Why are orange habs easier to grow than other chinenses?

[mega]

Question: Why are orange habs so much easier to grow than other chinenses?

Last year, my orange hab gave me 55 pods, fatali around 30, other chinenses 20-25.

This year: here in virginia we are in week 4 of post-transplant. Orange hab: 35+ pods, flowers, and buds so far. Red hab: about 5 so far, morouga: 0, fatali around 10, paper lantern maybe 20. There has been a lot of blossom drop on my plants due to the heat wave (89-94 degrees for days). Yet....only one blossom drop on the orange hab.

Orange habs seem to require virtually no care. Any mix of sun or shade, rain or dry, cold or hot, and an orange hab plant will do something useful. They also seem to grow more pods, faster and in total quantity by the end of the season, than other chinenses. At least in my backyard.

Other habs seem to be more of an ongoing, summerlong project of getting just the right mix of things going. And then best case scenario you end up with about 60 % of the pod count of an orange hab.

I'm trying to understand why. Thoughts? Maybe it is just that the unique mix of conditions in my garden favors the orange hab; I am open to that possibility but have no idea how to verify it.

 

[UltraZelda64]

Maybe your orange habs grew from seed of a specific strain which was selectively bred to produce like crazy... or maybe, because the variety was in cultivation for so long (being the "classic" type of habanero), it's been well-adapted to just about any warm-temperature climate you can imagine. Those would be my top two guesses, though I could imagine at least a couple other reasons that you could be seeing such differences. Not too many other chinense varieties are produced on such a relatively large scale. I'm still waiting to see the total output of my plants, since this is the first year I went wild and grew many different types of chinenses. But my two orange habanero plants from Bonnie Plants are going freaking crazy so far... surpassing everything else so far, even some orange habanero plants from other sources. I'll give it a short amount of time, the tabasco plant (also from Bonnie) will probably dwarf both plants combined in terms of output... at least, that's my prediction. It happened last year.

 

[Nova]

I have never grown an Orange Hab plant but have been told that they are very hardy. In fact Tony05 feeds his with petrol and it still produces
They have been around for a long time so maybe the genetics have got to a point of just growing really well, i don't know.

 

[siling_labuyo]

what's the average temp there in your area?

 

[POTAWIE]

For me orange habs grow about the same as most other chinenses although they often put out more pods but smaller

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Yeah zelda, that would be my bet. Orange habs have been selectively bred much more intensively for commercial production than most other chinense varieties.

 

[Aji Chombo]

I've got one growing this year (well, an overwintered plant), and this is the average size for the pods:

It does tend to produce more than the other Habaneros I've got, but not by much (the Royal Gold I'm growing this year is starting to rival it). I do have a couple of pods currently on the plant that look about 50% bigger than the one on the left. But the left hand side pod is average.

 

[windchicken]

I've only been growing peppers for 3 years now, and I've never grown the Orange Habaneros, since one can buy them fresh in just about any grocery store around here. But, yes, I have to agree with the other posters that it's probably the breeding.

I have to say, however, that Caribbean Red Habaneros, for me, grow and produce like nobody's business. Last year I started Caribbean Red, Lemon Yellow, and White Habaneros, and the Caribbean Reds far out-produced not only the other habs, but gave me orders of magnitude more fruit than my Jalapeños, Thai Birds Peppers, Pusa Jwalas, Serranos, and Poblanos. And those others did very well.

This photo is from last year's garden here at work. The pods shown here aren't really ripe yet, but you can get an idea of the productivity of the plants. (Note the green pods, also.) By the way, these things are hot as hell. A Cajun guy who works here, and who grows Tabascos for his daily use, cannot eat a whole one of these in a sitting:

 

[harry]

My Red Habanero type plant was more productive this season than my Orange Habanero type plant.

I harvested the final 7 of 12 pods a few days ago in Winter here:



I plan on growing many more C. Chinense varieties next season to see what copes with what can be horrid weather here.

 

[roadhouse]

For me I noticed that the Orange Habaneros have grown worse than all other chinense. They haven't got any fruit or anything but the plants look horrible compared to everything else and were grown under the same conditions.

 

[bigt]

I'm growing Orange Habs for the 1st time this year. It's been so hot, they don't appear to be growing any faster than anything else. All my Chinense plants last year cranked out more than 100 pods except for 1 Dorset Naga that only did 87. (fresh Pro-Mix and great weather work wonders) I'll keep track again this year but I'm sure the numbers will be much lower. This is the hottest June I can ever remember here in 40+ years.

 

[Ballzworth]

I have to say, however, that Caribbean Red Habaneros, for me, grow and produce like nobody's business. Last year I started Caribbean Red, Lemon Yellow, and White Habaneros, and the Caribbean Reds far out-produced not only the other habs, but gave me orders of magnitude more fruit than my Jalapeños, Thai Birds Peppers, Pusa Jwalas, Serranos, and Poblanos. And those others did very well.

I've noticed that as well. Caribbean reds for me are producing like mad. It's only 2nd to the red Scorpion which is producing insane amounts of pods. Orange habs seem to be the same as all the others though. I don't think there's any exact science behind it, only environmental / growing technique factors.

 

[U)<now]

My Orange habs produce the most for me and Caribbean Reds do well also for me. Both produce tons more pods than other hot varieties have for me such as thai hots and japs and the like. Also my Hab type plants are absolutely beautiful compared to others. They are still only about 18 inches tall but starting to fill in nicely. They just seem to be a bushier plant for me.

 

[windchicken]

Same here with the bushy. This year's Caribbean Red plants are twice as wide as they are tall. Also, much healthier and more robust than the other plants.

 

[harry]

Same here with the bushy. This year's Caribbean Red plants are twice as wide as they are tall. Also, much healthier and more robust than the other plants.

I'm waiting for this seasons Caribbean Red plants to mature and produce. I have two Orange Habanero varieties from two suppliers that are both performing poorly while other plants are setting fruit.

Information about a cultivar that does well in over 30°C / 86°F would be of interest.

 

[AlabamaJack]

I have to agree with what has been said about the genetics being improved for commercial production...

here is a pic of a 2nd year O Hab from 31 October 2008...this plant gave me well over 2000 pods that year...if all my chinense produced like that I could cut down the number of plants by at least 75%....but then again, if toad frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their butt everytime they jumped...