Hello, just thought I'd share my experience with these peppers - I've been calling them 'pequin' or bird's eye and used to have a slim elongated version called bird's toungue that we also called tepin but I'm sure they are all just variations of the same :)

My seed came from Kroger's hispanic spice section in a little plastic bag of whole dried peppers. This was back in 2001-2002 so my oldest plant (pictured) is at least 5 yrs old. I don't recall germ time but always use chamomile tea to water new seeds...the plant has been in it's current pot for 3-4 years with no soil change and it has produced fruit in December when brought in for the winter (after being broken by the cats). I always have 'volunteers' popping up in the pot from overlooked fruits that fall in and easily collected 20 seedlings this year.

This is the first year it received a proper pruning and over-wintered in the greenhouse as opposed to the house, so it's looking pretty good and is currently covered with buds. Not as big as Michael's impressive plant above but I think we'll have a good harvest.

If you're interested in seeds, I'll happily save some fruits - just be sure to email me and possibly send a reminder sometime near the end of the summer.

They are pretty care free - never have had a pest problem or any disease issues...it just happily does it's thing.

Although pictured in the greenhouse (for better lighting) this plant spends spring-fall outside on the deck or by the greenhouse entry.

happy growing - looking forward to a little endorphin rush

Tepin pepper with vinegar on the table works great for putting on greens. Fill a long neck jar about 3/4 full of Red & Green Tepin's, boil the vinegar and fill it up. Put a lid on with a hole on and set it on the table. It gets better & better

does any one have wild seeds that you will sell me.

Bought dried tepins from Food City store. Hubby crushed all. Took crushed tepins , planted in plastic shoe box with potting soil. 9 days latter now I have 6 sprouts shooting up. Keeped seeds moist and in the Arizona sun 24/7. Bought more tepins from store did not crush. As an experiment I have soaked several in a tea water. Planted some in a plastic donut box, some wraped in a paper towel, some in my garden and some in cups. will wait to see what happens.

I have done like that before, not tepin but thai birds eye 90% germinated.

My Wild Tepin germinated in January. It grows very slow.

March 2013

In March/April 2013 it got sunburned and lost all the leaves. Now it got some new leaves.

Poor W. Tepin

Thanks for sharing, your plants are so nice.

Caelian

This post was edited by chilliwin on Fri, May 10, 13 at 18:33

chilliwin- did your seeds germinate in that pot? Just wondering when I should transplant?
Sinse yesterday 4 more shoots have surfaced. At this rate my little shoebox will not hold them for long

Berrynewby, I did not, I used paper towel method. I have repotted three times.

After germination I planted in a small plastic glass 210ml, look the following picture. It was taken in February. The picture of March is the second re-pot.
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If you upload the pictures, it will be more easier to give you suggestion. In the forum there are so many experienced members, probably they can help you.

Caelian

Caelian Thank you now i know . As of today I have 13 that have started to sprot. I am thrilled. Its been close to 100 degrees and I have them setting in direct sun light. I will transplant once they look strong enough to survive into small containers like u have. I all ready have requests for them. They are very expensive here and Im hoping they survive and I get chilies.

Photo of my 2 week old tepins. Each day more and more sprout1.

Berrynewby, it seems to me too early for re-potting. After the seedlings got a couple of true leaves may be the right time. However, to avoid roots tangle you can re-pot this time too.

I had similar situation with Goji seedlings. Just yesterday I repotted many of them.

Goji

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Thank you to keep this old thread alive.

Good luck.
Caelian

Agreed Caelain- they look too delicate right now. Day 13 about 30 have germinated. These were all from the crushed tepins that we bought at grocery store.

day 15- about 50 have germinated and still going. Others in seperate containers show no growth I know its still early but begining to wonder if even half survive what will I do with all of them?

4 weeks since I planted the first- more germinated then I can count- I gave transplanted about 25 of them. The transplants that I planted out side are spreading. All seem to be doing well but growrh is slow. They do like heat- we have been around the 100s during day and 80s at night. I have kept them moist.

Berrynewby, good luck and thank you for the updates.

Caelian

Read a comment about tepins recieving to much light. Comment was they gar leggy. Dont know what that means but here is a pic of the trpins I planted out side

Still growing in my shoe box

I think it is time to repot before the roots are tangle. It is nice to see your updates.

Caelian

My Tepin is getting flowers, I enjoy to watch her progress:

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Caelian

ok will re pot. have to get some pots. thank you

Repoted 30 of the tepins. Chiliwin you were so right. The roots have become tangled. Heres hoping that I got all the roots and they survive the transplant. Interesting note - is that the ones which were not clumped together are growing better.
I believe I have no choice but to try and seperate the clumped tepins and see what happens, since I know they grow better seperated from others. quite the learning experience. Of course if even just half survive I dont know what i'll do if they all produce.

30 a lot, healthy chili plants are not easily died, they can survive. If the roots were tangled too much, I would plant 2/3 together and then only the healthy one I'd keep and the weak one I'd cut it off. I have also a lot of super hot plants, I do not know what I have to do if they yield a lot of pods. When the time come for harvesting there would be a new adventure of learning chili recipe :-).

Container gardening is my new found hobby, I never tired to learn something new and do new experiment.

Good luck and take care of your young seedlings.

Caelian

the 30 I transpoted is only a fraction that germenated.
I guess that is the driving force something to try something new.
All my other chillies which I planted in a raised planter box have died. I think it was the soil I used (expensive ). My next planting of other chillies will be the same mixture I used for the tepins. Which happens to be the same as I used for my black berries Cheap dirt that i dug from the yard and miracle grow potting soil.

So what have I learned so far:
1 that any tepin seed will germinate whether if u crush them or not.
2- they like heat and moistness, at least to promote germination
3- To transplant when they first have leaves ( in order for roots not to tangle)
4- expensive planting soil sucks
5- that tepins soaked in tea water before germination was a bust

I also use chamomile tea to soak the seeds.

Whatever soil/recipe we use it should be well drain soil. It should not be water retentive. It is very difficult to recommend a particular soil to any one. Even a good reputable container soil could be failed to a beginner or an abusive gardener . The user should have basic knowledge of what he or she has been growing. The user should learn from the beginning about how did the soil response to his/her watering program accordingly he/she should do some adjustment. The soil is the foundation of his/her plants.

Learning form my own experiences is very useful to me. I lost a lot of seedlings when I did experiment with different soil recipes. It was fun to witness the seedlings' response to the different soil. Container size/type and climatic condition is also very important to the plants' growth. Using skewers to monitor moisture inside the container soil is very helpful. I use DE cat litter for mulch, it prevents fungus such as fungus gnats. I also use fan for my seedlings (indoors). Re-potting three times in different size containers is very good for my plants.

This plant is ready for the final container (about 7 gallon):

Caelian

This post was edited by chilliwin on Sat, Jun 15, 13 at 15:34

beautifull!!!!

The soil is one of the cheapest potting soil, it costs about US $ 2.50 for 40 liter. It is well drain and rich nutrients, no perlite, vermiculite and pine bark. 20 liter for US $ 2.50 is also very good. We do not have potting soil like Miracle Grow or other well known soil recipe in this forum except the orchid soil but rarely available. Most of our fellow hobby gardeners here use all these normal potting soil.

Caelian

7-24-2013
planted these outside in May, they are doing well.

The largest bush u see above is starting to flower. Out of he 50 or so that germinated about 25 are still alive. Hubby has taken over watering and I think he drowned several. But with the 25 or so that have survived we have more then we need.
The ones that are in pots we are giving away. As I said these are waterd by hubby and not doing as well as the ones in the ground.

Berrynewby, it is very nice to see your updates Chili has problems of over watering however, it is not a complicated plants to grow when we follow the basic rules of growing chili.

My Tepin are getting fruits not yet ripe I have tasted one, it is hot. I am out of space and having hard time of moving around my plants. This season I have a very nice garden one of my neighbors visited my garden and they were surprised to see all my plants. My super hot chilies made a good impression to them.

Take care of your plants.

Caelian

the bush pictured above is flowering, just started to open. Its about 2 feet tall. We are waiting to see A- if they flower all the way. B how many the birds get. C how many we get. For sure u can water too much but hubby is happy and if he kills all of them thats ok. I can allways try again lol. Also if i plant them again I have a plan so that when hubby waters most will drain away.

I am planing on planting full garden in the spring, so I will try again then.

pic of my tepins, growing nicley and the bigest has started to flower. The floweres seem to last just a few days and looks like tiny green ball is left. Does that sound right?
Will the ball grow into a tepin?

yes the ball is the pod it will grow a little larger if it has pollinated then most times will go from green to orange to red at times i have had them go from green straight to red .

Just looked at them and the pods have formed green balls. Looks like we are going to have our very own tepins.

Just planted hatch chillies in pots. Assuming they will germinate any idea how long it will take to germinate?

My serontos have germinated and started to grow too.
My green onions and radishes are doing well.

The amazing thing to me is that I have started all these in August. So I am confused to what exactly is the growing seasons suppose to be?

It is very nice to know the progress of your Tepins. I think you got the real Tepin if the pod shape is round. One of my Tepin plants has no round pods I think it is not real.

Germination of seeds are very different from one variety to another. Most of my seeds were germinated within one week. I do not know much about gardening, it is my new hobby. It is a very good relaxing hobby I think.

My Wild Tepin in about $2 shopping bag (about 7 gallon)

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This one is not real I think.

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Enjoy gardening and good luck.

Caelian

Here is a link that might be useful: When is the best time to plant Chili pepper?

very concerned or at least concerned as much as a fun activity allows lol
I dont have much confidence in my hatch chillies growing. Planted the 1st 30 from seeds taken fron a chillie on Aug 13, nothing so far.
Planted next 30 today after soaking 24 hrs and planted in peat moss. Wait and see but ill be surprized if any germinate and evn more surprized if the grow

you planted pepper seeds 4 days ago, and you're surprised they havent sprouted yet? my ghosts took 3 weeks to sprout. my thai peppers (the speed demons of my garden) still took over a week.

A few of my hatch chillies have germinated about 8. Waiting to see what happens.
Mt tepins are looking beautifull several little green balls!

Planted more chillies in little containers and birds got them . Quite a mess they made.

My radishes and onions look real pretty too.

It is very nice to read your regular updates. I would like to know the taste of your Tepin too.

Next season probably I would grow some small red onions called "shallots" they are very delicious for salad.

Caelian

Berrynewby: A lot of us start our seeds indoors, under lights, in Jan/Feb so they're ready to go outside in April/May. With many varieties of peppers needing long growing seasons, it's the best way to do it, especially in northern latitudes and colder climates.

Kevin

Kevin is right, many of us do as he said.

It is real pleasure to see plants growing from seeds, inside a room/windowsill.

Caelian

I live in Phoenix AZ , so even in the dead of winter we are pretty warm avg temp stays around 70 to 80s. We are sunny all year. We do get a few frosts but that is only before the sun comes up. I will cover all my plants if we get a frost.

But because we have warm weather all year I am able to start all mine out doors.
This week we are transplanting all the serontos and hatch chillies that have geminated out in the garden area.
It is exciting to see them grow from seeds.
None of my tepins have turned color yet, but many are still flowering.
Picked a few radishes and they had a nice favor to them. Cant wait untill tepins are ready so we find out what favor they might have.

OK , here is my only comment to you folks......
tepins/chilitepins grow naturally under trees, most often
Mesquite in the wild.....

therefore, when I put my
Tepin out for the summer in my greenhouse, I put them
where they can be partially shaded. This is her third
year and a few are just starting to turn red. I love
the quick heat hit, and the taste.....good luck all

So far we have gotten about 20 tepins off the bush. As of today about 20 more are orange. I have enclosed them, the birds getting more the we are. We have 3 bushes which are flowering. The green chilli planted in Feb has 12 chillies....

Dec 12- Reaping the fruits of my labor. Been spicing foods up with my tepins. Man they have heat. We have gotten about 1/2 pound crushed tepeins from the 2 plants planted in Feb.
The bushes still are ripening and we expect to get quite a few more yet this year.
Really looking forward to next yrs garden.

This thread reminded me I had a customer give me a few dried tepin pods for seeds about 2 years ago. I think they would be considered the real wild tepin. Very small round pods? I will already be starting more varieties than I can handle next month but this thread makes me want to add one more... ugh!

Found the pods (there were 3 of them).

Quite a few seeds for 3 pods of that size...

Congratulation Berrynewby!

My tepin is survived from the storm, it lost the main stem. I pruned it and repotted. All these branches are new. What a lucky Tepin!

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Caelian

Question? Planted tepins in May of last year. Started picking in October. Tepins have continued to ripen to this date. Now I see new ones starting to bloom. Question is are these year round ? Can I look forward to having te[ins year round. I live in Phx AZ ao it stays warm all year

berrynewby,
Here in Texas, if the plant is in a protected area with sufficient moisture, they'll produce year round. I had one area near my place that was about 1/4 acre covered with plants, and never seemed to quit producing. Then the droughts came...

Teevoo,
I've gotten my Tepins from www.tomatogrowers.com.
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