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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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I recognize the shape of the pod in your "stinger?" photo, the plant that I grew last time also grew pods with that shape. Also the spikes were clearly present.

I started a couple of plants also for this years grow but it was already too late in the season. Will likely try again next season...
 
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Here is my first Papa Dreadie plant, this one is the best producer for now. I have it in a pot on a balcony which means lot's of sun and just enough watering.

I guess I'll take seeds from the left one for next season.
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Just tried one and it has lovely mild fruity taste and just enough heat (I cant give a good description) - I will love these for sure
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Thank you again Vivian for those seeds. Really good one :cheers:
 
I've got one going okay currently (the picture was pre-watering). And it had one little pod that dropped off as I tried to get a picture. But generally it's all doing well. I had to trim up a lot of lower foliage to deal with what I think might have been some leaf spot, but it's been fine since.

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I've got one going okay currently (the picture was pre-watering). And it had one little pod that dropped off as I tried to get a picture. But generally it's all doing well. I had to trim up a lot of lower foliage to deal with what I think might have been some leaf spot, but it's been fine since.
A positive development: apparently my P. Dreadie has a couple other pods on the way.

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