Stickman's 2015 - That's All She Wrote...

Hi All! It's been an incredibly busy winter dealing with one thing and another, and it's only about half over here.   Still, it's time to get on the stick and put my seeds in the dirt in preparation for plant-out in another 12 weeks or so. I have a Manzano over-wintering inside that's going on its third year. It's next to a sliding glass door with a great southern exposure but the light it gets here this time of year is pretty paltry... I expect it'll start to perk up sometime in March. I have a couple of MoA Scotch Bonnets over-wintering at a friend's house because there wasn't space in front of the sliding glass door for them and my wife's indoor plants... the deal is that if they both survive the winter, we'll split the plants. If not, he'll keep the one that lives. That seems fair since he did all the work.
 
The rest of the list is looking like this...

Pubiscens Varieties
Total bust this year... nothing that germinated survived.

Baccatum:
Ditto

Frutascens:
Tabasco
Hawaiian Bird chile
 
Chacoense:
Ditto

Chinense:
7-pot Yellow Turned out to be a red "Not"
MoA Scotch Bonnet
Beni Highlands... Also turned out to be a "Not"... maybe a Mako Akokrosade cross?
Ja Hab
Trinidad Perfume
Zavory

Annuum:
Cabe Rawit (mouse turd pepper, in Singapore where the seeds were collected they're called Cili Padi)
Red Thai
Biggie Chile Anaheim
Poblano Gigantia
Jalapeno Ciclon
Jalapeno Tormenta
Serrano Tampiqueno
Hungarian Hot Wax
Almapaprika
Ethiopian Brown Berbere
 
I'll also be planting a sweet Criolla de Cucina plants and about 20 sweet Kurtovska Kapijas. The Kapijas have the longest growing and ripening times of any Annuum I know, but they're big, meaty sweet peppers that average around a half a pound apiece... just the thing for making that eastern european condiment called Ajvar.
 
Too tired to say more now, but will pick up later... Cheers!

 

[gnslngr]

You are smokin' the season so far Rick....a lot of very interesting stuff.
 
Gotta love those chickadees- I watch em take on all comers at the feeders.They are just not to sure about what do with the squirrels though..lol

 

[stickman]

Great updates Rick! Hope you get a good round of MoA pods set soon. It's frustrating when they drop all their flowers. Sounds like you got enough in the ground for a good buffer.

What is the Ethiopian brown? Have you grown it before?

Cheers Adam! That's how we do it in New England... to get enough pods from the long-season varieties we set out more plants.
 
I haven't grown the Ethiopian Brown Berbere pepper before, and that's reason enough for me!   It sounds interesting though... like the Korean Gochu it's supposed to have medium heat, aromatic flavor, thin flesh and a thick skin, making both of them good for powder.
http://pepperlover.com/pepper-seeds/pepper-species/capsicum-annuum/ethiopian-brown-berbere-detail

You are smokin' the season so far Rick....a lot of very interesting stuff.
 
Gotta love those chickadees- I watch em take on all comers at the feeders.They are just not to sure about what do with the squirrels though..lol

 
Cheers Dave! The Chickadees are surprisingly assertive for their size... I've seen them face off with House Wrens, Bluebirds and Tree Swallows to keep possession of the nesting box. They don't fight anywhere near as hard for a place at the bird feeders in the winter... just grab a sunflower seed and fly away to eat it. I put baffles on the poles below the bird feeders so squirrels never get up to them. The squirrels never give up though... we get a lot of entertainment value watching them try to shinny up the posts and figure a way past the baffles. It's better than television programming any day.

 

[Plantguy76]

I will be growing the  Ethiopian Brown Berbere in 2016 as well as the Aji Panca so I am counting on you Rick for the run down    
In past year I have grown the holy moly but i am not this year I will be changing over to those next year.

 

[stickman]

I will be growing the  Ethiopian Brown Berbere in 2016 as well as the Aji Panca so I am counting on you Rick for the run down    
In past year I have grown the holy moly but i am not this year I will be changing over to those next year.

 
I'll try Jason...     I actually did try to grow the Aji Panca a couple of years ago. It grew great and set lots of pods, but the season ended here before any of then ripened. If you give yours an early start I don't think you'll have any trouble in your area. I really wanted them to ripen though... I can get them at a local bodega run by a fellow from Bolivia. They have a sweet, berry-like flavor that I thought would go well in powder blends. The Ethiopian Brown Berbere is an unknown quantity for me... I know what's said about them but haven't actually tasted one yet... soon I hope.

 

[Plantguy76]

I have the seeds first seen the Ethiopian Brown Berbere in bakers creek people said good things about it looking forward to your opinion.
I plan on having a more refined grow next year & starting the capsicum chinense's in mid Janurary & the baccatums in feb but not puting out till after may.
The goal is to have one phase tenativly speaking lol

 

[stickman]

I have the seeds first seen the Ethiopian Brown Berbere in bakers creek people said good things about it looking forward to your opinion.
I plan on having a more refined grow next year & starting the capsicum chinense's in mid Janurary & the baccatums in feb but not puting out till after may.
The goal is to have one phase tenativly speaking lol

 
Most Baccatums grow fairly quickly, but the Aji Panca is a slowpoke by comparison. If I were you, I'd plant the seeds for them in January with the Chinense varieties. Good luck!

 

[Plantguy76]

Ok will do I also think they do better in containers going by Queen Lourie but that might just be that plant

Hey rick did you get the Aji Cereza (PL)
I am thinking on ordering this one.

 

[stickman]

Ok will do I also think they do better in containers going by Queen Lourie but that might just be that plant

Hey rick did you get the Aji Cereza (PL)
I am thinking on ordering this one.

 
No, I haven't tried that variety either Jason, but Judy has some great stuff and I'm sure you'll like it if sweet is what you want. You might want to look into Cheese Peppers (a kind of Pimieto) and Kapijas as well.

 

[Plantguy76]

When I make pepper Jelly I always go for a sweet & Hot with lots of flavor
I normally grow the Jamaican Red form lake valley habanero heat.
They say its a Scotch Bonnet & extra early well its not early well takes about 90 days.
I thought after reading here that it was a Jamaican mushroom but the sb7j pheno f3 gen looked just like them so now I don't know for now I am going with red mushroom x habanero or bonnet something

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Looking good brother. Plants are amazing. I seen some grubs in my soil as well. The plants seem to be doing well. Don't know if there is anything one can do about grubs. My Orik pepper's are turning purple. They look cool. Don't know if that's normal. I thought they were red. I'll try some this weekend when I go back home.

Take care and enjoy the rest of the week.

Thanks for sharing

Chuck

 

[Trident chilli]

Great update Rick .. looking forward to seeing your bonnets ... Chickadees had to look that species up similar to our tit family - blue tit, great tit and coal tit

 

[stickman]

Looking good brother. Plants are amazing. I seen some grubs in my soil as well. The plants seem to be doing well. Don't know if there is anything one can do about grubs. My Orik pepper's are turning purple. They look cool. Don't know if that's normal. I thought they were red. I'll try some this weekend when I go back home.

Take care and enjoy the rest of the week.

Thanks for sharing

Chuck

 
Cheers Chuck! I understand you can introduce Milky Spore or certain types of Nematodes into the soil to kill grubs. My issues with them have been spotty this season, but I'm seriously thinking of dosing them at the end of it to put the kibosh on them before next year so they don't get too well-established.
 

Great update Rick .. looking forward to seeing your bonnets ... Chickadees had to look that species up similar to our tit family - blue tit, great tit and coal tit

 
Interesting... our Chickadees look the most like your Coal Tits but they don't sound anything alike.  The Chickadee call that gives them their name is a danger signal they use when people are around. I hear it when I get a bit too close to the nest. They're daring little birds though... when I was about 12 I got some of the ones coming to my Mom's bird feeder in winter to feed from my hand.
 
Sadly, I managed to fry my good-quality camera by getting it wet. The good news is that the replacement I got for it at Wally World was originally a hundred bucks, but I got it marked down to fifty and it's a better camera than the one it replaced. I just need to use it for a while to see how to get the most out of it. Here's some new pics of the Red Rocoto clones.

 
An interior shot of one of the JA Habs showing a quarter-sized pod

 
Now that it's warming up at night the Sesame plants are beginning to work on side-branching and the leaves are getting much bigger

 
Have a good night all!.

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Looking good man, did you get hit by the storms yesterday? 

 

[stickman]

Looking good man, did you get hit by the storms yesterday? 

 
We got the rain Chris, and some of the wind, but we're in a river valley surrounded by fairly high hills and they took the brunt of it. Besides that, the worst of the squall line passed north of us across Lake Champlain and north-central Vermont. Scratchzilla probably got it worse than we did. Cheers!
 
The next round of pics experimenting with the macro setting on the camera...
 
First MoA Bonnet pod!

 
Red Marconi has set pods

 
... and the Yellow Marconi as well

 
The Kapija pepper bed

 
Fatali starting to put out blossoms

 
... and Trinidad Perfume

 
Jalapeno Ciclon

 
Ethiopian Brown Berbere blossoming

 
I'd swear the Biggie Chiles are growing by the day!

 
A last "non" shot... We're gonna be into eggplant pretty soon.

 

[Plantguy76]

I have lots of moa yellow bonnet pods around that age or maybe a little older now.
My plants are all different sizes I don't think its anything I've done but the year here in Missouri having looked at Ozzy's pics & he put out before me.
I would be interested in trying a moa yellow form here northeast & florda different areas etc & see if I could tell the subtle differences

 

[bpiela]

How do you take these awesome photos? Are you down on the ground, one hand on the camera, one hand on the plant? Your hand doesn't shake doing this? You must be a marksman!

 

[stickman]

I have lots of moa yellow bonnet pods around that age or maybe a little older now.
My plants are all different sizes I don't think its anything I've done but the year here in Missouri having looked at Ozzy's pics & he put out before me.
I would be interested in trying a moa yellow form here northeast & florda different areas etc & see if I could tell the subtle differences

 
I think the concept of terroir covers what you're talking about. I don't think growing plants from different regions would make that much of a difference if they're grown in the same place. It's the water and soil chemistry, climate and other nearby plants that have more impact on the results.
 

How do you take these awesome photos? Are you down on the ground, one hand on the camera, one hand on the plant? Your hand doesn't shake doing this? You must be a marksman!

 
Or just the "anti-shake" setting on the camera... The new camera has a lot more resolution than the old one and a macro setting specifically for photographing plants... Bonus!
 
A few pics that didn't get posted last night...
 
Tabasco

 
Kapija pods set

 
First Bhut Jalokia pod

 
Pods on the "not" Orange 7-Pot... I don't know exactly what I have here but suspect it was crossed with something like a Fatali or Mako Akokrosade. Any suggestions?

 

[Plantguy76]

Rick I noticed your growing Sesame plants  thats pretty cool I would not mind growing some where did you get them & what is your experiance with them?
I somehow missed them(or any other post or just forgot Doh! lol) but there looking awesome is it just the seed you can use or is it like mustard you can use the whole plant  basically?      

 

[Ozzy2001]

I have lots of moa yellow bonnet pods around that age or maybe a little older now.
My plants are all different sizes I don't think its anything I've done but the year here in Missouri having looked at Ozzy's pics & he put out before me.
I would be interested in trying a moa yellow form here northeast & florda different areas etc & see if I could tell the subtle differences

My MOA's are very squatty and bushy. There were some of the first I germinated and were the biggest for quite awhile then they just started to sprall out. Even the one I put in a pot and have kept out of the cold is bushy.

Stickman your plants look great. My stuff Is pretty much in the same stage. My annums and Baccatums are all podded up and the Chinese vary from plant to plant. Keep up the good work and best of luck to you .

 

[romy6]

 Great shots of those healthy plants Rick . Didn't take long to dial that camera in