• 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
 
Paul you're reviews are really TOP notch friend!! Excellent work!! And quesadilla's are my specialty, could eat them everyyyyyy day! :) Hope you are having a good week, stay cool!
 
Paul you're reviews are really TOP notch friend!! Excellent work!! And quesadilla's are my specialty, could eat them everyyyyyy day! :) Hope you are having a good week, stay cool!
Thanks, Melissa. Quesadillas every day! Right on!
You stay cool down in sunny Cali!
 
Burger time! This bad boy just screamed out for a hot pepper; and the 7 Pot
Douglah answered the call :fireball:
DSCN4612a.jpg


I tried to be careful to leave as much placenta as possible. Darn you, Brian :lol:
DSCN4613a.jpg


Just sliced it right onto the burger:
DSCN4614a.jpg


This was a hot pepper! Didn't take any notes on this one, but the mouth burn started
early and increased rapidly. I could really tell when I got a piece with a lot of placenta
in it! I love the crunchy texture of the pod you can feel mixed in with the food, followed
by the heat that says 'you got it!' By the time I was 1/3 of the way through the burger,
I had a pretty good sniffle going, and my forehead was itching. I had to stop and put
the burger down for a while at about the half way point. The corn on the cob was hot,
so that just made my tongue and mouth feel hotter. I think I got most of the placenta
in the first half of the burger; the last 1/3 or so just maintained the heat without any big
bumps. As I finished, I was sweating and blowing my nose regularly - needed to get
another napkin. My ears felt it more than the past couple of pods, as well, and I had
a pretty good face burn going. I could feel the heat on my upper lip for a long time
afterward - not bad, just there, and I caught scents and flavors of the pod for the rest
of the evening. Maybe I'm sweating cap oil! The endorphin thing seemed to kick in
pretty well on this pod; I felt very relaxed and happy after this meal. My wife and I went
for a 2.5 mile walk, and it seemed like it just took 15 minutes! All-in-all, a great pod :drooling:
 
Man Paul, you are handling those fire balls really well and a Modelo Fire Extinguisher too. Those were some nice loking pods though a bit evil looking inside. keep that walking up it'll keep you alive and young. I went for my first one last night. Just a half mile but it felt good to be able to go a little distance again. Had surgery on both knees last year and the doc is just now allowing me to start again.

Have a great week.
 
Man Paul, you are handling those fire balls really well and a Modelo Fire Extinguisher too. Those were some nice loking pods though a bit evil looking inside (Yeah, MGold86 sent some real beauties, all right!). keep that walking up it'll keep you alive and young. I went for my first one last night. Just a half mile but it felt good to be able to go a little distance again. Had surgery on both knees last year and the doc is just now allowing me to start again.

Have a great week.
Thanks, Bill, good to have you visiting my glog, brother. Nothing like a
little Modelo to help tame the evil :hell: :beer: :twisted: :cool:
I've been trying to get in five miles every day for a few years now,
but sometimes it just doesn't happen. I had to take a little time off
last year for foot surgery, so I know how ya feel. Glad you are gettin'
the wheels turning again, my friend; you'll be tearin' it up in no time!

Hope things are growin' good in EastFlo!

I made sure I ate before I clicked on your glog. Glad I did...I have learned my lesson :P
You are too :rofl: , Pia! Thanks for looking in!
 
Just dropped by to say "Hi". I've been trying to catch up on your glog all day, and have had lots of interuptions, but finally made it to the end. Great photos, and written pepper reviews. I think when people video themselves eating whole pods, they are in so much pain, they don't always think clearly, and sometimes can't speak at all. Your idea of taking brief notes, and writing a synopsis later, is much more informative.

I'm amazed at how you're handling all of those supers! The way your throwin' em down every night, it almost sounds like a bit of an addiction has taken hold. :twisted:
 
Paul you are a beast!! After finally getting some supers myself i cant imagine eating them on food the way you do! For me i gotta do sauces and powder. so i can cut the heat a bit :) it would have takin me two days to eat that burger :) Awesome review. im excited to see whats to come.
 
Great looking burger and champion handling of the Douglah. My Wife made a pasta dish with a rich sauce containing a whole Brain, a Barrackpore, and a Caribbean Red in a total of four servings. Man, that was hot!
 
Attaboy Paul! Now your rocking! Great job on that bad boy. And man o man, I have to stop looking at your glog when I'm hungry. That burger looks awesome and that corn has my mouth watering. :drooling:
 
Just dropped by to say "Hi". I've been trying to catch up on your glog all day, and have had lots of interuptions, but finally made it to the end. Great photos, and written pepper reviews. I think when people video themselves eating whole pods, they are in so much pain, they don't always think clearly, and sometimes can't speak at all. I know, isn't it awesome :shocked: Your idea of taking brief notes, and writing a synopsis later, is much more informative.

I'm amazed at how you're handling all of those supers! The way your throwin' em down every night, it almost sounds like a bit of an addiction ( :scared: ) has taken hold. :twisted:
Thanks for the nice feedback, Bonnie; glad you enjoyed your browse through my glog, and my foray into the hotter varieties of peppers. Watching people eat super chiles whole causes me pain. I'm just not there at this point. I was sorry to hear about your FUBAR soaker hose. Was it sun damage or maybe animals chewing on it? Around here, squirrels chew on everything; even my tools, pots and trays have nibbles on them. So far I have avoided major drip system damage

I have been getting after the peppers Matt sent so they don't go bad before I can eat them all. As it is, I'm just going to have to freeze some to make them last. They have been in the fridge since he sent them, and so far so good. Some are getting a little soft, however no mold :clap: yet.

Hmmm :think: Leftovers for dinner. What could that mean but an excuse
to eat a hot chile! Bill is right about the Modelo! Will help cool down
this Yellow 7:
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Same drill as usual. Man, I'm stuck in a rut:
DSCN4617a.jpg


I would up eating about 3/4 of the pod on the burger and piece of roast
beef. Nothing unusual to report about this pepper. Had a pretty good
mouth and tongue burn, and some sniffles that lasted throughout the
whole meal. There was some forehead perspiration, but no itchy scalp
or face burn or ear/tmj sensations. Maybe I am getting used to these
things! I remember Jamie's Yellow 7 seeming hotter to me, but it was
pretty much one of my first really hot peppers. There are some bhuts
of different varieties in Matt's box, and some more Douglah, if I remember
correctly. Going to have to see what's for dinner tonight!

Thanks for the visit, Bonnie.

Paul you are a beast!! After finally getting some supers myself i cant imagine eating them on food the way you do! For me i gotta do sauces and powder. so i can cut the heat a bit :) it would have takin me two days to eat that burger :) Awesome review. im excited to see whats to come.
It's all relative, Britt! I can't imagine eating them whole the way the fellas
do on the forum! Nothing wrong with sauces and powders, my friend, I
hope to make a few if i get enough pods to make it worthwhile. I have a
feeling you would have done okay with the burger. The pepper/burger
combination is just so tasty you would have powered through it!

Thanks for the kind words, buddy; hope your balcony grow is spilling out into the street!


Wow that is a nice looking burger. Glog is looking good too buddy!!!
Thanks, Bodeen. Glad yo had a chance to stop by. Weekend coming up! Hope
it's a good one for you.


Great looking burger and champion handling of the Douglah. My Wife made a pasta dish with a rich sauce containing a whole Brain, a Barrackpore, and a Caribbean Red in a total of four servings. Man, that was hot!
Dude! That would be a hot dish indeed; way to go :mouthonfire: :clap:
Your wife is a keeper! She can come cook for us anytime!
Good growin', Brent!


Attaboy Paul! Now your rocking! Great job on that bad boy. And man o man, I have to stop looking at your glog when I'm hungry. That burger looks awesome and that corn has my mouth watering. :drooling:
As far as I'm concerned there is ho better vehicle for a hot chile
than a good burger. Or maybe a nice grilled steak! Thanks for
the encouragement, and for looking in. Hope you are having good
pepper growing weather in KY, Brian.
 
You are really knockin em down PaulyG! That a boy! Your gut has gotta be hating you for sure by now!
Hey, Jamison, what it is, my man? I'm not sure if I'm knockin' 'em down
or vice versa :whistle: but it's fun sampling Matt's produce!

The food does a good job of protecting the stomach. I see what the folk
eating whole pods go through!

Hope your grow continues to kick it, my friend!
 
Those yellow 7's are about perfect! The yellow Cardi Scorps are awesome too. Both have enough heat, and great flavor without knocking you on your a$$...Keep up the reviews brother!
 
I came to a point with the pods MGold86 sent that they needed to be frozen. Most were in good shape; the chocolate/brown ones were getting very soft. I decided to pick out three for more fresh sampling, and put the rest in the freezer. The three I decided to keep out were the Not 7 White, the Indian Carbon and the TS Yellow. Figured that was a nice variety. I didn't want to waste the bhuts; will have to figure out a use for the frozen pods. Tough to use them in cooking since no one else in the house eats hot stuff.

My wife made a great edamame chicken with rice for dinner, so I thought the
TS Yellow would make a nice addition to the plate:
DSCN4618a.jpg


There were seeds all up and down the placenta, not just up by the
stem like some of the other pods. Lots of folds in the wall of the
fruit, as well. Gnarl factor, high:
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Took the seeds out carefully, so as not to disturb the placenta
any more than necessary:
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Just cut the pod into a bunch of small pieces. It's a large pod, for
sure. Doesn't that look great?:
DSCN4621a.jpg


The plate before:
DSCN4622a.jpg


And after adding the pieces of the chile:
DSCN4623a.jpg

Sorry about the color difference, I was shooting in really low light.

Will post comments later, when I get a chance.

Later: Okay. I have been looking at this pod for awhile :scared: kinda scary
just on account of its name! When I cut it up, it made a huge pile of pieces
which added a really nice touch of color to the dish. Not a big chinense
scent like the 7 pot, but still quite noticeable. I tried to make sure I got a
piece of the pod in each bite. After a few bites, the mouth burn started in,
small at first, but each piece added to it. After maybe 8 or 10 bites, I had
a pretty good upper lip and face burn, and was sweating and sniffling. The
pod added a really nice flavor and heat to the dish. I tried a couple of pieces
with no food just for drill, and got an immediate throat burn when I chewed
and swallowed them. Also caused a good increase in mouth burn. Eating
the pod with food really does moderate the burn effect. By the time I was
1/3 to 1/2 done with the plate, I had a good mouth burn and my face was
sweating. From this point on, the burn remained pretty consistent. I noticed
that the pieces inside the warm food were softer, and had imparted some
heat to the food itself, but they were still crunchy. My forehead sweating
continued to increase as well as the sniffles. At about the 3/4 mark, my
eyes were watering, and I was sweating from the neck up! Also, burp = burn!
As I finished the meal, I was disappointed that I had run out of the little pieces
of the pod, and still had a few bites of food left :mope: :tear:

I liked this pod with this dish. Imparted great flavor and heat; once more, the
heat reached a certain level, and just kind of hung there, even as sniffling
and sweating increased. Now I have two more fresh pods to try. I also
think I'm going to make some pico de gallo with some Pointed Yellow Habs,
Serranos, and some small, early Fatali/Savinas in the next few days. :party:

Hope you enjoyed the report as much as I enjoyed the meal. Edamame
chicken is so good! Weekend approaching at warp speed; hope you all
have a good one!
 
You're getting really great at these reviews...the presentation is really nice on your most recent food pics too. Very pleasing to the eyes. My daughter is taking a photo class this year, so we're gonna be getting a better camera! I can't wait to try it out, or better yet have her do some photo shoots for me!!! Can't wait to see some garden updates!
Shane
 
Dang Paul taking each one down like a champ that is awesome that meal is awesome.
Thanks, Fernando! A Champ. Wow! High praise, indeed.
My wife can whip up a mean dish; it was perfect for a hot chile pepper!

Great review, Paul. So far the Yellow 7 and its variants are my favorites.
Thanks, Brent. I like the yellow 7's as well. I think I will try to grow one next season.


You're getting really great at these reviews...the presentation is really nice on your most recent food pics too. Very pleasing to the eyes. My daughter is taking a photo class this year, so we're gonna be getting a better camera! I can't wait to try it out, or better yet have her do some photo shoots for me!!! Can't wait to see some garden updates!
Shane
You are right, my friend, i need to do a garden update. It's just
that there are only green pods. Not much to look at. I want to
do another video, too, but I'm not having much success with
posting them.

Woah, you are going to have your own personal photographer!
Now we'll see nothing but awesomeness on your glog. Of course,
it was already pretty awesome, but now it will just be awesomer!
 
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