Well, now that I've finished the Pick-A-Peck of Peppers Swap, I can focus on this year's pepper crop. My growlist changed quite a bit since I first posted my growlist. Here is the final version, though I may possibly still add a couple more: Aji Panca - sowed about a week ago Aji Yellow - 2 out of 2 are up (Thanks, Ajijoe!) Alma Paprika - all four are up, yeah! Ancho Gigantia - 1 out of 2 up so far Ancho San Luis - 1 out of 2 up so far Chilhaucle Rojo - sowed about a week ago Chimayo - 2 out of 2 are up Choricero - sowed about a week ago Cosa Arrugada - sowed about a week ago College 64 - 1 out of 2 up so far Czechoslovakian Black - one sprouted and fizzled out, resowed Frank's - 2 out of 2 are up Fresno - resowed Georgia Flame - 2 out of 2 are up Giant Szegedi - 1 out of 2 up Jimmy Nardello - 1 out of 2 up Joe E. Parker - 2 out of 2 are up Kalocsai V2 - resowed, then 1 sprouted the next day from the first sowing Lemon Drop - 2 out of 2 up (I literally had seeds in my hand to resow, and they suddenly appeared, LOL) NuMex Espanola Imp.- sowed about a week ago NuMex Pinata - sowed about a week ago Peppadew - sowed about a week ago Pimente de Padron - sowed about a week ago Sandia - 2 out of 2 are up Santa Fe Grande - had to resow Serrano Tampiqueno - 1 is up, and the other is on its way I'm pretty pleased with the germination so far, considering, I have no heat mat or light set up. That will change soon though. My husband brought home an old light fixture from work, and bought me a grow lamp to go in it. Now he just has to mount it to the table that my peppers are on, and I'll be all set : ) How's everyone else's pepper crop coming along? Bonnie

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

How much can stress affect the hotness of a pepper? My mother-in-law grew her Jalapenos in a hallway during winter - relatively cool with little light. She got a few small peppers only but they were amazingly hot. I grew habs and bonnets and that J was definitely hotter. That been said, i've noticed a huge difference between my container grown J's and those in the ground. The ones in containers have a lot better growing conditions (more nutrients + i can move them when the weather is unfavorable), yet they turn out mild. The ones in the ground growing in impoverished soil are much hotter. Thai Dragons (F1, not a heritage, growing upwards) are subjectively the hottest ones i got this year among red and orange habanero, red and yellow scotch bonnets, tabasco and jalapeno. Although i must say that the habs i've tasted so far are also from containers. Waiting for the ones in the ground to ripen to get a final conclusion.

Hi Folks, Looks like sun scald or sunburn. Usually isn't a problem and pods ripen up. There's usually no discernable difference in taste or texture. In sever cases the skin will break down and leave the pods susceptible to other disease. I get it every year on some plants. This year was the first time I lost a plant due to a sever case. Bill