Porch Peppers

[Cole_Robbie]

Peppers will be the theme of this year's front porch: http://i.imgur.com/M5q9XaZ.jpg

Most of them are ornamental. Off the top of my head, I can remember:
Numex Twilight
Tequila Sunrise
Numex Halloween
Aji Omni
Roseto
Bolivian Rainbow
Razzmatazz
Purple Flash
Chile Congo
Mrs Jarvis
Black Pearl
Fatali
Black Naga
Naga Viper
Kraken Scorpion F3
White Bullet Habanero
Stripey Bell - sprouts in brown oval planter on right

Most of them I am growing for seed. Ornamental peppers are new to me this year.

Thank you to Aerial and everyone else who sent me pepper seeds.

[pmcgrady]

Wow! Nice... I'm jealous, quite the selection!

[Gerardo]

Cool porch selection, some of those will be outstanding for late summer grill time.

I tried a new way of eating peppers recently in a dish called Relleno Negro, where they take hot peppers, burn them, then use the ash as an ingredient. It was hot, very flavorful, smoky and just awesome.


Hope they do great.

[AlittleSalt]

Those are going to look very good.

[swellcat]

Good.

If "Mrs. Jarvis" is from me (directly or indirectly through Aerial), it's likely "Mrs. Arvis", named for the 95-year-old lady in Columbia, Mississippi who shared pods with my mother. Leaves are dark-very ornamental—blooms are beautiful purple, and pods are moderately hot.

No idea on a "real" name, but I'm glad y'all are growing these, and we'll look forward to photos.

[Cole_Robbie]

Sorry. you're right. I had it written two ways.

My plants in the greenhouse have ants and aphids so badly, I'm not going to take them to market tomorrow. The ones on the porch don't seem nearly as bad.

I just now came inside to research ways to get the ant-run aphid farms off my plants.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Great! I would like to build up my collection of ornamental peppers. Somehow, whenever I visit botanical gardens, one of their ornamental peppers, dried and no longer pretty, ends up in my pocket. I have three varieties now. Which ones do you think are prettiest for indoor ornamental use?

[Cole_Robbie]

I think it's largely a matter of container size. Chile Congo and Razzmatazz are doing the best in one-gallon pots. They remind me of microdwarf tomatoes.

I really liked Maui Purple, but I think I accidentally sold my last plant. I will have to track it down again, maybe from a market customer.

Unfortunately, the ornamental peppers have been a financial dud from a market gardener perspective. My dwarf sunflowers grew three times as fast and sold immediately.

It's looking like DE is my best bet for the aphid/ant problem. I may mix in some Met52 for the heck of it. The DE is indiscriminate and going to kill beneficials anyway, which is the downside of Met52. I may also mix up some borax and sugar as ant poison. The ants are bad this year. It may be the wet weather.

[Barb_FL]

RE: Tequilla Sunrise - I have 2 plants (seeds from Aerial) and the peppers are HOT!!!! The plant, color, size, etc is exactly like the description on rareseeds.com The smaller plant is in directly sunlight and produces orange peppers - they look fake. The larger plant I can move in/out of shade has red bigger peppers.

No way, this could be a cross in my garden because I didn't grow any hot peppers.

[MrSalvage]

Those look awesome man & I do love peppers. I am big failure this year and it breaks my heart!

Rock on!

[bower]

Nice collection of peppers, Cole. I've had the same ant/aphid pepper problem in my greenhouse too. The aphids seem to fare much worse outdoors, but the other thing is, the ants are bringing it in the greenhouse..
Ants hate wet weather, they love it dry. If you've been having a wet year, maybe they're focusing on the greenhouse because it is dryer than outside! Maybe they found somewhere to nest, that the rain isn't pouring in...

I hope the DE works, keep us posted.

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks.

I struck out looking for DE today. I will have to order some.

[Aerial]

Barb, the Tequilla Sunrise was grown with lots of superhots, and wasn't isolated. The blossoms must have been crossed-pollinated before the peppers were harvested. Sorry! :p (and probably should start bagging blossoms this year..)

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

RE: Tequilla Sunrise - I have 2 plants (seeds from Aerial) and the peppers are HOT!!!! The plant, color, size, etc is exactly like the description on rareseeds.com The smaller plant is in directly sunlight and produces orange peppers - they look fake. The larger plant I can move in/out of shade has red bigger peppers.

No way, this could be a cross in my garden because I didn't grow any hot peppers.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Aerial

Barb, the Tequilla Sunrise was grown with lots of superhots, and wasn't isolated. The blossoms must have been crossed-pollinated before the peppers were harvested. Sorry! :p (and probably should start bagging blossoms this year..)

No problem; I actually didn't grow any hot peppers, so when I wanted to make Salsa and Gazpacho I had peppers available vs digging through the freezer for some old Jalapeno peppers.

Between the 2 plants, the little (3") orange peppers are super hot and the 5-6" red one are just hot.

[dmforcier]

Nice selection, Cole_Robbie. I hope you post pics when you get some Kraken pods.