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Peppers that maintain/increase productivity in cooler weather?

LordTriffid78

LordTriffid78

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since my last post. Just wondering if any of you have noticed any varieties in particular that you've grown that seem either unphased by cooler temperatures, or even get more productive when the temperatures outdoors begin to cool down? I'm quite familiar with pubescens and baccatums, and that a number of their varieties actuallly require cooler climates to thrive, but have any of you noticed varieties of the other species that behave the same way?

I became curious about this phenomenon after reading a response, bob65, to a post titled "Cold tolerant varieties to grow outside as perennials" (OP: Sonja), who said "It gave some pods during the summer, but didn't really take off until the cooler weather came, and has been giving me hundreds of pods all winter" when referring to Yellow Siam.

Just thought that was interesting. Cheers.
 
Capsicum flexuosum. I grow it in winter, which is SoCal isn't really winter, but you know what I mean. I'm pretty sure I could naturalise it here, if I wanted to. 
 
Other than that, you have things covered, pubescens especially, which I also grow in winter for a crop in April. 
 
That's what I figured. I'm always digging for more information on this, as I build a list of the best varieties for my region. As a student of agriculture and pepper-head, I'm finding it difficult to promote hot pepper cultivation among the farmers in British Columbia, so my hope is by showing them that there are productive varieties for our conditions, and there is a market here, that they may change there mind-set. We have a huge south Asian, SE Asian, and East Asian population, here, all the grocery stores sell hot peppers because all these people use hot peppers in their traditional cooking. I hope to some day breed a few cornerstone varieties that will satisfy these folks culinary needs, while meeting the production needs of local farmers. It's definitely going to be a challenge, but I believe it will be worth it in the long run. So thanks for your input, it all helps.
 
Hi mate,
 
Just reporting that along with the warmer weather of summer the yellow siam stopped with pod production, just like others do over winter.
 
Unfortunately, due (I think) to the dreadful summer season we had it seems to have died off so it only lasted the one season.
 
First we were in drought, and smoke haze from the fires for a couple months, then rain rain rain, we were getting 3 months worth of rain every week for a month or two. This added to the high heat (I don't think the temps were really higher than normal, but they stayed high for longer periods than normal) seems to have sounded the death nell for it.
 
It was pretty much poor harvest all round, but none of the other plants died off, they just didn't produce.
 
 
One exception. The Aji Cito that is in the ground right next to the Yellow Siam gave me kilos of pods. And maybe interesting to the original topic is that it still has pods on it now in the middle of winter. Not as much as during summer, and smaller pods, but still there none the less.
 
bob65, I'm sorry to here about your experience with the drought, smoke and fires, and then all that rain. I hope you folks down in Australia don't have to deal with that again for a long time.

I wonder if Siam would be well suited a cool maritime region then. They just don't sound happy in the heat. Aji Cito is one I've been planning to try for a while, too.
 
Thanks mate.
 
Nothing new though, fires and floods are just part of life down under.
 
It is a 20 year cycle for the fires. We will be due for a flood in about 10 years though (It also is a 20 year cycle)
 
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