# Anyone grow hot chilies?



## Mylegsbig (Aug 8, 2006)

Im getting a house in October and i'm going to grow a hot chile garden.

How awesome is that?

Here are the plants i want to grow.


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 Caribbean Red Habanero (C. chinense)-a favorite for taste, heat and productivity. Very hot, pendant pods are borne in abundance on a slow growing plant. One of the things I noticed last year about the Caribbean Reds is that they are very productive but the plant grows rather slowly, and is somewhat more bushy than a red or orange hab. Nonetheless, a nicely productive plant that gives pods with consistent heat and flavor. Early season and easy to grow. Obviously susceptible to pepper maggots (yuck!). I highly recommend them. Matures through orange then red.


 Billy Goat-(C. chinense), a very cool chinense. Slightly longer season than the standard chinense (I'd say about 110 days) but so worth the wait. Very tasty fruit, small pods, very tall, upright and prolific plant. Taste is the outstanding quality of these, chileplants.com describes the flavor as cherry-like, and I could taste that effect. Very underestimated. Will find room for another one of these next year. Pendant fruit matures to red.

 Scotch Bonnet, Red (C. chinense, from www.tomatogrowers.com)-very nice. Medium height but bushy (not sprawling) plant bears a very good number of peppers that closely resemble the caribbean red in morphology. May even be more productive than the caribbean red. Same level of flavor as the caribbean red, but slightly more fruity and not as hot. Length of season is reasonable, maybe 85-90 days. Pendant fruit matures to red. Comes highly recommended.

Chocolate Habanero (C. chinense)-very smoky and very, very hot. Probably the 3rd hottest pepper I have grown, out of almost 50 that I have grown. The only ones that was hotter to me was a chocolate scotch bonnet, and the trinidad scorpion, the latter of which was hellish. Not so prolific at first but the second harvest is very large. Plants tend to get very tall (over 3 feet) and the season is a touch longer than other chinenses, but well worth it. Pods are wrinkled, larger and not as symmetrical as many other chinenses. Should be a staple in any habanero lover's garden. Pendant fruit matures to deep chocolate brown.

Fatalii (C. chinense)-aptly named, flavor is almost identical to the limon (I grew the limon last year-exceptional taste and productivity, with a high flavor to heat ratio. Hot but so flavorful, will definitely grow limon again next year) Anyway, the fatalii, very lemony. Much hotter than the limon, but not quite as hot as I expected based on the root word of the name. Very tall upright plant (over 3.5 feet) bore an abundance of pendant fruit, but not as early as the catalogs advertise (one of the later maturing varieties, to be honest). Very prolific and easy to grow. Wonderful pickled and roasted. Easy to become a favorite. Matures to yellow.

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Anyone have any experience growing hot chilies?

Share!


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## Andy M. (Aug 8, 2006)

I've never grown anything but jalapenos.  You are being very aggressive!


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 8, 2006)

Andy M. said:
			
		

> I've never grown anything but jalapenos.  You are being very aggressive!


im in LOVE peppers & hot sauce.

i'm a fanatic.

I figure this is a GREAT productive hobby to have, not to mention learning a craft.  Being able to harvest your own peppers and make your own sauces sounds right up my alley.  The kind of thing you work on for a lifetime.


will you share your experiences with the jalepenos andy? i'm interested.


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## cjs (Aug 8, 2006)

Jalapenos and Serranos for me.


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 8, 2006)

Are jalepenos and serranos easy? how my space do they take up?

Are they very similar in style, as far as how to care for them, how long it takes to fruit, etc etc...


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## GB (Aug 8, 2006)

Right now I am growing jalapenos and habaneros. I have never had luck with jalapenos, but I am hoping this year is different. They always grow fine, but never have any heat.

My jalapeno plants all have fruit on them right now and will be ready to harvest soon. My habs have nothing going on at all. I am wondering if they will produce at all.

Do you know how much space you have for your garden? You may want to consider growing some other veggies too.


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## Half Baked (Aug 8, 2006)

I only grow jalapenos.  My plants have always grown into a 2'x3' bush.  This year my crop has been very light due to the tomatos shading the peppers.

I've never ever had tomato plants this big.


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## Loprraine (Aug 8, 2006)

The last few years we have bought what was supposed to be habanero plants.  Every year we ended with anything but.  Jalapenos, Indian peppers, banana peppers etc. This year, I planted 36 plants, and they actually look like habs!!!!  In my garden and climate, they are very easy to grow.  The habanero sauce and salsa make great Christmas gifts.


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 8, 2006)

GB said:
			
		

> Right now I am growing jalapenos and habaneros. I have never had luck with jalapenos, but I am hoping this year is different. They always grow fine, but never have any heat.
> 
> My jalapeno plants all have fruit on them right now and will be ready to harvest soon. My habs have nothing going on at all. I am wondering if they will produce at all.
> 
> Do you know how much space you have for your garden? You may want to consider growing some other veggies too.



I will have a good amount of room.

Who knows what i will end up planting.

I might as well plant some serranos and jalapenos too.


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## ChefJune (Aug 8, 2006)

I have a couple of jalapeno plants in my little herb garden.  Had one last year that yielded two crops.  so far, not as many this year, because the peppers are being shaded by the tarragon.  I need to have a few minutes to go cut the tarragon and the thyme back before they take over the world!


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 8, 2006)

ttt for more experiences growing chilies.


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## jennyema (Aug 8, 2006)

I have about 12 red hab plants and 8 what-are-supposed-to-be-jalapenos-but-are-really-banana-peppers (though they are a bit hot) and about 6 bell pepper plants.

The banana peppers are falling all over themselves with fruit.  I have harvested twice.  The habs are also doing really well, but are still very green.  Have picked maybe 3 bell peppers so far.

I would have loved to grow serannos but couldn't find them.

Big, you are growing lots of basically the same thing.  What will you do with them?  If I were you, I'd definitely grow some peppers that _*taste*_ _*diffferentand/or have difft. amounts of heat*_, like jalapenos or serranos or bird peppers, or banana pepprs or hot cherries.


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 8, 2006)

Jenny i want to see which ones i like the best.  I picked them out of a huge list of peppers that an acquaintace of mine grew.

I will def do some jalepenos and serranos, and then all of those ones i listed.

as for what i will do, i will be making different hotsauces, and pickling some.

also will be making chili powders.

another reasons for growing the ones i listed is that they are rare and hard to find.  I have never seen any billy goat, chocloate habaneros, or fatalii anywhere.

the red carribean and scotch bonnetts are just some faithful solid all around peppers.

i will be making a bunch of different batches of hotsauce trial and error


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## jennyema (Aug 8, 2006)

Go to it!!

Jalapenos are a good all-around pepper to have for salsas and other recipes you make for your non-chilihead friends.

If I served salsa made with my habs, we'd all be in the ER and some tv lawyer would be knocking on my door.


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## karadekoolaid (Aug 8, 2006)

I currently have : 
Ají dulce ( the sweet version of the habanero)
Jalapeño
Malay chile pepper
Pinguita de mono
Dutch chile pepper
Peruvian Ají Amarillo ( they're actually orange, not yellow)
Chirel ( a local variety of tepín) 

You need to give them space, and plenty of nice, soft earth to grow lots of roots. Normal bugs can be removed with a generic insecticide. Root Rot is almost impossible to avoid if you over-water the plants or have too much rain. Slugs are whacked with a sledgehammer daily to remove them...

(Only kidding there!)


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 8, 2006)

Have any of you ever grown indoors in huge pots?

I will not have my house until november, and i am itching to get started right away.


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 9, 2006)

to the top for more discussion

still would like to hear some members experiences with growing serranos and jalapenos


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## jennyema (Aug 9, 2006)

Mylegsbig said:
			
		

> to the top for more discussion
> 
> still would like to hear some members experiences with growing serranos and jalapenos


 
They are very easy to grow and have similar tastes and heat levels.  Sorta interchangeable.

I have found that my hot peppers like hot temps and room to grow, so I am not sure how they would fare inside in a pot.


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 9, 2006)

I'm not sure how the uber high humidity of houston coupled with the extreme temperatures would do.

Maybe put them outside during the day and inside at night.


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## jennyema (Aug 9, 2006)

Think of where those habs and scotch bonnets are from!

They like that weather.


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## kleenex (Aug 9, 2006)

The Yellow Banana Pepper is also called a Hungarian Wax Pepper as well.

I have seen both Sweet and Hot brands of Hungarian Wax peppers to grow and sell.

I would certainly grow a sweet pepper along with the hot ones though.

Make sure to have lots of room for the peppers and it would be best to put pepper plants that do not grow so high in the front to get better sunlight.

If you want to grow from seeds go here:
http://www.reimerseeds.com/

They sell over 1500 plus different pepper seeds like Balloon peppers, yellow mustard, peter pepper, pumkin hot pepper, pequin, Bulgarian carrot, and fatalli to name a few.


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## The Z (Aug 9, 2006)

I'm TRYING to grow a small collection of chilis, companion planted with a Pygmie Date palm...  The plants seem to be doing okay, but no chilis on them.  Do you think that the palm fertilizer may have encouraged plant growth but inhibited chili production?


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## kleenex (Aug 9, 2006)

The Z said:
			
		

> I'm TRYING to grow a small collection of chilis, companion planted with a Pygmie Date palm...  The plants seem to be doing okay, but no chilis on them.  Do you think that the palm fertilizer may have encouraged plant growth but inhibited chili production?




How long have the pepper plants been in the ground???  

Your palm fertalizer might have ruined your pepper plants.

What is the palm fertalizer made of???


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 9, 2006)

the top chile growing sites say to use only fish/seaweed type stuff once the plant is going..... IIRC


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## jennyema (Aug 10, 2006)

I use Miracle Grow and it works really well.  Very well.


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## kleenex (Aug 10, 2006)

jennyema said:
			
		

> I use Miracle Grow and it works really well.  Very well.




Yeah that works well.


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## Mylegsbig (Aug 10, 2006)

all of the pro guys say not to use it, i wonder why?


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## jennyema (Aug 10, 2006)

I have gotten almost obscene hot pepper harvests with it.

Also works really well on my tomatoes.


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## kleenex (Aug 12, 2006)

Mylegsbig said:
			
		

> all of the pro guys say not to use it, i wonder why?



They must be lying so they have all the good peppers!!


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