• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Seasons end thankyou

P

Pepper Turd

Thanks for all of the information and advice from all of you. Its sad to see the end of my first year growing peppers.

The year was crazy as far as gardening goes. Warm early in May, followed by drought and high winds in late May and June, with too much rain and coolest temperatures on record from July through September, and capped off with a prolonged and hard killing frost in Early October.

Learned alot. The plants I put out four weeks earlier than I should have all did well thanks to the warm spring, but the plants I put out on time performed just as well and may have even produced a little earlier. I guess air temps are just part of the equation. Soil temps matter just as much if not more.

Wind keeps the plants short and stout.

Direct sunlight all of the time is what these plants want. The ones planted with shade in the evening didn't live up to expectation.

Seedlings started in February performed no better than seedlings started in early April.

The late summer and fall is very busy for me. Work, hunting, football, preparing for winter and harvest were enough to keep me away from this site. Unfortunately, I was unable to maximize my harvest as a result. I lost hundreds of C. Red, Hot Lemon, and surprisingly Serrano pods that didn't have time to ripen. But I can't complain because I really didn't need them to have a spectacular yield.

Here is an example of one of my many hauls

Mixed03.jpg


I had many sinkfulls of peppers through late August and September!
 
Thoughts on my Jalapenos... I planted Biker Billy and Jalapeno M strains.

I loved the Biker Billys. Very consistent and good size. Excellent heat, very consistent from pepper to pepper. Very healthy and productive plants. I will plant these again next year. They were an absolute hit with many of my friends. One even made a pot of chili with 3 of them and he said he was the only one in his family that could take the heat. Gotta send him a sample of my chili...

Biker Billy pics

BikerBilly02.jpg


BikerBillylength.jpg


BikerBillywidth.jpg


Jalapeno M. BORING. I can get jalapenos from the store that are just as good. The plants were weak and not very productive. The pods were small and of various size. The heat just wasn't there.
 
Orange Habs. Gotta love them. I had seeds from Burpee. The plants were short, very productive, and produced much earlier than I expected. Pod shape was variable. Five plants made me over 500 pods in the first wave. If I just had three more weeks of warm weather I would have been over a thousand pods easy. Ate bunches of them fresh and I already miss them. Have to plant some more next year.

OHabs.jpg


Caribbean Reds are the bomb! Also got the seeds through Burpee. These plants were hearty and very productive. Six plants gave me over 750 pods, and again this would have doubled with a longer growing season. These things also seem to be very consistent with heat level from pod to pod and plant to plant. They are definitely hotter than the O. Habs. Favorite of the year, we'll see about planting more next year.

Cred04.jpg
 
I planted the long thin red Cayennes from Burpee. They produced early, but never really produced a bunch of pods. I seemed to get a few ripe pods every few days. I'll probably just buy cayenne powder from the store from now on and save the room for other plants. But, I have yellow cayenne seeds to try next year I suppose.

The Serrano peppers I planted were beasts. Again, they were from Burpee. Three plants produced almost 500 pods before the freeze. I just love the flavor of serranos so I will plant a few more plants next year.

Serrano03.jpg


Serrano02.jpg
 
I also planted Hot Lemons. Can't remember the source of the seeds, I think I found them at one of the big box stores. I had one indoor plant for the fun of it. I ate the first ripe pod off of it and thought I ate a bar of soap. Fortunately, I had four outdoor plants, and the ripe pods from them tasted much better. These plants were just starting to hit their stride when the freeze hit so I was a little disappointed. I only got 130 ripe pods from them. They were a huge hit with people though. Enough heat to make them feel like they ate the hottest thing in the world without hurting them. Made some lemon raspberry chutney with them, YUM. I may plant a couple next year.

HotLemon03.jpg
 
And many thanks go to Smokemaster for providing me a few seeds of the Korean Put Gochu. This is the pepper I was looking for! I only got one healthy seedling to grow, so the plant lived in isolation indoors so I could harvest seeds from it. The plant produced 30 pods in a 12 inch pot and I know have a couple of hundred seeds banked. The plant continues to grow and produce pods and I am currently growing a handful of offspring to verify they are true.

putgochupods.jpg
 
So, even with as sad as the end of the season is, I am stocked with some pretty potent supplies. Here is the stockpile of powdered C. Red and O. Hab peppers

Hotpowder.jpg


and Cayenne, Serrano, and Hot Lemon peppers

mediumpowder.jpg


And a freezer full of peppers

frozenpeppers.jpg


And I am off to plan for next year. Or I think I may have started already... a Bih Jolokia and a 7 Pot showing themselves...

Wintersuperhots.jpg


Being a chilihead is a true sickness, isn't it.
 
Pepper Turd said:
Thanks for all of the information and advice from all of you. Its sad to see the end of my first year growing peppers. O quit yer whinin' (just kidding) I been sad for weeks just dreading the freeze that never actually came here yet. Yay!

The year was crazy as far as gardening goes. Warm early in May, followed by drought and high winds in late May and June, with too much rain and coolest temperatures on record from July through September, and capped off with a prolonged and hard killing frost in Early October. Wow man sorry to hear the Freeze. We just had one itty bitty frost and my plants are still alive so far.

Learned alot. The plants I put out four weeks earlier than I should have all did well thanks to the warm spring, but the plants I put out on time performed just as well and may have even produced a little earlier. I guess air temps are just part of the equation. Soil temps matter just as much if not more. Ok- So black plastic or a little solar box on the groud to raise the dirt temp will make all the difference then...?

Seedlings started in February performed no better than seedlings started in early April. Yay. Thanks for that. Now I don't have to grow indoors all winter. ? Do I?

I loved the Biker Billys. Very consistent and good size. Excellent heat, very consistent from pepper to pepper. Very healthy and productive plants. I will plant these again next year. They were an absolute hit with many of my friends. One even made a pot of chili with 3 of them and he said he was the only one in his family that could take the heat. Gotta send him a sample of my chili..Muh Ha Ha Ha!
Click to expand...
 
Congrats on a successful season PT. Hope you get a little more spare time next season to check in more often. Best of luck to you.
 
Everyone, thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

As winter arrives I should have more time to pester everyone here. Besides, just had a Trinidad Scorpion and Fatalii seed germinate today adding to the Bih Jolokia and 7 Pot earlier this week. Hope to increase those seed stocks over the winter and have a few fresh peppers to keep me warm during the cold weather.

ABM, now don't go and quit growing things in the winter on my account. I just learned that I don't need to have 100 plants started in February here in South Dakota. Like the black plastic idea for soil temps, otherwise I will need a huge solar box.

Now, time to plan ways to eat all of my peppers.
 
The freezer full of peppers from "Pepper Turd" is impressive! I hope to grow a fraction of the peppers you harvested one day.

Great jobs love all the pictures. :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top