Welcome, Smiter, and best of luck growing in the inferno! Maybe there should be a forum devoted to growing under extreme weather conditions....
I forgot to mention that I grew a couple other C. baccatum varieties this summer, but they were planted late, so my observations aren't really reliable. However, my experience may be worth something:
Birgit's Locoto: Grew a lot of stem and foliage right away, but root development was much slower. Heavy pod production after the cool down, in October. My pods seem a little smaller than what I've seen elsewhere on the web.
Queen Laurie: Good root, stem, and leaf growth in the big heat. Excellent largish pods came later, after the cool down. These are some groovy orange, cigar-shaped pods, with very nice C. baccatum flavor.
Note: These varieties, whose seeds came from Wayright, germinated at the rate of 100%. I suspect either one of them, if started in December and allowed to develop large, robust root balls and leaf canopies before a mid-March plant out, would do quite well in the heat of the Texas summer.
Guyana PI 199506: Good performance in the extreme heat, much better performance and much larger pods after the cool-down. Loves the nitrogen.
All these types (and most all chiles that I've grown) seem to do much better with very deep, loamy soil, and a really thick layer of shredded hardwood mulch. The effect of which seems to be:
* increasing draining ability of the soil, which allows for heavier watering during extremely hot weather.
* allowing a larger root ball, which lets the plants get a bigger drink when it's real hot and dry.
* increases the beneficial bacterias and molds in the soil, which makes for healthier plants, which can better withstand the extreme heat.
* allows for more uniform moisture content, both over time and spatially.
One side effect of using large amounts of shredded hardwood and watering heavily is nutrient deprivation through leeching and "nitrogen hunger," caused by takeup of minerals during the rotting process. One must compensate by adding over-normal amounts of high-nitrogen fertilizers. I like to use a nice "base layer" of Osmocote 14-14-14 pellets (time released) and adjust when needed with MG Liquid, the one in the yellow bottle.
