Tag Archives: pimenta de neyde

March 2011 Pepper Grow Update

The 2011 pepper growing season in Illinois is well underway. Yea it’s still dropping into the 20’s at night and we’re 6 weeks away from being able to plant out but when you have a short growing season you have get things kicked off inside if you hope to harvest any hot peppers before fall rolls around. My pepper lineup for this year is basically finalized. Here’s a complete list of everything that has sprouted and I have growing:

Red Bhut Jolokia (aka ghost pepper)
Chocolate Bhut Jolokia
Caribbean Red
7 Pod Douglah
7 Pod Brain Strain
7 Pod Jonah
Trinidad Scorpion Morouga
Pimenta de neyde
Chocolate Habanero
Orange Habanero
Fatali
Giant Jalapeno
Black Jalapeno
Early Jalapeno
Long Red Slim Cayenne

More than 1/2 of my superhots this year will be the red bhut jolokia and the chocolate bhut jolokia. My red bhut jolokia seeds originated from pepperjoe.com. He has them listed as his giant bhut jolokias. I grew those out last year and they did great. Plants were huge, pods were huge and production was high. I saved the seeds from the best plants and pods and am using those this year. Pepper Joe is using one of my photos from last season – the one with the 6 bhut jolokias with a quarter in the middle – on his site this year. He’s using a couple others too but that one’s probably my favorite.

I was given a few fresh chocolate bhut jolokia pods from neighbor at the end of last season and kept the seeds to grow out this year. I started some of them in Nov 2010 in a DWC bucket as an experiment. I still have one of them growing and transplanted the other into dirt. If all goes well I plan to sell some chocolate bhut jolokia seeds from my plants this year.

I’m growing a few of each of the other other super hots in my list and about a combined total of 15 – 20 of all the others…habaneros, jalapenos, etc. Really looking forward to trying the Trinidad Scorpion Morouga and the 7 Pod Brain Strain. I started one of the 7 Pod Brain Strain plants in DWC too but have since transplanted it into dirt.

Here’s how my indoor pepper plants look as of today:

I have around 70 pepper plants going right now. Will end up giving away 20 or so and the rest will be planted in my raised beds.

2011 Pepper Grow Update

A number of new pepper seed sprouts have emerged. Seeds that have sprouted so far include the 7 pod jonah, 7 pod brain strain, caribbean red, trinidad scorpion morough blend and the pimenta de neyde. Still waiting for the giant bhut jolokias, chocolate bhut jolokias and douglahs.

Overall germination rates are still really low but that’s not a surprise given my growing conditions. Last year I recall germination on a number of varieties taking 20 – 25 days or more. I was surprised that the 7 pod jonahs and 7 pod brain strains were the first ones up and have the most total seeds sprouted so far. For whatever reason I thought they would take longer.

2011 Pepper Grow Begins

Put some of my hot pepper seeds in the dirt today, the 2011 season is officially underway!

My 2011 grow list includes:

Giant Bhut Jolokia – Seeds from my own 2010 seed stock.
Jonah 7 pod – Seeds from BigT
Chocolate Jolokia – Seeds from Pepper Pat
7 pod brain strain – Seeds from Pepper Ridge Farm
Douglah – Seeds from Pepper Ridge Farm
Caribbean red -Seeds from my 2010 stock
Pimenta de neyde – Seeds from Orrevs

Have to start all of these strains very early in order to get a decent harvest in the short northern Illinois growing season.

I’m just using solo cups that I used last year. I don’t have a heat pad and the basement hangs around 65 so germination will likely be slow. That’s ok, can’t plant out until May so don’t need the plants to get huge. The faster growing peppers – various jalapenos, cayennes, charlestons, etc will be planted in another 4 – 6 weeks. Will probably plant an orange habanero or two then too.

If all goes well this year I will be selling pepper seeds, fresh peppers, dried peppers and pepper powders from this years grow in mid/late 2011.