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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:

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

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The legendary bus:

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Lots of green Dreadies here.  Thinking no more than a couple of weeks and they'll be ripening.  I've got 4 plants.  My TFMs, WHPs, Safis and Stuffers are at about the same maturity as the Dreadies.  My Boatman's are a little further behind.
 
Bicycle808 said:
I've got plenty of ripe Dreadies so far but the per-plant production levels lag behind the rest of my Yellow Bonnets significantly. They've been doing well with all my Yellow Bonnets focus group tests as of yet...
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Last year MOA reds smoked Dreadies early in the season. By early/mid August the Dreadies pulled ahead. ATM my best TFM in a fabric pot is ahead. It has 1 pod turning now. The other 2 though in hard pots (like my Dreadies) are behind a little. Last year my Dreadie in the fabric pot produced heavily. Just like the TFM that is in the exact same spot this year.
 
ATM i dont see enough of a difference to matter much. Both will produce more than i can use if conditions are favorable. I still have a few more days before the TFM is ripe to compare flavor.
 
My TFM seeds came from Trent. Open pollinated im sure. The pheno looks a little bit off to me. I certainly could be wrong...First time ive grown them.
 
This is a couple weeks ago. It has quite a few more on it now.
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Dreadie and MOA red, same time last year, same pot and same location
 
Tons of ripe MOA reds by the 27th
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I had 4 ripe Dreadies and that plant was loaded with pods
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July 9th last year pic give a better idea of how much this beast eventually produced
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Granted comparing this year with last year is hard. We had a much cooler and wetter spring/June this year. I had way more ripe pods on everything by now. Not a huge difference in total pods (eventually) but they are behind for sure.
 
 
Yeah, the weather here in 2019 has been superficially similar to 2018, with frequent rain and high temps, but last year the rain was frequent and lasted for hours at a time, sometimes all day. This year, were getting frequent hard but brief showers, which has actually just been convenient. Last year, all my pods got shitty cracks in them from being waterlogged; this year, that hasn't been an issue.

However, the high winds and actual tornadoes have been battering my plants, leaving them flattened and knocking pods off often. Only one major case of breakage so far, though... But a lot of trunks are leaning at 45°, despite efforts to stake them (which usually results in them leaning the other way.) Half of that "problem" seems to be caused by the heavily pod- laden branches...
 
We got pounded by week long rains and cloudy days early in the season. Last year May/June was pretty warm/hot from what i remember. All i can go by for sure atm is comparing hard pots to hard pots. Last year those same hard pots in the same location might have had about the same or possibly less than what i have now. I got some really nice sized Dreadie pods on 2 or 3 of those pants. Quite a few with a nice shape too.
 
Another couple days and this TFM will be ready to sample
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The MOA reds i had came from Midwest Chile Head seeds. They were really hot for bonnets too. Good but i do prefer the flavor of the yellow bonnets. Juanito's Scotch Brains are also really tasty. They did have a hint of bitterness i dont get from Dreadies. A few of mine look kinda "brainy" this year with small tails.....cant wait to sample those. Im getting some really nice sized pods for this time of year.
 
Sampled my first Dreadie of the year. Needed to get the seeds. I only cut off a small piece from the bottom away from the placenta. MUCH milder than last years and sweeter. Smells hot as hell though. Absolutely wonderful flavor. Not even a hint of bitterness.
 
That first TFM that is turning now has another right next to it. Its turning ripe super fast. (Pod below the yellow one in the last pic.)
 
What a great thread and a great pepper. I wish I could have known him personally. I will definitely need to grow a few of these. Everyone's plants look great
 
That looks great, SMDS. After some early ugly ducklings, most of my Dreadies look really nice... Classic Bonnet shapes with cool spiky/warty surfaces.
 
Last year the first wave were many off shape....really far off too. This year is better. I got quite a few first wave with a nice bonnet shape. Biggest difference is size. Lots of larger ones this year. Even the TFMs are plump.
 
Dude, some of my TFMs dwarf my other yellow Bonnets. Only bigger Bonnets I've grown were Freeport Orange last year. This year, my Freeports are way more modest sized, so far.

But the TFM jawns are the biggest yellows I've grown, so far. But I've been getting big Dreadies this year, and some of these Schneider Farm things are a decent size, too
 
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