molcajete

found a molcajete in a mexican grocery store today (canasta mexicana, in la latina). they also import fresh chilli, but more purchases will have to wait as they were closing down and going away on holidays...

out of the race

my 20.5cm numex big jim matures and crashes out of the race. having once reached an honourable 6th position in the board, nowadays it has gone down to a more discrete 13th place. the bjs have been removed from the plant and are soon to be roasted. the plant is again in bloom and in pollinating mode, hopefully just in time to have another go at the top of the board (peppers matured 60 days after flowering). will be tricky as the current leader is up to 30cm already!

hang jiao beef

cooked the hang jiao beef yesterday from the chinese recipe sent by monica. truly delicious with egg fried rice! had fun as well when the hang jiao peppers "exploded" when being stirfried, spreading seed all over the kitchen!

fertilisers

from seedling size, i feed the plants with a fish-based organic fertiliser with plenty of Ca that performs well. now the plants are well grown and day & night temps soar (above 37C today) pollination slows down dramatically, especially on chinenses and zilch on pubescens. i have scourged garden centres and come across two organic blooming fertilisers to test, one solid from greendel based on meat & egg flour (glad mad cows have been eradicated!) and the other liquid from biobizz (doesn't provide info on constituents). have fertilised today and see what happens in a few weeks. here are the ratios for all: asocoa, N 10% P2O5 8% K2O 2% Mg 0,18% Ca 20%; biobizz, 2.0 6.0 3.5; greendel, N 2,5%, P 14,5%. K 10%, Ca 11,6%.

ají criolla sella

the bolivian ají criolla sella, a baccatum species. matured about 190 days after germination, 70 days after blooming.

congo trinidad

in trinidad they refer habanero chillies as congos. this one matured this week and heck if it hasn't got spice power! proceeded to chop and turn it into a trinidadian prawn & artichoke curry (last ingredient is my personal addition to the recipe...)

chile de seda

a mexican chile de seda has become the first successful pubescens pepper to mature in the history of the chilli pepper corner. time to dust off the stuffed rocoto recipe!

jamaica red

the earliest variety to mature, with such a crop it is time to make some salsa...

out of control!

germinator (literally) burnt early 2006, hence season started late as it had to wait for nature-driven germination in april/may.
a new germinator brought the 2007 season to an early start in january. winter was rather mild, rarely cold, favouring early plant development. plants in june showed good progress already but now in july... they're out of control!
plant in the far side (bottom right corner) is a 6-feet tall ají amarillo, tallest pepper plant i have seen.

okinawa shima

the okinawa shima, a slow grower, finally bloomed. seed sachet labelled it as a pepper grown in okinawa, but from thai origin. variety is most likely a frutescens one. leaves underside have a pubescent-like feature at vein joints.

elusive rocotos

the two rocoto plants grown this year are in bloom but not developing pods. the overwintered chilean rocoto developed a couple of pods which finally dropped. it has become way too hot for them, day temps are way above 30Cs, night temps around 25Cs with very low humidity around 20%. maybe they'll succeed in the fall.

blossom end rot?

away for 10 days, upon return found i) a whopping 19cm big jim pod (rocketed to 7th in the board) and ii) a seemingly blossom end rotten one. will have to calcium-fertilise and monitor the big jim plant to ensure the problem does not extend to other pods.