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:

 

[Ghost Pepper Revolution]

Another day, another picking of P. Dreadies. Some of them are forming some stubby tails. I'm going to save seeds from the one in the middle here to grow out next year. It would be nice aesthetically to have a lot of those pods.

Man, these pods are some good eating! I'm not a big fan at all of habs, but these P. Dreadie scotch bonnets are deeeelicious!

Those look bangin

 

[Blister]

After two rather dismal grow seasons due to wild fires, I'm growing the P. Dreadies once again.

The two on the bottom left are Jolokia's. The rest are P. Dreadies. Both of these are the staples in my grow and the only ones I'm growing this year.

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[CaneDog]

Yeah I could sure do without those wildfires this year.  Good start on the peppers!

 

[Trident chilli]

Looking good Neil .....

 

[Sawyer]

Just counted 40 sprouts out of 75 seeds planted. Turning cold here again tonight, so I expect a slow down on germination. These are isolated seeds from my original plant.

 

[Blister]

Coco coir never fails to amaze me for plant growth speed.

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[stettoman]

I've had trouble keeping Dreadies alive beyond the first few weeks, but this season it looks like I'll have three good specimens. I'll post a pic once they're big enough to see over the lip of a Solo cup...

 

[CMJ]

I had some calcium issues with about half of my seedlings this year. My P. Dreadie took it particularly hard for some reason. I had to pull all old growth so it was basically trimmed down to a nub. After a rigorous few rounds of call mag all new growth is healthy and looking good. This thing is going to be a bush in a couple of months! Will post pics when I get home.

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

Last year my Dreadies started really slow but once they kick in they REALLY kick in. Im only growing 3 this year. Last year i had 5? and i just could not make use of all the pods i got. Decided to replace half with TFMs just to try something new to me. Plus i wanted to focus more on supers.

 

[CMJ]

It's about to get serious!

 

[Harry_Dangler]

I've got 4 going.  They're typically slow.  Right now they're 3" babies.  Growing a few Bonnets this year.  








Scotch Bonnet Alan Boatman TF

2



Scotch Bonnet Avenir

2



Scotch Bonnet Beth Boyd

1



Scotch Bonnet Cappuccino

1



Scotch Bonnet Elysium Oxide (rust Pheno)

3



Scotch Bonnet Faria Tobago

2



Scotch Bonnet Freeport Orange

3



Scotch Bonnet Giant Chocolate

2



Scotch Bonnet Jamaican Long

3



Scotch Bonnet Jamaican Orange CE

4



Scotch Bonnet Jamaican Red CE

3



Scotch Bonnet JW's

1



Scotch Bonnet MOA

1



Scotch Bonnet MOA Red

1



Scotch Bonnet Nagabon

3



Scotch Bonnet Papa Dredie

4



Scotch Bonnet Peach

4



Scotch Bonnet Safi Red

1



Scotch Bonnet Stuffing

2



Scotch Bonnet TFM

2



Scotch Bonnet UFO

4



Scotch Bonnet WHP

3



Scotch Bonnet WHP II

1



Scotch Bonnet Jamaican Chocolate

4



 

 

[stettoman]

Last year my Dreadies started really slow but once they kick in they REALLY kick in. Im only growing 3 this year. Last year i had 5? and i just could not make use of all the pods i got. Decided to replace half with TFMs just to try something new to me. Plus i wanted to focus more on supers.

That's gotta be a Chinense trait, every time I grow one they would stall at some early stage, like taking a big whompin' breath before blasting off. The only exception I can think of were some stowaway Aji Limos that came in a pack of Aji Amarillo seed. They grew slow, but steady...

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

That's gotta be a Chinense trait, every time I grow one they would stall at some early stage, like taking a big whompin' breath before blasting off. The only exception I can think of were some stowaway Aji Limos that came in a pack of Aji Amarillo seed. They grew slow, but steady...

 
Not so sure about that. Early part of last year my MOA reds blew away the Dreadies in growth and production. When they caught up though they cranked. ATM both my aji panca and brown bhuts from Trent are growing faster. TFMs are doing about the same as Dreadies.

 

[Bicycle808]

So, I'm trying my hand at the Papa Dreadies again. In the past, I've had some trouble getting them to germinate, but i got seeds from a different source this year (thanks, Thegreenchilemonster!) And they did quite well. So, as of right now, i think i got 8 or 10 Dreadie seedlings, among dozens of other Yellow Bonnet plants of various lineages. So far, if not for the labels I'd scrawled in Sharpie on the sides of the Solo cups, is be hard-pressed to tell the Dreadies, TFMs, and Foodarama is started at the same time; they're all the same size, crazy bushy, and spring the big, crinkly leaves that i associate with true Scotch Bonnets. The Schneider Farms SBs are a little smaller, and the leaves are smaller and less crinkly, looking more like a typical chinense than a SB. The Al boitman SBs didn't geminate well for be, and most of the ones that did geminate are stunted and looking mangled. I might just scrap them...

But i am so stoked to grow these Dreadies again. They produce such beautiful, delicious pods...

 

[Thegreenchilemonster]

I'm glad those germinated well for you, man! I have grown P. Dreadie SBs isolated for the last few seasons, so those seeds should put off some tasty lookers for sure.

 

[Bicycle808]

Thanks again, TGCM, for the seeds and for everything you do for this community. As usual, I'm growing a bunch of yellow Bonnets (probably 36 plants, plus i got some buddies stoked to take my culls, do I'll be involved with some extras as well) and I'm hoping this will be the year that the Dreadies perform as well for me as they have for other folks on here...

 

[MarcV]

My Papa Dreadie
 

 

 

[Blister]

Gave the lads a new home. The roots were doing everything they could to stretch their legs. Should be good from now until they go into their final home of a 3g fabric pot

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[internationalfish]

 
Those are some gorgeous roots!*
 
* There are whole classes of things I would never have expected to say even once that are now totally normal thanks to you people and this ridiculous hobby. I hope you're all very happy. No, really, I do hope that.
 
[edit: After going back and reading the first few pages of this thread to figure out what it's actually about... my, uh, allergies are acting up, that's all. What a great community.]

 

[CaneDog]

Happy to be able to participate this year. My PD's are catching up with a few of the SB's I planted earlier and have some nice bigger leaves on them. Seeing just a bit of curl creeping in on the one though, so maybe it's time to move them out a little.  I suppose pot-ups wouldn't hurt either.