what's up with datil and tabasco?

[tjg911]

no flowers. smallish plants about 18" tall. it's been terribly hot until the other day, is that restricting flowers?

my other pepper plants have had 1 or 2 peppers but nothing much. seems peppers really start producing massive amounts of flowers and then fruits when it cools off a bit in later august and then there is not enough time to ripen them.

another bust year for peppers i fear. i do well with everything i grow and i grow a lot of different things. peppers just seem to be a waste of time just about every year. it is only early july but i am wondering when the flowers will appear, it takes time to grow then ripen the fruits.

tom

[Wi-sunflower]

I know Tabasco pepper plants are terribly slow growing and a long season pepper. If you can pot it up and keep in in the house or greenhouse over winter, you will have a terrific plant and tons of fruit the second season.

I've done it with many varieties of hot peppers and you wouldn't believe the difference it makes. Peppers are really tender perrienials (sp) that we treat as annuals.

Carol

[Worth1]

Tom Tabasco peppers love the heat and humidity and the ones I have grown were small and loaded with peppers.

I love Tabasco peppers but it has been years since I have grown them.

Worth

[roper2008]

When I plant tobasco's in the ground, they do lousy. In pots with good potting soil, and
it goes gangbusters for me.

[Mojave]

Tabascos are the pepper I usually have problems with (in the ground). They start out OK but just produce a handful of fruit before turning yellow and withering away. This is my first year trying them in containers and they seem to be doing very well, much better than they did in the ground.

[Crandrew]

My success rate so far in Pots vs Ground is quite clear. I will only grow them in containers from now on.

[Worth1]

My success with Tabasco peppers was in the ground in the wonderful Houston black soil on the coast of Texas.

I didn't tinker with them nor did I water or fertilize them.

I simply put 50 of them in the ground and I had a jungle at the end of the year.

Worth

[Crandrew]

When it comes to peppers I chalk up most of my success in containers with the ability to keep the roots warmer. I have some bells planted in different soil and in raised beds and they seem to do, ok. The ones in containers do great!

[Mikedog]

I was very pleased to see that you are growing Datils. They are a true heirloom neglected by seed companies till recently. As others have said I have had success with them in pots over winter. They aare sooo hot though it can be hard to cook with them. The season kicks in gear in mid August & Sept so maybe dig some up & baby them. Lately my peppers indoors under lights are doing better than outside due to viral infections.

[lurley]

I have lots of peppers coming on but the slow ones with nothing yet include datil and the superhots.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by Mikedog

They aare sooo hot though it can be hard to cook with them.

i thought datil was about 100k SHU? i grew fatalii last year and they are 100k-300k SHU and they are hot.

the odd thing is i have 2 fatalii pepper plants. seeds were started 9/25/11 and grown all fall and winter under lights, both went out 5/24/12. i put the fatalii that was slightly larger and that had flowers in a 5 gallon pail and put it on asphalt for the extra heat, it gets about 1 hour more sun each day. not a single pepper and all the flowers disappeared tho now i am seeing flowers. the fatalii in the ground is still a little smaller but has several peppers, 2 have changed from green to orangish yellow. it gets a full day of sun, it just goes into shade a little earlier than the container plant. now i'd have thought the container plant would have had more peppers than the ground plant by now and it's just the opposite.

i was kinda hoping for the datil and tabasco to produce a lot of fruits so i could freeze dozens. it is early, there's 2 full months and the 2nd half of september and even some of october. last year my habanero and fatalii plant went crazy producing fruits late. the habanero gave me 111 peppers in october, about 1/2 were green that i ripened in a bag in the house but i had dozens of orange fruits. this is what i am hoping for.

i may well over winter the datil and tabasco and maybe the fatalii plant tho i never did that before but getting a head start is appealing. this is why i grew fatalii's over the winter but it does not seem to be leading to anything early but they were not year old plants. peppers are always a crap shoot, some years they produce large numbers and other years next to nothing and that's hot and sweet.

tom

[Mikedog]

I bet they will come on when the days grow short. I think the Datil likes humidity & sandy soil. Folks in St. Augustine think it won't grow away from them but we know better. Subjectively, the Datil seems to get hotter in the 2nd year. 3 years is the max I have kept them over winter. It make good pepper jelly & seems to work with seafood. There is an interesting bk on the Minorcan people of Fla that preserved the Datil: "Mullet On The Beach".

[TomNJ]

My Tabascos are over 3' tall but are just beginning to flower. These are late in my garden and I usually harvest most right before the first frost.

TomNJ

[tjg911]

i suspect there is hope, the shortening days and cooler weather does get them going but then it's a race before the days are too short and the nights get cold.

my long slim red cayenne is a small plant and is doing nothing. it had 2 peppers that rotted. i really like lrsc and if i knew this plant would be lagging i'd have planted a few. i have grown this one before and they crank out a lot of fruits with nice heat. perhaps it's just another case of it is still early.

i looked at the fatalii in the garden today and there is one short fruit about 1" long, very small, just about ready to pick. this is early but it is from a plant that i grew in the fall. the other fatalii in the container has a really lot of flowers! this one could really produce all i need... or want, these guys are really hot!

tom

[Mojave]

My fatalii plants (and all my other c. chinense to a lesser extent) have been producing many many flowers for the past 2 months, only to have each and every one turn yellow and drop off. It appears the plants have decided it's time to actually set fruit now, took inventory and they are all starting to make peppers! I have over 50 peppers on one 15 inch tall plant alone! No tabasco peppers yet but they are finally all flowered up and looking fantastic.

I'm in pepper heaven.