Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

Pepperhead · Aug 12, 2013

I have 2 Brain Strains and both seem to take forever to pod out. One has about 8 pods on it now, but the other just buds like crazy. Are yours that stubborn?

Sawyer · Aug 12, 2013

Whew! Busy place tonight. Some good news to report, the goats are gone. Rumor has it their owner moved away (and presumably took the goats with her). Other news, got some more rain today, maybe a quarter inch. I was going to work through it when started, but two lightning cracks directly above me changed my mind about that. The rains and temperatures have been just about perfect here. I just hope that doesn't mean an early frost.

stc3248 said:
I got a couple extra bows...be right there!!!

Do you plan to mark a few of the most developed pods that were isolated when you pull the cover? Or will you just be confident that the next round to ripen will be good?

Come on over, Shane. I might put you to work weeding, though. I haven't decided yet exactly how I'm going to mark the isolated pods. I'm thinking tape or twist ties bracketing the isopods above and below on their respective limbs. For the one row of Morugas, I isolated it before any pods had set, so I only need the upper indicator for that. Then again, I might just choose the choicest pods and label them individually. I'll figure it out when I pull the cover and see what's there. They'll be marked somehow.

annie57 said:
Arksaw: am saving some of Shane's seed for Congo 7's--very sweet, great flavor. (If my "baby" ever gets on this site. "Wadya mean, his 'seed'!?") Would you like me to save you some seed of that strain? Also, early pulls can be deceptive . . . but ya know what ya like!

Also, I got that fly-wasp bug(s) too. Saw them (how could I not?) today. Tiny. What are they?

Groundhog was in mid-munch of a nearly ripe Black Krim yesterday evening. "Somebody" yelled, "There's that groundhog!" Before I could just pop it with pellet gun, sting it, scare it; it ran. Of course it did! Yelling does that, lol. Good luck with the creatures.

Including toms, have started pulling a lot when mostly ripe before bugs, creatures, with this rain? and putting in brown paper bag for day with apple to finish ripen. Toms no--in window sills, wherever can put them--but peppers before something eats them--bpbag with apple. Not saying you should do that. But I had a huge yellow BS and it didn't rot: it disappeared. Musta been the pterodactyls. You got those too? smh!

Hey, Annie, I'm not touching that seed thang. But maybe on the saves. I'm still hoping mine turn around, or maybe one of the other plants I have will get it right. Okay to get back to you on that?

Mike (Capsidadburn) helped me identify those bugs as long-legged flies, probably one of the sipho group of species. They are counted among the good guys.

Good luck with the groundhog. I've never heard of anybody eating one, but I bet there are some decent stew or bbq recipes out there. As noted above, goats aren't a problem for me anymore, though I will sort of miss them. Their pen was catty-cornered to the back corner of my place and they were kind of cool neighbors when they would stay put.

I haven't noticed any peppers disappearing yet (didn't look at the BS today), but something got the one remaining apple on my best eating tree. This was the first year it had any and it had two and I picked one too early. It may have been a pterodactyl, probably of the antlered sort.

Devv said:
Oh I know about deer running into a neighbors place, had that happen just once...not cool!

My dogs are fenced in and they have enough land to keep them happy, now if Otis would leave a stray skunk alone....he's on his 5th time getting hit....I don't guess he'll ever learn. Yesterday it was a toad making him foam like he drank shampoo....silly dog....

Five times does seem a bit much, Scott. Maybe he just likes the smell? I've heard skunk scent is used in perfumes. And I've heard of folks licking toads to get high, so maybe he knows something you don't. Speaking of toads, I've seem more of them this summer than in many a year. I had to pause from mowing the other day, in the middle of the day, to usher one out of the way. Given the mosquito crop this year, I can't afford to lose even a single toad, if I can help it.

stc3248 said:
FIFY! Haha...The seed credit goes to cmpman1974 and Pr0digal_son for sending it to me. Really great plant and pods.

Still not touching the seed thang. Thanks for the info, though, Shane. It's good to know where all these varieties come from.

Pepperhead said:
I have 2 Brain Strains and both seem to take forever to pod out. One has about 8 pods on it now, but the other just buds like crazy. Are yours that stubborn?

Hey, Shawn, thanks for stopping by. I have at least two Brain Strains in the garden and, yeah, they are slow compared to some of the others. They are loaded up with buds and blooms, but I haven't looked closely to see if they are setting. I have some others in pots, but I'm having a hard time keeping up with what's what with respect to the pots.

Should have some more pics to post in a day or three.

Sanarda · Aug 12, 2013

Sawyer said:
Thanks, Ben. Goats, deer, rabbits, it's always something.

Here are some pics of two 7P Congo SR Gigantics (pepperlover) I pulled yesterday. I forgot to put in something for scale, but they are about 2" long, so not really "gigantic".

I ate the tiny sliver shown here.

When I cut the first pod, my first impression was that it smelled like a bell pepper. They really don't have a lot of odor of any type. I thought that might mean they wouldn't be hot, but they are. I first licked the knife blade and didn't get any flavor at all, but an immediate burn in the back of my throat. When I ate the sliver, again my impression of flavor was more like a bell pepper, maybe grassy. Not at all impressive. The heat was quick and intense, again at the back of the throat, but also on the sides of the tongue.

I just ate another piece, maybe two or three times larger than the sliver shown above. It confirms the lack of flavor and the quality of heat I just described. These were both from the same plant and I have other plants that haven't produced ripe pods yet, so my evaluation may change. But as it stands now, this one is not likely to make my grow list for next year. If all the plants turn out to be very prolific and the heat level is high enough, I might grow it for capsaicin extraction, but I don't see much culinary use for this one. Shane (stc3248) and John (Pr0digal_son) definitely have a superior version of this one.

I felt the same way about the Red Congo Trinidad that I grew last year. The Yellow Congo Trinidad was superb. I want to spread those seeds all over the place. But the red, I did not like at all.

Sawyer · Aug 12, 2013

Sanarda said:
I felt the same way about the Red Congo Trinidad that I grew last year. The Yellow Congo Trinidad was superb. I want to spread those seeds all over the place. But the red, I did not like at all.

I haven't tried a yellow anything, yet, but from what I read here it seems like they tend have a better flavor. I did notice a big yellow TS on one of the potted plants today, but it's not showing any color yet.

Sanarda · Aug 12, 2013

Sawyer said:
I haven't tried a yellow anything, yet, but from what I read here it seems like they tend have a better flavor. I did notice a big yellow TS on one of the potted plants today, but it's not showing any color yet.

In my experience they are sweeter or lighter (So to speak) in taste and not as hot as the red but still pretty darn hot

Sawyer · Aug 12, 2013

Sanarda said:
In my experience they are sweeter or lighter (So to speak) in taste and not as hot as the red but still pretty darn hot

Sounds good. Speaking of sweet, I'm anxious to get a ripe 7P Burgundy to see if they really have a honey flavor.

Sanarda · Aug 12, 2013

Sawyer said:
Sounds good. Speaking of sweet, I'm anxious to get a ripe 7P Burgundy to see if they really have a honey flavor.

Me too!!!! I have so many of them its not even funny. I think I have four 7P Burgundy's and all of them are super small. They got loaded with stinky fish crap today along with the rest of the plants. I think I am going to do it weekly from now until ......

HillBilly Jeff · Aug 12, 2013

Looks nice.

Sawyer · Aug 12, 2013

Are all of your Burgundy plants/pods looking the same? I'm not sure how many plants I have, but I've been paying attention to two in particular and one of them doesn't look anything like it should. (Pictures somewhere in the last page or two, I think.)

Edit: Hah, Bodeen, simulpost!

RedtailForester · Aug 14, 2013

You plants and pods are looking great Sawyer! Good luck with the rest of your season buddy!

PIC 1 · Aug 14, 2013

Sawyer the grow looks good down in Ark.

I'm also growing the 7 Pot Burg...none ripe yet. The pods look completely different from the burgandy colored Douglahs I grew last season.

Although all 7's tend to be rip roaring hot...I too would like to taste the honey flav,

Devv · Aug 14, 2013

Wow John!,

Busy place the last few days!

Five times does seem a bit much, Scott. Maybe he just likes the smell? I've heard skunk scent is used in perfumes. And I've heard of folks licking toads to get high, so maybe he knows something you don't. Speaking of toads, I've seem more of them this summer than in many a year. I had to pause from mowing the other day, in the middle of the day, to usher one out of the way. Given the mosquito crop this year, I can't afford to lose even a single toad, if I can help it.

Funny thing is they squeeze through the fence, and of course Otis....aka chomp, has to kill them. He didn't get the last two...LOL..they got him!

Toads, somehow they get into the 5 gal pots, just how do they do that? They can scare the crap out of ya when repotting! Not expecting something to jump on ya while working!

HillBilly Jeff · Aug 14, 2013

I have three of the burgandys and they are podding some nice pods and they are all consistent to each other.

As for groundhog, I have found they don't take a hint very well. No matter how much you scare them, they keep coming back until you have them for dinner.

Sawyer · Aug 25, 2013

Hey, everybody, thanks for visiting. Sorry I haven't checked in much lately, either here or in all the other glogs. Things get busy sometimes. It's (past) time for an update, so let's get straight to the pictures. Here is a picture of my first real multi-pod pull, from about 10 days ago or so. The peppers have all been dried (minus a little bit for tasting).

Clockwise from top left - Bhut, (3) 7 Pot Congo SR Gigantic (still not seeing the "gigantic"), some sort of Jalapeno, and a Brainstrain.

Here's a combined pull from last Thursday and today:

Clockwise from the top - 7 Pot Congo SR, Moruga Scorpion, Red Bhut, 7 Pot Brown, Brainstrain, a not-7 Pot Burgundy, and an actual 7 Pot Burgundy in the middle (now that's a giant!)

Some close ups:

7 Pot Congo SR

Moruga Scorpion - These are isolated pods from under the tent that you can see in one of the previous posts. That didn't really work out too well. More on this below.

Red Bhut - Still one of my favorites. Good grief, these things are productive.

7 Pot Brown - :woohoo:

Brainstrain - On the one plant that has the most, the pods are looking less brainy with time, not more. I'll post some pictures of those later.

7 Pot Burgundy - Look at the size of that sucker! I noticed on this plant, some time ago, a node with seven flowers coming out of it. I looked today and there are six good sized pods hanging off that one node. I haven't tasted this one yet, but I'm thinking this is a keeper.

Okay, the whole-row isolation attempt didn't work very well. The few flowers that were budding when I put the tent in place, went ahead and bloomed and some set pods (there may be 15 or 20 total), but then the plants stopped blooming (but kept growing). Due to some small tears in the fabric, I had doubled it up and I think that resulted in too much decrease in light or increase in humidity. (The humidity has been brutal here up until the last week or so... well, still is, just not quite as bad.) Or it could be due to aphids. The fabric did a good job of keeping pollinating insects out, but also kept out the predatory insects. The ants set up quite an aphid farm in there. The plants are pretty strong, and as tall as those on either side (but not as dense), but they are infested with aphids. I noticed today several lady bugs have moved in (and some were mating, so I expect more soon), as well as a bunch of long-legged flies and something I didn't recognize, but it was chowing down on aphids, too. I'm monitoring the situation, but it looks like Nature is going to take care of things.

I'm going to try covering a complete row one more time, with a row of bhuts. I've got so many of those, if one row goes dormant, no big deal. This time I'm going to use the Agribon 15 I have instead of this other stuff I had left over from something else. (It didn't really survive the Moruga tenting, anyway.) If that doesn't work, I'll have to do some research on materials before next year. In the meantime, I'm still using the bags that I made from the row cover for individual limbs, but have had only limited success with that. I found something called "organza bags" at Hobby Lobby. They seem to be working, at least I can see blooms and buds not falling off inside, but they are too small to cover as much limb as I would like. I've ordered larger 4"x5" bags (still kind of small) in multiple colors from Amazon. The ones I have are in two colors, black and white, and it occurred to me some colors might work better than others. We'll see how these others work.

I counted the plants today. There are still 27 surviving plants in ground out of 32 set out back in May. These are the ones that have been giving ripe pods, so far. I've been setting out more ever since about the middle of June and now have an additional 160 in-ground. Many of these have pods, and I think most will get their chance. Some are struggling, especially since it quit raining a couple of weeks ago. (I watered the in-grounds today for the first time, but should have started a few days ago. I've been watering the potted plants once or twice a day since the rains quit. (I missed one day, and most of the leaves fell off a red bhut.)) Speaking of potted, I have 120 in pots ranging from #1 (and all of those need up-potting), #2, #3, #5 pots, and 5-gal grow bags. Some of these guys are loaded up with pods and just today I noticed ripening on TS Yellow Original, 7P Red Original, and White Bhut. I'll try to get some outdoor shots of these guys up here in the next few days.

I also have maybe another 100 or so still 3.5" square pots that I'm slowly moving up into #2 or #3 pots. A lot of those already have pods on them and are too big to be even in a #1 pot, much less a 3.5" sq pot. And, sadly, I still have probably 100 or so still in germination flats. Those are mostly Red Bhuts and Yellow Moruga Scorpions (I had a bunch of those for some reason).

I wanted to mention, that not-7 Pot Burgundy up above is almost as prolific as the real Burgundy. I tried part of it, but forgot to pay attention to flavor. It has a very pleasing crunchy texture and was not very hot at all (relatively speaking), maybe a bit hotter than a hot jalapeno. I chopped up the rest of it in my skillet chicken breast and rice dinner. It was good, but I still can't comment on the taste. It had a cavity full of seeds, that's for sure. Except for that, I'm thinking these will make a really good sweet pickle.

I've been taking some of the peppers to my favorite bar and they've been quite a hit. I cut little tiny pieces, maybe 1mm x 2 or 3 mm and have gotten quite a few takers, even after warning them. Most people don't come back for seconds and I thought one guy was going to hit me (not really, but he was not a happy camper... after a piece the size of a grain of rice :confused:

), but a surprising number of people do come back for seconds. Putting a piece in a beer has become really popular; it gives the suds just the right hint of fire. One night someone was ordering shots of bourbon and peach schnapps with a bigger piece, shaken to macerate with ice. The people drinking them liked them, but I stick to beer these days. One day I had a Brainstrain, a red bhut, and a 7P Congo SR. Everyone agreed the 7PCSR was the least flavorful. (It sure is a prolific plant, though; I keep hoping the flavor will improve.) Turns out one of my favorite bartenders is a chilihead (way more than I am, anyway). I had cut up several pieces on a napkin and finally noticed every time she walked by, she was picking up a piece and eating it. So now I'm trying to talk her into taking a plant.

I guess my update wouldn't be complete without an animal story. I was walking by the back stoop a few days ago and got quite startled. The resident black rat snake, whom I hadn't seen yet this year, was crawling up the concrete about waist high to go under the slab of the stoop. I had already walked past its tail when I noticed it. It looked at me; I looked at it, then it went on with its business. It's bigger than it was last year, I'd say at least 7'. Still not as big as the one living here when I moved in, but it's getting there.

Thanks to anybody who's made it through all this.

capsidadburn · Aug 26, 2013

Nice update John! Great looking pods and variety. I've used organza bags with limited success. It works fairly well for me with small pod varieties. Does not work very well at all during the summer months. I thought I would be able to move a plant indoors to isolate this season, but nothing but bloom drop inside during the summer (hot back porch with only a ceiling fan).

I love the story about your pepper outreach program with bar patrons and pushing plants toward the bartender!

Ferby · Aug 26, 2013

Will try the chili beer

Last year i put one big choco bhut pod in a 1/4 filled whiskey bottle. I added a bit of the bhut whiskey to my whiskey and cola. Very nice, but the combination of carbonation and chili gave me a serioius couphing sometimes XD

nice post

WalkGood · Aug 26, 2013

John … .loving da pod porn, harvest, color and mon dat 7 Pot Burgundy is huge! Great to see you pulling already \o/

86 dem aphids and ant farmers, I hate dem! They have been driving one of my MoAs crazy this year, once I have evicted them a few days or a week later dem dam squatters are back -_-

Have a great week brethren!

GA Growhead · Aug 26, 2013

That 7 Burgundy is huge!
I have been trying to get a brown 7, the second year now. Still have one plant that might be true. Another produced a cool red/brown color though. Better than the one that just turned red at least. Got nothing last year.
Yours looks damn prefect!
Always enjoy your stories!
I'm trying to get some tull to make some more isolation bags. Red tull is what I'm looking for.
Looking foward to that next update!

Sawyer · Aug 26, 2013

capsidadburn said:
Nice update John! Great looking pods and variety. I've used organza bags with limited success. It works fairly well for me with small pod varieties. Does not work very well at all during the summer months. I thought I would be able to move a plant indoors to isolate this season, but nothing but bloom drop inside during the summer (hot back porch with only a ceiling fan).

I love the story about your pepper outreach program with bar patrons and pushing plants toward the bartender!

Thanks, Mike. Have you used tulle? That seems popular, but I don't know how well it works. Pepper outreach - ha! - Gotta spread the good word!

Ferby said:
Will try the chili beer

Last year i put one big choco bhut pod in a 1/4 filled whiskey bottle. I added a bit of the bhut whiskey to my whiskey and cola. Very nice, but the combination of carbonation and chili gave me a serioius couphing sometimes XD

nice post

Thanks, Ferby. The beer really is pretty good, and you can heat it up just as much as you want. I think I'm going to talk to some of the local micro-breweries about the possibility of brewing up a batch of pepper beer. As long as it's not too hot, I think people will like it.

I guess the carbonation in the cola aerosolizes the capsaicin. Hmmm... something to think about.

WalkGood said:
John … .loving da pod porn, harvest, color and mon dat 7 Pot Burgundy is huge! Great to see you pulling already \o/

86 dem aphids and ant farmers, I hate dem! They have been driving one of my MoAs crazy this year, once I have evicted them a few days or a week later dem dam squatters are back -_-

Have a great week brethren!

Thanks, Ramon. Things are just ramping up here in Sawyer's Pepper Patch. I'm thinking the two dehydrators I have may not be enough.

I'm keeping a close eye on the aphids. As long as the population is decreasing, I'll let nature take its course. If they start spreading to the other plants, I'm taking off the gloves.

GA Growhead said:
That 7 Burgundy is huge!
I have been trying to get a brown 7, the second year now. Still have one plant that might be true. Another produced a cool red/brown color though. Better than the one that just turned red at least. Got nothing last year.
Yours looks damn prefect!
Always enjoy your stories!
I'm trying to get some tull to make some more isolation bags. Red tull is what I'm looking for.
Looking foward to that next update!

Hey, GA, you posted while I was responding to the others. Thanks for stopping in. Yeah, I'm excited about the Burgundy. Something I'm looking for in a pepper is prolific production combined with vigor, heat, and flavor. I think this one fits the bill. I just tried a taste of it, and while I wouldn't have thought of "honey", there is something different to it that is appealing. The flavor does stay with you through the burn, too.

I'm happy this 7 Brown is brown. I've got some other 7 Browns and some Douglahs (as well as brown bhuts, SBs, and Congos), but this is the only one with ripe pods so far. Hopefully it won't be the only one that's actually brown. If you want some seeds, let me know. I just tried a taste of this one, too. There was something surprisingly good in that first initial taste, but I'm not very good at this tasting thing, yet. When the heat sets in, I forget what I just tasted.

Why red, if I may ask? You can get red tulle at Amazon. I started to order some tulle when I ordered the multi-colored organza bags, but I thought I'd see if I can tell a difference with the colors first. I've thought about contacting Apex Mills about their NK82P netting that CPI used in their field cage experiments. I don't know how similar it is to tulle and the Apex website isn't very user-friendly. The paper does mention that they saw no difference between white and green colors.

poypoyking · Aug 26, 2013

Nice update Sawyer. I could use a nice snake or some foxes to keep the critters away. I am going to have to start doing some trapping or camp outside with my bow.