Great work, Bruce! Just a little longer and there should be signs of flowering on the radishes. Mine have pretty much collapsed under their own weight, and there are so many hundreds of pods that I can't keep up with them! I'm waiting for enough pods to dry on the plant that I can pull them for seed collection, then I'll yank all the plants. If you keep yours watered well, they will resist falling over. I haven't watered mine for weeks now.

A baby 'possum has been visiting my garden, vandalizing my peach trees, zucchini, and watermelon. It destroyed half of my watermelon plants as it dug through the mounds, so now I'm down to two plants per mound. I trapped the 'possum last night, so now it's gone. We'll see if it has any brothers or sisters.

My vines are very small still...I think I just don't have enough light. But, despite all that, I do have a first flower. It'll most likely fall off.....

Man, that's a lot of seed pods! The few French Breakfast radishes I left for that purpose have yet to bolt. I have some mustard plants producing seed pods though and also a bunch of mystery volunteer brassicas.

Too bad about the melons getting attacked like that. I hope what's left fares well though!

Very cool Josh. that is a lot of seed pods.....are you sure you don't have enough already for seed collection or do they have to dry ON the plant?

Glad you got the critter relocated. Hopefully not nears someone's garden!

I do think that direct sunlight is a big thing for the water melons. That is why my container for my mellons is in such a strange place. With all the huge Oak trees around here, it is hard to find any spot that gets max sun and isn't completely ridiculous to place a container for watermelons.

I just updated the blog with another video update. I am getting close to harvesting my HHW's for cold canning. My Giant Alaskan Radishes had a growth spurt and I planted some Daikon Radishes about a week ago as well.

Lot of watermelons, but the melons seem to have stalled in their growth.

http://2016pepper.tumblr.com/

Looking good !

Tim

Nice, Bruce!

About harvesting radish seeds....I always wait for them to dry on the plant, just to be sure the seeds are fully mature.

Josh

Yah, I think I am a long ways from seeds on those Radishes. But I will wait for them to dry on the plant as you suggest once I get some. Looking forward to it.

Some of my radish pods are almost to the harvest state. There will be a LOT to go around in a month or two.

Josh

You know you have lower light in your garden when your Hungarian wax peppers are passing the two foot mark. But, hey, at least they're producing lots of nicely sized, uniform pods.

Yah, your HHW's are packed like mine. It looks odd with the sparse foliage on the plants compared to a lot of the others.

In one of these threads, I know I was challenged to eat one of my Thai Dragons and video tape it. I accepted the challenge and I went ahead and made good on it tonight. Here is the video:

Nicely done, Bruce!
I think your wife was freakin' out more than you were!
Those Thai's might get hotter, later in the season...hopefully!

Josh

Yah, they are growing right and have all the characteristics of Thai Dragons, except for the heat. I had actually harvested some earlier in the year too. I had not tasted them however.

The pod that I ate did have a veryyy small amount of heat, but almost undetectable. Weird! I am thinking maybe I should try another pod to see if it was just an isolated pod.

Check your Reapers just in case too, Bruce ;)

LOL, yah, sure Mike, I will get right on that. I do have a reaper growing but I am already convinced that thing is a cross. The pods are way too Bhut looking to be reapers. Some of the pods have a hint of the classic Reaper tail, but they are just not getting that overall pumpkin shape of a classic Reaper. That being said, I am sure they are many times hotter than anything I want to experience.

I typically have hotter than usual jalapenos. I've tried 3 this year, and they may as well be bell peppers. They have 0 heat. I don't know what's going on, but maybe it's the same scenario you're having with your Thai Dragons. Strange!

Tim

Yah, I harvested several the other day and I am going to taste another one just to see if it was a fluke pod. I will post back the results later.

Wow that was cool, I was waiting for your reaction to the heat, then you got a dud pod. Try another and see. Is there a sweet Thai dragon? I don't think so, but we never know.

I just tasted a second pod. Same result. Minimal heat. Probably on par with an anehiem pepper. I will have to wait until I get ripe pods again on both of my Thai Dragon Plants. Then, I will pull one from each and test them. If it is just one plant, then I will just blame it on an abboration with the one plant. Otherwise, it would be the seed source. The funny thing is that they are growing completely normal and have every other trait I would expect for the Thai Dragon. But they should be hotter than a Cayenne and are no where close.

I did taste one of my Reaper (cross?) and whoooaaa. I just cut it open and touched the pepper to my tongue. Super hot? yes. Reaper hot? I am not sure but it some where in the Bhut to Reaper range. Aside from the burn in my mouth, my eyes and lips regretted cutting it open without gloves all evening long.

Lots of weird stuff with the mild Thai Dragons and the Reaper not growing true this year. Then the weird leaf coloration on one of my Hot Hungarian Wax peppers. But at least the HHW's grew great and true otherwise.

Ah, I got a kick out of the dud pepper challenge video, mostly of your wife worrying for you. So who was the most relieved there was no heat? :)

I am not sure. I was expecting HOT and something definitely above my comfort level. I think my wife was expecting Ghost pepper hot or something. She was probably more relieved.

Another video update this time. Check out what happened to one of my watermelons. It looks like I am closing in on another major pepper harvest too.

Another great update, Bruce!

Everything is loaded and huge. The radishes are fantastic. Shouldn't be long now.

Josh

Thanks Josh, I lost another watermelon. One that was about softball size. I dont think it was a coon though.

Another one, bummer!

It does seem unlikely for a racoon to clean it out from that small a hole. Brown rats perhaps, do you have them in your area? Seems like a large one or a family could easily do this.

Skunks, maybe? I know they've been out lately.

Josh

Hey, Bruce and all! Bruce convinced me to wait a bit on my Hungarians, which is what I did. Picked some nice ripe pods today as a result. I also pulled some Pusa Jwala, Thai chiles, and hybrid Black Pearl X Thai. The Jwala plant is very large and wilts extensively, which is why I think the pods are drying on the plant....although the pods seem to lend themselves to quick drying, which is pretty cool.

Nice harvest!

I guess the Black Pearl x Thai cross are the shorter/stouter ones?

My third Jwala plant, the runt of the litter is now larger and looking like it'll out-produce the other two together, though these are into there second flush.

Hey, thanks! Yep, those fatter pods are the hybrids....and they are packed with seeds! Pretty hot, too. I definitely prefer the straight Thai chiles, though. Much better flavor.

Anyhow, I chopped all of the Thai pods up, along with the hybrids, and I made some Hmong pepper sauce. Super simple and seriously delicious. If any of you have Thai/Asian style chiles, you should make this and try it on virtually any grilled meat, mice, or veggie.

All you need are: Thai chiles (a mix of ripe and unripe), cilantro, fish sauce, lime juice, and MSG (or regular salt). If you want to make a more saucy pepper sauce, add a diced tomato. You can also add green onion, garlic, water, and sugar....but I think that's going overboard.

Dice your ingredients, muddle in a mortar with a pestle, then add fish sauce, lime juice, and salt to taste.

Too cool Josh. I just got back from a 4 day, three night camping trip and was hoping I would have some red and orange pods. I had a couple with some orange tinge to them before I left, so I was confident I would have some when I got back. I only have one small red pod and several with the hint of orange. I don't know how much longer I can wait. I have about 6 weeks of growing season left is all.

Skunks? Plenty of them around here. But, Like the coons, I haven't seen any in the yard...Yah, I know, both are night critters. Well, if I catch skunk in the live trap, that should be interesting.

Josh: Re that Hmong pepper sauce. Does that stuff keep in the fridge pretty long or is it a one time deal where you make it up each time you use it?

I have made a couple updates to the blog since my last post here. Check them out. The latest was today.

http://2016pepper.tumblr.com/

Esox07, Quite some peppers you have going on there. Love the hot peppers, do you happen to have some seeds available? I'm specificly looking for wiri wiri or any other hot pepper seedspray with the high Scoville. I can send sase.

Thank you,

Alicia!

"I don't think I will grow more vole feed next year..."

That cracked me up, Bruce, sorry! Don't mean to laugh :) Great update video! Sorry to see all of the damage the voles caused, wow! Who knew, huh? Your peppers and radishes look like they did great, though! I was thinking you should put some sort of plastic bowl or something under the melons to protect them, until you got to the part in the video that proves they'll find a way in anyway. Have you thought about using those smoke bombs that you light and shove into the tunnels? Then again, I'm not sure how much of that poison would be absorbed through the root system of whatever you're growing. I was also going to suggest clipping off the small melons that you're positive aren't going to make it before the frost. That way, maybe the plant would focus its energy to the bigger melons, instead of wasting it on the little ones. Kinda like snipping the late season flowers off of pepper plants to try to ripen the existing pods quicker. I'm not even sure that would work; just an idea. Looks like that advice is a little late though. Sorry, bud. Great update though. Aside from the vole problem, it looks like you've had a great season. Congrats!

Yah, I pulled all my melons and got one...and that one was no where near ripe. It was rind color all the way through and tasted the same. I did actually get two or three really good melons total through the whole year so it wasn't a total bust. But if that is all I will wind up with in the end, it isn't worth the hassle.

The Daikon Radishes were a neat surprise though. I didn't know what to expect with them and they really surpassed my expectations.

And my pepper growing this year was a resounding success as far as my staple Hot Hungarian Wax peppers go. I just didn't get much into variety this season.

Yeah, awesome update! Curse those voles! At least you did better with the melons than I did, though. I think you're right....the radishes might not quite make it in time. They sure look great, though, don't they? What a nice planting there in the yard. I think you'll have quite a few more flowers before all is said and done.

Josh

Speaking of Hungarian Wax....I picked another 12 today, in various stages of ripeness, and made poppers. I used a piece of my home-cured bacon in each, and stuffed 'em with a cream cheese mix to balance out the saltiness of the bacon. I gotta say, they came out great! Some were mild, some were picante! I had them as a side dish for my rib-eye steak and sliced cucumber with blue cheese dip :-)

I can try again next year on the Alaskan Radishes. I think I still have a few seeds. I just need a little more time or a spot with more direct sunlight. Like I said, it is just a coincidence that spot is out in the open but winds up getting shaded just about all day long from one tree or another.

Josh, do you roast those HHW poppers after you fill them?

I bake them in a 325F oven for about 25 minutes, until they're hot through and through. I like the peppers to still have a bit of crunch....although the red ripe pods tend to be pretty soft by the time the others are done cooking. Damn they were good!

Josh

Yep, I would have loved about a half dozen or so of those while watching the NFL games today...especially the Sunday night game (Vikings vs Packers)...Vikes won so I know the HHW Poppers would have tasted all the better.

Well, I ate a half dozen within about ten minutes, hahaha! Have a few left for tomorrow.

Josh

Nice video update!

The radish plants that haven't bolted aren't likely to do so with decreasing daylight time, so perhaps you can enjoy the roots as you mentioned.

Kinda weird about your Thaï Dragons having close to no heat. I have the same issue with my Jwala. I used a couple of ripe ones in a breakfast wrap and hardly felt a tingle.

isgen: Yah, I grew them wanting to dry and crush into flakes for seasonings. But they have no heat. I guess I will have to try a different seed source for next year. They seem to have grown true otherwise though.

You can probably still throw a couple dozen in a batch of chili for flavour, along with a couple of hybrid reapers for heat. I'm not too miffed my Jwala are low on heat, I can use more of them at one time.

Yah, I was going to use them in my salsa for the heat portion, but to use them simply for flavor, I would need to use a bunch of them since they are very thin skinned. I prefer peppers like Jalapeno or my Hot Hungarian Wax for both heat and body for the salsa.

I posted an update (Radishes only) to my blog for all who care to check it out:

http://2016pepper.tumblr.com/

Cool daikons! The large ones I get in the store are usually very mild, but crunchy and juicy. My own fall daikon and black radishes are doing so-so, between the leaves getting eaten, some mysteriously bolting and others in no apparent hurry to produce a sizeable root. I still have a few weeks before the frosts get too brutal, hopefully!

Yah, I can't find Daikons anywhere in the super markets around me, that is what prompted me to grow them myself. What I noticed about them is the ones that were on the outside basically crowded out the rest but grew awesome. The others struggled. I think spacing is the key for me. But I always tend to crowd my plants.

I am going to grow them again next year but hope to plant a few earlier so that they do bolt and go to seed. I want to harvest some of the seed. My season is nearly over. We are just one cold snap away from a frost now. I usually have all my plants pulled by the end of the first week in October. If I wasn't so busy right now, I would probably pull the last of my peppers already.