Wild Tepin

AlabamaJack

AlabamaJack

eXtreme
Not much to show this year but I do have one plant growing that I am proud of...this plant is about 7 years old and I just can't seem to kill it....even leaving it outside for the past 3 winters...
 
This is an inigenous wild Tepin from Waco, Texas.  The bass player in our band back then gave me a few seeds and I have grown them every year since...the sister plant to this one (same age/group of seeds) is in Pensacola, Florida in one of my mother's flower beds and is doing well also...
 
Although there isn't anything you can judge size from in the photo, it is about the size of an 18-20" beach ball...
 
[URL="http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk136/AlabamaJack/Number%202/DSCN0392.jpg~original%5BIMG%5D"]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk136/AlabamaJack/Number%202/DSCN0392.jpg~original[IMG][/URL]
 
someone want to remind me how to get the photo to show up?
 
Any seeds to trade, sell, give? I started about 5 of these this winter all died. I ordered a plant from chili plants.com and its pathetic...
 
Let me know and nice plant of course!
 
PrimeTime said:
Any seeds to trade, sell, give? I started about 5 of these this winter all died. I ordered a plant from chili plants.com and its pathetic...
 
Let me know and nice plant of course!
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I will look and see...heck...I have more seeds than I know what to do with...
 
Nice little bush you got there AJ, diggin' the Martins in your photobucket, too!
 
 
I click the pic icon above the dialog box and then I copy/paste the "direct link"  offered by the image-hosting site into the box. Hope that helps!
 
Very interesting.  What side of Cowtown are you on?
 
Looks like your plant could be absorbing some winter warmth from bricks near it.
 
Tepíns were for years my only chiles to function as in-ground perennials, going dormant and springing back each new year.  The Zone-7 temperatures pushed down in the 2013-2014 winter, though, killed the chiltepin plants (in 76131) in my yard and those across the street.
 
This year, I have two new tepín plants from wild-harvest Arizona seed.
 
 
someone want to remind me how to get the photo to show up?
Click to expand...
 
The slash mark (/img) got lost somehow.
DSCN0392.jpg
 
here is my little baby, a mexican tepin, it too is several years old. i like to keep it nicely groomed, being in zone 3, i am always carrying it in and out of the house. everytime i go to a retail store i am always looking at new containers for it.  surprising how many seeds are packed into 1 pod, i think 17 was my record for 1 pod.
 

 
 
AaronRiot said:
Nice little bush you got there AJ, diggin' the Martins in your photobucket, too!
 
 
I click the pic icon above the dialog box and then I copy/paste the "direct link"  offered by the image-hosting site into the box. Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
 
the Martins are my go to acoustics...other guitars, such as Gibson and Taylor are great sounding also but from my experience over the past 50+ years, you just can't beat the booming bass the Martins have, especially the D-45....I gonna let the Jumbo go because the neck is too wide for my liking...my hands are on the less than medium size and my old joints ache with the stretch
 
swellcat said:
Very interesting.  What side of Cowtown are you on?
 
Looks like your plant could be absorbing some winter warmth from bricks near it.
 
Tepíns were for years my only chiles to function as in-ground perennials, going dormant and springing back each new year.  The Zone-7 temperatures pushed down in the 2013-2014 winter, though, killed the chiltepin plants (in 76131) in my yard and those across the street.
 
This year, I have two new tepín plants from wild-harvest Arizona seed.
 
 
 
The slash mark (/img) got lost somehow.
 
Click to expand...
 
thanks man....I live on the west side off Chapel creek...1 mile west of 820 and 30...good luck with your new tepins....I babied mine for the first 2 or 3 years and then said, what the heck...the mama is still living in the woods down in Waco somewhere...
 
mlh5953 said:
Very nice.
I'm always envious of you guys that can leave pepper plants in the ground year-round.
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only tepin's my friend, out of the thousands of plants I have had, the only other one to survive a winter was a 7 Pot (original seedstock from Trinidad) but that was a very mild winter...
 
 
Pr0digal_son said:
Nice plant Ronnie. I think I remember seeing this plant in a large container before??
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yes sir, in fact you do....I found a photo of it during spring after the first year's cutback...was planted in 2008 so it is 7 years old this year...
 
051509aWildWacoTepin.jpg

 
Burning Colon said:
here is my little baby, a mexican tepin, it too is several years old. i like to keep it nicely groomed, being in zone 3, i am always carrying it in and out of the house. everytime i go to a retail store i am always looking at new containers for it.  surprising how many seeds are packed into 1 pod, i think 17 was my record for 1 pod.
 
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good looking plant...and I notice several big differences in the plants...your leaves look more delicate and "hairy" than mine are, your base stem is a single thick stem....my stem is not one but a mass of about 7 or 8 main stems that make this plant bush very nicely...and the third is yours is tall and mine is round...I suppose it is just the way we grew them....by what you say, you bring it in every year and don't leave it outside in the winter...these stay outside year round and are happy....I am wondering that if your plant seeds are truly mexican, could it stand a winter here in north texas outside since the plants down there have genetically adapted themselves to a warmer climate...
 
Nice. It's always interesting to see the variety of growth habits in the wilds, I've grown some tepins before and they stayed pretty short and bushy like yours. This year I'm growing a wild-harvested specimen from Tex16 (doesn't look like he's been active in a while), growth is more upright and the pods are slightly larger than the tepins I've had. Reminds me more of the pequins I've grown. We'll see if I can get it overwintered, haven't had much luck with my previous attempts.

G6pGHof.jpg
 
 
 
by what you say, you bring it in every year and don't leave it outside in the winter...these stay outside year round and are happy....I am wondering that if your plant seeds are truly mexican, could it stand a winter here in north texas outside since the plants down there have genetically adapted themselves to a warmer climate...
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of course, zone 3 brings -4F to -40F in the dead of winter, by the end of september it is in the house full time. the package the seed came in were labeled product of mexico.
i do have several wild texas plants and you are correct, they are smaller almost a bush versus a tree. pods tasted the same.
i would think the mexican version would survive your winter temps if shielded correctly.
 
Here's a wild tepin growing in my neighbor's hedge row. I noticed this guy two years ago and it was already fully mature so it is a minimum of 3 years old and growing with nobody paying any attention to it whatsoever. The pic from the top is a little fuzzy, but the bush is a good 4-5' across and about 3 1/2' tall. 
 
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that tepin looks very similar to mine and I would expect it to since it is grown a little south of me in Texas....as far as the northern boundary goes...we know the will do well in Fort Worth and if last winter is any indication, you could use the temps we had last year and do a comparison to "normal" averages a little further north...I sent seeds out to a lot of people over the years and really never heard anything back on survival but then again, most people don't leave pepper plants out during the winter...
 
. . . northern boundary goes...we know the will do well in Fort Worth and if last winter is any indication, you could use the temps we had last year and do a comparison to "normal" averages a little further north . . .
 
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Well, if the immediate-past winter is an indication, the boundary seems to be between west and north Fort Worth :)  (or more grossly, somewhere in zone 7B), but micro-climates (proximity to a heated dwelling, e.g.) may be skewing our results. 
 
NOAA reported 8°F/-13°C at Alliance Airport on 29 January 2014.
 
My neighbor didn't plant his (now-dead) tepíns; he assumes a bird did.  If it was a migratory species, who knows where the bird might've sourced the berries?
 

 
 
 
swellcat said:
 
 
My neighbor didn't plant his (now-dead) tepíns; he assumes a bird did.  If it was a migratory species, who knows where the bird might've sourced the berries?
 
 
 
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all I know is that this past winter, I didn't leave the house for 5 days...I mean I didn't even open the doors...I just hibernated for that cold spell...
 
who knows, the seeds those birds sh** on your neighbors may have come from my plants...I am wondering how many wild tepin plants are hidden down in the hill country?...I will keep my eyes open Thursday morning when I come back from Luckenbach...will head north out of Fredricksburg and follow 16 all the way to 20...
 
That plant is in Sugar Land, Texas. I have also seen plants growing wild in similar sheltered environments in Galveston. I grew tepins a couple of years ago harvested from a wild plant growing on a river bank in Bastrop.
 
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