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Why do you grow chilli peppers?
- Thread starter megamoo
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First off, interesting thread!
My reasons evolve just like my knowledge base, but here is a sampling of a few.
You can't get superhot chilis at the market.
I love to cook, I love the burn (benign masochism), I love the process of being in the garden and looking at the plants grow. I love the endorphin rush of a great pepper. I love having something I can obsess over. I love teaching my son about growing plants. I love sharing the fruits/pods of my labor with others. It is at the same time selfish and selfless. Very unique in a hobby.
Also, my mom is a botanist so she has fostered a love of plant life by example.
This is my first year of ever growing anything. I can't see myself ever stopping. The whole process is addictive and really gives a focus for lots of my creative energy. Plus I have been fortunate enough to find a great friend and pepper mentor in Justaguy and a great community within The Hot Pepper which makes it even more enjoyable.
My reasons evolve just like my knowledge base, but here is a sampling of a few.
You can't get superhot chilis at the market.
I love to cook, I love the burn (benign masochism), I love the process of being in the garden and looking at the plants grow. I love the endorphin rush of a great pepper. I love having something I can obsess over. I love teaching my son about growing plants. I love sharing the fruits/pods of my labor with others. It is at the same time selfish and selfless. Very unique in a hobby.
Also, my mom is a botanist so she has fostered a love of plant life by example.
This is my first year of ever growing anything. I can't see myself ever stopping. The whole process is addictive and really gives a focus for lots of my creative energy. Plus I have been fortunate enough to find a great friend and pepper mentor in Justaguy and a great community within The Hot Pepper which makes it even more enjoyable.
I have always liked growing plants, peppers give me a new challenge. I like the heat as flavor, not knock me over the head heat BUT I grow super hots exactly for that reason. I am fascinated by any new one I see, I want to grow them all. BTW I am not great at growing peppers but I don't let that stop me.
I had been growing tomatoes and herbs for 3 years or so. Every year I was getting more OCD about my tomato garden, planting more varieties of increasingly exotic types, and building more and more elaborate trellises, but having less and less success at it. Every year there would be some new tragic illness or pest that would wipe out my crop and cause the second half of my summer to be bleak and depressing. When the next season rolled around I would be armed with new wisdom on how to avoid the failure of the previous season, only to have yet another tough lesson destroy my botanical dreams...
Then in the spring of 2008 I decided on a whim to put in some "ornamental" chile beds in the front of my house, attractively arranged and complete with stone decorative borders. The varieties were pretty simple, because although I have always liked spicy food, my idea of exotic chiles did not extend beyond the standard Thai, along with Early Jalapeño, and Anaheim. That was what sounded good from my favorite tomato seed catalog, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I just didn't know any more than that about chiles.
When my tomato garden perished early that spring from my annual Brutal Gardening Lesson, I think it was Curly Top Virus, the chile garden saved my summer, and the rest is OCD history.
Then in the spring of 2008 I decided on a whim to put in some "ornamental" chile beds in the front of my house, attractively arranged and complete with stone decorative borders. The varieties were pretty simple, because although I have always liked spicy food, my idea of exotic chiles did not extend beyond the standard Thai, along with Early Jalapeño, and Anaheim. That was what sounded good from my favorite tomato seed catalog, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I just didn't know any more than that about chiles.
When my tomato garden perished early that spring from my annual Brutal Gardening Lesson, I think it was Curly Top Virus, the chile garden saved my summer, and the rest is OCD history.
I've always loved gardening. I always grew different flowers and such with the occasional run-of-the-mill Jalapeno's and Cayenne's. Then I started to do some googling "world's hottest pepper" out of boredom one day. I read all about the Bhut and everything, then started to seek out where I could get them. After some more googling I found this site and from here found Cross Country Nurseries. That is how it all started for me, also this is my first year growing any superhots and I'm hooked now. Thanks for that btw
My story just started this year. I was looking for a place to buy "ghost peppers" so I could see what all the hype was about and all I could find online was dried pods. I then looked on craigslist and found a guy selling a plant "hotter than the ghost pepper" which turned out to be the Butch T and a Douglah. I got to try the hot peppers and the guy referred me to this site for further education. I will now be overwintering those two plants and the 2 caribbean reds that I purchased and I will be preparing for next years grow season. In the meantime I am going to have a go at hydro because I am just so damn excited about growing right now.
Pepper-Guru
eXtreme
Because I'm addicted man!
Why do we eat them? - We're all pre-wired for basic needs, procreation, sustenance and pleasure. The chile pepper is one of the only substances on the planet that has the capacity to deliver two of our basic needs, it's a potent nutritional source and a source of extreme pleasure. It provides a 'hook' that few other plants have, including marijuana.
Why do we grow them? - We all have some hidden desire to grow things in the ground. It's similar to going out and shooting a buck or catching a fish. It's genetically embedded within us and links back to the basic need for survival. You eat, you crave, you need to have control over the source of the craving, so you grow the plant, it's basic human nature. In the case of chile peppers, they also fulfill other secondary desires such as the desire for the aesthetic and even the need for material acquisition via trading and bartering. They're beautiful to look at, they have high aesthetic and monetary value ($80/LB for superhots), they provide sustenance and a natural 'high'. What's not to like?
Sucking at growing them just strengthens the desire factor. We want what we can't have, if we can just touch it with our fingertips but not quite grasp it then the desire for possession becomes even greater, to the point of obsession. You'll find those who are most proficient at growing plants seem to have less of the obsessive passion that the rest of us amateurs have. They've taken control over the source and the rest of us haven't.
Why do we grow them? - We all have some hidden desire to grow things in the ground. It's similar to going out and shooting a buck or catching a fish. It's genetically embedded within us and links back to the basic need for survival. You eat, you crave, you need to have control over the source of the craving, so you grow the plant, it's basic human nature. In the case of chile peppers, they also fulfill other secondary desires such as the desire for the aesthetic and even the need for material acquisition via trading and bartering. They're beautiful to look at, they have high aesthetic and monetary value ($80/LB for superhots), they provide sustenance and a natural 'high'. What's not to like?
Sucking at growing them just strengthens the desire factor. We want what we can't have, if we can just touch it with our fingertips but not quite grasp it then the desire for possession becomes even greater, to the point of obsession. You'll find those who are most proficient at growing plants seem to have less of the obsessive passion that the rest of us amateurs have. They've taken control over the source and the rest of us haven't.
i grow them as i love to watch them grow, and i love the unique shapes and flavors of various pods! i ahve not gorwn much unitl this season where i went "balls out" if you will! 
growing up my dad was a great gardener and has had at time 75 differnt rose bushes and he would know the names, scents, growing charecteristics, he would tell me " son, wait till you are older, you will see the theraputic side of gardening" and he is so right its similar to a form of meditaion for me.i have about 13 plants(3 of them i am giving to friends to make room for some new ones i want to grow) and i can spend hours just looking and examining them! and it is peaceful with an ocean view in the background. i also race street bikes and that too is actually medidation as i am very relaxed(hard to believe i know) and i bring pods to the track and watch my race buddies try to eat pods that are not that hot to me but bering them to tears! 
plus this THP community is like none other that i have expierence! there some AMAZING people here that give freely what was given to them. and i try my best to do that as well, just like i volenteer my time at race tracks teaching new riders the fundaments of racing and track riding!
Cheers to all!
growing up my dad was a great gardener and has had at time 75 differnt rose bushes and he would know the names, scents, growing charecteristics, he would tell me " son, wait till you are older, you will see the theraputic side of gardening" and he is so right its similar to a form of meditaion for me.i have about 13 plants(3 of them i am giving to friends to make room for some new ones i want to grow) and i can spend hours just looking and examining them! and it is peaceful with an ocean view in the background. i also race street bikes and that too is actually medidation as i am very relaxed(hard to believe i know) and i bring pods to the track and watch my race buddies try to eat pods that are not that hot to me but bering them to tears! plus this THP community is like none other that i have expierence! there some AMAZING people here that give freely what was given to them. and i try my best to do that as well, just like i volenteer my time at race tracks teaching new riders the fundaments of racing and track riding!Cheers to all!
I love growing food-producing plants in general, especially exotic and/or heirloom types that aren't found in grocery stores, that's why I have a lot of non-chile plants, fig trees, paw paw trees, miracle fruit, currants, kumquats, pink blueberries, Meyer Lemons, heirloom tomatoes and fruits, herbs, etc. With chiles, I love the flavor and heat, nearly all my favorite foods involve some type of hot pepper, and grocery store peppers are usually pretty terrible. The jalapeños are never sold ripe, have barely any discernible heat, and taste like bell peppers. The serranos are big and fat and don't look like or taste like serranos. The habaneros are orange and usually half rotten. The finger hots taste like grass and have no heat. The bell peppers are way too expensive. And the unripe Hungarian hot wax suck too. The only decent peppers sold fresh here are ancient sweets, mislabeled as "pasilla", and they're sweet peppers. So I kind of have to grow my own if I want anything decent and uncommon. Plus it's fun starting something from a tiny seed and raising it to a large, food-producing plant. It's rewarding and gives me something to do.
I don't find growing peppers all that hard compared to a lot of things, so I can't help you there.
Then again, the plants that are supposed to be difficult usually do the best for me, the ones that are supposed to be easy do the worst for some reason...
I don't find growing peppers all that hard compared to a lot of things, so I can't help you there.
Then again, the plants that are supposed to be difficult usually do the best for me, the ones that are supposed to be easy do the worst for some reason...
sorry i kinda sucked at most things in my life chiles isnt one of themhmmm good replies
I was kind of hoping someone would say "yeah I suck at growing chillies too. It's really hard!"
thanks your friend joe
Amen brotha! food just isnt the same w/o hot sauce, powder, flakes, or fresh pods sliced on top of or eaten whole with, and hell I'm a chef that has worked in restaurants since the day I turned fourteen! If I cant figure out a way to make food excellant w/o chiles what chance has a normal guy got
Just teasing of course, this is my first year growing anything other than houseplants,(never had any land always lived in the city, I moved out to "the country" last fall now I have 2 acres and i went a little crazy 50 tomato plants 20 squash(5 different kinds), 12 cukes, 32 types of herbs,12 green beans, 6 watermelons and last but not least 162 chile plants. now why would I be so ambitious on my first year at first I was pissed about the rising cost of produce in the stores and @ the farmers markets, also i thought of how cool it would be to have a limitless supply of fresh veggies and herbs, but the biggest thing was my love for chiles all kinds of chiles, I have loved everything hot since I was a Kid and being a chef Id been exposed to a hundred or more varieties of chiles, but before this season that was the extent of my knowledge but thanks to the garden web, and u nice folks here, I now have a deep freezer, a stand alone freezer and the freezer side of the whirlpool in the kitchen, not to mention the pantry, filled w/ wonderful hot goodies, not to mention the several hundred pounds of tomatoes I've had to can the last 50 or so lbs I just finished today. but I guess the point of all this was to say that growing the stuff u eat is cool and growing the hot stuff is just about as cool as it gets!! thanks for helping out w/ my new addiction all here @ THP!
When I worked as a chef in Florida in my twenties and early thirties I worked with different groups of employees; the islanders from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamacia, Haiti, etc. and from the other side of the globe mostly Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese and Philipinos. The one thing the whole mix had a love of was flavorful food. I remember some of the asians bringing in big bags of peppers and using the industrial sized meat grinder to grind them all up for sauce. I started gardening and collecting varieties back then, and never quit.
Now that I live where there is usually snow on the ground 6 or 7 months out of the year, taking care of pepper plants and seedlings inside for most of the winter gives me something to do other than curse the weather. I love the array of colors, shapes and flavors in peppers. I spend a lot of time listening to Jimmy Buffett and dreaming of cruising the Caribbean islands; eating at little local places with homemade hot sauces setting on every table and soaking up the local flavors. I can't really do it, but at least I can make the sauces and try to capture the essence of the food here.
Now that I live where there is usually snow on the ground 6 or 7 months out of the year, taking care of pepper plants and seedlings inside for most of the winter gives me something to do other than curse the weather. I love the array of colors, shapes and flavors in peppers. I spend a lot of time listening to Jimmy Buffett and dreaming of cruising the Caribbean islands; eating at little local places with homemade hot sauces setting on every table and soaking up the local flavors. I can't really do it, but at least I can make the sauces and try to capture the essence of the food here.
hmmm good replies
I was kind of hoping someone would say "yeah I suck at growing chillies too. It's really hard!"
its how i feel! i am pretty bad at it. after looking at pics here, i see that i suck! but hell its the journey not really the end point for me. i get like 3-5 pods off one plant and you guys get 100! LOL prob just my beach climate is not quite warm enough but i am doing it for the love of the burn!
The glow from my winter grow station is good light therapy, I think.
Peppers are the most difficult vegetable for me to grow well. They keep me on my toes, having to pay more attention to soil and weather. A good challenge, and an enjoyable journey trying to figure it out.
A great hobby that yields yummy food as a prize. It's a 'spice of life' thing....
Peppers are the most difficult vegetable for me to grow well. They keep me on my toes, having to pay more attention to soil and weather. A good challenge, and an enjoyable journey trying to figure it out.
A great hobby that yields yummy food as a prize. It's a 'spice of life' thing....
