I have not dealt with Dale Jr. personally, but have read not so good reviews on another forum. Again, this is all from reading many negative reviews elsewhere.

Nope, I most certainly will not.
Dale Baker is despised in the community for his behavior toward a fellow who loaned him a sum of money, along with poor service and policies, and aggression toward customers. That aside, he claims to have found a single plant...which surely wouldn't be enough seed to provide for all the sales of these Chocolate Reapers. Most likely, they're Chocolate scorpions rather than a brown Reaper mutation.

Josh

All I know is that they seem a little over priced.
I heard about a chocolate reaper but I heard its a reaper and 'chocolate bhutlah' cross.

I don't think I would buy it, just seems a little sketchy, especially since its only in its first generation.
Then again I've not had experience with this company.

Here's a link to people talking about this pepper on another forum site.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/47248-the-chocolate-reaper/

Edit - After reading other members post, yeah, I would not take the chance, or put money in this man's pockets.

This post was edited by tom_92 on Thu, Jul 31, 14 at 0:04

Thanks guys! That's what I was looking for. I'll pass on this one.

Tim

Yeah what greenman said. Run. Run far and fast away from this guy.

PS Today is the last day Dale has to repay that loan or he and his sales get booted from that other forum.

This post was edited by mecdave on Thu, Jul 31, 14 at 8:42

Peppernovice - I don't have any reaper seed, but do have several other chocolates. Send me an email if you'd like to have some.
John A

Peppernovice - I could not respond to you're email because you have your address blocked. Go to Perferences and unblock your address and resend your email.
John A

If you want to do business with Bakers and want Chocolate Scorps.
just buy a box of fresh pods.He has them pretty cheap at $15 a box,20-25 pods will get you all the seeds you need

I know Dale personally, and have been out to his farm many times.

I know nothing of him owing anyone any money, that's news to me. I consider myself a good judge of character and he seems like a good guy. he has given me loads of pods for free or cheap, and gave me 10 plants for free. and for whatever it's worth, I have seen the chocolate reaper pods myself. I don't know anything about any seed sales, but I do know that he found a random chocolate plant in among his reapers, he was pretty excited about it.

with that said, what I assume happened, is that he decided to sell something new, exciting, and exorbitantly prices, because he knows there are those out there who would buy it. I'm not one of those, I'll wait til it's stable. I'm sure many here feel the same way. but there are those who would buy it. like he's said in many posts on the other forum, he's just a guy trying to feed his family.

This post was edited by judo_and_peppers on Thu, Jul 31, 14 at 23:49

...he ain't trying very hard.
And, in fact, he's feeding his family by taking food from the mouths of other families. He's gotten in over his head and has earned an awful reputation in the chile community. Bad karma, I'm afraid.

Josh

I know a guy that seems like a real nice guy. Always has a smile on his face. But when he gets on the internet forums it's virtually all rage. It makes you wonder what's really going on behind that stupid grin.

I can only speak of Dale's internet demeanor on one forum and it's most assuredly not all smiles. And from the feedback others have posted, his email demeanor is worse.

I've distanced myself from the all-smiles guy I know. I'm sure if I knew Dale personally I would do the same with him after seeing what's really going on.

PS Ed Currie, the developer of the Reaper, posted on Baker's thread and identified the peppers as Chocolate Scorpions.

Mistakes happen. Not admitting the possible mistake and taking financial advantage instead is called scamming.

run far away from him. delete his website from your history. im speaking from personal experience and other peoples experience.

Don't use him he burnt me good around Christmas

I've dealt with Baker's as well, and got financially burned. He transposed two numbers on my address even after I confirmed he received the correct mailing address from me, and accused me of being at fault, as well as demanding an extra $100 from me to make it right, when I already dropped $250 on the order. And he also sent a very angry, condescending message to me when the original order came back to him as undeliverable. He's also accused myself and other vendors of various things such as cyberstalking, trolling, etc., when all we were doing was offering the same or better peppers/powders/seeds at (in some cases) half his prices. He even posted up a rather long, convoluted message which he claimed was at the behest of his lawyer, which was quickly torn to shreds by several lawyers on the forum, who commented that they would never advise their clients to write anything even remotely close to such a message, since such a message in a public forum could be used as evidence against Baker's.

And the gentleman who loaned him the money has sent Baker's to collections for repeatedly refusing to pay him back after over 2.5 years of being strung along, and has the emails to prove how Baker's was exactly that. Thus far, Baker's only paid back 20% in late December/early January after the other gentleman got sick of Baker's constant delays and called him out, demanding repayment. Several of us did the math, and at the prices listed on his website and at the volumes he was consistently claiming, Baker's easily made over 100 times the amount of the loan, and could have easily repaid the entire loan. The admin of the other forum has since banned Baker's for refusing to pay back the loan, and making a mockery of an advertisement, in which Baker's insisted that the money from purchases from people on the forum (who were virtually revolting against Baker's) would go towards paying the debt, knowing people on the forum wouldn't buy from him, which he could then turn around and use as a flimsy excuse to say that it was our fault he didn't pay the gentleman back.

Also, when several of us posted negative reviews on his Facebook page, or complained on his FB page about having to wait weeks to months for orders and requested refunds, he deleted the posts, and in the case of the reviews, completely removed the "Reviews" section of his Facebook page, and people's ability to post them. Several people posted screencaps of the posts in other forms/pages prior to him deleting the posts as proof of their existence. Someone also made note this past week in fact, that if he had "thousands and thousands" of satisfied customers, why were there only 30-something 5-star reviews, and asked why the invoice numbers only just passed 3000 if he's been in business since 2011. In fact, when a number of people over the last several months posted up pictures of receiving moldy and rotting peppers from him, he's accused them of lying, made them jump through hoops, etc., and then said that because they got 25 "good" peppers, then their order was fulfilled, and refused to give them refunds. Several of us even had a handful of his customers come to me and a couple other vendors to order peppers, and they commented how dealing with us was a breath of fresh air because of how quickly we responded, how fast the orders shipped, and that we were significantly more pleasant to deal with online.

Even on his website right now, he's been forced to post an eyesore of an announcement and admit that he only just shipped out his July orders the last couple weeks, and has barely started to ship his August orders out. He also claimed severe weather affected his ability to ship fresh peppers. A quick check of his immediate area's weather shows a lot of days' worth of clear weather during that time period in which he could have picked and shipped peppers out to customers. I also live in Florida, and virtually all the weather that hits him eventually hits me a few hours later, and all that my plants suffered were a few leaves dropping off. Yet he adamantly refuses to ship out on any day except Monday morning. Also, if he's a year-round grower as he claims, then why has he often had to do pre-orders.

This post was edited by SadisticPeppers on Wed, Sep 10, 14 at 18:19

sadistic peppers, if you're in FL please message me. Baker is the only "year round" supplier I know of, and I make hot sauce, so I need another supplier.

Judo, I thought you were buddies with Dale? Have you too learned the same kind of lesson many others have learned?
For what it is worth, there is someone in Lakeland who grows all the peppers in a greenhouse and produces all year, even though the winter peppers get smaller than the ones that grow during the warmer months. He is smaller than Dale, but way more reliable. He may not be able to help you though if you need mass quantities of fresh peppers. The best part, the peppers can't get rained on and since the greenhouse is kept hotter than the outside temperatures, on average, the peppers will be hotter than outside grown peppers.

I have to think like a businessman. and in life in general I specialize in not getting involved with other people's bullsh!t. life is so much simpler that way. if Dale can continue to give me the peppers I need at reasonable prices, I really don't care what people have to say about his online demeanor. I really don't care about problems with shipping, as I go out there and pick them up in person, and from what I've seen he was my cheapest option.

he has never done me wrong in any way, so I continue to not have anything personal against him. but I am not gonna take his side and speak in his defense anymore when there's all these cases being brought forward of him treating others poorly. clearly I didn't and still don't know what I'm talking about, I was only speaking of my personal experiences, and people act different when it's face to face. that's why I like doing as much face to face business as I can.

and hearing about all the problems he's having, it's sounding like I need a backup plan. I'm just a dude who grows peppers and makes hot sauce. the show must go on.

can you message me about this grower in lakeland?

This post was edited by judo_and_peppers on Wed, Sep 10, 14 at 23:56

Hi Judo, I sent you an email, hope that info helps you out

Mark

can you message me about this grower in lakeland?

Seriously Hot Peppers

I looked on line at Dales fresh peppers and $36 for 25-30 Reapers is insane that's probably $75 + a Lb. If I could get that much for mine I would be a rich man. Sold Out too Wow. I guess demand brings the price up but I would feel like I was ripping people off charging that much.Nothing negative to say about the man Ive never gotten any peppers on line before [ I grow my own] but if people are willing to pay the price I guess he has every right to charge what ever he wants. Its up to the customer what there willing to pay.

Yep. There was some controversy in Atlanta during the gas "shortage" a few years ago. One gas station jacked its price up to $6.50/gal. The "fairness" nazis went nuts over "price gouging". But two things they ignored: 1) if the price was too high, no one would buy; 2) when everyone else ran out he would still have gas and then they would be glad to pay his price.

Or 0) it's none of their dam business what an individual prices his goods at. The market rules, not the "caring" crowd - at least for now.

But $75 / lb - and getting it! Whew!

Dennis

Even though I will never buy peppers from Dale Jr. again, in all fairness to Dale, a full box of reapers has 40 to 50 peppers in the box. Because some people want a new box if they get a couple of bad peppers in the box, this is the number he uses so he doesn't have to give refunds to so many people. In reality, he is sending close to twice that amount.
I think he sells so many peppers because he has a website setup that makes it easy for you to spend your money without having to contact him. I think this causes a problem with an item that is not a guaranteed inventory item. Some people are spending their money but waiting 6 to 8 weeks to their their peppers. You can buy the exact some thing from the guy I mentioned before for $29. He has a website and has this pepper listed, but it isn't automatic. You have to contact him because he wants to insure he has them ready for immediate shipping the coming week. Most people want something fast and easy to buy, and will obviously pay a higher price for that ease of buying. It's almost like the impulse buy items the grocery stores put up near the checkout area.

10 nice reapers , just over 70 grams. veiet
Reapers are lighter then most peppers. I love the feel of them almost like lizard skin , no other pepper I grow has that feel to it.
I really like them and there production is very impressive a100 + per plant. I personalty recommend this pepper to anyone who can take the heat.
Im going to weigh other peppers as I pick them and post peppers/Lb on different pods so we can all know how many to expect in a Lb

Dave, 7 grams each are pretty good sized reapers. Instead paying that good information on the Baker thread, I stayed a real hot pepper thread that talks about this kind of thing. This is perfect kind of information for that area. If you want to try something new, try some 7 pod Primos. They are very similar in form and depending on the genetics you buy, they might very well be hotter. Mine taste about 10% hotter than reapers, and I like the taste way better. Tom

Excuse part of my last post Dave, I was thinking about a thread I had started, but on a different forum that I had just written on before I came here.

Im growing some Premos just for comparison. They seam to be close. The leaves are a little lighter in color, peppers are close.
Ill start a new trend about weight

Time to get this going again . I dont use any social media so keeping up to date with bakers peppers is hard . I have to google and look on twitter and all sorts of stuff because its not updated on the actull website. I ordered in july of 2015. 1 box of presale scorpion peppers .it was like under 20$. July sale .said theyd be ready in August. August rolls around . Now its September ,then October.. then some sort of flooding problems. Now its November ,December. January 2016 . Ya get the picture. Now there is freeze in florida .i have to wait till spring for 1 box of peppers. Does this guy have 1 plant of each kind he uses to fill orders? This is a joke already. Its way past paypals 90 day refund . He might be the king of runarounds. Im not the only one either some people are fine with waiting . They must be friends of bakers peppers. Think about all the money this guy is taking from everyone with no product. So orders are gunna pile up and up and up till next harvest. Buy then he'll be in so deep with backorders. It will be insane. Im mad and im sure everyone who spent their money on magical peppers that never will be. He can promise whatever he wants to give extra for the wait, but words only as good .... and theres really nuthing to do but hope for a email reply and beg for a refund .sad . I understand what it takes growing produce.but most peppers take what 90-120 days to be ready. If its your job and what you do . Maybe build a greenhouse . Then some peppers may make it to the 100s of people who give you money .