Phadrus on Fire in 2010

[Phadrus On Fire]

Quick update and questions/problems.

A couple shots of the Lemon Yellow Habanero plant. Putting out tons of blooms right now, with several nice sized pods maturing too.

And shots of a mediocre harvest from yesterday. Nothing was mature except the one red jalapeno. I took off about seven Anaheims because they seem to be suffering from BER or something with the same symptoms. Same thing is happening to the Quadrato Di Asti Gaillo bell peppers. I think it is because of inconsistent watering. We had a week of heavy rain, then two weeks of heat, now its rained three days in a row again.

The Anaheim is the only plant that I did not start from seed this year--bought it from a local nursery, it is a Bonnie plant. So maybe it has some kind of disease instead of BER. If anybody has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate the input.

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

So, I was away on vacation in Alaska and Canada for two weeks. Had to rely on sprinklers and rain from the heavens to sustain my garden while away. I've got mixed results upon returning. A few of the more established pepper plants are on the brink of dying and some of their fruit were rotting. The Annums that I transplanted before leaving have shown very little growth over two weeks. Hopefully they have been using the time to get established and will take off soon. The Chinenses that are in pots are actually doing very well. I suspect their space in the shade helped with that. I got a nice harvest of about 50 ripe pods off of the TAM Jalapeno plant, but I suspect it will not live much longer, it is in very sad shape. I also got a small harvest (27) off of the Long Thin Cayenne plant, but it will not live much longer without some extreme day to day care. And also a small harvest of Sweet Yellow Stuffing peppers. On a good note the Yellow Hab plant is looking very healthy with the first pods starting to ripen up.

Overall, the garden in whole is going to require a lot of attention over the next couple of weeks to get everything back on track.

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Fine harvest.

Looks much like a peach hab.

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Fine harvest.

Looks much like a peach hab.

Thanks, SS! It reminded me of the color of a peach hab too. But it definitely has some more ripening to do. I taste tested a smaller one with about the same color as the one pictured above and it had a really nice flavor but absolutely no heat at all. I'm going to wait and see if they will turn a much brighter yellow, then hopefully there will be some heat in there too. But if that fails, I have flowers and pods forming on Red Hab, Orange Hab, Cili Goronong, Naga Jolokia, Fatalli, and Jonah. Nothing on the Bhut yet, one of them died while I was away.

Last night I slow roasted about 3/4 of the Cayenne harvest in the grill with Jack Daniels Mesquite pellets (fake smoking, i know lol) Then I crushed them with a food processor for fresh crushed red pepper. Really good stuff. Nice deep flavor with some real heat. I also had about 3/4 of the ripe Jalapenos in the grill too. Those are now in a paper bag to continue drying a bit. I plan on using them and what is left of the ripe ones to make a Cherry Chipotle sauce. Will probably have to add some fresh Cayennes to the pot to get any real heat, but this will be my first sauce making trail, so I don't expect it to go perfectly.

Oh and those Sweet Yellow peppers were great too. Mixed up some soft cream cheese with a parmesean and asiago blend plus italian seasoning and bacon to stuff them with. Roasted in oven for 10 min on 350 and they were delicious just a PITA to stuff cause they are so tiny. Had a few Jalapenos in there too, which were much more flavorful than the sweet peppers, imo.

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Another small harvest today. Some sweet orange, tiny anaheims, red marconi, padron, red and purple jalapeños, red and golden cayennes, yellow habs. The habs have not ripened any further and still aren't hot so maybe I got some crossed seed. I'll wait some more and see what happens luckily I have some red and orange habs coming on too. Pods are now setting on cili goronong, fatalii, and jonahs.

 

[Maligator]

Nice pod harvest pics I'm sure the garden will get all the attention it needs now that your back from vacation

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Finally got a hold of a camera other than my iPhone to snap some shots for a long overdue update.

The first shot is of a plant that came from seed labeled Purple Marconi. Not sure if that is what this really is, doesn't really look like the traditional blocky Marconi shape from my experience. Next is a shot of Beaver Dam. This guy was so weighted down with peppers that it broke in a storm and I lost half of the fork from the main stem. The next two shots are of Jimmy Nardello. This one is very healthy with many peppers, flowers, and new growth. After that is Quadrato Di'Asti Rossi, a bell that is also very healthy with many peppers and flowers. Last is Padron, which I'm not too sold on yet, despite it being very healthy and productive as well.

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Kicking up the scovilles just a bit. First two are Fish Pepper. You can see the varigation in the leaves, but not much on the peppers yet. Up next is Purple Jalapeno and flower. Then Golden Cayenne, which I have four plants. Hoping for a big yield on these so I can make some yellow cayenne powder. Then last are two shots of Jamaican Hot Yellow. Haven't tried these before, but they look cool!

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

And getting a little hotter now. First off are Habaneros. First pic will be Orange Habs eventually, lots of pods on this plant. Second pic will be Red Habs, really crappy pic of them. Next two pics are Cili Goronong. A very healthy plant, lots of peppers, interested in the flavor of this one. After that we have a couple of Fataliis. I've heard great things about the flavor of them, looking forward to some ripe ones! Next pic is the 7 Pod Jonah. I only have three of these peppers so far, but hopefully I'll get some more flowers soon. Its been deathly hot here the last week or two, which is probably hurting the plants a lot. Last pic is the Bhut plant. Somehow it got topped off in a storm or by a bird, who knows?! It is quite short, but putting out a lot of side shoots. I think it will do alright, but still no sight of flowers.

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Harvested some of the Fish Peppers this morning. The plant is still flowering, so I'll let the next round ripen to red before picking and compare flavors. Also harvested everything from my much maligned Lemon Yellow Habanero plant. These peppers all turned a milky yellowish peach color and never got any brighter. On top of that, I've tasted several of them which don't have any more heat than an eskimo's freezer. It sucks because I got ~40 peppers in one go off this plant, and it is about to start flowering again. I contacted the seller, and was informed that they bought these seeds from another grower. I don't know if I got a fluke mutant plant this year, or if my whole seed pack for this variety is bunk. Will plant several next year to compare. I did notice that on a few of them there is a distinct 'tail' like what I've seen on the Scorpians. I don't know if this is common though, because I can't find anybody else growing this variety to compare with. You can also see a couple PC-1's that I picked this morning as well. And my first ripening Jonah! (sorry for the bad phone pic there)

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Come to find out that the Jonah seeds I got for free (doh!) are probably (definitely) some kind of cross ... The suspected mut:

Got some new seed (not sevens) from good sources on the way though: NuMex Jalmundo, Datil, Fatalii, Red Caribbean Hab, Peach Hab, Chocolate Hab, Aji Limon, Aji Crystal, and Manzano Red. Hopefully the Bhuts will turn out true or I might be going on another seed shopping binge...

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

My most recent two small harvests...

Quad Rosso, Jimmy Nardello, Red Marconi, Purple Marconi, Padron, Beaver Dam, Purple Jalapeno, Fish Pepper, Jamaican Hot Yellow, Golden Cayenne, and one mystery pepper

Jimmy Nardello, Beaver Dam, Fish Pepper, Cili Goronong, Red Habanero, and one more mystery

I ate the red hab after picking it this morning. My first time eating a whole raw hab. The mystery pepper was hot enough to make me sweat and pop my ears, and I only ate 1/3rd of one. The hab didn't cause the same reactions, but my mouth was really burning afterwards. Can't wait to make some hot sauces. I will try some of the Goronong when I get home. Thinking about making a yellow pineapple based sauce with those and maybe some golden cayennes.

 

[matt up north]

Looking good! I wish that I even had ripe peppers at all.

 

[wayright]

Very nice looking peppers John, A pineapple based yellow sauce sound delicious. Try to throw up a few pics and recipe if it turns out good.
Kevin

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

Thanks Kevin! Been a way for a while, just got a new full-time job. Yay for my bank account, boo for my pepper garden haha

I don't have a pic of the sauce handy but here are the ingredients:

Cili Goronong (~8)
Yellow Cayenne (5)
Red Habanero (1)
Mystery 7 Pot (1)
Onion
Crushed Pineapple (canned)
Fresh Mango
Coconut Milk (canned)
Fresh Ginger
Fresh squeezed Lime Juice
Spices (for my eyes only)
White Vinegar

The sauce is decent for the first go. I burned the onion and garlic a bit so that was disappointing. It is a step in the right direction for sure. A very tropical flavor with the contrast of the spices, then heat. I'd say about a 6 or 7 on a ten point scale. When I get it right, I think it will make a good seafood sauce or a kind of tropical curry sauce and even possibly some kind of thai. Next time I want it to be thinner, as straining through cheesecloth was a fail on this attempt (note to self, buy large seive). Also would like to use Fataliis next time, but thats a matter of growing them well.

A pic of my most recent harvest, small quantities coming in everyday now:

 

[wayright]

Congrats on the new job! The sauce sounds good! How much did it make? and those are some nice looking peppers there!
Kevin

 

[Phadrus On Fire]

I got six of the Ball half pint jars, so three pints.

Picked a few more red habs and goronongs this morning; along with some nardellos and purple japs. Questionable orange habs are almost ready for harvest. The mystery Jonah cross just up and died a few days ago. We've had a lot of rain so I think the roots got compacted and rotted, it happened very quickly. The Cili Goronong was attacked by a hornworm, defoliated at least 75% of the entre plant by the time I got to it.

Bhut Jolokia is shooting out more flowers everyday. Didn't see any fruit set as of this morning though. Which may be because of a P or K deficiency, seeing a lot of purple in the stems and leaf veins. Gonna fertilize with a bloom booster as soon as I get a chance.

Need to plan for next year better and start much earlier. I might try to start a small hydro project so I can grow some of my new seeds through Dec, Jan, and Feb.