Hi Josh, Thai peppers will grow up to 3cm long. It seldom grow more than 4cm. Can be consider as miniature species.

hello michelle, the long thin variety is most often called thai hot, the short stout version u have is most commonly referred to as thai bird or thai birdsye, it is very hard to say considering the fact that there are at least 100 or so varieties that are called thais, I have 4 different thai varities growing now, and I love them all, some I dry and then infuse into peanut oil for asian cooking, some, the thai birds in particular, i pickle in vinegar, eat the pickled peppers and use the vinegar. they are also good dried and powdered, or in a seasoning mix, try mixing some dried powdered thais w/ ground ginger, sesame seed, garlic powder, and ground corriander, it makes a nice all purpose thai seasoning. also dried whole and used for stir frying, so many uses so little time, keep the faith sister, and if u need some seeds for the long skinny thais for next season, shoot me a pm paul

Hi Todd.With my limited experience with hot peppers,I'll try to answer your question. #1-NOW!I would save seed out of the wrinkled ones,and use the fresher ones for eating.Unless you want to ferment your seed,I would just spread them out on a paper plate to dry,and when dry,store them in a cool dark place in a sealed container. #2-see #1 #3-You can just cut up and freeze,dry them to make powder,flakes,or whatever,or even pickle them. Hope that helped you out some! Mike

Hey, thanks for all the hints, I'll definitely try the vinegar trick to work out how much of this I can use in recipes. It's just that I've got so many of them now! If they wind up being so hot I can only use 1/4 of one in a recipe I'll be fully stocked til 2012 from just what's on the plant now... ah well, can't complain about that really can I? I think you're right that they'll turn red when fully ripe. Now I'm wondering- do hot peppers heat up as they ripen? If so, could harvesting them earlier, at the purple stage, give me a slightly milder chili? Or would that just be sacrificing flavour development? This variety is called "Burke's Backyard Thai Chili" or "Don Burke Thai Chili", named after an Australian gardening show so it might only be available here unless you can order Australian seeds (Yates is the supplier I think). I'm growing it from a nursery seedling and so far it's a very compact, shrubby plant- about as wide as it is tall with very densely packed leaves and upright fruit. Thanks for the advice, I'll let you know how I go, Slashy.