Northern Climes - what are you thinking about growing this year?

Here it is not even Christmas with 7” of snow on the pepper patch and I’m thinking about what to grow next season. The season just past was a very effective first year growing serious seed started chilies. I still have bags in the freezer that I’ve been using for sauce (more than I can use or give away to unsuspecting friends)and salsa.

Additions for the coming year:
Chimayo – have read positive reports on powder from these
Fresno – same as above.
TAM Jalapeno – wifey doesn’t like them to hot.
Brazilian Starfish – novelty.
7 Pot Yellow – really liked the 7 Pot Jonah and Trinidad Douglah (thanks Chris) from last year. In my garden, they seemed hotter than the Bhut Jolokia and Dorset Naga that I also had and enjoyed.
Aji Panca – acquired some via a fellow pepperhead (Matt Berry) and they made a wonderful powder.
Another Scotch Bonnet variety – Along with the TFM from last year.
NuMex Joe E. Parker – really like the NuMex varieties. Sauce and powder them.
Also some sweet fryers, like Jimmy Nardello and Corno Di Toro.
Deletions:
Roccoto – Never did ripen in this climate / growing season.
Aji’s – WAY to many of these, plants were so prolific that I had “tons” of them. Lemon Drop, Pineapple, Limon all seemed pretty similar, and I had four plants of each.
Aji Amarillo – While the plants grew to about 4 ½” tall, they had few pods (some had none) and did not ripen satisfactorily. I may try just one plant to see what happens this year.
Chilhaucle Negro and Rojo – Plants struggled and did not particularly have use for the peppers.

What say you yee chiliheads of the North? Have a merry Christmas and joyous New Year!
 
These should be here in the mail any day now from Neil...

Chocolate bhut jolokia
7 Pot
Yellow 7 Pot
Douglah/chocolate 7 Pot
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga
Trinidad Scorpion
Bonda Ma Jacques
Congo Black
Red Devil's Tongue
Aji Lemon

Also have

orange habanero
carribean red
datil
fatali
bhut jolokia
yummy orange
jalapeño
serrano
a few others

I'll probably pick up some cascabels and a thai variety. I would like to get some brazilian starfish and some others but I already have too many I think. :o
 
T.S. red
T.S. yellow
T.S. muoruoga
Fatalii
Chocolate hab
White bullet hab
Orange hab
Carribean red
Red 7pod
Yellow 7pod
Barrack 7pod
Serrano
Red bhut
Chocolate bhut
Yellow bhut
Zavory
maybe a few more?

When are you planning on starting your seeds?
 
I'm planning on starting my chinenses within the next week, the faster growing/earlier maturing varieties probably in a month.

What's the deal with the rocottos that you guys had problems with? I think I'm going to try growing some rocottos and manzanos this year. I read that they withstand colder temperatures better than other peppers, which should be good for us. I don't know much about them though.
 
I understand that Rocotos don't produce well in their first year, so If you can overwinter them, you should be golden for the second year.
I will be attempting somewhere around 45 varieties next season as mostly a test year to see what I like, as this past year was really only a
Half year as I never really got into gardening at all until about June. I attempted Sweet Banana, Sweet Cayenne, Jalapeno and Red Beauty Bell
lackluster performance from the S. Cayenne and the Banana. Jalapeno put on about 40 pods but it only grew to about 18 inches tall, Red Beauty was
a nice plant, about 24 to 30 inches tall, put on about 10 large sweet red pods, but only 1 was actually bell shaped. Will probably not grow any
of these next year. Here's my list for next year, a mix of sweet, hot, super hot and ornamentals:

Aji Bonito
Aji Brown
Bhut x Bell
Bhut Jolokia CPI
Black Pearl
Bonnet x Bell F3
Brazilian Starfish
Bulgarian Carrot
Cajun Belle F1
CAP 1478
Cappuccino Habanero
Cherry Pepper
Chile de Arbol
Chile de Onza
Chocolate Fatali
Clavo
Condors Beak
Costco Hybrid F?(Ok, so I grew some seeds I took from a long red sweet I bought from Costco, these produced short red sweets about 3 inches in length, see what I get next year)
Fidalga Vermelha
Filius Blue
Fooled You Jalapeno F1
Italian Pepperoncini
"MA" Wiri Wiri
Monkeyface Yellow
Morouga Blend Yellow
Mustard Habanero
Numex Heritage Big Jim
Numex Pinata
Numex Suave Orange
Numex Suave Red
Padron
Peru White Hab
Peter Pepper Red
Poblano
Purira
Ring of Fire
Rocoto Orange
Short Yellow Tabasco
Sweet Chocolate
Tobago Seasoning
Trinidad Perfume
Tunisian Baklouti
And a few Thai Varieties I'm not sure about, here is what they are listed as: Prik Bra Dap (Charming), Prik Bra Dap (Fak Thong),
Prik Ki Nu Suan, Prik Sri Num Khao, and Prik Wiang Ping.

We'll see how it goes out here.
 
On the rocotto issue, I had two decent plants that were planted on May 20th, about a week to ten days earlier than normal for this grow zone. While the plants remained healthy, they had slow growth. Began flowering in late July; but no pods until the latter part of August. The pods just sat there, never exhibiting any signs of ripening. They were finally pulled on Oct. 20th. I am not enough of an expert to understand the dynamics involved, other than to say that they did not work well for me. There are too many other varieties to try rather than waste time with one that’s not happening. I have read about the need to over winter for a good second year plant; however, I guess I do not have the patience.

Will most likely start Chinese mid-January with the remainder late February. That was the schedule I used last year and worked out pretty good.

Always interesting to see what everyone is contemplating for next season. Those not in the know kind of smirk at my “obsession”, wondering why I’m thinking about PEPPERS in December. They do not understand that this hobby takes a certain amount of pre-planning.
 
Most of what I will grow will be to sell at Farmers Markets and maybe to some retailers. I still have a maybe two pounds of dehydrated peppers I've accumulated. One exception will be Hungarian Hot Wax. I hope to pickle 25 or so pints of these. ~ 20 plants

The others:
Bhut Jolokia - Cincinnati is always a couple of years behind the rest of the world but these are the "cool" pepper to buy now. ~25 plants
Jalapeno - I need to find a good one. I can sell them ripe or smoke them and sell them that way. ~25 plants
Habenero - It's a popular pepper in Cincy. ~10 plants
Jamaican Scotch Bonnet - I have lots of seeds left and my son wants me to grow these - either to sell, give away or use in the food he cooks at a local University. ~5 plants
Tobasco - Very prolific, although late ripening peppers. 2.5 ounces of these peppers will be a bag full. ~ 10 plants
Bell - Got to have some of these - red, green, yellow. ~20 plants
Sweet Banana - Ditto. But the ones I have grown in the past are too prolific! ~5 plants

This should be a decent start!

Mike
 
I'm planning on starting my chinenses within the next week, the faster growing/earlier maturing varieties probably in a month.

What's the deal with the rocottos that you guys had problems with? I think I'm going to try growing some rocottos and manzanos this year. I read that they withstand colder temperatures better than other peppers, which should be good for us. I don't know much about them though.

They let you grow peppers in prison?
 
I'm hoping to be discipline this year and only grow what is going to be used or sold easily. Right now my plans are to grow a few hundred CAP1546 and chinese 5 colors to sell as ornamentals, and to grow at least a hundred Numex/Anaheim types for personal use and for local sales but mostly for roasting.
I'll also be continuing to work on stabilizing several hybrids I've developed as well as developing a few new ones. I'd like to grow out about 20 Whippet's tail X chinese 5 color f2s to get a good range of phenotypes to choose from
I don't plan on growing too many super-hots since I still have a freezer and a trunk full of them, and they just don't sell around here in quantity.
I also plan on going tomato crazy again this year but haven't quite narrowed down the varieties yet.
I never have luck with pubescens either but I plan on trying a few Equadorian hot peppers from hell which have been highly recommended. Chimayos never grow well for me nor do the NuMex sunset and sunrise. I think they must like drier, less humid climates. Joe E. Parkers were OK but I'm hoping to replace them with numex bigJim heritage.
 
lol...Im feeling kinda crazy myself. This next year will be my super-hot year. I just planted almost 30 different types today, and will plant the others straight to the ground in April/May. The ones I planted today were just the ones that will be staying here at the house. This year is WAY more involved. Why do I feel a little "obsessed?" lol
 
I haven't fully decided on what I want to grow this year. I'll be planing some Barrack-7's, Jamaican red mushroom's and some Scotch B's, but other than that, I'm not sure. I'm going to limit myself on how much I plant. I just don't have the space for another 40+ plants :(. I'd like to plant some serrano's, but I just don't have luck with them for some reason.
 
Yes, involvement continues to escalate, the pepper patch contiues to grow and wifey is not happy that I'm beginning to encroach into her herb garden and half the backyard. The neighbor wanted to know what I had growing, told him they were chili peppers, said he liked "hot stuff", gave him a couple of 7 pots and told him to be careful. Next day he told me I almost "killed" him. "How the hell do you eat that stuff". He doesn't understand!
 
Yes, involvement continues to escalate, the pepper patch contiues to grow and wifey is not happy that I'm beginning to encroach into her herb garden and half the backyard. The neighbor wanted to know what I had growing, told him they were chili peppers, said he liked "hot stuff", gave him a couple of 7 pots and told him to be careful. Next day he told me I almost "killed" him. "How the hell do you eat that stuff". He doesn't understand!

hehe
I just gave some little blues to someone.
not a superhot, but ppl here still think habanaros are the hottest pepper... so should be interesting :P
 
So do most people here... (>_<)

The wait's killing me! Here's what I got so far:


Anuum
• Chiltepin
• Thai Demon F1
• Etna
• Jalapeño
• Po Cheong
• Pusa Jwala
• Ball Chilli
• Tae-yang Gochu 

Chinense
• TS Butch T
• 7 Pot - Douglah
• 7 Pot - Yellow
• Bhut Jolokia
• Naga Morich
• Fatalli
• Habanero - Red
• Habanero - Choc.
• Habanero - Peruvian White
• Antillais Caribbean
• Scotch Bonnet

Other
• Aji Limon
• Tabasco 
• Rocoto Canario
+ A few other unknowns.
 
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