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Who here knows about Tepins?

saugapepper

saugapepper

Never grown these before. RedTailForester was kind enough to send some wild Sonoran tepins seeds. The plant was alive and well until about 2 weeks ago. Now I get yellowing on new leaves and the odd large leaf. I am actually quite diligent to make sure it is dry before watering. I have a few varieties going this summer and each need are on a different watering schedule... all done by hand by me. It has received the same small amount of ferts that my St. Helena George, Florida Wild, Piri-piri, and Wild Brazil has received. None of the others are yellowing. What are your opinions?
 
are they planted in the ground or in a container?...if container, how big?...How big are the plants?...How long has it been from seed?...What have your temperatures been?...

There are no cut and dried answers to your question...

I grow my wild tepin's just like any of the other plants (chinense and annuum) I have in containers and they are doing fine...all I have this year are second year plants and they are getting huge...

Yellowing can be cause by many different things and just to name a few,...too wet...Nitrogen deficient...Magnesium deficient....pH of the soil has caused a "lock out" condition of nutrients...
 
Hey Conor! Sometimes Chiltepin can be kind of tough. They have always seemed to be more sensitive to factors like pH and over/underwatering. You shouldn't have to fertilize them up too much but I've found they prefer the more organic stuff (worm poo tea and fish emulsion) to the storebought.
 
I just got a couple seeds of wild tepins finally and I got so far two sprouts from them... Four 5 germinated but only 2 spourted. so 2/6 for the first 6 seeds...
 
First chance I got to snap a shot of what is happening. The photo has a few yellowing and one yellow leaf. Every day for the past 2 weeks, I have seen about 5-10 leaves turn yellow and fall off. Again, I am doing my best to ignore it as I know it is wild. It is bone dry before I water it and then I'm fairly conversative with the water compared to say my St. Helena George peppers who love to be drenched. The plant is about 2 1/2 feet high and in a 8 gallon bucket with Pro Mix HP.

Any thoughts?

tepinyellow.jpg
 
IMHO, the plant looks fine...leaves age, yellow and fall off...that is normal...the new growth looks fine..
 
that's normal Conor, my tepin is 5 years old and has only produced fruit once(its first year). everyday i give my tepin a little shake and it drops 5-10 leaves, new ones grow back.
but, i found my tepin to very fussy to weather patterns, it will drop its leaves fast if left in the sun too long, if it is too windy, too moist, too cold. one year it lost all its leaves 3 times!

good luck and i hope it overwinters for you as long as mine has for me - even without fruit, i like the look of the plant.
 
There are two 2nd year tepins in a 25 gallon container...from the center of the plants to the center of the soil is 20" but they are probably 36" wide...the reason I am posting this is...you can see the soil in the lower portion of the picture and you can see leaves that have fallen off and a few that are yellowing and getting ready to fall off...

07-18-12a002.jpg
 
Pepperwoman2012 said:
Sawdust I think he's know. He's got a big Tepins named Big Mama.
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Cayennemist said:
+1
PW, you beat me to it! Yeah Saw's Big Mama even has some babies at my house. I would PM him, he is a really nice guy and I am sure he would like to help you with anything Tepins. He pulled his of off a river bank in Texas... His are truly "Wild Tepins"
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Ahh Man I can feel the Love! Perty Much everybody here is right! +all A Tepin is a very rugged survivor but slight changes can affect it. Basically it never was bred to be domesticated, many have tried, there was an outfit in Mexico that tried to grow them commercially and it was a fail. Basically it is accustomed to having a "protector Mesquite or tree's" canopy above it or broken canopy from a riverbank, (stick it under a Palm tree :}) it will adapt however to more open but disturbed areas if there is enough moisture and the soil is right (sandy loam) It is temperamental and just have to develop an eye for spotting what it needs. It drops more leaves when it gets hotter, and sometimes I think it does that to sacrifice those leaves to utilize nutrients in other areas of the plant or to make it's own mulch at the base. If you can replicate it's Native environment it will do well, so think about the Sonora Mountains and the dense broken canopys, I dunno just a thought...My Tepin is going on 6 years and every season it reacts differently at certain times but each season things get much better and more controlled, I guess ya just develop a feel for it over time...Be well
 
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