Part 2:

Penny's Tomatoes and Pepper Joe's "Hey folks THANKS for being a customer. We appreciate you. The Carolina Reaper seeds sell for $9.99 a pack and you'll get 12 seeds....I guarantee that. Sorry about those seeds for the Reaper that were less than 12....(some were up to 17 seeds....LOL the counts were all over the place) they were packed by Ed Curries people. Ed said that his partner messed up the Reaper counts because "She was talking on the cell phone" while packing. WE learned our lesson. We will continue to pack our own seeds going forward (not Ed or anyone else) as we've always done. Our people DO NOT talk on the Cell phone while they count seeds LOL."

December 9 at 9:46am

Yep, had a good laugh seeing that this afternoon.
Man, what a joke. Does this guy really want to be taken seriously? It's as though he thinks he created the pepper....kinda sounds like a jab at Ed. If I were Ed, I'd look to take my seeds and business elsewhere.

Also, that line about tomato seed.....no worries, 'cause we all know that tomatoes don't cross pollinate....hehe

Josh

when do we get 2 c the funny part?

First and second posts, Podpiper.

Josh

Thanks, should have read everything.

When I first got addicted to peppers-non bells.

I purchased seeds from about EVERY seed vendor in the U.S. online.

My experiences with P.J. were crap.

Stuff renamed and crap seeds(he didn't use any protection while sending seeds-large part came crushed).

E Mails resulted in accusations that his seeds were cool,I was just not trying to sprout them right-my fault.

At the time I grew about 800 varieties 2X a year(we don't have a winter).
I was threatened with legal action if I posted more about my experiences with him too.

I KNOW who's seeds grew and grew other than what I purchased.

ONLY a few vendors I purchased seeds from grew totally different stuff,even fewer came as mostly broken seeds etc.

Wouldn't buy from ANYONE he is partners with, EVER,birds of the feather...

But I got E mails from him saying I never purchased stuff from him (he had no records of my purchases)and am called a hater online by him too.

Ya,it's been years since I purchased seeds from him.
AND this is only my experience with him.
Bought everything he sold the first time,only baught stuff he sold that was new or replacements for seeds that didn't sprout.
I gave him the benefit of the doubt...

2 or 3 times burned,I got a clue.

First 3 times I'm the sucker,4rth time I'm a fool.

Your milage may vary.

I read this with quite a bit of interest. "Stay with a Seed Company with a proven track record." Some things just never change. Enough said.

When i finished reading the content of posts 1 and 2, I reminded myself to ... always be wary of people who like to hear themselves talk.

The lesson:

If it sounds like poop, smells like poop and looks like poop, it's poop

"I was threatened with legal action if I posted more about my experiences with him too."

This guy is the only seed seller I have ever heard of who threatens to sue someone at least a few times a year.

Between re-naming established varieties and his toxic business practices, he's one of the worst things in the industry.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Sat, Dec 14, 13 at 16:39

Pepper Joe, the Rob Ford of the pepper vendors.

Boy, pepper joe's got a lot of suing to do. There's
tons of people posting their experiences with him. LoL!

Why do you say his seeds are bad? Is it the germination rate? Is it the way he packs/sends them?

Boycott, Pepper Joe if he hurt to our forum members.

Caelian

Well said, Caelian.

Josh

you guys wanna buy some carolina reaper seeds? $50 bucks for 10 bell pepper seeds. but don't tell anyone I sent you bell seeds instead of reapers, or try to sell them for a more reasonable price, or I'll sue you.

Judo_and_peppers,

I am selling these seeds Commercially. Are you trying to out sell me???

I am selling a pack of 10 Carolina Reapeer seeds for $75.99 plus $19.99 shipping. There is a STRICK limit of three (3) packages per customer do to the high demand of my seeds. I will report you to the BBB and get my attorney involved if I need to.

I ship my seeds in a clear baggie so you can tell they are seeds before you open them (This is a free service I throw in for all my customers).

Bill

Ha, Free Shipping until Christmas here buddy. And I will knock off 10% on the price for a total of $68.00 a pack shipped. And I will even throw in a pack of U/I tomato seeds. No limit until stock is sold out.
Bruce

People have already been threatened to be sued over selling Carolina Reaper seeds.

The key is "threatened"...which is normal procedure for Pepper Joe in many instances. It's not just an empty threat to him if history is any indication...he'll go through the trouble of actually getting a lawyer to threaten someone if he can find a physical address. He's got a long history of bullying others and above everything self-protection of his businesses (Pepper Joe/Penny's Tomatoes)...even when caught doing things like blatently stealing other people's photos/text and re-naming existing varieties to imply rarity or exclusivity.

Plus there was Ed threatening to sue someone earlier in the year after they posted their CR plants on Facebook and let it be known they were going to sell seeds of their harvest.

I don't know if Ed or Joe trademarked "Carolina Reaper", but it is absolutely baseless for them to sue (even if they try to sue) others selling or giving away the seed...even if it has to be under another common-type name. That probably won't stop them from trying to strike fear in others doing legitimate and legal seed sharing/selling through threats, though.

Some would claim that others shouldn't try to sell the pepper under another name. Some would claim it's fair game because of how many times Pepper Joe/Penny's Tomatoes have done the same, even if someone else developed the CR and the association is a "only" a business and promotion partnership.

...some would claim this un-even expressing pepper shouldn't even be on the market to begin with...much less the money rush and protectionism around it.

There's already so much variation out there in the initial wide release that we're probably going to be seeing many different "types" of Carolina Reaper for years to come with arguments over what the "real" CR is...even though all the seed came from a single source that's way too early in it's lineage to be seeing this much variation.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Fri, Dec 20, 13 at 1:20

In the interest of fairness, my experience with Pepper Joe was fine. I've only bought from him once, about 3 years ago. It was a small order of a half-dozen or so pepper varieties that would have been extremely difficult to find here in Canada, especially from a single company.

I did feel the shipping was pricy, about $10 I think for an envelope that probably cost $2 to send, but he did throw in two free packs of seeds, so maybe that equals out. The germination was lower than I was expecting, about 50% vs. the 80-90% I usually get, but that still gave me more plants than I needed. They seemed to all be true to variety and grew well once germinated.

So for me, as a small-scale home gardener looking for some interesting pepper varieties from a single source, Pepper Joe delivered.

Yeah, the problem with Pepper Joe/Penny's Tomatoes isn't the customers he's delivered to...

...it's the people he's threatened

...it's the seed he's renamed in order to create false exclusivity

...it's the photos/text he's stolen from others to fill his websites

...it's the excuses he makes and blame he re-directs rather than accepting responsibility

...it's his treatment of critics, from threats of lawsuits to all out attacks on other businesses and works (such as the attack on fellow GardenWeb tomato expert Carolyn Male (amongst others) or websites that are critical of his businesses)

This guy is working hard to put his name/face/business out there as the defacto face of the pepper industry. He not only doesn't deserve it...he doesn't have the credibility to make a claim to it.

http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/12/27/fear-the-reaper-worlds-hottest-pepper-the-carolina-reaper-crowned-by-guinness-book-of-world-records/

Your boy Ed strikes again. This time on Yahoo

http://news.yahoo.com/world-39-hottest-pepper-grown-south-carolina-173214578.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory

Lots of promotion just before the up coming growing season is getting underway.

Question is Carolina Reaper really a new pepper variety?
If so, somebody please send me some seeds and I will make quick work of all this bullsiit. I'll grow them out and give away the seed free to anyone! Yes free! Not at a dollar a seed, that's wrong. It is wrong to say you own seed, that is something you would expect from Monsanto.
I just need 3 will send SASE, no joke.

Posted by chilliwin EU DK 7 (My Page) on
Thu, Dec 19, 13 at 9:16

Boycott, Pepper Joe if he hurt to our forum members.

Caelian
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly. Use your economics muscle.

The only way a seed seller/hydbridizer can get you hooked is when his seeds are HYBRID. That is what Burpees does. And I avoid buying Burpees hybrid seeds.

i have 7 grade A carolina reaper seeds i got from a pepper given to me by some one who knows some one. well if any one wants to trade let me know my e mail is joshuakllogg@gmail.com

Is the Carolina Reaper not identical to the trinidad moruga scorpion in everything but name? I'm having some seed sent to me from my brother who just acquired some peppers from a friend whose plants are still producing, he's like me to get them growing down here in FL for a longer season for him so I'm game. I read that there is variability in the fruits of these Reapers and would certainly select against that, and would be sending sample bags from each of my plants to my brother/dad and their hot junkie friends to judge for keepers to select the best plants to keep for future seed selection. Not trying to hybridize anything just trying to grow good consistent peppers for family/friends.

They can vary some in appearance for pods. Though the heat is there. Brutal onset of heat. I have a couple of plants growing from seeds that came from the seed exchange here last year. Some pods have long tails. Some it is more like a small bump. All pods have the rough bumpy skin. I have a Scorpion growing next to one of the reapers. You can tell them apart with ease.

I have a few reaper seeds like 7 that come from original generics I just want to trade. Seeds or plants -------Melissa pitcher ------ email me if your interested joshuakllogg@gmail.com the pod came,straight from (south Carolina )