Hey Bernie, Where you been? This was definitely and bad fall and spring but I have to tell you I chalk some of my problems up to the white buckets, both SCW and top-watering wicking to a dryer soil mix...I'm going back to the black nursery containers with the pot-in-pot system. I even started a few peppers in the buckets vs. black nursery containers two months ago and guess which are doing better? Perhaps even a double-bucket system allows just too much light into the soil such that fungus is a problem, who knows. I'm not sure what the problem is but I know that what I previously did worked well. Tom

Of course you can make it any size you see fit, and using any materials that are easily available to you. Though I think 6 inches wide will probably do, I would opt a little wider 8-12 inches wide. Here's how I planed to build mine. First plywood would be stronger, but OSB board would be cheaper and still strong enough. It runs about $7-$8 for a 8x4 sheet around here. I plan the inside diameter to be 12 inch deep, about 12 inch wide, and 8 feet long. Make it as long as you want also, 8 feet is all I need. Though I plan to build 2, set them parallel with each other about 5-6 feet apart, and place a A-frame trellis between the two trenches. You already have your trellis. To strengthen the box structure, I plan on running 1x2's (they run $0.84 ea here) along the outside for added support. You can use 2x4's but would be about 3-4 times the price, and 1x2's should be enough support. For a trench box that long, I would probably run one horizontal row of 1x2 along the top and bottom of the box. Then periodically place vertical pieces between them. Here in the desert I need to insulate the roots from the heat, you probably wont want to do this part, especially if you are going to have the trench in the ground. My trench is planed to be on top of the ground. The inside of the box will be lined with probably 2 layers of 1/2 inch (or 1 inch) thick Styrofoam sheet insulation. Glued in with PL300 foamboard adhesive (it's made specifically to glue Styrofoam insulation to wood and construction materials. Then I plan to line the inside with vinyl sheeting. I don't know if Low's or Home Depot carry it, but ACE hardware just down the street from me does. They have 3 different thickness that run from about $3-$6 a square yard (in one yard widths). For the inside diameter I plan, it should just fit nicely without even overlapping it (except the end pieces. I plan to use 100% silicone to seal the ends and glue down the vinyl sheeting (as well as all corners and edges after the Styrofoam is glued in). Fish pond liner would be just fine, and plenty durable. I don't know how much it runs, but I think I will look into pricing that as well. For the drain I plan to cut a hole just big enough to run a pvc tube through the wood, and a little smaller than the wood hole in the Styrofoam (for a snug fit). Then glue it to the Styrofoam with the foamboard adhesive. Then run beds of silicone, and screw in a pvc connectors on both sides of the tube and snug it down. Making the lip of the connector on the inside of the box as short as possible (but still durable), so as much water will drain out as possible. I may decide to have more than one of these drains per box. But if one side of the box is raised a little, the water should flow nicely to the side with the drain/s. Because the heat and sun is so bad here on things. I plan to paint the outside of the box with a roofing material. I forget what it's called, but it's white, thick, durable and flexible. They use it on rooftops for reflecting the suns rays (overall cooling the building). That will also add another layer of insulation for the roots for me (reflecting the heat). But I need to find somewhere where they sell it in one gallon buckets. The 5 gallon buckets are way more than I need, and it's not exactly cheep (a one gallon should run about $10-12). That should protect the wood from moisture if you plan to bury it in the ground as well. However there is another material for that also, but it's black. I forget what they call that also, but they use it to protect walls that extend underground so they don't absorb moisture (like basement walls, underground stairways etc.). I don't know how much it runs, but you will want to protect the wood from ground moisture if you place it in the ground. And products like Thompson water seal wear off and need to be reapplied regularly. Once the box is ready, I plan to simply place a section of inexpensive furnace filter screening ($2, I just cut the screening material out of a inexpensive furnace filter) on top of the drain holes. Then I will place a layer of rocks on top of that to about 2 inches deep along the bottom of the trench. This will hold the screening in place and help with drainage all the way through the box. Then just fill with the growing medium and plants, setup the drip system. You should have a very durable planter box that will withstand the weather and you can use year after year. .

Seeds produce no capsaicinoids (the stuff that make peppers hot). The only reason that they are hot is due to their close proximity to the placenta, they absorb some of the capsaicin. Capsaicin is produced in the placental tissue, usually concentrated where the ribs meet the wall. When people remove the seeds, they also tend to remove this material which leads to the false presumption that the seeds are the cause of the heat. The placental tissue only contains maternal tissue. The same as the pepper walls, etc. The reason people clean out the seeds is that 1) they are bitter 2) they are not fun to chew 3) they are not fun to look at Sweet peppers also tend to be easier to clean that hot peppers, due to the size (sweet tend to be larger) and the danger of handling them. They tend to have more pronounced placental tissue (once again due to fruit size). This tissue is rubbery when consumed and contains no taste benefits. In hot peppers, it is beneficial to keep it as that is where the capsacinoids are produced.

Sorry about the double post, I realized I didn't answer Honu's question. Honu, Aloha! Honestly, I cannot say I have had the pleasure of trying a Hawaiian chile. Someday I certainly will if I can get my hands on the seeds. Regarding your question; I will split it into two parts. First, as far as heat, heat is a somewhat subjective thing. Now, it's true that no one on earth would day that a bell pepper is hotter than a chocolate hab, but different species of capsicum have different types and ratios of capsaicin. Therefore, if someone has only eaten habaneros (capsicum chinense) their whole life and then bites into a manzano chile (capsicum pubescens) they would certainly find it hotter than someone who has been eating manzanos their whole life. For instance, I can bear habaneros but choke like crazy on jalapenos, which have lower levels of capsaicin but a type of capsaicin I am not used to. Capsaicin is a vanilla-like compound (no kidding) that binds to the pain receptors in your mouth. I'm not quite sure what happens to build tolerance (perhaps an increased level of some certain enzyme?) but something makes eating a certain type of chile more bearable after a while. That being said, I have read HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography, which involves the extraction of capsaicin from the sample pepper and the direct measurement of the level) reports on some of these chiles, and nothing compares to the amount of capsaicin in the capsicum chinense species. They have a very high level of capsaicin compared to other peppers and HPLC is a much more accurate and less subjective method of measuring heat than the scoville units test (a dilution test). The hottest capsicum chinenses that I have tried? Trinidad scorpion, chocolate scotch bonnet, chocolate habanero. I have a friend who claims the USDA datil is the hottest thing he has ever tried (out of I would guess hundreds of different chinenses) and another friend who swears by something called a trinidad 7-pod (also known as a 7-pot, the name being a derivation of the fact that one pepper will season 7 pots of soup, go figure). With that, we will see what comes for me in the future but I can say this: the red savina is not the world's hottest pepper. Regarding taste: that's a tough one. I like the more fruity, citrusy chinenses over the smoky ones, and don't like the taste of annuums that much. For annuums, pequins and long slim cayennes are nicely flavored and pretty versatile. My favorites are obviously the chinenses though, and if I were to pick the best tasting they would be, in no order, limon, fatalii, datil, caribbean red hab, chocolate hab (quite smoky but still very nice), billy goat, true scotch bonnet, devil's tongue, red hab (wonderful!), yellow hab (like an incredibly hot datil), grenada scotch bonnet, scotch bonnet, red (from tomatogrowers). Of these if you are looking for something a bit milder and not so explosive stick with scotch bonnet, red, yellow scotch bonnet, and limon, I think they are bearable. If you are looking for something mild but still good tasting go with aji dulce #2. I hope I didn't overanswer your question. To trim it down to five chinenses would certainly involve limons, datils, caribbean reds, fataliis and chocolate habs, but that does not do justice to the wonderful flavor and versatility of some of the others I have tried, which are just as delicious but not as brutally hot. Good luck with chile growing and if you have any other questions let me know. Mark p.s. we did have a humid summer this year, very humid in fact, and the chiles did well. I don't know if humidity affects them as much as heat, and certainly fertilizer and water level affects them as well. Basically, the more stress the hotter the pepper, but I am in NJ so we are not usually incredibly hot or humid. Peace!