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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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DontPanic said:
Ooooohhh!
 
That AeroGarden is riced up nice!
 
Mirrored privacy barrier, boosted air pump...
 
Those P. Dreadies will be crawling out of that AeroGarden before your ready to plant them out.  :)
Thanks for the positive vibe, HM!
You make it sound so...cool   :rofl:
 
The AG has worked well for me in the
past, but it's been a couple of seasons
since I have used it. Hoping to do those
Papa Dreadie's proud!
 
Inoks said:
Still waiting for my seeds, but grow will happen in 2022, so no rush
Yours started their journey today, Inoks.

Otherwise, three of seven shipments have confirmed receipt. Hopefully the rest will arrive at the intended destination soon.

I still have three or four non-machinable US stamps and an adequate supply of seeds. Send a pm if anyone else wants to grow these. I also picked up an extra international stamp today, too. Available to ship seeds where allowed by law.

Be advised, I won't be going to the post office again for at least a week. Trying to mail something by leaving it in my mailbox with the flag up isn't really an option here, too many pilferers.
 
These are the original Papa Dreadie pods sent to me by Erin Mason in 2013. As far as I know, all true Papa Dreadie plants in existence today descend from the seeds of these three pods:
 
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Papa Dreadies growing in Erin's garden in Texas:
 
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Memories of Erin posted by his wife Liz on his Facebook page:
 
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Erin Mason, musician, songwriter, silversmith, and breeder of the world's most beloved Scotch Bonnet pepper: a spirit of infinite magnitude, extending love and life across the universe for all eternity:
 
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+1 for Paul's comment.

windchicken said:
These are the original Papa Dreadie pods sent to me by Erin Mason in 2013. As far as I know, all true Papa Dreadie plants in existence today descend from the seeds of these three pods:
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If I ever knew, I had forgotten these were so "prickly". Is this trait persisting in others' grows?
 
PaulG said:
Thanks for providing the back-story, Gary.
 
Thanks for looking Paul!
 
Sawyer said:
+1 for Paul's comment.

If I ever knew, I had forgotten these were so "prickly". Is this trait persisting in others' grows?
 
Thanks John! That's a really good question—As I remember from my 2016 grow, from seeds collected from Erin's own pods shown in the above photos, not every single pod had those spikes. It may have been an environmental thing, as it seems like maybe the spikey ones came mostly at a particular time in the season...
 
I would love to know if anyone is still getting pods with that trait, as well....
 
Update: I found this photo from my 2016 grow, and it seems that I was impressed to find this one spike on one of my pods. As the seeds for these peppers came directly from fruit that Erin grew in his garden in Amarillo, it seems to me that the spikes must be a result of environmental influences on the plants:
 
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