P. Dreadie Memorial Group Grow 2016

Long-time THP veterans mourned the loss last August of Amarillo, Texas musician/songwriter/silversmith/chilehead Erin Mason, known to us here on the boards as P. Dreadie. Erin was an enigma, one of the most interesting and creative, yet gentle and loving guys I ever knew. Many of us may be unaware that he played harmonica in one of the original Austin, Texas bands of the early 1970s "Cosmic Cowboy" era, Alvin Crow and the Pleasant Valley Boys. When Erin decided to step off of Alvin's perpetually-touring bus and return to Amarillo, he travelled to Jamaica, fell in love with the Reggae beat, collected the best Scotch Bonnet fruit he could find, and his alter-ego Papa Dreadie was born.

In 2013 Erin sent me a few pods of the Scotch Bonnets he had been breeding, carefully selected descendants of the original fruit he brought back from the Caribbean all those years ago. I harvested every single seed from those pods, and stored them away, as I focused increasing attention on other varieties. When his wife Liz gave us the news last August that Erin had passed, I knew what I had to do with those seeds: a community grow in his memory. I have already shared about half of them, and I will continue to share them with experienced growers of the Scotch Bonnet until they are gone.

Papa Dreadie Scotch Bonnet Select, grown by Erin in 2013:

Lifetime memories posted by Liz Mason on Erin's FB page. Liz is an extremely talented professional photographer:

The legendary bus:

 

[windchicken]

This reaping is the very last Papa Dreadie harvest of the year for me, unless by some miracle we can go 2-3 more weeks without a frost, because the plants are loaded with big, glossy, green pods.
 
Anyway, here's a spikey Dreadie for ya John:
 

 

[Superhot Sim]

This reaping is the very last Papa Dreadie harvest of the year for me, unless by some miracle we can go 2-3 more weeks without a frost, because the plants are loaded with big, glossy, green pods.
 
Anyway, here's a spikey Dreadie for ya John:
 

 
Thats one of the best pods iv seen this season Gary , awesome looking pepper my maan
 
id be growing from that if that was mine
 
You got green fingers Gary i know that buddy...

 

 

[Trident chilli]

Gary great shaped pod and a spike can be clearly seen on the top rim .... as this thread comes to a close in the Northern Hemisphere I think Erin would be pleased with everyone's efforts

 

[windchicken]

 
Thats one of the best pods iv seen this season Gary , awesome looking pepper my maan
 
id be growing from that if that was mine
 
You got green fingers Gary i know that buddy...

 

 
Wow, thanks so much, Simmy!!! 
 
These Bonnets are going to Matthew Arthur up in Arkansas. He's an expert grower, so hopefully he will save seeds from the spiker...
 

Gary great shaped pod and a spike can be clearly seen on the top rim .... as this thread comes to a close in the Northern Hemisphere I think Erin would be pleased with everyone's efforts

 
 
Thanks John!!! It makes me so glad to hear that! 

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

Started fresh. . .hoping to get 20 trees of this var...thanks again to Gary for the many blessings

 

[PaulG]

Good work, all!  Some very nice pods in this thread!

 

[Superhot Sim]

Gary clear your pm,s buddy , left you a message .

 

[Blister]

With the kind generosity of Matt, I am now in possession of some P. Dreadie seeds and a few other varieties I haven't had before. I'll be joining the P. Dreadie glog next year. Hard to believe that I'll be getting the early starts going in 4-6 weeks from now. Can't wait to try these!

Neil

 

[Plantguy76]

John (Trident) sent me some P Dreadie seeds in his Christmas card so I am going to try again in the 2017 season

 

[Durham Bull]

Hi,
 
love all the scotch bonnets, I am looking for a few P Dreadie SB seeds for this coming season.  
if you have some to share, I can send a SASBE.
 
Thank you
 
Sy
 
PS. the spikey Dreadies are cool looking
 

 

[Malarky]

Hi,
 
love all the scotch bonnets, I am looking for a few P Dreadie SB seeds for this coming season.  
if you have some to share, I can send a SASBE.
 
Thank you
 
Sy
 
PS. the spikey Dreadies are cool looking
 

PM me your addy.

 

[Durham Bull]

PM me your addy.

 
PM sent
Thank you Matt

 

[Jase4224]

My P. Dreadie SS is growing super fast, probably the fastest growing of the 30+ varieties I have this year. I have buds forming on it and only germinated the seeds in October.

 

[Trident chilli]

My P. Dreadie SS is growing super fast, probably the fastest growing of the 30+ varieties I have this year. I have buds forming on it and only germinated the seeds in October.

That's great to hear .... keep us posted on its development looking forward to seeing some great looking pods

 

[Malarky]

3 have Popped so far!

 

[mlh5953]

3 have Popped so far!

 
What does the "SS" part of " P. Dreadie SS" stand for? 

 

[Malarky]

Select Strain...I think

 

[D3monic]

I got seeds sown, growing 4 plants this year. Growing this one instead of MOA.

 

[Trident chilli]

 
What does the "SS" part of " P. Dreadie SS" stand for? 

As Malarky say's SS stands for Select Strain. If you look at page 1 #20 I wrote to Erin asking him about his bonnets and sent him photographs ... I had wrongly assumed that I had grown the select strain however he explained how the select bonnets were chosen ... In UK the word culled means killed ... Erin's understanding is that certain pods were hand picked! .... what was intresting to see was both standard and select pods on a single plant. Hope this helps

 

[Masher]

I read alot of great things about this strain but discovered it first in a memorial youtube vid talking about the origin and THP member this thread was about.

Hogleg sent me a few..I included them into this yrs grow...looks likeva couple have sprouted already.