I don’t find the super hots particularly hard to grow, but they definitely take time to get them up to a good size. Because they take a longer time to get to the fruiting stage than other peppers, I start these 6-8 weeks before starting other seedlings. They do like warmth though, so if you are starting them in a cooler area you can have some challenges with germination and then easily have root issues if they are somewhere the soil is cooler, especially if they are kept overly damp.
Maybe you can find some Habanero starts at a local nursery to give them a try this year. If you were local to me I’d happily give you some!
Yes, the germination was low and very weak seedings. One pack of seeds only two grew up and didn’t have peppers till the next year. I grew them in pots and brought them in for the winter. My local HD carries habanero seedlings. I grew it from seeds just want to see how well these extremely hot pepper grow from seeds. I just use a readily availble variety as my experiment. I really want to grow are the Trinidad Scorpion, Carolina Reaper, Peach Ghost Jami, Sweet Chocolate Ghost peppers. [quote=“zendog, post:323, topic:17705”]
If you were local to me I’d happily give you some!
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Well, thanks for the offer, I wish I live closer to you. But I am in Chicago
an odd tail of a beheading. . . and potential comeback.
recently, i germinated a bulgarian carrot seed (courtesy of the @thepodpiper) and planted it in potting mix. it emerged with a helmet head, and despite being as gentle as possible when trying to remove the seed case, i beheaded the poor thing.
i pulled out the root and set it aside, along with the seed case (containing the cotyledons) at the margins of the plastic cup that had been their early home. i figured they would shrivel up and die soon enough. (you can smell a spoiler from a mile away here.) i reapplied the cup lid to keep the mix moist for the next seedling and set the cup aside.
three days later, as i’m about to plant a serrano tampiqueno seedling in the same cup (another shout-out to @thepodpiper for the serrano seed!), i noticed that the bulgarian carrot cotyledons had bulged out and split the seed case. what little stem they had left must have performed root-like activity and sucked up some moisture, which allowed the cotyledons to puff up like the hulk. maybe the stem is relatively plastic at this point, in terms of tissue specialization, and perhaps a root can grow from it. in the spirit of experimentation, i planted the cotyledon + minimal stem back in the mix. let’s see if it has enough energy to form a deeper root and emerge in a few days.
I am having helmet head issue with my one and only tree pepper, Capsicum pubescens. 12 seeds only one germinated but with helmet on top. I used water method, saliva method, etc. Finally I trimmed the out edge of the helmet off. It still didn’t pop open. Oh well, so much I can do for a none motivated seed.
Most of my pepper starts are already in the ground. The exception are the orange cream ghosts and red umerocks which did not germinate on the first attempt. The seedlings on those aren’t quite big enough to go in the ground yet. Hopefully they will be ready to go out in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to taking the grow tent down and having the floor space in my laundry room back for normal life. That’s where the pepper dehydrators live during fruit and pepper harvest season.
I usually grow Jalapeños, Thai, Banana, and Cayenne. Either in raised beds or big containers. I like letting the Jalapeños ripen to bright red.
They get plastic covers in spring.
This year I planted in Jan. I think my seed starting medium was bad. They stayed puny for a long time. I’ve been moving them up into new potting soil in 4 inch containers and some are starting to look good now.
This year: Early Jalapeño, Jalafuego Jalapeño, Serrano, Long Red Cayenne, Arapaho F1 hybrid Cayenne, Banana, and maybe a Thai but the label fell off.
I have a few that I pinched the tops now so they will branch low on the stems. I actually cut not pinch, because Im too clumsy to pinch them without causing damage.
my beheaded seedling survived and is thriving! i guess i shouldn’t be surprised by the tissue plasticity. after all, a cutting off the top of a months-old plant (where there is not a root to be seen) can develop roots fairly quickly, in days to weeks.
I actually like the possibility of Peppers hybridizing. I have both Jimmy Nardallo and
Hungarian Yellow Wax.
both are fairly cool weather tolerant.
A cross between the two
might yield an Anaheim type
slightly hot.
I’m growing Portuguese red hots.
Just bought in Youngstown area.
Plants 15" high, several peppers on each plant already. And rootbound.
Normally I wouldn’t buy plants so well established and large for outdoor summer heat (early July) due to difficulty transplanting (and expensive at $4 each) but I didn’t expect to find them.
Portuguese use to make a hot pork dish.
This year we are growing a new hot pepper variety called Jigsaw. It is very pretty with variegated leaves with green, light purple and white.
Flowers are purple and so are fruit. We gave some plants to friends. The feedback is that it is very attractive plant and the peppers are hot. We gave not tried it yet.
We bought ghost pepper transplants for the first time this year. I had always figured we wouldn’t get enough sun/heat for them to produce peppers. Wrong. My wife picked the first fruits the other day and put them in jars of pickled dilly beans. It looks like we should get quite a few more before freeze up.
Thought I’d share one of my favorite looking peppers this year, Pock Mark Peach. Dark green and purple foliage with stunningly deep purple pods before the ripen to a beautiful peach, but not before passing through this awesome phase of purple/pink/peach and even some green as well.
This is definitely a keeper in my book. Hope you all enjoy
Got this pepper from the Podpiper, a couple years ago, who gave me an assortment of seeds from Peru, Aji peppers. Most were friggin hot.
This one is hot to, don’t know the name anymore. Plant is over 4 feet tall.
Tippy, find out if your neighbor from the orient know this one, Lombok Rawitt. Btw, I like my Thai peppers green to.
I also still grow Piri Piri peppers, small peppers, also hot hot hot.
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