.

Aji Largo is doing well now, with about 20+ fruit on it. It has been flowering but dropping just about all of the flowers. It may have set one or two earlier this week during a cold spell. Overall, 20 fruit is not bad, but it's only about 1/3rd to 1/5th of what I had from my plants last year, so the real test now comes when we see what it does in the fall. If it grows nice and large all summer and then gives me 100 fruit in the fall, it's worth it, but if it gets root bound in the 6 gallon pot and doesn't perform well, then it would be time to change direction, perhaps with a larger grow bag, or a later start. Time will tell. I'm getting the first ripening fruit now from Aji Largo. I'll report back on the taste!

Rocoto Aji Largo plant:

Ripening Aji Largo fruit:

Aji Oro only set about 10 fruit until the end of last week, then it rapidly set about 1/2 dozen fruit over the past few days. We did get a cold spell this past weekend with lows in the upper 40's, however it was pretty warm yesterday (mid 80's) and it still set solidly. I've read that Aji Oro is slightly more tolerant of heat than other Rocotos, but we're looking at 90 degrees today with lows only in the high 60's, so that might shut them down until the autumn. We have temps dropping a little on Saturday (highs mid-70's and lows in the 60's) and I'll be VERY happy if it decides to pump out a bunch more fruit before the constant summer heat gets to it. Again, time will tell. For the record, Aji Oro is quite larger than Aji Largo right now. Aji Oro plant:

Aji Oro fruit:

Now for the overwintered plants: my original plan was to overwinter an Ecuadorian Red Pepper from Hell and -maybe- a Rocoto Turbo. I decided not to bite off more than I can chew, so I settled on just the ERPFH in a 10 gallon grow bag and I culled the Turbo. Now I kind of wish that I didn't, because I could have handled it as far as having room. However, one of my de Sedas came roaring back so strong that I decided to keep it, and it's really impressing me. In fact it set about 4 fruit last week.

Here's the ERPFH, in a 10 gallon bag. This thing is going to be unmanageable come the autumn!

Here's the overwintered de Seda, in a 7 gallon bag. I can't believe how well it recovered. It's going to be a beast too.

I mentioned the Tapachula Market peppers above that were sent to me. In a way, I wish I had started them in January too, but wanted to stick with what worked because this is such a cool heirloom and I don't want to take risks with them! They're off to a slow start but I'm REALLY looking forward to what these do for me. They're not looking as deep green as the others right now, which I'm anticipating will correct itself as the root systems grow and they start pulling nutrients and water more effectively from the substrate. Here is the Tapachula Market Red in a 10 gallon grow bag:

Here's the Tapachula Market Yellow, in a 7 gallon grow bag:

Here's the whole bunch, on the side of my house:

Wish me luck!

 

[NJChilehead]

I got my first ripe Aji Largo today! This is a little over 6 months from seed to ripe fruit, which is a month shorter than last year's seed start in March and first ripe fruit in October.

Taste wise: I wanted to clear my mind of any expectations, but I immediately thought of the Ecuadorian Red PFH when I first tasted it. The taste wasn't exactly the same, but it was very close. This might be a little more vegetal in flavor. No bitterness.

Then the heat hit. WOW! This is hotter than ERPFH. It wouldn't surprise me if it's over 75K SHU, maybe closer to 100K, but to be honest, I rarely try fresh peppers for the sake of testing the hit so that might be skewed. Plus, that dihydrocapsaicin just hits differently. It really shocked me how hot it was, and my 14 year old (who fell in love with the rocotos too last year) tested a little piece and described the heat as "alarming".

It's very nice tasting, and definitely a keeper. I'm going to let the next ones ripen more deeply and taste again. Here's a pic of my first beauty of 2025!

 

[CaneDog]

Then the heat hit. WOW!

They are hot. My recently harvested largos lit me up good.

Nice to see you getting some early season rocoto pods!

 

[Englander]

My experience with "ripe" Rocotos is limited as I often run out of year growing outside in Scotland......but

The Rocoto Long from Seaspring seeds I reckon is a selection/improved version of the Aji Largo.

I know they test their SHU from time to they list their Rocoto Long as 60,000 SHU.......

boy it took me by surprise !

To me it burned way more than 60,000 shu !

Other's will know better than me............ possibly Rocotos have more of different types of capsaicin ? Dihydrocapsaicin ? Etc ?

Can't wait to try my 2025 Rocoto Peron supposedly 100,000 shu !

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

I think the rocotos seem spicier because they are juicy, the juice spreads the spiciness in the mouth.
Maybe we need to practice as some chinense eaters suffer from just a small annuum that hits the throat.

I will have some rocotos to experiment with this year.

Question (not strictly related): do you use the unripe rocotos in any way?

 

[NJChilehead]

They are hot. My recently harvested largos lit me up good.

Nice to see you getting some early season rocoto pods!

Thanks! I'm not surprised you got lit up by these. Holy cow.

My experience with "ripe" Rocotos is limited as I often run out of year growing outside in Scotland......but

The Rocoto Long from Seaspring seeds I reckon is a selection/improved version of the Aji Largo.

I know they test their SHU from time to they list their Rocoto Long as 60,000 SHU.......

boy it took me by surprise !

To me it burned way more than 60,000 shu !

Other's will know better than me............ possibly Rocotos have more of different types of capsaicin ? Dihydrocapsaicin ? Etc ?

Can't wait to try my 2025 Rocoto Peron supposedly 100,000 shu !

Yup, Rocotos are said to have a much higher ratio of dihydrocapsaicin to capsaicin than other types. IIRC I've read about 80% dihydrocapsaicin to 20% capsaicin. It really does burn differently too.

I tried more of the pepper last night, higher up towards the calyx and closer to the placenta. I ate a piece of the fruit that was about the size of the fingernail on my index finger, and the sensation ran straight down my esophagus and into my stomach. I almost got cap cramps from it. I've been growing chinenses and eating them for over 20 years. including some of the world's hottest stuff like Trinidad Scorpions. I know that peppers can be variable and this might not hold true for all of the Rocoto Long/Aji Largos, but if we use the old metric of not using HPLC and just going by intensity of the burn in the mouth, and factoring out the dihydrocapsaicin and capsaicin difference, I'd be comfortable saying that the pepper I tried yesterday was over 100K SHU.

I don't think it's lack of tolerance either, I got a big crop last year and I've had them in freezer bags all winter and pickled on the shelf, and I eat them all the time, so my body has gotten used to dihydrocapsaicin in at least a small way.

I will admit that they are wildly variable though. Last year I got some varying results from cutting them up raw and putting them in my salad, or using them for poppers. I used all three that I grew last year (ERPFH, Turbo and de Seda) for poppers, and while they were hot to very hot, I wouldn't use the one I tried yesterday for a popper, no way. I think the most variable of all last year was the Turbo. I had a few that were pleasantly warm and I had one that I got some of the placenta of when I was cutting it up for fresh consumption, and it was VERY hot.

I think the rocotos seem spicier because they are juicy, the juice spreads the spiciness in the mouth.
Maybe we need to practice as some chinense eaters suffer from just a small annuum that hits the throat.

I will have some rocotos to experiment with this year.

Question (not strictly related): do you use the unripe rocotos in any way?

I agree about the juiciness! It's like your mouth gets carpet bombed. They are really cool in that way, and with the burn comes the flavor. Oh man are they good.

I do not use the unripe rocotos. Last year I had a plant blow over in the wind and break, and I decided to try an unripe fruit. It was so grassy and bitter that I don't know what could be done with it. In fact, if I could share a piece of advice: make sure the fruit is completely ripe, in that it has deepened in color and maybe even started to get little wrinkles on it. I find the flavor deepens and they get a little sweeter then.

 

[NJChilehead]

Okay, some pics from the garden with a few new developments!

First, and one of the things that I'm most happy about, is that both of the Tapachula Market Peppers turned the corner this past week. Here are some shots from June 3rd vs. June 14th to see the difference.

June 3rd (Yellow):

June 14th (Yellow):

June 3rd (Red):

June 14th (Red):

The red really made a nice jump this past week, and it is even flowering. We have a few relatively cool days coming up, maybe I'll get an early fruit from it!

Here are a few more pics, sorry about the lower light conditions. It was getting dark and I was going to abandon it and start over tomorrow, but some of them looked kind of cool so I kept them.

The chinenses are growing nicely, and weren't stunted at all from the one or two nights in the high 40's! Three of them have open flowers now: Scotch Bonnet, Orange, Mayan Red Habanero, and the Guatamalan Petenero. I've mentioned the Petenero on here before. It is an absolutely delicious chinense, right up there with Scotch Bonnet and Fatalii!

Scotch Bonnet, Orange. Look at how many flower buds!

Petenero:

The baccatums are really doing well. The only one that hasn't flowered and set fruit yet is Aji Mango, but that looks like it'll change this week:

Lemon Drop:

Aji Guyana:

Aji Mango:

Aji Chinchi Amarillo:

Sugar Rush Amarillo:

When it was starting to get a little darker, I decided to try to get a shot of the coneflower and purple milkweed in my native plant bed. They came out pretty cool. @CaneDog mentioned before about how sometimes you don't notice something until after you take a photo of it. I didn't see the crab spider hanging out on the milkweed until after I opened the photo!

 

[ahayastani]

I've mentioned the Petenero on here before. It is an absolutely delicious chinense

I absolutely agree. I find it somewhat strange that it's not more common.

 

[CaneDog]

Looking good. It's a great feeling when things turn the corner and you really notice the growth coming on!