Growing Chili - Update
One month has passed since I planted my chili seeds. Time has come for most of the little sprouts to move into their own private pots. Few of the species that take a bit longer to germinate will have to wait for another week or two to be relocated but I transplanted most of them today.
I have also left a bunch of Fireballs in two pots as I have got too much of them so I will give them to two of my friends which have their farms in the village. Not counting those now I have 56 chili plants from 6 different varieties growing in their individual pots and 15 more waiting to be transplanted. I will wait for them to get a bit bigger than I will give some more to anyone who wants them. I intend to keep somewhere around 20 plants for myself.
So far Fireball and Lil' Devil varieties are growing best. Those are hybrids I have grown for years now so I guess they have gotten used to the climate here through natural selection over the years. They are hybrids I accidentally created. Fireball is the milder variety which is still too hot for people used to Jalapeno, but those who love a hotter variety can enjoy them alongside some smoked sausages and cheese. Lil' Devil variety is much stronger and comes with a trick up its sleeve. For the first 30 seconds, they are not hot at all, and then when you get relaxed they hit you full on with extreme heat. Of the two I prefer Lil' Devils, but most of my friends enjoy milder Fireball more.
Next on the list that is growing pretty well is Aurora. They are usually grown for decorative purposes as at one point of their cycle their peppers are rainbowish. Some of them are red, some are orange, while some have already turned purple. I planted them for the purpose of crossbreeding as I will try to create purple Carolina Reaper by crossing the two varieties.
I am a bit worried about my Carolina Reapers and Trinidad Moruga Scorpions as I left them in direct sunlight for too long a few days ago and it burnt few of their leaves. I hope they will recover, but at least I have one plant from each of those varieties that survived without major damage. Those two are masters of heat and I would like to have them among my collection.
Finally, the last species I am growing is my favorite mega-hot chili, and it is the one I am worried about the most: Bhut Jolokia Chocolate. Don't get tricked by the chocolate in the name of the pepper, it only describes it's color. This nasty pepper is among the hottest in the world with 800K ~ 1M SHU. For those what who don't know what SHU is, it is a Scoville Heat Unit, in other words, a scale to determine how hot is something. For a reference, Tabasco sauce has 2K SHU and Scarlett Johansson in her days has somewhere around 500K.
Bhut Jolokia Chocolate is hardest of these varieties to breed and takes the longest to grow. Out of ten seeds I planted only three have germinated and one of the three is in near-death state right now. The other two appear healthy, but they are still very small. There is still hope for them and I will keep you up to date on how they are coming along.
If you are interested in the process of planting the chili seeds you can read about that in my post here.
Hey @arrrados, I am a curator of the Whaleshares Curation Team. I have selected your post to be presented in a live curation discussion on Monday 23rd March. Your post will be awarded a 100 Whaleshares vote on the night. I do hope you can come along and spectate. The event will be held in The Curation Lounge on the Whaleshares server. Here is a link to a post explaining things: https://steemit.com/steemit/@nikflossus/tonight-the-23rd-whaleshares-curation-show-free-whaleshares-for-all-listeners
Thanks for featuring me, unfortunately I couldn't be there. Lately I am busy at that time at Mondays :(
No problem!
Fireball stuck into my mind. And I have this image of me puffing out the fireball like a dragon after taking the chilli. I can't tolerate too hot and spicy food. 😂
Hahahah, I love the image you pictured, but it is not that hot, it is the mildest I am growing. Still it is pretty hot for people not used to spicy food. 🌶️
Wow, these are great! You have a whole bunch of peppers. I have some Reapers, Scorpions, 7-pots and pepperoncino, but it’s my first season growing extreme hot peppers. Well, I started my first plants in the late December and now they are so big!
I started them a bit late this year as I was waiting for seeds for the new varieties to arrive. I will have a bit later harvest this year, but that will be fine!
I need to get back into gardening. Looks cool! Upvoted :)
For me it is both relaxing and useful activity :) There is something about watching the plants you planted and cared for grow!
Great post @arrrados, I'm a tomato grower myself. I grew chili a few years ago but I have a medical problem with my stomach which meant I had to give up spicy food :-( Just have to stick to growing all sorts of colors of tomatoes now. This post reminded me that I need to get propagating soon
Oh, I am sad to hear that. I love hot food and I would feel terrible if I had to stop eating it. :(
Awesome, that's a lot of pepper plants! Now I feel the need to plant more... haha
Thanks for sharing :)
Ohh, you are growing them as well! Which varieties do you have?
Love hot peppers!!!
I have some Ghost chilli seeds I have been meaning to plant, I find them hot for hot's sake to be honest.
As opposed to Habnero/Jalapeno which have a beautiful taste too, this post has inspired me to get to work and get them growing so i can use them on my hotshot veggie parmesan I would love to see some pics of the aurora when they reach that wonderful sounding stage.
I hope the B.J.C make it as it can be incredibly disheartening after putting in the hard yards to have them fizzle out!
I'm "root"ing for ya :D
Thank you for support :D I will share updates as they grow so you will get to see the Aurora in that stage :D
Very Cool,
I love this journey that you are chronicling. 😃
As a child I was a big fan of Dr David Attenborough and his documentaries with time lapse photography where you would see plants in all their excited action as they grow. 😍
I intended to do time lapse video of the first part but my camera can't be directly connected to a power source + it lasts only for a 1-2 hours when recording :(
Thats a bummer. What I've done in the past, is made a mark where I set my tripod so it goes in the same place each day. And print out a screen shot of my first photo making a conscious choice to have something specific in the corner of the photo. SO I can set up the camera each day in the same spot (roughly) and put together the end result of photos of 30 days in a row.