Turbo-1's HOT STUFF

turbo

Again, thanks for your generosity rhody. I have no sunny windows to start plants, and I hate to impose on my neighbor with a decent greenhouse. I still have so many varieties of chilies to start and plant that I'd have to expand the garden to plant more. I'm pretty much set on raising Red Savinas, Hungarian wax, poblanos, cayennes, jalapenos, because I have so many uses for them. This year, I have to shoehorn in the plants grown from the ghost seeds and fruits that you sent me. I guess if I till up more of that side lawn there would be less to mow...

rhody

Check this out folks, the new heat champ, moruga scorpion.




Sorry, I had to screen grab these things (see above), they look positively evil. Jim Duffy from Refining Fire Chiles in San Diego who I bought my trinidad scorpion seeds from created these and had them tested. Here is one of Jim's seed sale pages. He doesn't have any moruga scorpion seeds for sale, yet. Needless to say, heat stressing them probably makes all the difference in the scoville range, which is very wide indeed. Jim uses an NFT hydro system to grow his chilies, here is a short video of one here. If you want to see how one industrious grower from the UK jump started his passion, Wiltshire Chilli Farm, have a look here.

Rhody...

Evo

Put one in a pot on your deck. Heck, I'm growing everything on a small covered patio.

rhody

Yeah, heck and while you are at it, spring for a heat mat, $29 and a decent grow light $70, $100 bucks and you are set, the white ghost seeds will be in the mail tomorrow. Hehe... I like that Evo pushes Turbo, news at eleven... Time to push back Turbo, what say you ?

Rhody...

rhody

An update on pepper growth, I am amazed at what a small heat mat, blue spectrum grow light, some aluminum foil underneath and a light fan has on the plants.
You will note the robust stem sprouts bhut jolokia chocolate, and how lust and dark green they are, temps during the day never more than mid 70's in the room, I keep them close together too, they seem to like the canopy overlapping them. I move them every couple of days, water when dry and stressed and feed with weak miracle grow about every two weeks. I am starting to pinch off flower buds because it is too soon for them.

This is a grow and sauce making experimental year for me, next year I hope to start more plants, low hundreds, and create sauces, etc... to start selling locally and through the internet.

I have a friend with a decade's experience in making sauces. He has dabbled with peppers, habs mostly, people he has given them to love his products. I need some fresh and or dried peppers (about 6 of each), in the medium hot, hot and very hot categorizes to perform sauce alchemy experiments. I am willing to barter my PC skills (software engineer, 30 years) for them. If no one needs software work I am willing to send a SASE box to you, with payment (negotiated privately) for the experimental peppers I need. If we come up with something our test subjects rave about we will try organizing local tastings at local eateries where people who appreciate hot stuff frequent.

I posted the above content on thehotpepper forum. I need some peppers to play with making sauces. You can see the steady growth in the past few weeks.

Here is an interesting summary of crossing chili plants, a good read IMHO.





Rhody...

rhody

Evo, Turbo,

One of my white ghosts has sprouted no douglahs though, I started two of each, have you started white ghost seeds yet ?

Rhody...

dlgoff

Rhody,

My first try on 10 ripe ghost seeds didn't germinate so I started some of the un-ripe ones (which actually looked better). Yes, I had a heat pad and light.

rhody

Don,

I will bite (pun intended) how can you tell a ripe ghost seed from an unripe one ? Once under a pad, light, the container should be covered with vent holes and slightly moist on top. 85F is ideal. My seeds are coming up funky too, maybe because I have a fan blowing on the container during the day cooling it down.

Rhody...

dlgoff

They look totally different. The ripe ones are small and flat compared to the unripe ones that are larger and are almost spherical in shape.

rhody

It may be the way I dried and stored them, did the unripe ones have less dried placenta attached to them, maybe the capsaicin in the oil damaged the seed somehow. I will ask on the THP forum and report back, thanks, Don.

Rhody...

rhody

Yeah, when you don't get them spic and span clean they can be attacked by fungus, etc...
Here is the recommended cleaning method. From a grower on THP.
Rhody...

rhody

Houston, I need your help. I am trying, unsuccessfully I might add, to find the following data, all in one place, I am able to find dribs and drabs of it, but no data in my timeframe. I would like the following data:

• Last five years of hot pepper imports/exports to/from the US in millions of dollars
• Same data for the top 10 exporting countries of hot peppers
• Same data for the top 10 importing countries of hot peppers
• If possible the state of the exports, mash, raw by the ton, processed products tp sell
• If possible the state of the imports, mash, raw by the ton, processed products to buy
• US imposed restrictions on imports from friendly US trade partners
• US imposed restrictions on exports to friendly US trade partners

Rhody... would be pepper emperor, lol

Moonbear

No holy grail here, but data up to 2007/2008 on chili peppers starting at table 45 in this list seems to be the most current that USDA has available.
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/Mann...ocumentID=1659

rhody

Thanks Moonbear,

I found the same collection of data you did. I am looking for something newer and as my last post stated, with import and exports as listed.

Rhody...

dlgoff

You might want to contact USDA - APHIS. I'm sure they would be glad to help.

rhody

I haven't had time to dig into that Don, but I will. I have a ToDo list as long as your arm and try to tackle the biggest most pressing issues that will pay near term rewards without dropping the big picture and where I want to be in 5 years. Google calendar helps me keep it organized and there are advanced features I haven't even touched yet, just skimmed reading about.

I need to know what are the characteristics of the best tasting peppers you have ever had, the what's and the why's for each type. I expect that most people will respond in the mild to medium category. Here goes, for each category you have experience with what did you like about it, texture, color, crunchiness, taste (and what it reminds you of).

• mild
• medium
• hot
• very hot
• extremely hot

Rhody...

rhody

Three things, one, I have some data on preferred peppers from the folks on the Pepper Forum.

Second, this article: Bell Pepper Production in California is very good. There is good general guidance here regarding the Do's and Dont's regarding growing peppers and the causes of disease, viruses. The paper has been technically reviewed by University of California scientists and what they list as "other qualified professionals".

Third, how about some feedback, I will list the favorite peppers mentioned from THP in my next post, or this one if the "edit window" is still open.

More than a few folks voted for the following peppers as the best tasting. I added comments where they were entered.
It seems that Fatalii and the Habenero family came up quite a few times as favorites. I bet you didn't realize they were so
many different kinds of peppers, did you ?

• Orange Habanero
• Chocolate Habanero
• Red Savina (Orange Habanero on steroids)
• Red Scotch Bonnet
• Fatalii
• Datil
• Pequin
• Tepin (Bird's Eye)
• Bhut Jolokia Assam (strawberry aroma and sweet fruity taste)
• Jalapeno
• Thai Dragon
• Wiri-Wiri
• Wild Brazil
• Chiltepin

Rhody...