A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening The Chili Pepper Thread!

a hard freeze here in california is when temps fall below 33

funny how what we call a hard freeze is called a frost farther north. I made some major mistakes reading seed packs in the beginning that said 'after all danger of frost is over'. Or 'before frost'. here (as I'm sure it is with other's around this zone) 'frost' means if you wake up in the morning and there are ice crystals on the grass.....for 15-20 minutes after sunrise. ha ha.

Haven't posted to this thread before but it seems like the right place to share some exciting news. (Exciting for me-- y'all may think it's hoohum.)

Last spring I promised my husband (the awesome cook) that he'd never have to use a store-bought pepper again. All through the summer I kept my promise. (It's so way cool when he just says, "Hey, Marica, I need a cup of Anaheims for this salsa," and I just go out and pick the peppers.) Anyway-- what with all of those we've dried and frozen, we'll probably be in o.k. shape through the winter, but I'm a fretter and started to worry that dried and frozen peppers just aren't fresh peppers... . Most of the 11 varieties I grew were in pots. Why not just bring the pots inside? (I have two great sunrooms.)

I did. Anaheim, Pablano, and Banana peppers. After only one week inside, and some attention to temperature and humidity, and a mild "wind"-- I have blossoms and little babies!!! I am super excited and just wanted to share. I'm motivated to pot up some that are in the ground-- if I can only find the space. (Three citrus trees arrived yesterday and things are getting a bit crowded.)

Thanks for listening!

that's so awesome marica!
I had a lot of shade this year in my garden and didn't get the output I'd expected, but I still had chives and always enough peppers (at least for cooking with). it's a very good feeling.
hubby wants some tabasco in a jar...kind of thing. my tabasco plant is producing like crazy so I know i can make up a jar or two for him, but I'm not entirely sure what he's talking about. he eats out much more than I do. (I like home cooked stuff). he says this stuff is on the table at some resturants. they pick the tabascos while they are still green and they are in vinegar or something in a jar on the table? you can just use the liquid or you can scoop peppers out too? anyone know anything about this or how to make it?

What a great thread. Beautiful photos! I am keen to try out the Numex Twilight and the Pretty Purple peppers (if I can get them in Oz). I am pretty sure I can- I have seen something like them a while ago. Sounds like pots are the way to go, and then keep them warm during winter. Hope you guys enjoy your winter; it's spring here- yippee!

Not paying attention or I would have replied earlier. My husband, too, wants tabasco. But since he's the cook-- he's going to make it himself. (He's from TX and everywhere in the south there's tabasco on the tables in restaurants. He puts it on everything. Not my idea of a tastey condiment, but whatever.)

I will go see if I can find his recipe and post it.

And you're right-- it's a great feeling to see all those jars of pickled japalenos and other peppers, and those bags in the freezer.

A hard freeze is when temps drops below 33 degrees F- it will put and end to your growing season. A frost occurs on calm nights/early mornings, when there is condensation in the air, which then freezes -usally to plants- they most definetly will kill your pepper plants. ..

Tabasco sauce is very difficult to make like the store version (ex McIllenys)- they are aged for 3 years in Oak barrels with salt and Vinegar, before it gets bottled. Oak usally add flavor- as in the case with making Wine. However here is a recipe for something close from Fiery Foods.com

Homemade Tabasco Sauce

peppers will live in pots- you can bring them indoors for winter- however they will drop alot of leaves, but usally will sprout back out in time. Keep them watered- dont let the soil dry out, and give them liquid fertilzers once in awhile- as they use up nutrients quick in pots.Also the more light the better. Also they will not grow as big as they do in the ground, unless you grow them in a very large pot. I have a Tabasco plant that is still alive from last season- in fact it grew peppers again this year. I am going to over winter a couple others this year- especialy a Chiltepin plant that I have in a pot- they are a pain to to germinate, and thes ones in my garden are huge and loaded- but none turned red! Its been too cold of a summer here, which is factor.

My garden dodged the frost we had the beggining of the week- a mile down the road from me was frosted pretty good, but my property is on a mountain top, and it stayed above freezing. Weather forcast is looking great for at least a week- I have LOTS of picking still to go!! Ive taken alot more pics, and will post some in time...

I'm still picking habaneros and jalapenos every few days.

Holy Camole! tabascos aged for three years! I wasn't expecting to do such a long term project. I'll check out the link you provided. thank so much!
I am going to try and overwinter a cutting in the house. I've never seen such a pretty veggie plant. even though it won't produce and will loose some leaves, I just gotta give it a try.

Boy-- I have to start paying attention. I thought you were wanting a recipe for tabasco and now I see you might be asking for the recipe for ESCABECHE. So here's that recipe. Hope it's what you want-- but even if not, hope you enjoy! (I think you can substitute any hot pepper for the jalapenos.)

ESCABECHE

Makes 4 pints

1 lb jalapeño peppers
1/3 C olive oil
2-3 medium white or yellow onions, sliced thick
2-3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thick
Florets from half a small cauliflower (optional)
1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
4 C apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Kosher salt or sea salt
2 bay leaves
½ tsp dried oregano
4 sprigs fresh marjoram OR ¼ tsp dried
4 sprigs fresh thyme OR ¼ tsp dried
1 Tbsp sugar

Wash the chilies, leaving the stems intact. Heat oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the chilies, onions, carrots, cauliflower if using, and garlic, and fry over medium heat for about 10 minutes, turning them over occasionally. Add the vinegar, salt, herbs, and sugar, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer 10 minutes. Make sure the chilies are entirely cooked through before canning. Pack 4 pint-sized sterilized jars with the chilies and vegetables. Top with the vinegar and seal. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Once opened, these keep for 1-2 months in the refrigerator.

I had all of my hot peppers in pots so I just moved some of them inside a couple of weeks ago.



sorry-- have to turn your head! This is my pot of three anaheim peppers.

Marica, that ESCABECHE sounds wonderful! that's something more of us would eat around here. mmmm..mmmmmm ever put the hot veggies on a cracker with some cream cheese? I wish I had some right now for breakfast.
no, you were right the first time. I WAS looking for a reciepe for tabasco's in a jar. AND, I want to overwinter my tabasco plant indoors. I was the one not being specific. I tend to ramble sometimes. ha ha.

Cricket-- Couldn't you use tabascos for the jalapenos in the escabeche recipe? The other recipe I had was for hot chili sauce, the kind you would just shake from a bottle. It calls for "little red hot chili peppers". John's going to make it using hot thai and caribbean red habaneros, but I suppose you could use tabascos, although it wouldn't be quite as hot.

And yes-- we do put them on crackers! Yummy!

I have some jalapenos in the garden also, but they didn't produce as well as the tabascos. (I had a prob with too much shade this summmer). I guess the tabascos can take more shade than other peppers, though.
oh yea, I don't see why I couldn't interchange the peppers....or even have some of both. YUM!

Hi everybody
I'm new to this forum and, as odd as it may seem, I'm from Portugal :).
So I hope you'll excuse my poor english :)
I'm a peppermaniac, and when I saw this thread I couldn't stop myself ... I've registered and here I am.
This is my first year growing peppers on a larger scale... I had usually 2 or 3 pots with Jindungo and piri-piri... that's our national pepper...
This year I resolved to start a bigger collection, and as I am an exaggerated ,I managed to have, at this moment, more then 400 pots in my little terrace ! But as I started very late, almost all my little peppers are still green.
We had a very bad spring and Summer over here, with temperatures much lower than usually :(... Now the weather is improving a little bit, so I hope my peppers will have the time to ripe... At least some of them :).
I intend to read all your post throughly , and when I have a little time I'd like to post some of my photos... I'm a fanatic of pepper flowers, and I think you will be too, when I show you mine !
I beg your pardon for such a long post ...
I'll be back soon :)
Margarida

Welcome, Margarida, from another newcomer! I am looking forward to seeing your pepper photos. I have always loved spicy food, and we have heaps of chilli products in the pantry, but strangely enough I have never grown any! Now that I've seen this thread, I'm very keen to go out and grow some. Here near Melbourne, our temperature gets up to between 11-17 degrees C in winter, and probably up to 20-40 degrees C in summer (sorry to our American friends, I have no idea what that is in F). What sort of temperature ranges do you get there in Porto? I suppose the hotter the better for growing peppers?

Hi there! I envy your flowering chili plants. Mine had lots of flowers but they kept falling off, so in the end, I had like 9 peppers harvested in summer! Totally embarrassing. And my chili plant is tall and thin. How can I make it more healthy (bigger stemmed)? Is it worthwhile to do that over autumn (now) and winter? I'm fertilizing with 1/4 doze of normail citrus plant food, someone had suggested it. Is that ok? Pls help... Need a macho chili plant, not a tall and lanky one! Thanks

Are you planning to bring your plant inside? I assume so, since you live in Switzerland! If that's the case...

I would cut the plant back about 1/3-1/2, even if this means you'll loose flowers or small fruits, and pot it up in a 12" (30cm) diameter pot filled with good, loose potting soil. I do NOT recommend the sort of soil that's become popular here in the states, soil with "moisture retaining elements"-- peppers like to dry out thoroughly between waterings, so this kind of soil is counter-productive. Water well, put in the sunniest window you have, and elevate the pot if necessary so that the plant (all of it if possible) gets full sun. If the location you've chosen causes the plant to wilt the first few days, back it away from the window a bit, water a bit if necessary, just to perk it up. (And I wouldn't even worry too much if it did wilt in the middle of the day, as long as it is perky in the mornings.)

STOP USING CITRUS FERTILIZER! You can check on the package, but citrus fertilizers are usually heavy in nitrogen (higher N in the N-P-K ratio). This is probably what's causing the lankiness; too much vegetative growth at the expense of flower (promoted by phosphorus, P) and fruit (potassium, K) set. If you want a "macho" pepper, you want to concentrate on establishing the plant first. So when you need to water again (a real watering) choose a balanced fertilizer, perhaps 10-10-10. What's important is the ratio, not the quantity. Miracle Grow all purpose plant food is 20-20-20, so that would work. I would start with about 1/4 of the recommended amount of fertilizer to water, and increase gradually to about 1/2 as the plant grows. You actually want the plant to grow slowly and fill out, so do NOT use the full amount recommended. You'll probably wind up watering once a week, and lots of folks refer to this as "feeding weakly weekly".

There is controversy about whether or not peppers are day-length-sensitive. Zurich is about 47 degrees north latitude, so gets no fewer than 8.5 hours of daylight. But of course, you'd want to monitor this is your location. I'd shoot for no fewer than 8 hours of good light, even if you have to supplement it.

Back to fertilizer--. The plant should start having a lot of new growth, possibly even from it base. At some point, it should start setting flowers. As soon as this happens, I'd switch to a different type of fertilizer-- one with different N-P-K ratio. I use tomato fertilizer on my peppers. It's ratio is 18-18-21, and it can be used on all vegetables. Here again the issue is that potassium is higher than nitrogen or phosphorus.

One more thing comes to mind. Pollination. You can have all the flowers in the world but no fruit if the flowers aren't pollinated. Lots of discussion on the web about this, but my own experience is that running a fan on low a couple hours a day-- just a gentle indoor breeze-- does the trick. And there are other benefits of the fan, too.

What's do the rest of you pepper heads think? All of this works for me, but I'm no pepper expert!

Hello Marica, thank you for your really valuable reply. Makes a lot of sense. Tell me though, is it safe to re-pot at this time (approaching winter)? Thanks again!

I suppose if it's outside, and you are bringing it inside, this would be the time to repot. Bringing it in will be a bit of a shock, so you might as well get transplant shock over with at the same time! I hope my thinking is right!

Hi
Here are some of my peppers flowers :)

Czech Black


CAP 832


Inferno


Chinese 5 Color


Black Cuban

Beautiful flowers and great photography, Margarida. So different from when I take photos! What sort of camera are you using? (Cos I need to get a new one some day).

Those are lovely flowers.....Are they edible peppers?

yhes I am curious too about that--and I was wondering what zones those peppers you have pictured would grow in??
I have not seen anything but white flowers on peppers before.
And those you posted are beautiful.

Welcome by the way........

It's November and my habaneros and jalapenos rae still flowering.I'm still harvesting peppers every few days.

If anyone wants habanero seeds,I'll save some for them.