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thoroughburro 2023, kith and kitchen

I’m just a week or so away from my first round of seed starting, and The List has stabilized.

As the title suggests, I’m focusing on a more shareable garden, this year. My high heat tolerance is well satisfied by sauces and flakes, so it’ll be a mercy to others and not much sacrifice to me if I cook more with mild or heatless peppers and lean into condiments for my own spice satisfaction.

Capsicum annuum​

4 Gogoşar (pronounced “gogoshar”; also transliterated as gogosar, gogosari, etc), a heatless Romanian variety whose name is confusingly also used generically for red pepper. My partner has very fond memories of this large, pumpkin-shaped pepper being roasted and then stuffed or preserved. They’re also used fresh, like red bell pepper. I had to import these seeds from a Romanian seller on Ebay who at first resisted since US customers had been leaving bad reviews for unreliable shipping. I assured her I would leave a good review regardless of ever getting them. It all worked out, and now of course I’m that much more invested in growing the variety…

4 Quadrato d’Asti Giallo, a superlative, heatless yellow bell pepper from Asti, in northern Italy. I grew this last year and, although the pods were stunted in only 5 gallons of soil, I was extremely impressed with the thick flesh and excellent flavor. Together with Gogosar, these should account for most of our “vegetable pepper” usage.

4 NuMex Heritage 6-4, well known as a choice, but mild, New Mexican cultivar. I grew Big Jim last year, but it was too hot for my partner to enjoy when used as the base of, for example, chile verde.

4 Jalapeño Zapotec, nearly rejected for again being too hot for my jalapeño-popper-loving partner, it found a place as my primary fresh spice pepper for pico de gallo and other fresh salsas. I’d find a place for it regardless, really; I find it a very compelling pepper.

4 Jalapeño TAM, this is the jalapeño to hate if you despise the near-heatless jalapeño products which took over the mass market: it was developed by Texas A&M University to be a commercial (but open pollinated) crowd pleaser. It should be exactly right for my partner’s poppers, and thus allows me to grow my Zapotecs!

4 Chiltepin O’odham (pronounced something like “OH ohdahm”, the apostrophe representing a glottal stop; they’re fascinating), a really tempting chiltepin collected from a sacred mountain. I struggled to choose a chiltepin for the year, especially because my dried Chiltepin Hermosillo Dwarf from last year have been amazing… but I do want to see if the berries of a non-dwarf might be a bit bigger, and I’m a sucker for a good origin story.

4 Stavros, an apparently choice Greek pickling pepper of the general type known in the US as “golden Greek pepperoncini”. “Pepperoncini” terminology is an absolute minefield, which is a shame since so many of us developed an addiction to them in childhood (thank you for that if nothing else, Papa John’s). This seems to be the only specifically named cultivar widely available, so it was an easy choice.

Capsicum chinense​

4 Orange Habanero (SLP) and
4 Orange Habanero (CPI), let one of these be the harpoon which slays at last this white whale, please god! This will be the third year I attempt to accomplish the original goal of this now-major hobby, which was to replace my no-longer-locally-available favorite sauce (El Yucateco XXXtra Hot Kutbil-ik) with homemade. The first year, I began too late and only whetted my appetite; last year, I put all eggs in the Habanero Oxkutzcab basket, which was too fruity for purpose. I’ve realized I need a bog standard habanero for the sauce I crave. Hopefully one of these will do.

4 Habanada (also using seeds collected from @HellfireFarm), which will allow me to make a medium-heat, taste-alike version of my signature sauce for more sensitive friends and family. This technique, of substituting some of the spicy variety with a heatless version to make a mild sauce, works so well that the smell, texture, and damn near the flavor are almost identical to the real deal. I hope to slowly create more heatless varieties of sauce peppers to allow this for each sauce I make. Someday.

4 Bahamian Goat, which saved my bacon when Habanero Oxkutzcab proved unsuited. It’s bulletproof and super productive with no downsides. It would almost be hubris not to grow: oh, you think you’re so good you don’t need the Goat at your back? It’s a good luck pepper.

4 Hot Paper Lantern, which I failed to see through last year. These have an almost universally excellent reputation, and in general sound like another pepper with all pros and no cons. I tend to like those! In addition, Johnny’s offers a yet more lauded version which was apparently the pride and joy of one of their breeders, Janika Eckert. I expect great things!

2 7 Pot Jonah, which I fully expect to regret growing. The capsaicinoids all over everything around processing time was a bit annoying last year. This year, I know to dedicate a separate cutting board and generally be more aware of the invisible menace which accumulated capsaicinoids become. Even so, I expect processing a superhot into sauce to be an ordeal. But I do want that sauce. I want a sauce in my repertoire which can make me think twice. Plus, I already thought of a good name.

2 Ají Charapita, which I grew from RFC seeds last year. I wasn’t sure if I would grow it again, but it’s lovely and compact, and looks amazing filled with glowing berries. We made a present of the single harvest of the single plant we grew, packed in vinegar, and it was both surprisingly beautiful and tasty. This seedline from Peter Merle was collected by him from a wild (or, I would suspect, naturalized) context along the Amazon, near Iquitos where the variety is common. I don’t expect it to be appreciably different to RFC’s, but the extra provenance is cool!

2 Redfire, also known as CAP 691. An enigmatic wild (or naturalized) red chinense which @Pr0digal_son described temptingly here. I’m hoping this has deciduous pods…

Capsicum baccatum​

4 CAP 455, which was the most productive pepper I grew last year, as well as the tastiest heatless red. The large jar of refrigerator pickles leftover has seen heavy use in chickpea salad sandwiches. I intend to devote a future season to more widely exploring baccatum, but this one is essential.

Capsicum frutescens​

4 Tabasco, which sure, yawn, but that unique flavor is still my absolute, must-have favorite on breakfast eggs. I’ll be surprised if I can make an acceptable substitute, but taking a shot at it will be my first fermented sauce project.


It’s a smaller grow than last year, in order to allow room for a burgeoning interest in herbs and a tentative branching out into other veg. As long as my choices work for purpose, it should all be more than enough!
 
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All right, the informal experiment is set up:

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In both cases, the cubes and pellets were hydrated with boiling tap water, then allowed to drain (cubes) or soak (pellets) until cooled to room temperature. The pellets were additionally squeezed and fluffed a bit during the soak, then drained for a few minutes at the end of cooling.

I discarded the least attractive seed from the soaked and dry groups, leaving me with an even 16 of each, then sowed 4 seeds into each cube and pellet. Soaked seeds are the left group, dry seeds are the right group.

Meanwhile, I spotted the first hooks in Tray 4 this morning! This is day 5; that’s more like it. 😊 (This tray had no presoak for the seeds, since it was back to basics.)

Habanada:
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Quadrato d’Asti Giallo (back), Jalapeño Zapotec (front):
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I’m beginning to feel like there will be peppers, this year! 😁
 
Tray “Easy as 1-2-3” (selections from failed Trays 1, 2, and 3, flushed through with water for a second chance) isn’t looking very active. A few more evident germinations, but nothing really seems to be taking so far.

Last ditch effort: I mixed up a mild solution of 1 drop of liquid nutrients and 1 drop of rooting gel in 1 cup of tap water, put it in a mister, and misted the top of the cubes with it. I expect nothing.

After reflection, I decided to persist on a few of the varieties I would otherwise regret most. It’s still early enough to get plenty of productivity out of them — might as well take advantage of the long season we typically get here!

So, hopefully arriving soon:

- Orange Habanero (RFC)
- Jamaican Hot Chocolate (RFC)
- 7 Pot Jonah (WHP)
- Andy’s King BOC (WHP)

I don’t intend to grow the BOC this year, but you can’t just order one variety from a vendor. Isn’t that, like, bad luck or something? 😉
 
Last year, I felt that the early risers were hampered by waiting under the dome for their siblings. This year, I’m pulling out anything which looks strong enough and has its cotyledons free.

Bahamian Goat (back), Jalapeño Zapotec (middle), Jalapeño TAM (front):
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I’ll give these a couple hours of wind a day, now. I’m wary of them drying, so wind is followed by misting the peat.
 
Tray 4 is continuing at a normal pace. I won’t call out every sprout while things are so brisk, but here’s the airing out area for graduates:

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Last year, I was a lot more careful about labeling. It was a drag, to be honest, especially since I keep pretty thorough digital notes anyway. This year, each start gets a number within its tray: 1-72 (happily, the trays fit an even and equal number of complete rows), top to bottom and left to right.

So, to maintain their identity I need to place them in the exact same spots in their airing out tray! It feels a bit chancy, but I have a photo of each step, so it can’t go too far wrong.
 
Keeping up with it all can be tricky at times. This year I used small bathroom cups to keep track of what's what. When the seedlings came out of the humidity dome I dropped it in a cup and labeled it. The cups were inexpensive, saved space and seemed to help with moisture retention. The negative about using the bathroom cups is that it adds another step and only buys a little time before you have to put them in something bigger or plant out. Not sure how long the plants will stay happy in these cups but if I hold out until March 16 (our last average frost date) I can avoid putting them in bigger cups and just plant them outside.

It's good to see you back on track after the somewhat rough start.
 
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Tray “Easy as 1-2-3” (selections from failed Trays 1, 2, and 3, flushed through with water for a second chance) isn’t looking very active. A few more evident germinations, but nothing really seems to be taking so far.

Last ditch effort: I mixed up a mild solution of 1 drop of liquid nutrients and 1 drop of rooting gel in 1 cup of tap water, put it in a mister, and misted the top of the cubes with it. I expect nothing.

After reflection, I decided to persist on a few of the varieties I would otherwise regret most. It’s still early enough to get plenty of productivity out of them — might as well take advantage of the long season we typically get here!

So, hopefully arriving soon:

- Orange Habanero (RFC)
- Jamaican Hot Chocolate (RFC)
- 7 Pot Jonah (WHP)
- Andy’s King BOC (WHP)

I don’t intend to grow the BOC this year, but you can’t just order one variety from a vendor. Isn’t that, like, bad luck or something? 😉
"I expect nothing." That's like my life motto right there, lol. Those Andy's King BOC from WHP did really well for me germination wise and are growing super vigorously. Jamican Hot Chocolate is probably my favorite pepper of all time. Definitely my favorite for making sauces and flakes.
 
RFC and WHP are pretty close to me, geographically — seeds arrived yesterday evening, and I just finished sowing the final batch:

1677605031708.jpeg


Orange Habanero (RFC), 1-6
Jamaican Hot Chocolate (RFC), 7-12
7 Pot Jonah (WHP), 13-18

The remainder are Culantro and Holy Basil. In the bottom right is the soaked/dry and pellet/rockwool experiment — it’s been 5 days on that, shouldn’t be much longer to see results!

Here’s the airing out tray:
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The sprout in the rockwool is Golden Cayenne. If that takes root, it’ll be more evidence that the H2O2 was the problem, earlier.

In the bottom left, notice the little taproot that found its way through the netting. 😛
 
I love getting bonus seeds and looking up the unexpected varieties, but I only add what I think I’ll grow to my seed box. From the most recent orders:

- Primo X Butch T Orange (WHP)
- Jigsaw X Moruga (WHP)
- Jonah X Morich (WHP)
- Thor’s Hammer Peach (RFC)
- El Rito (RFC, unlisted)

I’m most attracted to old landraces and well-established cultivars, so I’ll keep Jonah X Morich and El Rito. Anyone particularly want to grow the remaining three?
 
I have a confession about yesterday. After my last update, I didn’t feel like I was done sowing seeds. I decided it would be a shame not to grow an ornamental this year, so I sowed a bunch of Bolivian Rainbow. 😛

This is the seedline from Juuka, and I don’t intend to buy from him again (low seed quality compared to competitors, yet at a higher price and for fewer seeds; at least IME). So, I need to grow out enough to save a reasonable diversity of seed from. I intend to have 4-6 containers with 2 individuals per container.
 
All right, the 7 Pot Nebru experiment is beginning to show results!

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Results (In Days to First Visibility)

Soaked then Cubes: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
Soaked then Pellets: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
Unsoaked then Cubes: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
Unsoaked then Pellets: 7, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?

An interesting first seed to have tallied, but it may prove to be an outlier.

Elsewhere, the most interesting sprout at the moment (a Habanero Gambia Orange) looks like it wanted 4 cotyledons but got 3½:

1677795605601.jpeg
 
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