At the end of last season I said I'd limit myself to 15 pots this year. Once again I failed, I'm up to 34 pots. It would have been more but I had some starts fail.

Amusing I don't kill anything during hardening off, here's a list of my varieties for 2012:

7 Pot; 7 Pot Douglah; 7 Pot JF; 7 Pot Jonah; Aji Cito; Bhut Jolokia; Bih Jolokia; Billy Goat; Black Cuban; Bonda ma Jacques; Bulgarian Spicy; Chimayo; Chocolate Bhut Jolokia; Chocolate Scotch Bonnet; Christmas Bell; Datil; Dorset Naga; Fatilli; Kurtovska Kapija; Mutant NuMex Halloween; Nagabon; NuMex Jalundo; NuMex Twilight; Piri Piri; Poblano; Sorok Sari; Takanotsume; Thai; Trinidad Scorpion Butch T; Trinidad Scorpion FG; Trinidad Scorpion; TS Moruga and Yellow Jelly Bean.

I'm also growing bells: Bell Boy; Jupiter and Summer Sun.

Here are a few shots...

Looks great except for a few unruly ones in the last pic. I have some like that too.

Mark

I love those typically long thin tails.

Might be partial to them because they were around long before the currant trend towards naming any different pod shape a NEW STRAIN or VARIETY regardless of if it's stable or not.
Scorpion FG ARE stable and were the first yellow Scorpion pods but are now forgotten by most.

I remember when John first caught crap for saying they were a natural strain he got by growing out some seeds that were supposed to be red.
They grew yellow pods and to check it out he spread a LOT of the Scorpion FG seeds around for the asking,but still caught crap by people saying they were a cross or whatever,even when they always grew true pods.
As far as I can tell.All the isolated seeds I've grown from them indicate they are a stable yellow Scorpion.

Another one that is being bastardised is Chris's Morouga blend these days.
Chris never isolated seeds but spread a lot of seeds around.
Now there is a magically new variety called morouga red instead of the morouga blend ( a Cardi Hybrid of Scorpion and 7Pot were what Chris had originaly).
Since he didn't isolate stuff and,at the time grew Butch T's(called Scorpion Jonah at the time) there might be a cross in some seeds with the butch t's as they are now known.
Maybe the now called Morouga red is the Hybrid,I don't know but I think the original Morouga Blend was or is the origin of the hottest around.
Since the origins were a CARDI hybrid I think that it's been grown out enough to have finaly been stable (8 generations) and now everyone is calling the stable version Morouga Red instead of Morouga Blend where in fact depending on the seed you are growing you are growing the same thing just a different version/or grow out.
I've had Morouga Blend come out hotter than Habs but not super hot and plants from the same seeds from Chris come out so hot that you only need to wave them over your salsa to make it super hot.They are good to put on your dash boards as de icers too.
What is the differnce is 7 pot jonah and JF?
I've got it from a couple sources but don't know what it is yet.
I thaught it was some ones grow out of the Jonah.
Is it?
I've heard some call it the Jonah improved strain.Same pod characteristics but bigger or hotter.
Just wondering.

Darn.I was going through withdrawals cutting down 400 pots two times a year (growing year round) to about 200 a year total.
30-40 varieties must be hard to do.
I actually have to force myself to mess with my few plants these days.
I used to spend an hour or two at least every day tending my pots.
It's hard to get used to tending what I'm growing now for only at most an hour ,at most a day.
Had to talk myself into that it didn't matter that I only had a few plants,I had to find other things to do instead of spending time in my garden...

There is also a naga X scorpion cross that pepper Joe has been hawking as the new record holder that one pod beat butch t by a couple schovilles to sell as worlds hottest if guiness says it's cool.
Whole thing with peppers these days is $ and how much snake oil you can sell at stupidly high prices to the uninformed as you laugh to the bank.
Very Sad in my opinion.Very Sad...

Josh

Your plants look healthy and happy! Looking forward to seeing them grow up.

E

tsheets, yup, everyone in the pool... one of our little dog's pool. I find it easier to move them around in larger bins during the hardening off process. Yes, I ended up with a few unruly Annuums. Some of my starts had to share space under one of my HID lights with some other larger over wintered plants (Rosemary, Bay Laurels, etc.). I'll just plant them deeper in their pots. It's all good..

Mark, it's good to know Bruce is in your corner when you're fighting mother nature. Two feet already, good job. If it's in a pot you have another two to three to go. So far the Peppadew is the tallest chile I've grown.

Smoke, I really like the Trinidad Scorpion FG. John shared some seed when he spread it around to test other peoples results. It's one variety I grow each year. Agreed, very stable, consistent shape with a distinct stinger. A nice hotter than Hab but not a killer heat like other Scorpions. I personally find it quite productive.

The 7 Pot JF is my naming for a 7 Pot I got from John. When I first grew the seed out it produced a pod similar in taste and size to regular 7 Pots but with a smoother skin and less intense heat. It has grown consistently true over the past 4 - 5 years using saved seed.

Capoman, I started my super hots mid January. I ended up having to restart a few varieties (after a neighbor killed some while I was away on a short vacation) with the balance of my other chile varieties in late February.

Bill

Jamie

Josh

Josh, I'm sorry to report that aside from an errant Celery Root seed, no sprouts yet. I don't generally have trouble sprouting seeds. These buggers do test your patience.

Smoke, I neglected to say that I was under the impression that the "Moruga" was a C. chinense variety from the Moruga region of Trinidad. I thought the "Morugh Red" was just another name for the Trinidad Moruga while the TS Moruga Blend (current record holder?) was a distinct stable cross. But then again, who knows. Here are a few shots of the 7 Pot's, TS Moruga Blend and Trinidad Scorpion FG for you...

7 Pot JF (left) and regular 7 Pot (right)

TS Moruga Blend

Trinidad Scorpion FG

I've given up on mixing my own potting mix... too much work for the number of pots I do. Oh ya, I'm lazy too. One bail of Pro-Mix BX down, three left.

I scored the four bails on sale for $22.49 each, all they had left. I'll probably need another bail or two by the time I'm done.

Bring on the 2012 pepper season!

BX is the Pro-Mix that incorporates Mycorrhizae. I've used other pre packaged mixes from Premiertech and others but by far, in my experience, the BX produces the best root system and more robust plants.

Here is the list for Fafard 52:
ITEM# DESCRIPTION INGREDIENTS
65-1585 Fafard #52 Mix 2.8CF
24% Peat Moss
8% Perlite
8% Vermiculite
60% Bark

At that rate, I would think it would be great for peppers but it seems to hold a lot more moisture than something with 60% bark. Even with the bark and perlite that I add, it doesn't drain like I would expect.

But I am no expert and maybe it will be great. I hope so. It looks like I may have some extra left over this year too.
Bruce.

Josh

don555, I grew up in zone 3A and we never could get peppers or eggplants to do well no matter how hard we tried. Now tomatoes were another story, we had around 1000 plants a year and sold to the local stores. We decided to retire down in zone 8 ...now I've been trying my darnest to grow rhubarb!!

Bill, I agree with others, can't wait for your review. You've a fun grow list.

Mycorrhizae was the reason I and I'm sure many many others purchased it to begin with. I snagged a couple of bails of the old formula before they sold out. I won't be buying any of the new BX even though it now comes in new nifty black plastic wrap with silver grey print.

Hopefully they suffer a "New Coke" moment and revert back to the original formula that made it popular. If not, I'll be re-joining you mix your own enthusiasts.

Set out 35 plants the last weekend in my raised beds. Worked till yesterday and went to check on them. Some critter dug most of them out, burying many in the process. Thinking the Tomatoes Alive natural fertilizer I placed at the bottom of the plants got the critter going. Lost 2 of my 5 Jamaican Hot Chocolates.

Anyone else had a similar experience?

Watching the conference finals, Ottawa? The Kings are scary looking right now, bro. What do you think?

Two months since my original post and not much exciting to report. I've managed to keep all my babies alive - some barely due to heat/humidity and earwigs. All the plants except two or three are putting out a good crop of pods. I'll try to get some shots to post in the next couple of days.

Watering and shading has got me through a few 100F+ days, diatomaeceous earth has some what helped keep earwigs at bay. The earwigs this year have been my biggest problem... they're insidious bastards.

Here's a shot of a few Christmas Bell leaves. A third of the plant looks like these. The white powder some of the diatomaeceous earth.

Here's a shot of a Black Cuban that got decimated early after planting. It's just starting to come back now. It should have been four times this size and fruiting by now.

I can't blame earwigs for all the damage caused this year. I helped out by pulling a bonehead move. We have a tank-less water heater, basically a mini blast furnace that heats water on demand. These systems exhaust hot gas through a jet like nozzle outside.

While rearranging plants one evening I left a Takanotsume pepper right in the line of fire. Took a shower the next morning and the result was:

If I make this mistake again I'm going to have to use the diatomaeceous earth on myself!

Later,

Bill

No, I haven't had any deer problem, just earwigs.

Buy hey, on the positive side you can eat deer. I'm told earwigs taste terrible... just sayin I heard.

I wish you luck my friend for some harvest before frost.

Bill

Thanks for the update Bill.

Jamie

If I'm a master at anything it's disasters!

This has not been my best year. My plants seemed to be having a bit of a tough time with the extended high temps and humidity. Like Josh I have cut back on my feeding. My plants would normally be larger by this point. If we get a normal fall up here then I should have a couple more months to catch up.

In no particular order, I crammed a few pots together for some family portraits ;-)

From left to right...

Piri Piri; Takanotsume; Twilight and Thai.
The Thai should be in a larger pot. It got creamed by earwigs early on while still in a 3 inch pot and I didn't think it would make it.

Jalapeno; another Takanotsume; a Black Cuban/Twilight cross and a Yellow Jelly Bean.

Trinidad Scorpion FG and a Poblano (needing water)

part of the same Poblano; Chimayo; Bonda ma Jacques and 7 Pot Jonah.

Billy Goat; 7-Pot; TS Douglah and Datil

The Takanotsume I fried and a Trinidad Scorpion hit by earwigs in rehab.

I'm finding the Black Cuban/Twilight cross interesting. The pods started dark purple/black like the Cuban but their shape is the normal Twilight. In this shot it looks like some pods are starting to turn red, again like a Cuban black to red not the five colour transition you see on a Twilight. Overall the plant is growing like a Twilight.

I have another 15 pots to photograph. I'll try to get the rest of my update done in the next few days. I'll also try to get some pod shots.

Later,

Bill

Trinidad Scorpion and a TS ButchT

Nagabon

Fatili

Bhut Jolokia

Aji Cito

7 Pot

Christmas Bell

Last but not least, one of the four Edymnion's mutant NuMex Halloween I grew out

No pods yet on my Scorpions and Jolokias.

Eight more plants to go, I'll try to get the shots and post them later today (if you folks are tired of the updates yet).

Bill

Your plants look great.

Mark

Are those 7 Pot pods the ones that are shaping up differently?

Josh

The plants look great. I'm with peppernovice here, you're my pepper hero! (Not sure he went THAT far!) Definitely motivating.

Mark, the Christmas Bell pod is resting on a cage bar. The shot is of the bottom of the developing pod.

It's growing true like others I've grown in the past. Here's a couple of shots of a Bishop Crown (aka Christmas Bell aka Uba Tuba aka a dozen plus other names) I grew four years ago.

Josh, no, they're not the same ones. I'm starting to doubt the 7 Pot seeds as well. The skin is starting to develop blisters though.

Here's a couple of better shots of the 7 Pot pods.

......

I'll post my last set of pictures shortly.

It's a very cool looking pepper. But, what do you use it for? How hot? Flavor, etc..?

Bhut Jolokia-Chocolate and a Dorset Naga

Bih Jolokia

Billy Goat and Scotch Bonnet-Chocolate

Kurtovska Kapija and Bulgarian Spicy

TS Morouga

Last and definitely least, my sorry looking Bell peppers

That's it folks until I get some ripe pods.

Return your seats to their upright position, fasten your seat belts and prepare for August.

The Christmas Bell is one of my favorite two bite popper pepper. It has a warm not hot heat, a nice crunch and tangy flavour.

I like them for mini stuffing peppers because you can get your stuffing down into the lobes. Really great stuffed with some chorizo and queso fresco!

My first (puny) harvest; Bulgarian Spicy; stunted Datils (the rest are coming in normal size) and what I thought was a Fatili.

I grew out three Fatail from seeds received from another member. Two are growing true yellow, this one is more orange/red. I know there is a red Fatali variety but I'm not sure if this is it. I'm still trying to figure out who sent the seed so I can ask.

It's been a bit of a strange season for me on a number of fronts. This year, for the first time growing them, I have a Jolokia ripening up before a lot of others. Usually they're the last to turn. Here's a shot of my Bih Jolokia.

Tim

Peppernovice, other than some slight morphological variation, I can't tell any
difference in heat between Bhut and Bih Jolokia. One of my friends, in fact, declared
last year's Bihs to be the hottest of the superhots I grew (Yellow scorpion, Bhut, Bih, Dorset, Morich).

Josh

Bulgarian Spicy Datils? Which one are those? I never heard of that.

TheMasterGardener1, They are two different peppers; Bulgarian Spicy and Datil.

Tim

Bruce

This is my first time growing them. If the first pod is any indication of the rest then I'd say it has a Habanero mouth burn but really nails the back of your throat. I was expecting more fruity taste than was present. I'll update if future pods impress me more.

I also seeded a few Bulgarian Spicy pods today. Overall, not really a remarkable pepper. It has a milder than Cayenne heat and taste with loads of seeds. Actually as I was munching one I found myself spitting seeds ;-)

Here are some updated shots of my Black Cuban / NuMex Twilingt cross. The flowers and pods have the colour charistics of the Cuban but plant and pod shape are classic Twilight. Interesting how the pods start out black and then take on an olive green colour before ripening red.

Here are a couple of shots taken earlier this summer. I didn't have time (ok I wasn't fast enough) to wrap any plant I wanted to collect seed from in a mesh row cover. I ended up just wrapping branch ends where buds hadn't flowered yet.

My main objective is to keep pollinators away. You can see from this close up of the mesh that it won't effectively block all blowing pollen but I'm comfortable that plant spacing and mesh eliminates 99% chance of crosses.

Just for fun I tried the carpenters glue method of keeping pods true. Basically, the theory is gluing the bud before it flowers stops it from flowering and the bud self pollinates and as the pod develops it pushes the glue off.

Well, I call this theory busted. I glued and tagged four buds and within a few days all had flowers ;-))

That's it for now. Sorry if I bored anyone ;-)

Here's my latest harvest picked today. Still waiting on my other 20 odd varieties to ripen up.

Going clockwise:

- Top: Maybe a red Fatalli (can't track down my seed source to find out if yellow and red seeds were sent);
- Aji Cito - not. Again, traded seed and they are not coming in yellow/orange as expected. The pods look similar to the Bulgarian Spicy but the leaf shape and pod flavour are distinctly different;
- A lone 7 Pot Jonah whatever;
- Datils;
- Bulgarian Spicy;
- Bonde ma Jacques;
- Center: TS Moruga (should have ripened more but I got sauce to make!).

The drought we had this summer knocked earwigs out of commission but with the minimal rain we've had the last few weeks has brought them back.

The few that resurfaced seem to have taken a liking to my Bih Jolokia and TS Douglah.

That's it for now.

This thread is getting long so next update will be in a part 2 thread.

Bill

That earwig damage looks like the damage on some of my neighbor's pods. What do you use to kill those bastards?

Fiery-er Regards,
Peppermeister

Yeah, how do you get rid of them? :-)

I'm sure Bill has his own methods of control, but I'll share one of mine in the meantime.
I roll up newspaper or use a cardboard tube (pvc pipe, too), spritz it with water, and leave
it on the ground near my plants. At dawn, the earwigs retreat to the tube to hide for the day.
In the morning, I dump the tubes into a bucket of water.

Josh

That is brilliant!