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don555_gw

snow-forced harvest

don555
9 years ago

First strong cold front of autumn saw yesterday's shirtsleeve weather replaced with 34 degrees and wet snow today. It's melting on contact, but the cold and risk of killing frost over the next few days made me go out last night and pick anything red. If frost doesn't take out the plants over the next few days then a return to more seasonal weather could be a good chance to test out whether late-ripened peppers indeed lose heat or not, as there is still plenty of green peppers to ripen on the plants.

Anyhow, here's what I got. Clockwise from foreground: Matchbox, Ring of Fire, Firecracker, Dorset Naga (tons of green ones of these left on the plant).

And here's most of the plants out on the deck today. Yes, those white streaky things in the air is snow...

Comments (10)

  • romy6
    9 years ago

    Living in Florida I cannot comprehend this :)

  • kclost
    9 years ago

    Me too, and I'm in Kansas City!!!

  • judo_and_peppers
    9 years ago

    wow. it's freaking 90 degrees here today.

  • MikeUSMC
    9 years ago

    Wow! Best of luck, Don. Man, and I thought it was chilly in New England when I woke up today! It was 50*F. Hopefully everything works out for you. We've been getting what the weather people on TV have been calling "Frankenstorms" the last 2 Octobers in a row. Freak snowstorms out of nowhere. The heavy, heavy stuff too, downed power lines and trees everywhere. What a nightmare. Good luck, hopefully it's all passed.

    Mike

  • ottawapepper
    9 years ago

    Uuuugggg Don, shades of things coming too soon. I feel for you friend.

    75F / 24C here for the next few days but I fear your evil chill is heading our way. Sumner is too short up here!

    Here's a shot from the National Post from Calgary today. Two inches of snow foretasted. Bad Bad Bad!!!

  • woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
    9 years ago

    Sorry to hear that Don. Nice harvest though!

    Here, we're really heating up. August-Oct is our warmest time of year!

    I don't think it's so much as late season fruit losing their heat as so much as LOW LIGHT peppers losing it. In other words, Peppers in November here are fine -- it's the ones that make it to January that have virtually no heat.

    You tell us! You've had that Naga plant that you grew under lights in the winter --- were they scorching or not?

    Kevin

  • don555
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for the condolences :) Very early for first snowfall here, but not unheard of, last time we had snow this early was 10 years ago. Funny thing, it was 80F on Saturday, didn't even make it to 40F today, then forecast to be back to 75 by the weekend. No accumulation in the city, but just west the trees (still in full leaf) were weighed down and breaking under a cover of heavy wet snow. I don't plan on giving up the fight for another couple weeks yet...

  • djoyofficial
    9 years ago

    I hope things return to warm for ya.. Nice work though! I am impressed with what you have done. I am in a much warmer climate and in my first year growing hots, I havent fared nearly as well. Much learned though.. best wishes to ya.

    dj

  • don555
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Kevin, interesting idea about low-light causing heat loss instead of cold temperatures...for a cold-weather gardener this is a fascinating topic.

    My indoor Naga were grown with 14-16 hour day length, and coolish temps. The same plant was hardened off and grown outside this summer, with far more variable temps but overall I would say hotter, particularly when solar heating is factored in.

    The indoor Naga are very hot... I would say about 5X hotter than a store-bought habanero, considering how hot they can make a pot of food. But when I sliced the very bottom off an indoor Naga to taste it (the least-hot part of a pepper), the heat was tolerable. I tried the same thing with one of the outdoor Nagas I harvested the other day, and the heat level this time was well into pain. I tried rinsing with 10% cream under the belief that milk-fat dissolves capaiscin, but there was no relief at all. So I spent the next 10 minutes or so melting ice cubes on my tongue until the worst of the heat had passed.

    Does this mean the outdoor-grown pepper is hotter? I don't know. The Scovilles would suggest that Nagas are 5X hotter than Habs, and my indoor peppers seem to match this, so maybe the heat is just more evenly distributed in the outdoor pepper which explains the very hot bottom slice? I haven't tried cooking or making hot sauce with a whole outdoor Naga yet, so can't make a comment on how this pepper compares overall to its winter indoor version.

  • kuvaszlvr
    9 years ago

    YOWSA! I can't believe it. Well, we have had a pretty mild to cold short summer here, but even so... snow???? We are going to be getting that cold front too, we'll be going from highs in the 90's to highs around 70.. then back to 90's. I feel for you. They are saying the whole US is going to have a colder more snowfall winter... looks like it's already starting. It's Canada's fault! :-)
    Pam

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