anyone have any experience? Came across them on Hank Shaw’s page, and I admit I am interested, sounds in many ways like a “less nuclear-hot habanero”…anyone with any experience who can comment a bit?
I grew some orange ones before, and they were very hot, cool looking black seeds. They taste nothing like Habs, not fruity at all. My thoughts were a deep hard burn, the burn is way different from anything else. They are usually soaked and rinsed with salt water numerous times before they are stuffed to kill the heat. You can tell they are a different species not only from the seeds but from the taste. Way different.
Manzano Pepper, Orange - (Capsicum pubescens ) Extremely hot, orange
colored pepper looking much like the habanero. This pepper is a rocoto
tree pepper relative and is noted for its cold hardiness, as it naturally
grows on Andean mountain slopes, this pepper will survive several
degrees below freezing. Plants grow to 2-6ft, can live for many years.
Purchased from Trade Winds Fruit
I liked them, the flavor is good, but for me they were just too hot, huge fruits, late ripening. They would make an interesting hot sauce, or powder.
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Those will burn your face off, you want some seeds? send me a pm. I have about 20-30 varieties. They do not like a lot of sun they do best for me with about 6 hours of direct sun. I have lots of pics but cant seem to get them to appear with this new Mac. I will try from my photobucket.
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id defiantly to like try these in my greenhouse. like the taste of habanero but way too hot for me. bet they would be great pickled!
hmmm, they look cool but I’m not a “burn yer face off” kinda guy, I was hoping to find something fruity like a hab but jalapeno-ish heat levels, or even a bit milder, which it sounds like these guys are not…
I have had some hot jalapenos too, I like I think it’s called Jumbo or giant, a little milder jalapeno.
their is Trinidad Perfume but it has no heat at all. And it is perfumey, I don’t care for it.
I have not tried it but heard that Grenada Seasoning Pepper is flavorful and only mild heat.
I keep descriptions, let me see…
Grenada Seasoning Pepper - (Capsicum chinense) A flavorful and aromatic
pepper from the Caribbean, related to the habanero’s, but with only mild
heat. Fruits grow up to 1 1/2 x 2" and ripen to a yellow, slightly golden
color. Popular for seasoning, excellent flavor with very mild heat
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So, what size are these Manzano, maybe ping-pong sized? What kind of flavor do they have? Are they like a Hungarian Carrot heat wise? Other than the 7-pots I grew last year, I think BC was the hottest I’ve grown.
Are Capsicum Pubescens varieties harder to germinate, compared to C Chinense?
I meant to you guys like @Drew51 and @thepodpiper, what’s your opinion on coir compared with peat? I’m considering trying coir this year for the first time. I found some organic Burpee starting mix that has coir and perlite in it. Peat has been decent for germination for me, but I seem to have some issues with peppers and herbs sprouting well in it.
I show a couple in my hand above.
Those are not always easy either, but I never had problems. They like heat and they will easily germinate.
On seed mix try adding perlite or perlite sized DE. Use heat with peppers. Coir is fine. Worth trying. I myself do not like it. I just use Pro-mix with DE and that has worked for me. The Pro-mix I use is peat based although they have coir based too. Either is fine.
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Well, I don’t know what size hands you have! They look bigger than mine, but I have girly (small) hands. I guess they kinda look like ping-pong sized. Any comments on the flavor?
Do you buy their Pro-Mix BX? I see it’s peat, perlite, mycorrhizae and lime. Where’s a good place to buy/order it from?
What about coir do you not like, does it retain water too well, or not enough?
I have only used Pro-Mix do do all stages of growth including germination. Size is a little bigger than golf ball from my experiences. I do have some pubescens varieties that grow much larger and some that grow longer and more cylindrical.
The can sometimes be slow too germinate but then again sometimes not. The hardest ones to germinate for me are the rare wild varieties of all species.
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I just found that germination was good, but growth was not. I buy pro-mix at Menards. I would say they are as hot as anything I tasted.I tasted one fresh and I’ll never do that again! 
The orange ones I had were slightly bigger than a golf ball.
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@Drew51, as soon as this cold snap is over i’ll come by. have not decided on currant varieties yet and if I don’t get a chance to research I’ll go on your recommendations.
another thing about the pubescens is that they ripen really late so it is advisable to start these as early as you can. I have had my biggest harvests on 2+ year old plants because a lot of them did not even ripen in their first year.
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OK, thanks for the comments. Maybe I’ll stick with the Jiffy mix I used last year. It had peat, vermiculite, coir pith and lime.
What’s a good mix for containers/pots? I’d like to try some peppers and tomatoes in pots this year. Could I use regular potting mix and add some perlite and/or vermiculite in with it? We always seem to have issues with the mix getting waterlogged with all the rain we get.
I’ll see how my pepper seed saving efforts from last year will work out this season. Never tried it before so hope I did it right.
You can use the Pro-mix as Dale does. But yeah you can add more perlite or vermiculite. Or DE I use Optisorb oil absorbent From O’Reilly’s Auto Parts. The stuff holds water so containers require less watering, yet aerate the soil. Used in all Disney gardens, used on sports fields, mixed in the soil to prevent water from pooling and for better health of the grass.
I make my own mix and it it mostly pine bark fines and is well draining. I always make my own as I have so many containers. I can’t afford to buy that much potting soil. My mix is 3-1-1-1/3 ratio (pine, pro-mix, compost, DE)
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where do you get your pine bark fines? been looking a source for that stuff for forever.
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Yes the hardest item to find no doubt! I get it from a privately owned nursery who sells a soil conditioner that is pine bark. It’s not bad, some powder which I don’t want, but the particle size is mostly just right.
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can get bark around here at the mills but its all bigger chunks. noticed home depot has some for $3.97 a bag for 3 cubic ft but is 3hr. drive from here to go get it…
Yeah all you need is a wood chipper 
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