Moving out a few of them

Hi!

I guess I have too many peppers. Some of my Capsicum annuum got spider mites. Not fun at all, but hopefully they will survive.

The ones under attack are:

• Serrano
• Mareka Fana (Berbere)
• Roumanian Giallo
• CA1

So in order to avoid that these little bastard mites do not to spread to other plants, I moved them out to the balcony today. and they will stay out there from now on.

Here they are under the protective net

But there is still a happy bunch inside.

Happy bunch

Last year's "Wild Brasil" has one ripe pod. They were very hot, but without any special taste.

The chiles are not alone out there. The black currant is outside all year around. Amazing that it survives being deep frozen during the winter. Here together with my peppermint and aloe vera.

More friends on the balcony

The agave will also stay there for the rest of the season. The defense system of the agave is amazing. I don't know how many times I have got one of those thorns in my forehead, legs, arms or hands.

Don't mess with me

Hot regards,
  Mats

Repotting Saturday

Hi!

Time to repot 8 of my varieties this year. They are growing fast, and need bigger pots.

• Serrano
• Pimenta cambuçi
• Chile de arbol
• Aji chinchi amarillo
• Mareka Fana (Berbere)
• White fatalii
• Peperoncino (Roumanian Giallo)
• Dedo de moça 

It's not very often I see the roots develop 2-3 cm up on the stem. They look like swamp plants. I guess it's been too humid in the mini greenhouse.

Check out these long roots.

And here they are. Now located in the kitchen window. 

Soon we will end up with peppers everywhere. But I do grow less varieties this year. So I hope it will be a controlled chaos later on :-)

Have a great weekend!
   Mats

First ones twenty-sixteen :-)

Hi!

Always exciting to see the progress. I was really surprised this morning to see that six varieties have germinated.

First out this year is:

• serrano (C. annuum)
• malagueta (C. frutescens)
• pimenta cambuçi (C. baccatum)
• chile de arbol (C. annuum)
• aji chinchi amarillo (C. baccatum)
• mareka fana (C. annuum)

Through the plastic cover of my green-house

It's only six days since I planted the seeds. I need to check my notes from previous years, but I think the the malagueta usually isn't that fast.

Maybe it's because 2016 is going to be a great chile pepper year :-)

Have a great weekend!
  Mats

Here we go again - 318 serranos

Today I decided to give in for the pressure. Time to get rid of the two serrano pots.  So follow me into the jungle and join for the harvest ritual :-)

Here, Carl is helping me again.

And here I am helping Carl :-)

And here is the result

We gave it a try to count them, and in total we picked 318 serranos today. The weight! Over a kilo :-)

Life is great!

Have a fantastic weekend!
   Mats

Forty three

I decided that today was a good day for picking some peppers. Actually I picked forty three. It is definitely not a lot, but considering that Carl and I did our best for lunch, eating four serranos, that leaves me with 39 hot chiles on the plus side.

The serranos were so hot, so I got hickups, and even scared Carl, so he almost dropped the spoon :-) It's interesting. I thought that after eating home grown chile peppers for fifteen years, I should be used to it. But sometimes, that special heat comes, and it's really hard to be prepared for it.

Some other varieties that I picked were rocopica, Patriks chinense and chacoense. A nice bunch of chiles :-)

There are more ripe fruits out on the balcony. But I couldn't pick my peru yellow and dedo de moça. Simply because I think they are so beautiful just as they are!

Here is my peru yellow. I had a hard time to break through the "jungle" in order to take this picture. But it shows some of the beauty.

And here is my dedo de moça. My good old overwintered plant from 2009, delivering lots and lots of nice baccatum fruits.

Have a nice weekend!

Soon

Hello little friends! Soon you are in my stomach :-)

From left to right. Serrano, chacoense, dedo de  moça. Yum!

Finally some ripe chiles

After the strong winds this spring, when most of the plants looked half dead, I could not expect to see ripe pods in early July. It's amazing to see how fast the plants recover.

Dedo de moça
My dedo de moça is from last year, so it has thick woody stems, and is probably 1,75 meter tall. I keep it in a big pot, so it's not easy to move it. Therefore I had to take this picture through the kitchen window.

 

Serrano
And my first serrano has turned red. We will probably make nachos tomorrow, and I can't wait tasting this one.

Capsicum chacoense (CAP 1153 / 96)
Also a plant from last year. I really love these tasty hot tiny chiles.

Rocoto manzano grande (red)
This is an interesting plant. It does not grow tall, but it grows sideways. So it occupies more than a meter on the balcony. The flowers are the biggest flowers I've seen on a Capsicum.

Tabasco
Another one from last year. Last year it produced only a couple of pods. But this year it looks more promising.

Rocopica
My rocopica is fantastic! Last year it produced hundreds of pods. And this year looks like it's going to be the same. Superhot small fruits! 

Cardenasii, Albertos, Patriks and serrano

Time flies, and hopefully spring is getting closer. Today it's snowing and -6C. So what can be better than repotting some chile peppers :-)

CAP 1530 /97 - Capsicum cardenasii

This one is doing fine, and has developed nice strong roots. I have tried to grow this specific variety before, without realy succeeding. So I hope it works this time.

Another cardenasii that I grew some years ago was a very nice plant. Different to many other Capsicum.

Alberto's

Alberto's is another old C. baccatum favorite of mine. Here is a picture from previous years.

"Patrik's chinense"

I didn't expect all the seeds to germinate. So now I have six plants of this one. It's a wild chinense, and I love these small hot fruits. Even when repotting, it truly smells like a chinense. Fantastic!

Serrano

And, last but not least the serrano. I underestimated the viability of the seeds. So now I have six plants of these too :-) But that's nice. I love serranos!

The whole bunch

So, this is how this year's chiles look so far. Still waiting for some tiny tiny ones to grow up. Maybe the seeds are too old. But I'm waiting patiently.

 

Regards,
  Mats

Two more! Serrano and Peru Yellow

After sampling the "Hot-Headz! Pepper Sauce Classics Serrano" yesterday, I felt an urge to grow serrano this year. I have a special relationship with the serrano. It's definitely one of my favourite Capsicum annuum.

My chile pepper passion started in Austin, Texas in 1992. At that time, "Spanish pepper" was more or less the only fresh alternative in the food stores here in Stockholm. It's a hot variety, without any real taste.

So when I came to Austin, and tasted my first jalapeño, the passion was awakened. I was sweating through more or less every lunch and dinner. Wanting to learn and experience more every day :-) Jalapeño, serrano, habanero, poblano and so on. That's when it all started. Though it took 3 years before I started to grow my own chiles.

And while I browsed through my seed list, my eyes were attracted by the line saying "Peru Yellow". It's a good Capsicum baccatum, that could be a nice colour complement to the red serrano.

I think that's going to be about it for what I will grow this year. I'm planning to give the plants a lot of space, and nice pots this year.

Status of the ones growing this year can be found here: chiles2010.

In addition, I'm overwintering my galapagoense, tovarii, tabasco, habanero, dedo de moca, chilipiquin, chacoense and rocopica. I feel that this is a good mix!

Regards,

  Mats