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Wild Tepin
- Thread starter AlabamaJack
- Start date
I bought some seeds this year that are supposed to be chiltepin seeds. I have a plant growing from those seeds now that is producing peppers at a ridiculous rate. Birds get the ripe peppers before I can most of the time, but I really don't care as I like the green ones best, I think. This has seriously become one of my favorite peppers. I plan on growing it every year. It's still producing fruit in 100 degree heat from the looks of it and, like I said, tons of it, so I may dehydrate a bunch and make flakes or powder out of them.
My question for those of you who may be able to answer : are your peppers more spherical or oblong or more of an oblate spheroid (that right there was a $100 "word", ya'll). Mine are somewhat oblong in shape to where they look more like piquins. Whatever they are, they taste damn good and have a good kick to them.
My question for those of you who may be able to answer : are your peppers more spherical or oblong or more of an oblate spheroid (that right there was a $100 "word", ya'll). Mine are somewhat oblong in shape to where they look more like piquins. Whatever they are, they taste damn good and have a good kick to them.
Had you said, "Punkin-shaped", I'd have understood.
I think you answered your own question.
Pequin vs Tepin-The official Definition?
Difference in Chili Pequin and Chilitepin?
Is your plant in the ground? Do you plan on leaving it there over the winter?
Or not, since answers are not too definitive, and José Public doesn't even acknowledge the question.
Green chiltecpín ('cause this thread needs that spelling, too)
If you can beat the birds to a few ripe tepín pods, try drying and then lightly toasting them. Aromas were so rich—something like popcorn, but darker, deeper, better—that while my little bottle lasted, I would sometimes open it just for the aromatherapy.
swellcat, those look like the little berries that come off of mine...
Those are the shape of what I call a chiltepin (or chili tepin). They are spheroids ranging from slightly oblate to slightly prolate, 4-8 mm in diameter. I grew chili pequins while I lived in Roswell. They have the longer shape and I did not think they tasted the same at all. Just as prolific though.
@AZ-Mason you may be able to find your own local wild tepins. My mother had a tepin growing along a fence when she lived in Tucson. That plant (multiple plants really) lived the entire 6 years she was there and was already fully mature when she moved in. It made a huge vine-like mass that climbed up the full 6' height of the fence and spread at least 6' along it.
@AZ-Mason you may be able to find your own local wild tepins. My mother had a tepin growing along a fence when she lived in Tucson. That plant (multiple plants really) lived the entire 6 years she was there and was already fully mature when she moved in. It made a huge vine-like mass that climbed up the full 6' height of the fence and spread at least 6' along it.
swellcat said:
I actually have the one tepin/chiltepin/chiletepin/pequin/piquin/hotroundsucker plant growing in a fabric pot and I'm thinking about keeping it alive over the winter - still haven't decided. I grew another tepin plant from the same pack of seeds and gave it to a co-worker. His plant is producing fruit that is tiny and nearly perfectly round and packs a delayed wallop. At first I taste nothing, then BAM! His fruit is not even half the size of the ones I picked below off of my plant.
Chewi said:
that's cool man...anytime...I am usually home...it's got a bunch of green berries on it now...I will let you know when they start ripening....I have to formulate a defense against mockingbirds and blue jays...am going to make a cage out of some bird netting I have.....
mine are in the ground now but before that, I overwintered in 5 gallon nursery containers...did an extreme cutback on them an let them grow back out over the winter....transplanted to 25 gallon containers for the next season then put them in the ground...
good luck to you..
good luck to you..
Howdy Flamethrower,
That looks like a piquín.
The wild chiltepín plants that grow down around Austin range from round to ovoid in shape, but never prolate. I have found the piquín types sold in the nurseries though.
I've been collecting chiltepín pods from as many wild growing plants me and my friends can find. So far we've found probably 20 or 30 different plants in 4 or 5 diverse locations. Many are short 1-2' shrubs and some are 8 foot trees, it just depends on the micro environment and support structures the plants have. I have a hunch that some might be more than a few years old, more like decades. Even if they freeze back, there seems to be new shoots that comes up from ground level.
I'm excited to grow out as many plants as I can this year. I'm open to trade with other tepin fans.
I'm curious what the pods that are growing wild in places like Tucson look like compared to the central texas type. Thanks!
That looks like a piquín.
The wild chiltepín plants that grow down around Austin range from round to ovoid in shape, but never prolate. I have found the piquín types sold in the nurseries though.
I've been collecting chiltepín pods from as many wild growing plants me and my friends can find. So far we've found probably 20 or 30 different plants in 4 or 5 diverse locations. Many are short 1-2' shrubs and some are 8 foot trees, it just depends on the micro environment and support structures the plants have. I have a hunch that some might be more than a few years old, more like decades. Even if they freeze back, there seems to be new shoots that comes up from ground level.
I'm excited to grow out as many plants as I can this year. I'm open to trade with other tepin fans.
I'm curious what the pods that are growing wild in places like Tucson look like compared to the central texas type. Thanks!
FlameThrower said:
I actually have the one tepin/chiltepin/chiletepin/pequin/piquin/hotroundsucker plant growing in a fabric pot and I'm thinking about keeping it alive over the winter - still haven't decided. I grew another tepin plant from the same pack of seeds and gave it to a co-worker. His plant is producing fruit that is tiny and nearly perfectly round and packs a delayed wallop. At first I taste nothing, then BAM! His fruit is not even half the size of the ones I picked below off of my plant.
Hey Centipede, I'm not going to argue with you because you may be right. I and some of my co-workers thought the same thing, but after tasting the suckers we didn't care. These are some of my favorite peppers. Sadly, they're also a favorite of the birds. 
I think I mentioned this before, but I gave some seeds out of the same exact pack to a co-worker and his fruit were perfectly round but TINY. No telling what I'll be getting this year out of the seeds I planted. FYI : I got the seeds from Refining Fire Chiles/Jim Duffy and they were "Hermosilo Chiltepins". Whatever they are, I like them.
I think I mentioned this before, but I gave some seeds out of the same exact pack to a co-worker and his fruit were perfectly round but TINY. No telling what I'll be getting this year out of the seeds I planted. FYI : I got the seeds from Refining Fire Chiles/Jim Duffy and they were "Hermosilo Chiltepins". Whatever they are, I like them.