• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

PaulG 2012

I'm chomping at the bit to get started with some new chilli varieties this coming Spring. So far I've just scratched the surface with Poblanos, Jalapenos and Serranos, all of which I really like. I've been egged on by a new Second Generation Mejicano neighbor as we've talked about hot chillis over the back fence! He helped me make some Pico de Gallo with my Serranos and Early Girl tomatoes and has some great recipes from his mother and grandmother. Hopefully I'll be able to share some of them on this forum in the future. I need to grow more Cilantro. Oh yeah!

I've ordered seed from several sources which received at least a few good comments on this forum (6/12 - items crossed out did not germ, or weren't planted this year):

US Hot Stuff:
Bolivian Rainbow
Yellow Peter
Nosegay
Trinidad Scorpion (from Spankycolts)
Devil Tongue

The Hippy Seed Company: Seed Packet Mixes
NuMex Twilight (from Siliman)
Yellow Jellybeans
Tom Thumbs
Wild Texas Tepin

Refining Fire: Seed Packet Mix
Scotch Bonnet
Chocolate Habanero
Jamaican Red Mushroom

New Mexico State University:
Chiltepin
Omnicolor
Red Carribean Habanero
Orange Habanero

Pepper Gal:
Aji Yellow (request from a Peruvian friend of ours!)
Thai Hot

Peppermania:
Inca Lost
Fatali
White Habanero (from Spanky)
Red Savina (cross with Fatali, from Spanky)
Bishop's Crown
Inca Red Drop
Orange Rocoto
Congo Trinidad

I doubt I will be able to try all of these out this year, but I have saved my seeds in small glass jars with tight-fitting lids for storage over the next year. I have been saving seed from other garden produce and have had good luck with germinating them after two or even three years. The jars are stored in boxes in the garage for a cool dark location for them. I have ordered several compact varieties with an eye toward trying to winter over some of my plants this year. Since I didn't even know peppers were perennial, I can say I've already learned something from this forum!


I purchased a small greenhouse from One Stop Gardens (via Harbor Freight) for $300 four years ago. This is one of the greenhouse kits I've noticed in the greenhouse advertsing bar at the bottom of some of the pages on this forum. This picture is from Spring/ Summer 2011. You can see my tomato and pepper starts on the sheves. I winter over some bonsai trees and jade plants as well as geraniums, begonias and Gerbera Daisies. In the winter, I use a small space heater (visible on ground in the picture) to keep the temp at 40F during the few cold weeks we experience here. So far it has worked pretty well. If overwintering pepper plants becomes a reality I'll be making more room in the greenhouse! I've started a thread in the Grow Tech forum to discuss issues which crop up with these units.

greenhousepan11a.jpg


January 14, 2012:

Composting:

Okay, I need to do something outside. I know, I'll dig out a compost bin. We've had a little dry cool weather, so the worms have burrowed down, and the compost is crumbly, if a tad wet.

DSCN3318sm.jpg


The first step - dig out the bin and sift the material. I use a homemade frame with a layer of 1/4 inch plastic hardware cloth backed with a layer of one inch mesh poultry netting. The fine stuff goes into the wheelbarrow, the coarse stuff into an adjacent compost bin we're still building up.

DSCN3316sm.jpg


The bin on the left is covered to keep the leafy material dry and fluffy. The dry leaves are an important layer in the compost 'cake'. The bin on the right is the one I'm digging out. Nice, dark and crumbly with lots of worms! The sifter is on the wheelbarrow, and some of the coarse stuff is already on the active compost bin in the middle. The bin in the back is resting for several of months. It has a black plastic hardware cloth cover to keep out squirrels and racoons.

DSCN3321sm.jpg


The bin is all dug out. I left about two inches of broken up compost on the bottom of the hole to create a space for the worms to move into. You can see the bin in the middle has a layer of coarse stuff spread out on the top.

DSCN3323sm.jpg


The last step is to put a nice deep layer of dry leaves on the bin we just dug out. Now that bin will rest for a at least several months or more while the earthworms move into the compost/earth interface and do their work. That will make a great base for the next cycle of composting in this bin. I put a thin layer of leaves on the middle bin, too. Now there's a nice layer cake of dirt/compost, leaves. kitchen scraps. All small yard clippings except grass go into the compost bins, even tomato vines and pepper branches and twigs. I don't even chop stuff up too much. I try to have at least 10 or 12 layers of stuff built up before I cover the bin with a layer of dirt/compost and let the worms work for several months. I'm getting about 12-18 cubic feet of compost from these bins a year. My goal is to become 'soil self-sufficient' at some point, perhaps only having to procure horticultural pumice or vermiculite and some peat moss every so often.

DSCN3322sm.jpg


The good stuff. It will go into a plastic, vented storage bin for at lest eight weeks to cure a bit. Then I mix it with a little peat moss and some vermiculite or pumice for aeration. In my large containers, I add 2 or 3 inches of compost worked into the top of the container only every year. I try not to mix up the soil layers in the big containers very much, letting the nutrients percolate down through the soil as in a natural setting. As the blog continues this summer, I'll include photos of the irrigation system and containers I use to grow my tomatoes and peppers, and a few other things.
 
MGold86 sent me a nice box o' pods (pics to follow), but I ate one with dinner
last night before taking group pictures today! A really nice Naga Morich
which I cut into eight pieces:
DSCN4582a.jpg


The inside story:
DSCN4583a.jpg


I almost forgot to take a pic of the meal: Pinoy would never
forgive me! Unfortunately I had already messed up the plate
so the presentation is funky:
DSCN4586a.jpg


First off, the flavor was great, even over the top of the lasagna.
The first couple of bites got the back and sides of my tongue
burning pretty good. By the time I had the third and fourth
pieces my lips and throat were burning and my nose started to run.

The heat was building through the meal, and after five pieces
my throat burn increased with each swallow, and the sixth bite
had me blowing my nose. I figured that's where it would end
heat wise, but after the seventh piece, my tmj joints started to
feel a funny sensation - not heat, exactly, but definitely were
being affected by the pepper. So, finished off the eighth piece,
and my nostrils started burning! I've never had so many different
sensations eating a pepper. For about an hour after the meal,
I was still aware of the nostril burn, and my forehead felt like a
little sunburn. I tasted the pepper every time I burped for the
rest of the night. Glad I don't have acid reflux!

I don't know what all this means, maybe it's my imagination!
In any case it was a great pod, and really livened up my meal!

I have to go and download my pics of Matt's pod package. Will
post them in the morning.
 
very nice, your becoming chile head, ill just have the lasagna without the peppers in it :drooling: :drooling:
i can handle powders but pod itself probably ill be in the bathroom for 24hrs :dance:
 
Great looking plants and pods Paul I am glad the tomatillo is producing for you and peach hab is starting to show signs of wanting to grow. That crab spider shot is awesome. Great review the naga morich is great pepper I am just starting to get pods after the plant was on it last leg and used some of the brew came back to life. Hope everything is going well for you and your family and the garden continues to look amazing. Poddage soon hopefully you will be pulling out the tub for harvest.
 
Great review of the naga my man :fireball:

And as always the food has my tummy rumbling.

Can't wait to see the box o peppers matt sent ya :onfire:
 
very nice, your becoming chile head, ill just have the lasagna without the peppers in it :drooling: :drooling:
i can handle powders but pod itself probably ill be in the bathroom for 24hrs :dance:
I'm not sure I rank with the Chileheads, but thanks for saying so, Eric!
There are some beasts on the forum; we all know who they are :)

I think you would do just fine if you put the peppers with your lasagna.
You would have way more control over the heat, etc than when eating
a whole pod at once. Spreading it out with the food helps me enjoy it
without the agony.

Thanks for the visit, bro!

Great looking plants and pods Paul I am glad the tomatillo is producing for you and peach hab is starting to show signs of wanting to grow. That crab spider shot is awesome. Great review the naga morich is great pepper I am just starting to get pods after the plant was on it last leg and used some of the brew came back to life. Hope everything is going well for you and your family and the garden continues to look amazing. Poddage soon hopefully you will be pulling out the tub for harvest.
Hey, Fernando, that Tomatillo is growing like crazy; it seems like
every flower produces one of those 'lanterns', but I'm not sure
what's going on inside them, hopefully fruit! I stumbled on the
spider by accident while pruning roses. We have quite a few
crab spiders here; there are quite a few varieties, but they are
all stalkers, I believe, and have the legs spread wide so they l
ook like a crab. They are reclusive and stealthy to a fault.

Good luck with your Naga. It was my first super to set pods,
and is starting to be a good producer. I was kind of surprised
it could do that in our climate, but happy none the less.

Thanks for the encouragement, buddy. Family is good, and dad
continues to recover so we are all breathing a little easier, now.
Have a great weekend when it gets here!


Hi Paul
Quite the flurry of activity today finished by the obligatory food shot/pepper review. Stay crazy you nut! :fireball:
You hit the nail on the head, Rick :rofl: Sorry to make you wade
through all that at once. My 'food' shots are amateurish by comparison
to yours, my friend. I'd feel like I was dissing Matt's generosity if I didn't
share the enjoyment with the forum!

Hope your grow continues to astound!


Great review of the naga my man :fireball:

And as always the food has my tummy rumbling.

Can't wait to see the box o peppers matt sent ya :onfire:

Thanks for the kind words, Jamie! It's fun trying out the various peppers
that you and Matt, JCR and Fernando have sent. You are all very
generous and a forum stalwarts! Can't wait to share some back; pray
for good PacNW weather :pray:

Here are the goodies! The squares on the cloth are 5/8" (17cm) on a side for sizing
the pods. Some of these are monsters, just huge pods! Looking forward to giving
them a try.

A couple of nice crosses in this group. Top to bottom, left to right: 7 Pot Jonah, 'Nota'
? (sorry Matt, couldn't make out the name on this one), Butch T; Red Scorpanero F2,
Indian Carbon, 7 Pot Original; Douglah x BJ Red, 7 Pot BP, BJ Giant Red, BJ Red;
Datil Sweet(?):
IMG_9654a.jpg



Not sure what the smaller pods are, I'm guessing pequins of some kind and a some
kind of bird pepper? Maybe Matt can help out there. Large pods: Primo, BJ Chocolate,
7 Pot Yellow; TS Yellow, Fatali; Douglah, BJ Brown.
IMG_9655.jpg


And, not to be outdone, my harvest of yesterday. Notice I zoomed in to make them
look big like Matt's :rofl: The two on the left are Fatali/Savina from Spankycolts'
plant; three Pointed Yellow Habanero; Hungarian Yellow; two Omnicolor; the first tiny
Naga Morich (also Spanky's), early, small Congo Trinidad:
IMG_9656a.jpg


Thanks to Matt for the great 'box of hell' as he called it! This will be fun : )
 
The "Nota" is Not 7 pod white and the small red balls are red cheiro(they are awesome) and the one that look like bird peppers are Maui purple pepper I think. The first pods are always teasers I have come to accept that with my plants. Glad you hear everything is great with you and your family take care have a great weekend as well.
 
The "Nota" is Not 7 pod white and the small red balls are red cheiro(they are awesome) and the one that look like bird peppers are Maui purple pepper I think. The first pods are always teasers I have come to accept that with my plants. Glad you hear everything is great with you and your family take care have a great weekend as well.
Thanks, Nando. You are Johnny-on-the-spot! Very helpful, my friend!
 
Lol. I am glad that you liked the naga. I really like them, they are a hell of a producer and pack s great punch. But the first photo, the "nota" is a "Not" 7 pot white. It was supposed to be white, and turned out to be red. Decent flavor and good heat. also, you are correct that it is a datil sweet. In the second Photo, the smaller elongated ones are Maui Purples and the smaller ones are red Cheiros.

I am glad you liked it and everything got to you in good shape.

Enjoy!
 
Lol. I am glad that you liked the naga. I really like them, they are a hell of a producer and pack s great punch. But the first photo, the "nota" is a "Not" 7 pot white. It was supposed to be white, and turned out to be red. Decent flavor and good heat. also, you are correct that it is a datil sweet. In the second Photo, the smaller elongated ones are Maui Purples and the smaller ones are red Cheiros.

I am glad you liked it and everything got to you in good shape.

Enjoy!
Thanks for the clarification, Matt. Looks like you and Fernando are
on the same page - great minds think alike!

Can't thank you enough, Matt. Hope I can do these great pods justice!
The box came through fine, even with the high temps we were
experiencing during those three days! Our weather has mellowed
considerably so the plants won't have so much heat stress; some of
them got pretty droopy on the 105 degree day!
 
I love reading your pod reviews Paul, they make me chuckle. When I eat hot stuff, I'm going through things like, "It's hard to breathe," "I may be convulsing," or "Someone has placed a torch on the back of my throat." Your descriptions peak with - "And then I had to blow my nose..." All of this from a so called beginner with superhots. Again, not buying it. You have secretly been eating superhots for a long time now, that's my take. I feel a little weaker each time I read your reviews... :lol:
 
I love reading your pod reviews Paul, they make me chuckle. When I eat hot stuff, I'm going through things like, "It's hard to breathe," "I may be convulsing," or "Someone has placed a torch on the back of my throat." Your descriptions peak with - "And then I had to blow my nose..." All of this from a so called beginner with superhots. Again, not buying it. You have secretly been eating superhots for a long time now, that's my take. I feel a little weaker each time I read your reviews... :lol:
You're a crack-up, buddy! You are one of the Beasts, my man, don't deny it :shocked:
There is a world of difference between eating the pods a little at a time with food,
and just chewing the whole thing up all at once by itself, which I consider being
somewhere between self-flagellation and poking out your own eye with a sharp
stick. I see what you guys go through :crazy: and my momma didn't raise no fools :D

JK. It's awesome to watch the video reviews. There are some pretty funny moments
along the way! Keep up the good work, Andy!
 
I agree with you Paul :crazy: . And your review was great.
I guess They aren't totally insane. Wait, you're becoming one of them!
It's like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers! Alien pods taking over
people's bodies and turning them into clones of themselves :shiver:
 
NOOOOOO... Im with you. I am taking baby steps and eating even smaller pieces than you eat. Still I get endorphin rushes. ahahahaaaaa I am building my tolerance. My ass has more heat tolerance than my mouth at this point. SMH :rolleyes:
 
NOOOOOO... Im with you. I am taking baby steps and eating even smaller pieces than you eat. Still I get endorphin rushes. ahahahaaaaa I am building my tolerance. My ass has more heat tolerance than my mouth at this point. SMH :rolleyes:
It's okay, Pia, the race is not always to the swiftest!
We'll take baby steps and live a long time :lol: ,enjoyably.

I'm not a big fan of stomach cramps and back burn,
but diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, right?

I'm awed by people's ability to eat these things whole
and then try to maintain composure in front of a video
camera.
 
I usually try to figure out how much I can handle and go from there. I don't even try to eat some of the whole pods I see people eating in videos, unless I think I can handle them. The issue is that I am occassionally wrong about what I can handle when a particularly hot specimen comes my way.
 
Hey, Stefan, you have a good dose of common sense!
I guess the rub comes when there are unknowns, eh?
I'm still so new at this, they are all unknowns; but I haven't
tried one I didn't like, yet!

Just how do you know what you can handle, bud?
 
I cheat and go by scoville scales I find online. What I found though is that they are a huge generalization, with the real heat often being hotter or lower than what it is supposed to be. I popped a tabasco pepper into my mouth straight up a couple of weeks ago thinking that it was well within my range, and the dang thing nearly killed me. But then I tasted a chunk of ghost pepper two nights ago and it was not much hotter.
 
I cheat and go by scoville scales I find online. What I found though is that they are a huge generalization, with the real heat often being hotter or lower than what it is supposed to be. I popped a tabasco pepper into my mouth straight up a couple of weeks ago thinking that it was well within my range, and the dang thing nearly killed me. But then I tasted a chunk of ghost pepper two nights ago and it was not much hotter.

Tabascos have that reputation. Something about a different capsaicin chemical combination or something like that. Tends to hit people hard even with fewer scovilles. So you're right about them being a generalization. I find it's especially bad if I'm not mentally prepared, then they catch me off guard.
 
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