Well, I don't know about this guy and his success, but I grew one plant this year. Seed from a confirmed source. I will no list any names as I don't want to out anyone specific. But there is only a couple sources right now that are know to have the original seed. Anyway, my plant is growing great, however, the pods are not classic reaper like. They are more naga like. A couple of them have a stinger like tail but most of them are longer and not the round shape they should be.
Here is a photo. You guys tell me if this is a reaper:

The guy gets paid to grow for Puckerbutt,HE DOES have a stake in the game.

He has a BIG reason to push the Reaper. He needs Ed to keep buying his peppers.IF Ed can't move the seeds etc. he won't need the guy to grow them.
But I guess for sauce sales ANY super will work,why not reapers,stable or not.It doesn't matter.

Too many people have all kinds of variations in not just pod shape but color etc.

I don't know how many generations these were grown out for BUT I do remember they sold seeds for a month or so then stopped.
Said the seeds weren't stable.BUT 2 months latter they are?

I think it might depend on what batch of seeds yours came from.

Long run it doesn't matter,they have the $ and hopefully most people got what they paid for.

Maybe a different generation or whatever grew true..

I have heard that his hawker,jumped the gun in pushing the sales of the seeds too early,whatever that means...

I have a plant outside that hasn't put out buds yet,But a friend just sent me a pod,(along with some morougas) today that looks like the advertised pod shape.

I'll Maybe taste it later on tonight...
No I don't eat ANY super by itself.
I gotta hit up the store for supplies for salsa.Might make some BBQ chicken Burritos.

Probably won't try it until tomorrow.
I'd rather use smoked chicken and let it blend with the rub overnight.
Chicken is on sale.time to fill the smoker...
Might play with a rub tonight though...
Gotta make a mop and finishing sauce.
Probably put the Reaper in the Finishing sauce.
Morouga in the mop or rub,probably the rub.

I have 1 plant that is exactly what I thought it should be. I have two plants that are pretty close to what I thought they should be and I have one plant that is nowhere close to them at all. esox07 yours look nothing like my pods or even my off pods.

I got mine from pepper j***...they all grew fine and super hot...but even in fourth fifth generation peppers ..you can still get some odd ball plants

Bruce,
I've seen a crapload of Reapers posted in various facebook gardening groups...groups where Ed Curie, Jim Duffy, John Ford, and other growers frequent. And I'd say that your pods look well within the expected range of Reaper pod-forms.

Josh

Josh:

hmmmm, I thought they were supposed to look kind of like a pumpkin with a stinger coming out the bottom. Even if I was dumb enough to try one, as long as it was half as hot as advertised, I wouldn't be able to tell if it was as hot as advertised so getting an ID that way isn't going to work. I will see what happens as more pods develop and the existing pods mature and ripen.
Lets see some more Reaper pod pictures up here and get a feel for what everyone is getting this year with their "Reapers".
Bruce

These are pods I got from Jamie/Romy in exchange for some seeds I sent him last fall (seeds from PJ). I tried a tiny sliver, It was the hottest pepper I've ever had. Though I don't normally eat superhots, this had great aroma and bright flavor. I ended up drying most of them and I'll be using them for some powder blends later in the season.

Here is a link that might be useful: PEPPERMEISTER!

Here's the "money shot"

The guy is a commercial nursery farmer and he obviously knows what he's talking about. If they were an unstable strain the variation would be much higher as he points out.

Interesting insight about the dog eat dog business of hot peppers.

what i gather from the video is it looks like there are multiple varieties grown on there farm also he says about 37 plants do not look like reapers i would have just pulled them plants totally out of the garden to assure no extra crosses are made did not see any protected from cross pollination so next season reaper seeds could grow to be anything ... i do have many reapers myself they are just starting to set pods so i will update with some photos to compare when they are large enough

How many variations of this plant are people going to explain away and how many campaigns are going to be made to cover explaining the variations?

This seed seems to have been pushed to market too soon based on the rather lofty promises made selling the seed to consumers.

It just so happens that so many people who got variations (of both pods and heat) happen to be on the internet sharing their growout experiences out of the massive amount that were sold...what a huge coincidence.

There's nothing wrong with bringing something to market...it's how one chooses to market it and the claims/promises vs. how it delivers that matters.

As an aside...

The "dog eat dog" of the hot pepper breeding industry shouldn't be a shock to anyone. There are some shady human beings in this field...and I will refrain from telling stories about it. They're not out there killing people...and a few bucks isn't going to bankrupt any hobby grower...and you will grow product from your plants...but the way some breeder/grower/distributor cliques treat each other (unless you're a reviewer or a consumer) leaves a lot to be desired.

The "hot pepper" corner of the plant breeding world is more cutthroat than I've seen out of some of the most intense orchid and rose breeders...which is odd considering most hot pepper breeders don't even have a decade of experience under their belt breeding anything (if they even come close to a decade at all). The whole "hot pepper" side of horticulture has attracted a lot of people from way far outside the horticulture realm and they're bringing some interesting ways of "doing things" with them.

Money is important...bringing new/interesting to market is important...and getting it out there exclusively before everyone on the planet is distributing seed can lead to extremely "slick" (to put it nicely) marketing.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Fri, Jul 26, 13 at 6:57

Armageddon: You are right and I didn't really put 2 and 2 together. It would seem he is growing the plants simply for seed stock if he is selling them back to what's his name. And it certainly does look like they will be open pollinated plants.

Or...Mike is growing those plants for pods only, not seeds. I'll have to ask next time I "see" him on facebook.

Josh

I thought he said he was selling them all back to the seed supplier. That is why I assumed he was growing them as seed stock for next season's harvest. But he could be selling them for pods. It makes sense, why waste the pods even if you were going to harvest the seed?
Bruce

OMG, that video made it here already. Is no place safe from reaper debates...

For those that care, there is a part 2 to that video that was posted this morning and there is a vibrant discussion or two going on at THP.

There's no doubt that hot peppers are trendy right now. There are more amateur growers coming along every year. These commercial growers know this and are simply following this potential market.

Yeah, it seems like a fierce business to be in competition all right, but I would rather have this state of affairs than have government regulation taking over the issue.

Bruce,
Ed Currie definitely uses the pods...not sure if Mike's pods are for seed or not. I'll ask.

Josh

Josh, reading through the posts on youtube, he is selling them for the pods and NOT SEED. I think for sauces or something. I am sure they have a whole line of Reaper based products ready to hit the market. It is looking like this will be a big deal for them. If they could get an independent third party to actually authenticate their claimes and the stableness of the peppers, they would be able to retire in a few years.
Bruce

There we go, that's what I suspected (and probably read somewhere....). Ed is working on products, yes, as well as research into cancer-fighting effects of superhot peppers.

Josh

Josh,

Well I don't know about the cancer fighting properties of hot peppers, but perhaps as a preventative for certain kinds.

I always feel good after a spicy meal made from these peppers, not just the endorphin rush, but the intuitive feeling that I have eaten something very good for me.

it's funny, my wife is always trying to tell me how bad it is for me to eat lots of really hot stuff, saying I'll get an ulcer, etc. now people are saying they might have cancer-fighting properties? interesting.

He does not know genetics. To have 1.6 percent visual variation in a plant line infers that about 1 plant in 8 is still genetically unstable. Also, it is obvious some seed lots were sold that very high levels of variation.

The visual variation gives only a little guidance to other traits like heat level. In other words, the plant may visually conform to the expected shape and the fruit may conform, but the heat level can vary in a wide range.

I'm not knocking the pepper, just pointing out that 36 in 2200 is a VERY HIGH level of genetic instability.

I have seen several posts on here alluding to how the hot peppers actually help cure or mediate stomach problems.
Bruce