Spacing for Aji varieties

R

rjacobs

Looking at growing 2 types of Aji next year; pineapple and sugar rush peach.
 
I understand these can grow 5-7 feet tall, but how big around do they get?
 
How much spacing should I give them?  The normal 18-24" or should I give them more like 36"?
 
Im building 4x6 raised beds so wondering if I should do 2 and 2 for a total of 4 plants?
 
I also understand I should cage them or stake them.  Looks like 6' tomato cages are pricey.  Never grown anything that requires staking.  PVC pipe stakes work?  Do you then tie the main "trunk" to the stake as it grows with some twine of some type?
 
My aji pineapple didn't grow that tall, maybe more like 3' and didn't require any staking. I had them about  15-18" apart. 
 
correct me if i'm wrong, but aji isn't a type of pepper. aji actually is pepper in spanish. Now with that being said, I have an aji pineapple in a 7gal and it's about 2ft wide diameter by 3 ft tall. On the other hand, I have an aji brazilian starfish in a 15 gallon thats 8 ft tall and probably 6ft diameter. Of all my seedlings that i recently started, they're around 6"-1.5ft tall but I have 2 red pumpkins that are over 3 ft tall in 1gallon and everything was started at the same time. no aji in its name. Point being, do some background research on each individual pepper you want to plant and have an idea of how big you want it to get, how big it can potentially get and whether you not you actually want it to get that big and harvest so many peppers from that variety 
 
Agree that the term, "Aji ...." doesn't mean much.  It's generally (but not always) associated with a baccatum variety.  The problem is that baccatum vary significantly in shape and size.
 
FWIW, my Pineapple is a wide, bushy thing, about 4.5' across and 3' tall. 
 
Never grown a sugar Rush.
 
OTOH, CAP 267 (very similar to Aji Crystal, I believe) is tall and almost grassy in structure, with several main shoots that zoom straight up into a narrow column 3~4 feet tall and ~2 ft wide.  Aji Amarillo and Aji Angelo are tall AND fairly bushy, taking lots of space in all three dimensions.
 
ok thanks, so decent spacing and see how they grow but expect them to spread.  Im thinking 4 or maybe 5(one centered) in the bed and see how things go.
 
I didnt know anything about the naming of them, just going by what I see on a few different websites and there are 8 or 9 varieties all labeled under the Aji name.  Similar to the Bhut Jalokia with a bunch of different varieties.
 
BigB said:
 I have an aji brazilian starfish in a 15 gallon thats 8 ft tall and probably 6ft diameter
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- HUHWHAAA!?!? :shocked:  how old is this thing? I want pics, nay demand them!  without proof it's fiction!  Ive also heard they taste like strawberries, opinion?
 
rjacobs said:
I didnt know anything about the naming of them, just going by what I see on a few different websites and there are 8 or 9 varieties all labeled under the Aji name.  Similar to the Bhut Jalokia with a bunch of different varieties.
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Basically the countries that call chilies aji are ones that grow a lot of the bacattum varieties but aji doesn't automatically mean baccatum variety. They just saying aji apparently..
 
hot stuff said:
Basically the countries that call chilies aji are ones that grow a lot of the bacattum varieties but aji doesn't automatically mean baccatum variety. They just saying aji apparently..
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gotcha.  yea im new to all these crazy types of peppers and trying to decide on a few different ones to grow next year outside of my 4 reapers I have growing right now.
 
This is the site I was looking at them on and figured Aji was a certain type with different varieties.
http://www.superhotchiles.com/ajis.html
 
Topsmoke said:
- HUHWHAAA!?!? :shocked:  how old is this thing? I want pics, nay demand them!  without proof it's fiction!  Ive also heard they taste like strawberries, opinion?
Click to expand...
 
I'm not 100% sure if it's a true brazilian starfish, nor am i 100% sure of it's exact age. I got the plant from Wickedmike, here is what it looked like when I got it. It was in a 1gal at that height. Look at the post below in my growlog and you can see how tall it was in April when I got it. Maybe the plant was started in january?

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/51494-bigbs-first-pepper-loggrow/?p=1151497
 
Here's it in the end of may. I'll have to post an update so you can see it now
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/51494-bigbs-first-pepper-loggrow/?p=1171948
 
My aji lemon drop/pineapple/limon plants grow to about 3' in 5 gallon containers, and 4-5' when planted directly in the ground. I would recommend spacing of at least 24-36" in a raised bed, because they can get a good 2.5-3 feet wide when planted in the ground. Definitely use a stake, trellis, or cage of some sort, because when the plants start getting loaded with pods, the branches will start drooping from the weight. One of my lemon drop plants is currently so loaded with pods that the entire plant is hanging forward, even though I have a 5 foot bamboo stake to support it.

I've never grown the sugar rush peach, so I don't have any recommendations for that one.
 
I actually grew 6 Bishops Crowns in the corner of my fence in a 2ft wide by 3ft long section. They are between 4-5 feet tall and support each other. They are planted 12 inches apart from each other and doing great. They brace each other and the branched are intertwined with one another. Hopefully they will survive the winter where they are planted as my next door neighbor and the one across the street have plants that are 2-3 years old planted in the ground. I'm hoping I have the same luck.
 
With a 6'x4' bed Im thinking on the 24" spacing.   12" off my bed walls in each corner and one in the middle.  That would give 12" to the bed wall's and the middle plant would be spaced basically 24" from either of the corner plants.  Then the front and back rows would be, again, 12" from the bed walls and 24" from the back row.  They could grow off the beds if needed.  So I could get 6 plants in with that spacing.  Will plan to cage in tomato cages.
 
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   x         x          x
 
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Something kind of like that, roughly.
 
rjacobs said:
With a 6'x4' bed Im thinking on the 24" spacing.   12" off my bed walls in each corner and one in the middle.  That would give 12" to the bed wall's and the middle plant would be spaced basically 24" from either of the corner plants.  Then the front and back rows would be, again, 12" from the bed walls and 24" from the back row.  They could grow off the beds if needed.  So I could get 6 plants in with that spacing.  Will plan to cage in tomato cages.
 
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   x          x         x
 
 
 
   x         x          x
 
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Something kind of like that, roughly.
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That looks good. You can always trim back a few branches towards the middle, but let some branches intertwine with others so you end up with what amounts to a single plant with 6 root bases.
 
That will definitely work! Are you growing only Baccatums in there? 3 Aji Pineapple, and 3 sugar rush peaches? The tomato cages should help a lot with the wind as well, if you get it in your part of the country. One of my aji amarillo and one aji limon plants got absolutely ravaged by a bad storm back in June, both plants were pretty much ripped to shreds. I was only using a 5 foot bamboo stake for support. The tomato cages should definitely prevent that. It seems to me like the branches of Baccatums aren't as strong as most of the Chinenses and Pubescens I grow. Both of those plants did make a miraculous recovery though, and became super productive in September.
 
Thegreenchilemonster said:
That will definitely work! Are you growing only Baccatums in there? 3 Aji Pineapple, and 3 sugar rush peaches? The tomato cages should help a lot with the wind as well, if you get it in your part of the country. One of my aji amarillo and one aji limon plants got absolutely ravaged by a bad storm back in June, both plants were pretty much ripped to shreds. I was only using a 5 foot bamboo stake for support. The tomato cages should definitely prevent that. It seems to me like the branches of Baccatums aren't as strong as most of the Chinenses and Pubescens I grow. Both of those plants did make a miraculous recovery though, and became super productive in September.
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Thats the plan is to only grow these in that bed.  In one of my other beds I will be transplanting the 4 reapers I currently have and hopefully 8 more of some type of super hots(3 rows of 4).  Im building initially 4 of these size beds in my yard.  The other 2 will most likely end up being tomato, beans, cucumber, and herbs.  Wind "shouldnt" be a huge issue because I have an 8' tall fence around my back yard here in Texas and these first 4 planters are going to be along the fence line, but I will still throw tomato cages around these.  They are cheap insurance.
 
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