Pepper Registry idea

[AJ Drew]

Crazyhotseeds.com is selling Chocolate Bhutlah seeds. 
 
https://www.crazyhotseeds.com/seeds/chocolate-bhutlah/
 
I have also seem them on Ebay from China (maybe green peppers there).  On UK sites, they are listed both as Chocolate and Brown depending on the shop. Some say "Chocolate / Brown".  I don't think any of these are the one that Steven McLaurin and Ed Currie are developing.
 
From what I understand, the term Chocolate Bhutlah indicates a cross between 7 pot douglah and a bhut jolokia and Mr. McLurin added a pepper to that cross.  I -imagine- that since Ed Currie is so good at branding a thing, that he will come up with a distinct name and get the trademark for it.  Confusion solved for that one, but what about all the others?

Am thinking of a software solution.  A peper registry of sorts.  Seed creators could enter the name of their seed and get a distinct number.  The seed creator could then enter the url of sites which are authorized to sell that particular pepper seed.  Sites offering those seeds for sale could put a short bit of code that links to the registry to prove they are authorized by the creator.

It wouldnt have to cost a thing because web services are dirt cheap now a days.
 
Thoughts?  Good idea?  Dumb idea?

 

[hotchill]

I was just visiting that site (crazyhotseeds) trying to get a hint if the seeds were in any relation to the real thing. In all likelyhood they are growing/selling brown bhutlahs. For most people (not experts) it would be very difficult to tell the difference. I like your idea that the seed creator would specify authorized sellers. I don't mind growing an unstable version of a true thing, but mind growing something else with the exact same name.

 

[AJ Drew]

Jameserg, the other thing I was thinking is seed sellers who produce their own seed could register their line.  Example: Someone lists Chocolate Bhutlah, gives the number corresponding to where they bought their seeds, and the seed seller gets a number.  Kind of like a family tree for peppers.  There could be a review system for every pepper / number.  So if a person rips people off with bs seeds, the buyers could basically bad rep that seed line.

Thing I would be worried about is low life competition things where folk bad mouth other growers.  Not sure how to overcome that.  On ebay it is easy because you can not review unless you buy something. But the registry wouldnt be selling anything, so it would have to be an everyone can review thing.

On the Chocolate Bhutlah thing.  I dont know guy, growers are some sneeky devils.  I have jigsaw peppers which -seem- legit that came from someone who -claimed- he got the seeds from a batch of powdered jigsaw peppers.  Please note I am stressing -seems- and -claimed-.  Time will tell.  Same for the Chocolate Bhutlah I have growing and a bunch of other very questionable peppers I got from very questionable sources.  All you can do is spend money, consume time, spend more money, and cross your fingers.  Is why I started thinking about a pepper registry.

I could imagine Crazy Hot Seeds got their stock from someone who did something funky like that.  Maybe gave a reviewer tons of money to snatch up some seeds before they ate the thing.
Ideas for such a registry very much wanted.  Am a wiz with PHP, database stuff, and internet stuff.  I could put it together really fast but could use ideas.  Like how to overcome fake reviews.
 

 

[hotchill]

ajdrew, while you were posting I was in the middle of updating my profile, so it looks different now I too use questionable sources, including ebay. My approach is to buy "same" seeds from different sellers, grow them and select the ones that looked like the real thing. The problem I encountered is that many times I am not sure what the real thing should look/taste like - the web gives you images that differ signifficantly, though carrying the same name.
Also, the whole web is plagued with fake reviews problem, so I don't think it's something that can be fixed. Again, as a minimum, I would be happy with the crerators providing the list of authorized sellers. "Family tree" for peppers would be a great help too.

 

[AJ Drew]

On buying from different merchants: At the time I did this, there was contraversy concerning Pepper Joe, Puckerbutt, the Carolina Reaper, and the 7 Pot Primo.  Two different contraversies. I wanted to see for myself.  So I bought Carolina Reaper seeds from both Puckerbutt and Pepper Joe.  I bought 7 Pot Primo from PrimosPeppers.com.  I remember it as a different url, but I have a bad memory.  Anyway, I grew them side by side in time and treatment, but isolated from each other in distance and netting.

Punch lines
The Carolina Reapers from Pepper Joe tended to look more like Carolina Reapers than the ones from Puckerbutt.
The 7 Pot Primos looked more like Carolina Reapers than the Carolina Reapers from Pepper Joes.
 
No crushed seeds from anyone.  Fine packaging from everyone.  Because Pepper Joe got those seeds from Puckerbutt, my conclusion is that in any line of peppers, the genetic spread is large enough that 10 seeds just dont give a person a good idea and I don't have the money to buy tons of seeds seeds just to see if rumors are correct.

Look at the number of people who said that the Carolina Reaper wasn't stable even when they got their seeds from Puckerbutt.  I think that is where the fun part comes in.  You select the best examples of the line for seed saving, the others go into cooking.  If you are distributing your saved seeds, you become part of improving and refining the pepper as a whole. 

Want to disclaim the idea that the Carolina Reaper is unstable.  I think it has recessive genes which occasionally pop up.  But to call that unstable is like saying everyone with blue eyes is unstable.  Sue I am, but not all of us.

If I want to go from seed to sellable produce in a single season, i get as close to the source as I can possibly get.  I have some folk Catholic / Voodoo folk who want me to grow Hatian goat peppers for them.  They mix them with rum for a ceremony.  About to order the seed from Jim Duffy.  I know he has them, I know he grows them in isolation, and I know he has a great reputation.  I also know I don't want to screw over folk who practice Voodoo.