George
Could this be due to the 'Revenge of the Groundhogs"?
Just wondering.

Barbara

I don't think so... buried the remains elsewhere.

George,

I saw those big jalapenos at our Wal-Mart this weekend but didn't buy any because I have a gazillion peppers in bowls on the counter awaiting their ultimate fate a pickled peppers, dried peppers, salsa, etc.

Last week, I lost 4 habanero plant and 1 jalapeno. The habs had been wilting (though not too dry and not too wet) and getting progressively worse since July. Suddenly, they quit clinging to life and died overnight. I pulled up the plants and harvested 5 gallons of habaneros that I'm now busily processing. Then, a day later, the jalapeno that had been closest to them in the row looked wilty one day and dead the next. So, I pulled it up and harvested a lot of jalapenos from it, all of which became poppers over the weekend or salsa today.

I am waiting to see if the disease progresses up the row of hot peppers. They all looked wilty this afternoon (the ground is moist, but not sopping wet) but it was 90 degrees, the heat index was 96 and we had full sun and lots of wind, so maybe they just weren't liking the heat and sun after all those cloudy, cool days.

My best guess is that it is one of the wilts, because the plants looked fine prior to their sudden death--no discolored leaves, no lesions on leaves, no lesions on stems.

However, cotton used to be grown on our land and our soil is infected with cotton root rot, which kills thousands of plants in addition to cotton, so I might be seeing a flare-up of cotton root rot, even though I haven't had it cause my garden any problems in several years.

I wasn't thrilled about losing the peppers, but honestly, I have frozen, dehydrated, jellied, salsaed, pickled and roasted peppers until I can't bear to look at peppers any more. So, if all the remaining pepper plants die tomorrow, I'll just shrug it off and say "oh, well, we've had plenty already".

I started out this morning with 5 gallons of peppers in the kitchen to deal with, and piles and piles and piles of tomatoes. Nine hours later, I'm down to 2 1/2 gallons of peppers and no tomatoes on the counter, and lots of salsa and spaghetti sauce put up, so maybe tomorrow I can wipe out the rest of the peppers.....unless I walk outside and find more dead plants that need to be picked.

Dawn

George - "Confianza"? You got that right! They're confused! After Pop helped himself while we were gone over Labor Day, I did what DH suggested in the first place. I posted a sign at the opening gate saying "If you didn't grow it, don't help yourself!" (inside a ziplock so the rain wouldn't ruin it). DH backs me on this and calls it "our sign". Since then, we haven't even had a visit from them. DH thinks they came over to get more, I think they got nosy and wanted to know what I'd hung on the gate, but either way - problem solved. I know being the DIL, I'll be blamed either way and I'm okay with that. I'm going to take a suggestion from one of our fellow posters and plant enough seeds to offer them small transplants next year as a peace offering, but let them know I have plans for all of mine. And amazingly, since I posted the sign - I've gotten 2 gallons of jalapenos!! My co-workers have requested Jalapeno Jelly for Christmas this year and I think I'll be able to do it now! And thank you for the offer! I'd drive to get good peppers rather than buy them even at Walmart! I saw those here to...and had to buy some the first time the Mother-n-law helped herself. They were so hot, I couldn't taste the jalapeno - just fire.

I know how you feel Dawn. What's left of our tomatoes are split and covered with brown spots. I'm going to let the peppers go until it freezes, but the maters - they're done. Might get a few more green beans out of our second planting and still gotta get the sweet potatoes out of the dirt, but other than that....we're done for this year. My busiest time at work is approaching so I've got to get this garden stuff wrapped up. Not enough hours in the day.

Paula

Paula, are your in-laws Hispanic or Latino?
My heart goes out to both you and to them. We lived in Mexico for nearly 14 years and went through these struggles big time. In the case of "confianza," it's important to remember that the "offending party" generally doesn't believe they're doing anything wrong. The trick, as you know, is how to communicate your own personal boundaries without coming across to them as cold. The idea of giving them little plants in the spring is a good one. Anyway, I won't go down this line more unless I know they really do have that cultural background. In our culture we do simply have people with a problem with stealing.

Oh! Here's an idea for now, to help keep "the ice melted." When you can, consider giving your in-laws a small container of peppers. That would show that there are no hard feelings and that the point isn't that you don't like to share, but rather that you have boundaries.

Dawn, that's exactly what's happening with my pepper plants. And, like you, we still have plenty. My Chile Rayado plants (a type of Jalepeño [I hate it when GW ruins a good Spanish character!]) haven't shown any problem, nor have my Habaneros. But the others, yes!

George

Paula,

Try growing Goliath jalapeno, which Jay says is extremely hot for a jalapeno (I think he said about 10,000 Scoville Heat units) or Biker Billy, which is the hottest jalapeno I've ever grown, although I don't think it is as hot as Goliath. (I'm going go grow them side by side next year and see which is hottest.) If they are eating your peppers themselves, these may be too hot for them! (Kinda sneaky, I know.) That won't help, though, if they are giving them to someone else.

I had all kinds of weather checking and splitting on my tomtoes during our brief rainy spell here. Now that it is drier and they aren't sitting there wet 24/7 I am already seeing improvement on some of the younger tomatoes that weren't already ruined by the weather checking.

George,

Well, if you and I are seeing the same problems, that makes me think it is likely to be something systemic, viral or bacterial that affects the roots, especially when the leaves and stems are not showing any lesions.

Down here in Marietta, I'll blame it on the high rainfall we've had thus far this year, even though the disease didn't show up until we were in the midst of the hot, dry August weather.

Today I am going to work on those last 2 1/2 gallons of habaneros....think I'll make some habanero pepper rings (only our DIL and Tim will be able to eat something that hot, but they'll really enjoy them), some habanero gold confetti jelly, and then maybe dehydrate some and freeze the rest. We enjoy the habaneros, but you only need so many of them at one time, and right now we have way too many.

Dawn

I have literally hundreds of habaneros out in the garden and need to harvest them. But, once harvested, they need to be processed! Jerreth usually leaves that task to me. I have some resistance to capsicum, which I don't understand. For instance, I've gotten some in my eye, and usually it makes my eyes water for a few moments, and goes away. Jerreth, on the other hand, still remembers having to call poison control because of her work on a batch of hot sauce.

Yes, I believe the pepper problem is a systemic one. But I think it is independent of moisture levels. I've had it happen during both drought and soggy times. Also it has affected both tomatoes and peppers.

George

George,

By noon yesterday, I had 1600 peppers in my kitchen....and Tim is out of town. I have problems if I inhale pepper fumes too much while processing them....it is sort of like an asthma or allergic type reaction with mild trouble breathing, coughing, sneezing. Luckily, our son is here and is a trained paramedic. I wouldn't dream of trying to do all these peppers alone if he weren't going to be here "just in case".

I do always wear gloves and am very careful to avoid inhaling fumes.

I processed only about 225 peppers yesterday, so will try to get the rest of them done today.

I am going to dehydrate the bird peppers, which will be simple, and that will take care of a little over 600 of the peppers still in the kitchen.

I'm starting out this morning, in just a few minutes, by making a double batch of extra hot Habanero Gold jelly, with twice the number of habaneros as the standard recipe calls for (reducing onions by 1/4 C. to add another 1/4 C. of chopped habs). Then, I'll make jalapeno-habanero jelly, and then maybe pepper rings.

I made the mistake yesterday of thinking I'd pick "all" the peppers that were ready so that while I was processing habs I could just process all the peppers at once. That probably was a mistake because now I look at all those bowls and bags of peppers and ask myself what was I thinking?

I really didn't pick many jalapenos. I'm leaving the green ones on the plants now right where they are until they turn red so I can roast them for chipotles.

I don't think I've lost any tomato plants in the ground to a wilt disease this year, but the peppers made up for it. However, I checked all the pepper plants and they looked fine last night, so maybe whatever disease seemed to be progressing up the row has stopped. I did lose a couple of tomato plants in containers to a wilt disease and they were in new containers with new soil, so that was a bit surprising.

I still have at least 1000 bird peppers to pick, but you know, that sounds worse than it is since they are so small and easy to process. I could just pick the plants and hang them to dry, but I want to pick the red ones and wait for the green ones to turn red before picking them. If we have a long frost-free autumn, I'll get oodles more of these tiny peppers in the next few weeks.

It is cold here this morning (50 degrees on my front porch at 6 a.m.), so I might as well be in the kitchen as outside!

Dawn

Paula
Did I recall you saying that the in-laws had given you and DH 5 acres and then wanted half of it back later when their move to Eufala didn't work out? You know, if thats the case, they may still feel as if they own the land your living and growing on.
On the other hand, some folks are the type that if they loan you five dollars, they expect ten dollars back. In any case, if you have a pushy MIL, it will ALWAYS be the DIL's fault no matter what you and DH agree on as bounderies. Sad, but true.

Dawn, I can't even begin to imagine having to process the amount of garden stuff you do. A one woman growing and processing plant! You could feed Cox's army with all that, but I suppose over a winter's time, most of it gets used up. Lucky for me that I just have to do enough for myself, and the stuff that DS loves, like Spagetti sauce, salsa and relishes. I don't understand people who don't like fresh vegetables. It's just not normal!

George and Dawn-
Anyways, I was following the comments on the wilt problem on the peppers. Just yesterday I was doing a scan on Seranade and Sonata components as being organic systemic fungicides that work inside the soil around the root systems for plants susceptible to fungal problems. It sounded reasonable. What do you think? Have you tried either one of them? and if so do they work? If they do, what a boon that would be for tomato plants or most anything prone to fungal diseases.

I'm such a newbie at this, that even Spinosad was a revelation to me, as I'd never heard of it before this year.

Barbara

Barbara, I know very little about those things. Just haven't used them. I bet Dawn will have more input.

Barb,

I only have a good year like this in a non-drought year. In a drought year I cannot even irrigate enough to get the kind of yields I'm having this year.

Hopefully this was the 'big' pepper harvest because I can't handle much more.

In a year like this, I don't do anything but harvest/process the harvest some days. I'm not complaining, though, because in a drought year, I get very little harvest, much less enough to put up.

I tried Serenade when it first came onto the market, and was very, very pleased with it. I was, in fact, thrilled. My plants had very little disease issues. Then, the next year, it was the total opposite. The Serenade didn't do a thing, and I feel the second year was more accurate in terms of the weather we normally have. The first year it was dry and disease pressure was exceptionally low, and I likely gave Serenade the credit but it really was the weather. The next year was exceptionally wet, and nothing helped....it rained almost daily in May-June. I think it was the wettest year we've had since we moved here. So, at best, I had mixed results with Serenade.

People I know who've tried Serenade since I tried it have not found it to be very effective at all. Most people who've tried Serenade for Late Blight on tomato plants this year haven't seen positive results, but Late Blight is very hard to fight.

I haven't tried Sonata. In the world of commercial agriculture, I've heard of Sonata most in connection with growing soybeans and brasssica family plants. I don't grow soybeans and haven't had brassica issues, so haven't tried Sonata. I am not eager to try Bacillus pumilis mostly because it is implicated in some cases of food poisoning and also some hospital post-surgical infections. So, to me, it has some downsides that I don't thoroughly understand and, therefore, I haven't tried it.

Dawn

I can only comment about Seranade. My experience is that it did no good. Daconil worked a lot better. And several of the things I tried this summer worked better. When listening to the Cornell online cast at least one of the moderators said he had similar results with Seranade. In my opinion there is lot better options. Jay

Jay and Dawn
Well, so much for that! Just goes to show you how much advertising goes into bogus 'anything' that really doesn't do what it promises. So, I saved some money on that item by asking those who've tried it.

The more I think about it, the more I come to believe that building a healthy soil, and a biodynamic and diverse ecosystem is the answer to most of our gardening problems. The main unknown factor of course is always the weather, and I suppose it's been that way since the beginning of time.

Barbara

Dawn - I love peppers. I almost don't prepare a meal or a sandwich without adding some kind of peppers....but what the heck do you do with all those? Do you guys really eat that many? I'm in awe.....I bow down to you, Pepper Goddess of the River! But now you've got me curious....what are "bird peppers"? Never even heard the term. What are they used for/in?

My in-laws are just caucasian, too long-retired, quirky people that raised a wonderful son. Pop's 84 & still pretty spry. MIL - almost 77 but too onery to pass this life even with heart problems. They gave my husband 2 & 1/2 acres AFTER they had signed the house & land over to him which they took back. He put this house here about 3 years before I moved out here. So yes, from everything else that's happened, I realize they believe that what's ours is theirs and what's theirs is theirs. I know I'm going to be blamed for whatever doesn't suit them and like I've said, that's okay. I owned my own, nice middleclass home in the city before selling and moving to the sticks so I'm not intimidated, galled sometimes but that just comes with the territory. I'm in the best place in life. I won the Lottery when I got room to garden everything my little heart desires! And I just might desire "bird peppers" when I find out what they are! LOL

Paula

DAWN - I HAVE THOSE! I "googled" them and saw a photo! I grew them in pots on my front deck steps last year. The tag that came with them named them "chile pequin" and said they were "ornamental" so I assumed they weren't for human consumption. This year, I've got about 30 to 40 little plants all underneath the steps and in the pots (that got flowers this year). A couple have blooms and little round (still green) peppers. I just can't pull a pretty pepper plant so I've left it to watch it grow. (Actually, I can't pull any interesting, pretty plant.) And I read they came from Texas, so did you bring them with you? The article said they are perrenials...are yours? In the city, I always grew my own tabasco's....can these be used the same way? (sorry to bombard you with questions!)

Learn something new every day!

Here is a link that might be useful: Bird Peppers

Paula,

I spent hours in the kitchen today chopping and slicing and etc. with the end result today being 15 half-pints of bread-and-butter habanero peppers, oodles of dehydrated bird peppers to put up and used to spice up soups, etc., and four batches of Habanero Gold jelly--except I made the Habanero Gold extra-extra hot by using 3/4 C. chopped habaneros, instead of 1/4 C. (You can safely substitute more hot peppers for some of the red bell pepper/red onion mix, as long as they total amount of veggies overall doesn't change.) Yesterday I sliced and chopped almost all the bell peppers and froze them for winter cooking.

The bread-and-butter habaneros aren't 100% habanero--the pepper component of the recipe is 25% sweet bell pepper, 25% jalapeno pepper, 35% habanero and 20% mini sweet bells. I was trying to keep these things from being too hot to eat.

I'm hoping to leave the rest of the jalapenos on the plants to turn red before I roast them for chipotles and then freeze them.

This has been a really good year for our garden, and you've got to make hay while the sun shines! Next year might not be such a good one. It seems like it is feast or famine here....either a dry, droughty year with relatively poor years or a wet year (like this year) with really great yields.

The rows and rows of jars are building up in the tornado shelter, which doubles as a root cellar for canned goods, potatoes, onions and winter squash. I haven't counted how many jars of food I've put up, but it is a whole lot. I think I have enough salsa to get us through until next year....but DH and DS keep shaking their head and saying "No, we need more." LOL And, we probably do, because they keep opening jars and eating up the salsa. I think 1 pint jar a week ought to be enough, but they think we need more above and beyond that. I think they are just spoiled. I did ask Chris exactly how many jars of salsa it would take in order for him to feel like we have "enough" and he said "It doesn't matter. No matter how much salsa you make, it won't be enough." See what I am dealing with here?

I grew bird peppers in Texas, but didn't bring them with me. Down there in zone 8 they sometimes survived mild winters and they always reseeded themselves, even in our black gumbo clay soil. I started growing them in the late 1980s because a friend of mine grew them. She made the best salsa and brought it to work all the time, and it was hot! She kept telling us it had "only 2 bird peppers in it" although she'd make it at home for herself with 3 bird peppers or for her DH's family with 4 bird peppers.

I like to dry them and toss a couple (you don't need many) into soups or stews or chili in the winter time. I have a lifetime supply from this summer so may not grow them again for the next half-century.

They are insanely hot! Today, when they were dehydrating, and I was slicing habaneros in the kitchen, I thought all the pepper fumes were going to kill me.

I harvest them when the peppers are very bright red. Some people just pull up the whole plant and hang it to dry. Since these peppers are so tiny and have very little flesh, they dry well on the plant for me. I just dehydrated these today so I wouldn't have to worry about them falling off the plant and reseeding themselves.

You have to be careful with the bird peppers because if you use too much, no one can eat the food seasoned with them. But, you have to love a pepper that packs so much flavor and heat into such a tiny package.

I believe I'll plant fewer peppers next year. I only had about a dozen sweet pepper plants and about a dozen hot pepper plants, but they've all produced like mad...and have new blooms right now in addition to all the peppers in various stages of growth.

Between yesterday and today, I've processed maybe 75-80% of the peppers I had sitting in the kitchen, so maybe I can finish that up tomorrow. I hope so. I have some apples and strawberries and want to make apple pie jam and strawberry jam if I ever finish up all the peppers.

Dawn

I believe that "bird pepper," "chili pequin" and "chiltepin" are probably the same thing, though there is quite a bit of variability within any of them. There are acres of wild chiltepins in Texas and parts of Mexico. They get called "bird peppers," because birds spread them. They eat them and drop the seeds all over the place. In some places wild turkeys feed on them enough that their meat is supposed to have a hot flavor to it!

I've seen these volunteering in Mexican Indian villages, out it the sticks. In warm coffee country they can live for years and be four or five feet tall. Usually, wherever they sprout, Mexicans will leave them grow and cherish them.

I haven't grown them simply because I don't want to mess with tiny peppers. But we do like them. Chiltepin salsa is famous!

I grew Pepperoncini this year, so we could pickle some for our son. But after finding it to have about the same heat as a Jalapeño, I've decided that I'm not growing it again. If they have the same heat why not just grow the more trouble free Jalapeño. Actually our Jalapeño is, as I mentioned, called Chile Rayado, and it's pretty hot.

Every year since 2002, when my kids gave me two plants for Fathers day, I've grown Thai Hots; a Thai Hot which is almost exactly like a 1/3 size cayenne. I suspect its proper name is Thai Dragon. I can't help it. This one is so trouble free, productive and pretty!

I wouldn't want to depend, just on Thai Hot, because the peppers are rather small. Jalapeños are so much easier to work with. And, habaneros, well! Those are my absolute favorites! The aftertaste of an habanero is incredible. But, one has to use them sparingly. But habaneros as so PRETTY!

In the future, I'll probably stick with my three favorites: Thai Hot, Chile Rayado & Habanero. If I had to make do with only one it would be Chile Rayado (Jalapeño).

George

What makes Piquin peppers different is the duration of the heat. They're pretty hot, but it dies away much quicker than say, Cayenne.

Yes. And Habaneros are the exact opposite, they don't seem so hot until a few moments after one had chewed on them. I like to say that they let one swallow hook, line and sinker and then they STRIKE!

George,

The bird pepper I have this year is Chile Tepin, and I've grown some of the others too.

I have one Thai Hot plant in my garden, and I didn't plant it this year. I did have it last year, so I guess it reseeded.

Jalapenos are my favorites and, of course, their heat can vary a lot from one variety to another and even within one variety depending on growing conditions. This year the jalapenos I grew were Jaloro, Ixtapa, Grande' and Mucho Nacho. I think next year I'll drop Jaloro and add a couple more--probably Biker Billy, which has done well for us in the past, and Goliath.

Some years I grow all colors of habaneros, but this year only grew Red Savina and the standard orange Habanero.

We like peppers and eat a lot of them, but this year's "best pepper year harvest" is ridiculously large. I think we'll remember 2009 as the year of the pepper around here.

Tim can't get enough of peppers. The other day he was eyeing Black Pearl and wanting to know what it tastes like. I told him it was an ornamental and that he likely wouldn't enjoy it because most ornamentals are insanely hot. That probably won't stop him from picking and trying some of them though.

Dawn