PeriPeri's Grow Log 2012: South Africa

GA Growhead · Feb 3, 2013

Sweet! Can't wait to see the farm & your reaper pod!

PeriPeri · Feb 4, 2013

I started typing my glog last night, but after having typed at length... I lost all the info. This has happened to me several times already - and I just didn't have the energy to retype it all urghhh. Sorry guys!

So I was at the farm yesterday. Things are looking great. I was told by my contact there that things were turning fast... but then I guess fast is a relative word

Not as fast as I had imagined!

It has not rained at the farm for some time again and it has been very hot. Temps yesterday were somewhere between 35 & 37ºC. That sun is strong! The ground was parched. The guys have been watering... but as I requested they have eased off a little. In any case, I did do some watering as everything was looking rather parched.

I have had some fatalities to cutworm. Unfortunately they have managed to get their heads around the sticks. Sorry stickman, but I have failed you and blasted every seedling with poison. I just can't affort to run the risk on this batch of special chillies.

I did some staking in the outside area. As mentioned, things are still green. Well, things are no longer grass green, but a kind of golden grass green. Very yellow... so I am imagining that everything is on the verge of going red now. In any case, there were already the first red long thai & periperi in the outside area.

In the inside area, there was quite a bit of colour. So I did quite a bit of picking there. I will do taste tests on these, harvest seeds and process for freezing. I will have to make a plan for a chest freezer I think... fairly soon.

There was quite a bit of staking to be done, Big Jim's were falling over and Bishops as well as the others outside were in desperate need of staking.

I also, threw some ferts down. My usual miracle stuff which is the seagrow pellets. Man that stuff is truly amazing. It's like throwing rocket fuel on those plants, you can almost see them grow!

Anyway... enough talk... lets show some pics

Fish peppers starting to turn...

Fatalii's still green, but coming on great...

Scotch Bonnet getting pods...

Thaibo, turning now...

Thai Dragons also...

Plenty chiilies on that bush

Constant stream of pods coming off the Golden Habanero... want to do a taste test to see if the heat has improved on these....

So you wanna see the Carolina huh?

Producing loads of flowers and already got two pods...

And the pods look pretty damn evil... that's Evil with a capitol E

stickman · Feb 4, 2013

Sorry to hear cutworms got some of your babies... did you have the sticks in contact with the plant stems or a little bit away from them? I suppose some cutworms are smarter than others... (that's a scary thought), but they do have a bad habit that you can exploit. After hacking down one of your plants and chewing on it during the night, they always bury themselves in the soil next to their last meal just before the sun comes up. If you dig down a couple of centimeters, you should find them within 15 cm or so of the fallen plant. Then make sure it was their last meal. They'll move to a different plant each night, so this method needs to be diligently applied to work.

Great pod shots tho... it looks like you're going to have a great harvest soon. Cheers

DocNrock · Feb 4, 2013

Looking great, man. Truly "E"vil looking Reaper!

PeriPeri · Feb 4, 2013

stickman said:
Sorry to hear cutworms got some of your babies... did you have the sticks in contact with the plant stems or a little bit away from them? I suppose some cutworms are smarter than others... (that's a scary thought), but they do have a bad habit that you can exploit. After hacking down one of your plants and chewing on it during the night, they always bury themselves in the soil next to their last meal just before the sun comes up. If you dig down a couple of centimeters, you should find them within 15 cm or so of the fallen plant. Then make sure it was their last meal. They'll move to a different plant each night, so this method needs to be diligently applied to work.

Great pod shots tho... it looks like you're going to have a great harvest soon. Cheers

Thanks Stickman, I think I did put them too far away from the stems... I was affraid to damage the plant! But no worries... with a thousand plants you can loose one or two lol

DocNrock said:
Looking great, man. Truly "E"vil looking Reaper!

Thanks Doc! I can't wait to try that Reaper... I asked the powers that be if I could have a sample of the Reaper to do a vid, but alas - I was persona non grata lol Probably doing me a favor anyway... from what I have seen, most taste test vids end in long conversations with the giant porcelain telephone lol

I think this is a Cayenne? Not sure :oops:

Any ideas??

Brown Haba's pods getting bigger...

More and more Red Haba pods, also getting bigger... I'm a little concerned with the shape of these... not looking the typical rounded shape of the Red Haba... colour and taste test will tell no doubt...

Ok, so I have got a marketig plan here... for every Peter Pepper, one of my Condom chillies? But then they might not reproduce hey? :rofl:

They look funny... all have the teat on the end lol

Still no signs of ripening for the Pasillo Bajio's... c'mmon now!

Serrano's... no sign of colour yet

Bump anyone?

DocNrock · Feb 4, 2013

...bump...

GA Growhead · Feb 4, 2013

PeriPeri · Feb 4, 2013

Thanks guys!

Tabascos are starting to turn, found my first couple of orange ones! Finally!

I never knew the Bhut was such a slow grower. At least in my experience it has been very slow to grow. Can't see it too well, but it has loads of flowers now... pods should be visible soon!

Ring of Fire starting to change colour now

Small plant, but quite a busy little plant!

Some plants inside seem to be taking strain. Leaves going yellow and ropping... I am putting this down to overwatering.... sure it will come right again!

Again, we have flowers... sure pods will appear soon!
Really looking forward to this one. Never had any luck growing a Naga Viper.

The White Habanero is also struggling a bit. Have eased off with the watering. The problem is it takes the guys so long to water that they rather just set up sprinklers and come back an hour later. I suspect sometimes the watering is left for longer... hence the over - watering!

Can't wait for the Red Fatalii's... will be an interesting comparison to see if there is any taste difference between th erd and the yellow Fatalii...

Now this is a plant I am very interested in... what a hybrid... ButchT X Jonah... that is going to be like a scene out of the horror movie Cujo (that rabid st bernard) froth and drool everywhere...

Purple Tiger... thanks Conor! Unfortunately these got chowed by the cutworm...

Red Habaneros... I think these are correct shape for red habs...

Apologies, pic is a little blurred.

Thats better...

Bump please...

I need to log off, we have got loads of lightning... so need to turn off the modem... will upload more once storm clears.

GA Growhead · Feb 4, 2013

It's good to see pods everywhere

PeriPeri · Feb 4, 2013

Sure is GA Growhead... may there be many more :pray:

So this is the stuff I'm using here. Really quite fantastic this Seagrow stuff... chillies just thrive on this stuff...

Bump please...

stickman · Feb 4, 2013

bump...

Jamison · Feb 4, 2013

Beautiful!

PeriPeri · Feb 4, 2013

Thanks guys!

Antilaise Caribean is struggling a little... but maybe we will hold back on the watering a little...

I managed to pluck two more ripe pods from the Cherry Bomb... this picture was taken after. Plenty more pods lined up. I really like these... very tasty and a great zing!

There's another of my favourites

This little cutie is tiny. 4cm3... and producing quite a few tiny little pods. I will see if the pods change from white/cream to red...

The Phuli Jiyoti is producing a shower of stringy serpent like chillies. Not sure if there is another name for this plant...

The Nagalah is a cross between a Naga and the Douglah... should be interesting. Also struggling with over watering... but still managing to throw pods out

Th th th that's it folks!

Any feedback/advice welcome

Sanarda · Feb 4, 2013

Beautiful pics Peri. Plants look super healthy. Your gonna have more heat than you could possibly stand

PeriPeri · Feb 4, 2013

Hi Pia, thanks for dropping in. Well, that sounds too good to be true...

WalkGood · Feb 4, 2013

Lourens great pod porn, man loads of pics and I bet there's more you couldn't even show. Hope you have the truck and freezer ready, hehe. I escaped without any food shots so I'm fine to stay on line for a little longer

Great work man!!!

DocNrock · Feb 4, 2013

Lots going on down there in SA! Love that little Ignite! Those Cherry Bombs look like they get huge! Lots of pods, my friend. Firey days ahead!

PIC 1 · Feb 4, 2013

Tons of poddage happening. That Purple Tiger plant is breath taking. I can see alot of those peppers ripening up real soon. No heat with the Yellow Congo's?

PeriPeri · Feb 5, 2013

WalkGood said:
Lourens great pod porn, man loads of pics and I bet there's more you couldn't even show. Hope you have the truck and freezer ready, hehe. I escaped without any food shots so I'm fine to stay on line for a little longer Great work man!!!

Thanks WalkGood. My truck is a VW Polo and my freezer is aircon... does that count?

DocNrock said:
Lots going on down there in SA! Love that little Ignite! Those Cherry Bombs look like they get huge! Lots of pods, my friend. Firey days ahead!

Thanks DocNrock. Hey were on the same page on the ignite. All I know is it comes from India. Got a friend who goes on Red Cross flights to India every other week or so. She has collected hundreds of local Indian chillies. They all go by their local names... and are all thai type chillies... but this little falla is different - I like him

I am not sure there will be many seeds coming from him though lol

PIC 1 said:
Tons of poddage happening. That Purple Tiger plant is breath taking. I can see alot of those peppers ripening up real soon. No heat with the Yellow Congo's?

Thanks Pic1. Sure is... and the really hot ones are only gathering momentum now. The Yellow Congos (I call them Golden Habs - not too sure what they are at the moment) are still baffling me.... they are about golf ball size. Have a really small placenta and are very hollow. There's definately some Habanero flavour and heat in the placenta... but really not a lot. I thought they would blow my socks off... but really, even orange habs have more punch than these guys. But all good... they are tasty!

PeriPeri · Feb 7, 2013

Excited today. My gardener is going home to Zimbabwe... I have given him some dosh and he is going to try and get some Zimbabwean Birdseyes. They call them Bile Bile as opposed to Peri Peri. I think that must be the right place to go looking. I also managed to get hold of some dried Mozambican Peri Peri pods... so I am testing those to see if they were sun dried (as they usually are here) and viable. If they were oven dried I think I can forget that idea lol... anyway - I would like to set up a stash of local chilli seeds indigenous to our area. Not many, but its a start lol