Hi Guy's
The last few years of my hot pepper journey has been trialling as many varieties as possible to find ones that like and will grow well in my wee Scottish greenhouse.........
Space is at a premium and limited to a small greenhouse im so envious of you guys who can grow hot peppers outdoors in your yard !
Each year I've been finding " Keepers " varieties that I love/enjoy and will grow in my less than ideal "micro climate" each year I've been growing less and less varieties as I find "Keepers"
I've settled so far on :
Ring of fire - cayenne delicious ! Respectable heat I harvest all of mine "green" and i substitute them for the Indian Jwala chilli
Rocoto long - seaspring seeds a capsicum pubescens that won my outdoor trial so I seeing as a free bonus it very similar to Aji Largo but did much better outdoors here in Scotland than my Aji Largo plants.
Scotch Bonnet Chocolate - white hot peppers a fantastic Scotch bonnet big excellent heat "whole mouth burn"
big pod size and pretty productive.
Scotch Bonnet Red (Halal shop) - self saved seed from fresh Red Bonnets i bought fresh from my local Halal shop great flavour very respectable heat and good production ( although not growing this year)
Dorset Naga - seaspring seeds is my current default "superhot " keeper I like the flavour and love the heat but aesthetically I find it too smooth .......
also i find it slow to mature but dependable at present.........
2024 I'm trying to find a "gnarly "
productive replacement for my "keeper " superhot..........hence my trial this season of 7 Pot primo, Trinidad moruga scorpion, 7 Pot Barrackpore, 7 Pot Brainstrain , Death spiral, and a few other's..........
Assuming and I am
that I will find a new "Gnarly" "Keeper " superhot..........possible not ! 
the Dorset Naga may stay top dog !
Either way I will have way less varieties next season...........so I've a new plan.
Due to trialing lots of varieties each of the last few year's I've been sowing 3 to 5 seeds for each variety and selecting the "Best" "single" specimen of these too grown on im my trial.......
However in future I plan to sow a minimum of 10 possibly alot more of my "Keepers" and "cull" the weakest each time I pot up seed tray to 7cm, to 11cm to 14cm etc Hopefully this will allow me to find the strongest genetics of my "Keepers " .............
And keep multiple specimens of my Keepers rather than single example of each trail variety like at present !
Those of you who have already found a few varieties that meet your requirements how seeds do you sow, prick out, grow on and how many specimens of your "Keepers " do you raise each season .....
Stephen
The last few years of my hot pepper journey has been trialling as many varieties as possible to find ones that like and will grow well in my wee Scottish greenhouse.........
Space is at a premium and limited to a small greenhouse im so envious of you guys who can grow hot peppers outdoors in your yard !
Each year I've been finding " Keepers " varieties that I love/enjoy and will grow in my less than ideal "micro climate" each year I've been growing less and less varieties as I find "Keepers"
I've settled so far on :
Ring of fire - cayenne delicious ! Respectable heat I harvest all of mine "green" and i substitute them for the Indian Jwala chilli
Rocoto long - seaspring seeds a capsicum pubescens that won my outdoor trial so I seeing as a free bonus it very similar to Aji Largo but did much better outdoors here in Scotland than my Aji Largo plants.
Scotch Bonnet Chocolate - white hot peppers a fantastic Scotch bonnet big excellent heat "whole mouth burn"
big pod size and pretty productive.Scotch Bonnet Red (Halal shop) - self saved seed from fresh Red Bonnets i bought fresh from my local Halal shop great flavour very respectable heat and good production ( although not growing this year)
Dorset Naga - seaspring seeds is my current default "superhot " keeper I like the flavour and love the heat but aesthetically I find it too smooth .......
also i find it slow to mature but dependable at present.........2024 I'm trying to find a "gnarly "
productive replacement for my "keeper " superhot..........hence my trial this season of 7 Pot primo, Trinidad moruga scorpion, 7 Pot Barrackpore, 7 Pot Brainstrain , Death spiral, and a few other's..........Assuming and I am
that I will find a new "Gnarly" "Keeper " superhot..........possible not ! the Dorset Naga may stay top dog ! Either way I will have way less varieties next season...........so I've a new plan.
Due to trialing lots of varieties each of the last few year's I've been sowing 3 to 5 seeds for each variety and selecting the "Best" "single" specimen of these too grown on im my trial.......
However in future I plan to sow a minimum of 10 possibly alot more of my "Keepers" and "cull" the weakest each time I pot up seed tray to 7cm, to 11cm to 14cm etc Hopefully this will allow me to find the strongest genetics of my "Keepers " .............
And keep multiple specimens of my Keepers rather than single example of each trail variety like at present !
Those of you who have already found a few varieties that meet your requirements how seeds do you sow, prick out, grow on and how many specimens of your "Keepers " do you raise each season .....
Stephen
Seeds comes cheap when you harvest them yourself so I don't see why I should go back to only a few seeds per variety! Young seedlings are also very easy to deal with and quite resilient so no problem having them very thight at a young age. Space is also my main constraint. I also grow less variety but more plants from those who made the cut.
