Fruit From the Arledge

Here are the peppers I salvaged from the dying Arledge last week.


As I said on my flickr page:
I cut these off the dying Alredge Heirloom back on July 9th. At that time, only two of the peppers were a fully ripened red. All the other were kind of, to really green. So I used an Alton Brown trick, and put the green ones in a paper bag with a banana. Though I do not remember the exact process, I think it has something to do with what the growers of the bananas spray on them to speed up the ripening process. In the paper bag, the banana gives off some of the stuff, and few days later, more then half of the peppers are now ripe. The others were just too young.

I'll need to do something with the ripe ones pretty damn quick, because they will go bad in a couple of days. I think I'm going to throw most them in the blender and make a hot sauce. I'll keep a couple of them to use in a salsa. My bro says he'll use the green ones in a really good jambalaya he makes. If the hot sauce turns out good, to quote Hyde on That 70's Show, "I'm gonna be super-pissed!" We shall see...

Down Goes Arledge...

Bad news on the pepper growing front. Lost my second favorite plant, the Arledge Heirloom. On Thursday, July 6th, the plants leaves started drooping really badly. It was acting like it needed water. But all the other plants, including the one in the pot it shares(Jaloro) looked good. So I hit it with some water...as the sun went down, the majority of plant perked up. Just one little stem stayed droopy. But the next day it looked even worse then the day before. I took a closer look and discovered some sort of white moldy stuff at the base of the plant. So I gave it a good dose of straight seaweed fertilizer. Guess I discovered it too late...by Sunday it's leaves were completely limp/dead. So I cut all the peppers off, and yanked the plant. I had high hopes for this plant. It made a lot of nice looking peppers, that had good heat.




The white moldy stuff.

Another learning experience for The Newb - even the best looking plants can keel over at anytime. I'm sure there is something I could have done(or not have done), before this plant got so bad off. So I'll need to do a little research on the ol' internet...

Hot Stuff...

So decided to pick some peppers today. The ones I picked are nice and ripe: two fataliis, a kung pao and a thai.

Fatalii - Beautiful, yet painful...just like a woman. I think I'm in love with these peppers. I couldn't believe the lemony citrus, almost sweet flavor these peppers have. Never tasted anything like it. Then the heat attacked with full force. My whole mouth was on fire.


Thai on the left, the other is the Kung Pao. Both had good heat. The KP was kind of sweet w/ a nice a taste, and THEN the heat kick me in the back of the throat. The Thai was just straight hot...not much flavor.

Not much else is budding anymore, except for the Chocolate Habs. Those are going crazy. I think the heat has effect everything else.

Chocolate Habs - they started budding/making fruit when everything else stopped!

A Funny Thing Happens...

...when you don't pay attention to a pepper plant with only one flower. Two weeks later it suddenly has over a dozen hot as Hell little peppers growing on it!!


And then there is the Fatalii pepper that went from green to bright yellow in 3 days. I was really suprised how quickly this change colors!


And these peppers are among some of the hottest on the planet...I truly expect a lot of pain from these guys. But that's ok. It's how the plants show their love...

Pictures - June 14th

I'm posting pictures I took this evening. That makes me UP TO DATE! It's been hotter then the "average temperature" you hear everyday on evening news. I believe that the night tempurature has a big influence on what your plants do. When it gets too hot, the flowers tend to dry up and die before they can be pollinated. I think they need temps in the lowest 70's/upper 60's. It's been in the upper 70's most nights, though the last few days have been just a bit cooler. So maybe the flowers can make a few fruit before it gets real hot again.

Pictures - May 31

Here they are about 13 days later - though the plants may look a little greener then they really are, since the pics were taken in the evening. Look hard enough, and see little peppers on some of these plants. Again, nothing but watering have I done to speed these plants on their merry way.

Pictures - May 18th

Here are the pics I took about a month ago, and am finally getting around to posting. Since these were taken, only water and one fertilizing have happened.

they are amazing...

I haven't posted in 17 days. And apparently in the plant community, 17 days is the difference between sprout and full blown PLANT. I've watered them a few times, but have not fertilized anymore. As I said I'd do, I took pics on the 18th. I also stopped picking buds on that day. And I basically quit paying attention to the plants. I just stuck my fingers into the soil, felt the soil to see if it needed water, and then I'd water. I completely stopped looking at the plants. About 2 waterings in from then, I noticed an odd thing. Flowers blooming...which lead to only thing - PEPPERS!


Here is the first flower that REALLY caught my eye. I now know it is called a Rocotillo. I felt that's what it was...but after someone saw the flower, via the internet, and confirmed it, I knew I was correct.

Since then there were plenty of little white flowers popping up on the different plants. Among other stuff...

Thanks to some problems with El Internet, I cannot post any more photos...but I will soon...

...some more H2O...with a twist...

Saturday, May 13th

They were pretty dry, and the Roco-whatever was actually a little bit droopy. So I gave a really good, deep soaking and also sprayed them with a fertilizer I got from my mentor(aka - mom). She told me to spray it on the actual leaves...that they would feed that way. If you say so...

Most of the plants look great. Some are growing sooo much faster then others. And then there is the scotch bonnet, which doesn't seem to be doing ANYTHING. Barely growing in height, and almost no new leaves. And DEFINITELY no buds. I think I've picked atleast one bud from all the other plants. I don't know. I think after this week(ending May 20th), I'll stop picking buds. Time to see what the plants will do. If they haven't established good growth/roots by then(30 days on the 20th), then they aren't going to. Need to take/post new pics of the plants. Will try to remember to that on Friday, May 19th.

We need water!

Tuesday, May 9th

So I watered the plants on Tuesday. They were pretty dry, but they just don't seem to droop. I almost want to wait for them to droop, but I don't...

I gave an ok soaking, but maybe not deep enough. It was incredibly hot that day, with massive humidity. The heat index(whatever the hell that is) was 109 and the mosquitos were viscious...a cool front was pushing all that shit in front of it. And it was MEAN, though the plants seemed happy enough. I think the mosquitos kind of kept me from giving a really deep soak. Anyway...nothing else really happened but picking buds.

Yet again...

I procrastinate.

And now I have to remember...