This year's pepper plantings - pictures added June 26

[nctomatoman]

More progress on Sunday May 23 - added to the list below.

Sweet Peppers that went into pots today:

Hershey F1, Jimmy Nardello, Lipstick, Orange Bell, Purple Beauty, Super Shepherd, Super Stuff, Chervena, Chocolate Bell F5, Amethyst (Islander F5, lavender to red), Fire Opal (Islander F5, lavender to golden yellow).

Experimental Sweet Peppers:

Islander growout selection 2.2 (three plants), Islander growout selection 6.1 (three plants), Islander growout selection 6.2 (three plants), Islander growout selection 8.2 (three palnts), Yellow Bell F2 (two plants). I am comparing what I get in the various Islander plants with Amethyst and Fire Opal to see if there is work left to do.

Hot peppers:

Fish, NuMex Heritage 6-4, Purple Flash, Golden Habanero, Ghost, Datil, Jamaican Hot chocolate, Spectral, Bolivian Rainbow, Peter, Gemstone, Peruvian Purple, Datil cross (purplish stem), Orange Sun cross (purplish stem and foliage), Hot Paper Lantern, Little Nubian, Bulgarian Carrot, Facing Heaven, Pretty in Purple, Billy Goat, Filius Blue, Chinese Five Color, Vietnamese Multicolor, Trifetti, Datil cross (green stem), Not Jalapeno (Chinense foliage - prob. a stray seed but we shall see), Variegata, Golden Nugget and Golden Cayenne.. This growout, which is pretty extensive, allows me to check the purity of many of my ornamental hots and save fresh seed. Since they are all in pots, I can move them about to provide color here and there.

Tomorrow, I will get to the real experimental hots in small half gallon pots just to see some ripe fruit - I will be growing out different looking seedlings from each of last year's hot peppers - from plant numbers 1, 4a, 5, 10a, Deck 10, 12, 18, 24, 29, 37, 38, 40, 41, 45, 46, 47, 48, 54, 55 and 58. Many of these are variations of the Black Pearl line that people helped me with last year, as well as the line that gave me Gemstone. I am never sure what I am looking for until I see it!

[rnewste]

I am growing NuMex Heritage 6-4, Joe E. Parker, and Big Jim for the first time this year. Flower buds have appeared on the Heritage now. Really looking forward to grilling them in a few months.

Raybo

[mdvpc]

My NuMex Heritage 6-4 are doing well. My Tolli's and Lipstick and Napoli have fruited-first to fruit was Tolli's. Everything else looking good.

[rnewste]

Michael,

Do you have any insight as to the Heritage 6-4 you sent me vs. Joe E. Parker and Big Jim on the Scoville Scale? I am looking for a "mild" NuMex to go with hamburgers, etc.

Raybo

[roper2008]

Looks like I have some of the same ones. All of mine are in pots already, some
in ground. I have lipstick, orange bell, purple beauty, nu-mex 6-4, jamaican
hot chocolate, jimmy nardello, ghost, etc....Two of my ghost have small peppers.

[Andrey_BY]

Craig, I just what to let everybody know that there is already a Russian CV of sweet pepper called Amethyst with small to medium conical lavender fruit and no so thick walls.

[nctomatoman]

Thanks, Andrey - interesting. I actually chose Amethyst as a name for one of my Islander/Blue Jay selections a decade or so ago. The last few years I've decided to get back to that project, and we have a nice bell pepper coming along....may have to add a qualifier to the name (American Amethyst? ) Will ponder...

[mdvpc]

Ray:

I cant answer the question because I haven't tried Heritage 6-4 yet.

There is also, by the way, recently released Heritage Big Jim that you may want to try also. Both of the Heritages are supposed to have superior flavor. To me, Joe Parker and Big Jim are mild green chiles, but I am used to eating hot chile.

There are a couple of green chile varieties that I cannot eat-Espanola and Sandia around here are very hot.

[nctomatoman]

Just updated the original post in this thread - more peppers planted today.

[mdvpc]

Craig-Since there are more than one Numex Heritage-there is 6-4 and Big Jim-you should make sure your records reflect that you are growing 6-4.

[nctomatoman]

Will do. I am really looking forward to trying out the fruit - the seedlings are quite vigorous! Very interested to try out what a pepper that tastes 5 times more like a pepper is like!

[nctomatoman]

Here is a selection of pepper progress, focusing upon the Sweet peppers.

In order - Amethyst, Chervena, Chocolate Bell, Facing Heaven, Hershey, Lipstick, New Mex Heritage 6-4, Super Stuff, Orange Bell and Jimmy Nardello. So far, so good on all of these!

Then will come a selection of this year's Islander dehybridization grow outs. I am focusing this year on those that turn from ivory or pale green to lavender or purple, to golden yellow - though I know a few are likely to turn red. Next year I will focus on those that go from ivory to orange red, and from ivory to golden yellow. These are getting close, and I am in the F5 or F6 - working names are Amethyst (for the ivory to lavender to red), Fire Opal (for the ivory to lavender to golden yellow), and White gold (for the ivory to golden yellow)....no name yet for the ivory to orange red. You can still see the variability in some of the lines (if you hover the cursor over the pic, you can see the name - 2.2, 6.1, 6.2 and 8.2 - my own codes - three of each - note that the one that is 1.2 is a typo...should be 2.2).

I am managing to keep enough water on these even in the heat so they are setting fruit like crazy!

[nctomatoman]

Video updates -

Hot peppers (Michael, check out the Heritage 6-4s!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e53_5UMfk2g

Sweet peppers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc4fXvCsCMo

[mdvpc]

Craig:

They look good. Let me know what you think of the taste!

[ddsack]

Craig, you have a nice variety of peppers there. Since learning of your experiments in saving seeds from hybrid peppers and your own crosses which you sent to grow-out participants last year, you have inspired me to save pepper seeds. I never bothered before because of all the dire warnings about pepper seeds crossing much more readily than tomatoes. But you seem to grow many varieties in close quarters, and don't bag, is that right? I saved seeds last year from some of my hyb favorites like Gypsy and Big Early, as well as some OP's. I also collected seeds from some packaged peppers that I bought at the store last winter that I thought were exceptionally sweet. I saved red, yellow and orange seeds both from the large fruited Mucci brand, and the small fruited Pero brands. It will be fun to see if any of them turn out like the originals. I have a few hybrid varieties that I will probably always buy seeds for because they do so well for me, but for the rest, I've got the room to play and see what comes of saving seeds.