This is my second year of battling thrips -- and all i have is a little multiwindowbox flower garden on my tiny fire escape, as well as lots of pots on my windowsill. Anyway, last year they got totally out of control, esp indoors where there were no predators, but outdoors too. I have always tried to be organic -- for my health and the earth's. But I hate thrips so much, I am THIS CLOSE to just beating them back with some big guns like major chemicals this year. What stops me is I read horrible things about the health risks (to people) that I just can't bear to pull the trigger. So I am going to try beneficial insects. In the past when I've looked into getting beneficials, they seems really expensive, esp since shipping always has to be overnight. And getting bunches of diff kinds adds up fast. But I found a source that offers them in little multipacks, so you can get a bunch of diff kinds for a reasonable price, and then just suck up the shipping. So I just ordered the Small Garden Pack from http://hydro-gardens.com/biological_assortments.htm I don't know how my tiny (literally 7 sq ft garden is going to react to having 1000 ladybugs in it (along with a praying mantis, 5000 thrips predators and a million nematodes -- let alone how the people walking on the sidewalk below will react if any of these little guys accidentally fall on their heads...) but I figure there are plenty of pests in NYC. So if the ladybugs don't have enough to eat at my house, they can just fly across the street and visit someone else's fire escape windowboxes. Here is a link that might be useful: Beneficial Insects Multipacks

He is linking to that recipe. It does say chop coarsely and is only cooked 10 minutes before processing, so there will be texture (degree depending somewhat on tomato variety). It is a safe recipe. Anything at that source, including the internal link for the Mexican tomato sauce (which is also coarsely chopped) will be safe. Linda_Lou's suggestion is safe also and would be the preferred option if you wanted no vinegar and optimal texture. So you have several different possible directions here. Carol

I actually am new to this forum, as well as Chile growing in general. I decided to try and grow peppers using containers on my patio (I live in a condo in suburban WA). I went with available plants from Home Depot, so I chose a Pepperoncini, a Jalapeno, and a Super Chile (mine was spelled with an 'e' but I have seen both spellings. Here is the info I found from ChilePlants.com: "hot; 2 to 2.5 inches long by 0.375 to 0.5 inches wide; Pequin/Piquin Type; matures from pale green to orange to red; upright, pointed fruits; Uses: Fresh Salsas, Prolific, Compact; Short Season; C.annuum." I believe they are 40,000 ~ 50,000 on the Scoville scale, so they are fairly fiery! I have approximately 50+ immature fruits so far,so I hope yours turns out as prolific!

I suggest you go one step beyond what HotPepperDad suggested and mix sweet and hot peppers to the desired heat and flavor. you can still go wrong in getting the desired heat if you add too much of a hot pepper, but it makes the task much simpler. I could never get much flavor from my hot peppers although a few of my habanero customers tell me that they tolerate the heat in order to taste the outstanding flavor. I won't risk the heat so I just add a little of the hot pepper to ripe bell peppers that I have grown to enjoy. If you need to use only one pepper than I'd suggest a red-ripe hungarian wax type. Also, many of the newer hybrids in all varieties are much milder than their older counterparts. Some of the newer serrano and jalopeno hybrids have very little heat. Check with any of the seed companies for newer- low heat hybrids.