So far, I haven't been able to resist ordering a few new seeds but I have about two dozen varieties saved from last year PLUS the rest of what was in the packets I bought last year. Two small orders have come in but I haven't even opened them to see what I ordered. My largest seed order a group buy to Fedco but I don't think I ordered any peppers of any kind from them.

I grew husk cherries a couple of years ago after enjoying the taste of them from free samples at the farmers market. The resident brazen chipmunk ate them as soon as they started to ripen.

Gardening friend asked me to visit to check out his pepper seedlings which he is growing from my donated seed. I didn't isolate any plants and last summer was the first time I tried saving pepper seed. Will it be a crap shoot? I gave him some plants last year which he thought looked terrific. I sent him documentation and advice but he wanted me to see his seedlings. Good thing I did. He wasn't watering them enough and still had already germinated seedlings on heat mats. He was just spray misting but seedlings in the corners weren't getting any water and had already wilted. I had him pour an inch of water in the trays and it disappeared almost at once because his soil was so dry. I always bottom watered but I think that some people don't like that method.

I am currently enjoyed Asian Cayenne Sauce made from Sweet Cayenne peppers. Not hot at all. I also like the fermented hot sauce. I'm not a big hot sauce fan since I like Cholula which is pretty mild and that was what I was hoping to get. But even the hottest sauce can flavor a pot of soup.

I attended a tomato workshop last spring given by a guy who grows over 150 varieties of tomatoes in his backyard for area restaurants. He promoted eastern European tomatoes. My gardening friend bought some and said he will share seed. The tomato guy only sells about 2 dozen varieties each spring.

My most recent hot pepper discovery is a recipe out of China Moon cookbook for Hot Chili Oil.

http://www.cookingindex.com/recipes/12647/china-moon-hot-chili-oil.htm

I already had a jar of Korean hot pepper flakes on hand for the kimchee I never made so I used that instead of making my own hot pepper flakes. I only made half the hot chili oil recipe since the hot and sour recipe I wanted to try only needed one teaspoon. But later in the week I made the winter squash, apple and bacon soup from the current issue of Mother Earth News and added 1 tsp of fish sauce and 1 tsp of the hot chili oil which I thought made a nice flavor. I think you have to be careful because the diced apples stay whole so provide a burst of flavor when you bite into them but the squash soup is sweet and mild. An internet cooking forum I enjoy has been advocating using fish sauce in non-Asian recipes.

So I have to review all the seeds I have and decide what I will grow again but not as many as last year (maybe 30).

-Aleppo peppers are definitely on my to grow list because they started my pepper growing frenzy last year. I did not think the resulting dried pepper had the fruity flavor I wanted. I compared to purchased Aleppo pepper which was labeled as Halaby peppers. Someone said maybe I don't have the right soil for that fruity flavor. Comments?

- Sweet Cayenne because I'm going to make lots more of the Asian sauce. It could easily be a topping for hamburgers and other sandwiches. It's pretty thick.

- A variety of bell peppers because w love them so much except I have quite a few frozen in the fridge.

- agree with mini peppers

- shishito peppers because I thought they were yummy fried up with sesame oil

I have asked gardening friend to get the town agricultural committee he is on to host a plant swap party. If not, I might host one myself. Our town has a free newsletter that is delivered to every residence so I could easily advertise it. A perennial plant swap is held in another town and advertised on the New England thread. It gets about 30 people.

Northeaster will start later today. I'm going to daydream about spring.

So far I have

Red Marconi pepper

Giant Aconcagua Pepper

Bolivian Rainbow (thanks esox07)

Chocolate habanero

Pequin pepper (thanks Smoke)

Bhut X white bullet f2 (Going to give my cross another go to see what the f2 looks like)

I also started purple brussel sprouts and purple broccoli, I did so because last season I barely got purple broccoli and zip on the sprouts, stated in spring and by fall I did not do well with these.

Nothing started here so far except onions and leeks and not much on the high heat end planned pepper wise.

Carmen - Sweet red corno de torro

Escamillo - Sweet yellow corno de torro

Ace - red bell

Gourmet - Orange bell

Canary - yellow bell

Anaheim

Emerald Fire jalapeno

El Jefe jalapeno

I'm planning the following peppers in containers this year. Most of them sweet, my wife doesn't like hot peppers, like I do...:

Emerald Fire jalapeno

Jimmy Nardello

Fushimi

Shishito

Ozark Giant

Garden Salsa

Tangerine Dream

Tequilla Sunrise

Ahhhhh, I just potted up 20 containers. I will be planting tomorrow or Tuesday. I still haven't made out my planting list yet. I figure I did good with at least getting the containers filled.

Jamaican Hot Chocolates, Fatalii, several different Scotch Bonnets, MOA's, Brown Moruga, various types of Rocoto's, Jalapeno's, Bishops Crowns, Brazalian Starfish, Inca Red Drop, Aji Mango, Aji Omnicolor, Aji Pineapple, Aji Amarillo. I might add a few other varieties.

OK, I got mine in today. Here is what I came up with. I will supplement these with my Hot Hungarian Wax that I can purchase from the local nursery. No sense in taking up space in my grow with plants I can buy cheaper than I can grow.

Numex Twilight
Red Habanero
Carolina Reaper
Thai Hot
Thai Dragon
Numex Big Jim
Fish Pepper
Bolivian Rainbow

That sounds good everyone!

From my pepper list in the first post, I will be starting 26 new plants. I have to get on that in the coming days. These include a few I'll give to family and some spare plants in case they don't all make it. I plan to have about 22 plants of my own to bring outside come June. I had 16 or so in containers last year, but will only have perhaps 8 this time. I'll plant some more in ground than I did in 2016, including several more Jwalas than I'd initially planned for. These extra Jwalas will be in a somewhat shaded spot behind my workshop, seeing how my one in-ground Jwala did very well in such conditions last season. I'm hoping for a bumper crop of these.

I'm starting to get psyched about the upcoming season. Late February in zone 4b is still very much winter and got some pretty heavy snowfall last week and the one before. The piles of snow each side of my driveway were getting to 6' and up. This week though, we've been getting some unseasonably warm weather, I'm talking 5 to 15°C daytime instead of -10 to -5°C that is usually the norm. A lot of that snow has now melted.

I was able to clear out snow and ice above and around my 2'x8' cold frame and found I still have some spinach plants very much alive. They are quite small, but the leaves are standing, deep green and crisp. There was also some lettuce and parsley left under there, but it's harder to tell if these are OK since all the leaves are dead. I have about 4-6" of workable soil in there right now. I'm not sure if these spinach will produce well this spring or if they will try to bolt as soon as they can. They were planted a bit too late last fall and never produced enough to harvest.

April is practically a month away and I should start some new spinach plants indoors to transplant then, as it is usually slow to sprout.

I know winter is not truly over despite my excitement; March can produce pretty much any kind of weather around these parts. It doesn't hurt to be optimist though! It just seems winter has been going by fairly quick this year and before I know it, I'll be wielding a spade and bow rake instead of plastic snow shovels.

Hey, folks.
Well, I finally did it....later than ever before. I'm hoping, however, that I'll be able to move my seedlings to the greenhouse sooner, where they will catch up quickly and begin the hardening process.

Isgen, I thought about growing the Jwala again, but I have so many frozen and dried pods that I'll be set for another year. What a great pepper, though...flavor and good heat. I put it to use in a couple soups, a Laos pepper paste, Korean pork belly, and recently a Philippino squid adobo (adobong posit).

Dave, the Garden Salsa is one of our best medium/hot sellers at the summer Farm. People really love the flavor, the heat, and the ease of processing. We also use it in our own salsas, as well as our various pickled goods. This year we'll be growing Shishito, too, since it's been a customer request for the past two seasons.

Bruce, glad to see you're growing two Thai chiles. I considered doing the Carolina Reaper again, but I didn't isolate the plant...and I didn't like the flavor of the peppers, nevermind the outrageous heat. At the Farm, we'll be growing the Fish Pepper for the first time, and I'm pretty excited about that.

So, as I swore I'd do, I think I've really minimized my grow this season.

Red Bhut Jolokia (self-harvested seed)

Red Bhut Jolokia (from a friend in India)

Douglah (self-harvested seed)

Hungarian Wax (self-harvested seed)

Thai chile (self-harvested seed)

Josh

Good plans greenman28!

I remember the pictures of your 2016 Jwala, it was a plentiful plant!

If I end-up planting 5-6 Jwala and they each produce as much as that one plant did last year, I'll have a ton of peppers on my hands too. I intend to ferment a bunch into hot sauce and dehydrate the rest. (selling the bear's skin, I know...)

I seeded a small tray this Sunday and it's sitting on a heat mat. When some stalks pop out, I'll start my 2017 pepper thread. I also seeded lettuce and spinach, aiming for an early April transplant to the cold-frame.

I couldn't believe how productive the Jwala was! However, with so much leaf surface area, it really sucked up a lot of water, and was perpetually wilting! If I'd gotten it into a drip-tray sooner, I think the production would have been even better.

Something else I'm trying this year is an experimental tray of Thai chiles in the greenhouse. I used a food container with holes in the bottom, then sprinkled in some seeds. The greenhouse drops to 40F at night and up to about 70F during the day, so I'm curious how much longer the seeds will take to germinate. If they take roughly the same amount of time, I might just sprout all my seeds in the greenhouse next year....and save the electricity for other things ;-)

Josh

Josh, if you can keep the seeds outside without using lights and heat, then that would be optimal. I will be looking forward to see how that experiment goes.

Exactly, Bruce, that will be the best possible outcome.
I'm really hoping it works in a timely fashion. Until then, though, I have my seeds indoors and under lights.

Josh

An added bonus might be that they wind up being a bit more hardy plants if they grow up in the more extreme conditions.

Yes, more hardy and I guess it would also forgo the hardening-off process of indoor peppers, which is a bit of a pain with multiple plants.

That's my goal. Harden them as they grow, so as to save time in the long run.

Josh

Last year I started Caribbean seasoning peppers on 2/16 and planted peppers requiring less days to maturity in two more batches. Haven't started anything yet so today is my deadline! At least get the seeds out so I can put in diluted chamomile tea tomorrow and plant on Tuesday. I looked up my favorite pepper sauce which was

http://www.burn-blog.com/4520/how-to-make-asian-style-cayenne-hot-sauce/

made using sweet cayenne peppers so I will grow sweet cayenne peppers again. I might skip the exotic things this year in favor of bell peppers and similar. Will post the list later. Happy almost spring everyone.

Nice looking recipe, defrost49. I'll have to try making that. May throw in some korean red pepper.

Here's what I'll be growing for sure. Will be starting them within the week.

• Serrano Tampiqueno

• Lipstick

• Thai Hot

• "Orange Drop"- I traded for some Lemon Drop seeds a few years back and grew two plants. One had yellow fruits while the other had fruits that were a reddish orange. The fruits looked similar but the reddish orange ones were slightly larger.

• Chilhuacle Amarillo- New to me.

• Pasillo Bajio- New to me.

• Pinata Blend Cayenne- Growing these just to separate out the colors. Hopefully they are open-pollinated and not hybrids. Burpee is the source of these.

• Hungarian Hot Wax x Pepperoncini cross- Got the seeds from Bruce (esox07) a couple years ago. Plan on keeping better records and better care of the plants this year than I did last year.

I will probably pick up a four pack or two of some bells from a local place. No point in me starting seeds for these. Also might start a few seeds of some miscellaneous peppers I traded for in years past but aren't true to type. Haven't committed to them yet though.

Rodney

Rodney, I grew Pasilio Bajio last year for the first time. I liked the flavor but I rarely cook Mexican dishes and haven't learn to smoke peppers yet. I will probably grow again this year.

Calamondindave, I think some Korean pepper might be a good idea if you like things hotter. This is very mild, almost a sweet pepper spread.

Finally moving some of my kratky starts outside this week

Aji Omnicolor

Aji Colorado

Aji Pineapple

Aji Mango

Aji Charapita

Aji Habanero

Aji Margariteno

Aji Lemon Drop

Sugar Rush Peach

Monkey Face Yellow

Magnum Habanero Orange

Orange Blob

Cayenne Longs

I've never tried any aji before so figured why not try a bunch

i have lots of plants started but i'm still unsure what i'm going to do with the main grow this year.

definitely MOA, JPGS, SBS purple, lemon drop.

love this thread ...

Well my big plans for all of these hot peppers to make hot pepper sauce with my grandson may have gone up in smoke. I am not sure what the heck happened, but almost every seed I tried to sprout indoors struggled at best or never came up. I had seeds from trades as well as brand new commercial seeds. I even went a purchased the seed starter soil and peet pots. What a disappointment and waste of money that they just are not growing. I am hoping maybe to find some interesting peppers that I can transplant but with my limited funds and the cost of plants, the amount I can get probably will not produce enough to make hot sauce. BUMMER. BTW I am a seasoned gardener so I flat do not get it, when I used lesser quality dirt in recycled plastic containers I was better off.

Hi helen1949,

Sorry to hear about the difficulties. How long has it been since you planted the seeds? Some varieties can take their sweet time to germinate and show signs of life.

If your current seeds truly are going nowhere, I say it's not too late to start new plants, even for shorter seasons like mine, so I say give it another go! As a bonus, there's probably a good lesson in it for the grandson, about perseverance and trying different things after a failure.

Maybe just go to your known and proven methods of starting plants, if only for a different approach. I usually sprout with regular potting soil or pre-start the seeds on a damp towel in a ziploc bag. Just make sure to keep the soil (or towel) evenly moist and warm (top of fridge or similar).

If you're out of seeds, getting new ones will likely be cheaper than buying plants from a nursery, maybe just focus on one or two varieties. Heck, just collect seeds from any hot pepper you can get at a store, these should sprout and grow just fine (I've done it and so have others).

I hope your hot sauce project ends up working!

I went and got my cheapo dirt and replanted. I was trying to grow Thai peppers to make our own sriracha sauce. Grandson is 17 and we have at least 4-6 special food projects a year. These are special times and I feel blessed to have a teenage grandson wanting to hang out with grandma.

Those food projects with your grandson sound like fun! Have you done any fermentation, such as sauerkraut/kimchi or sourdough? It's really easy, tasty and nutritious. I've really been into this for the last couple of years.

Good luck with the next batch of seeds!

Rodney - I grew pasilla bajio and the piñata blend last season. Pinata was your typical overachiever cayenne, very productive, had not issues growing in pots. Make sure you plan on support for the bajio, mine grew tall and narrow in form and they got whipped around in the wind pretty good. Slower to ripen, the fruit were pretty large, and mine were prey to squirrel nibbles. But they made good mole, and a tasty powder when smoked and dried. The fruit was a bit prone to sunburn I if I recall, so if you're in a place with super intense sun you might consider a bit of shade.

I had plans. I had a time line and even a spreadsheet to track geeky things like germ rate/time, growth, fertilizer, etc. I had a list of peppers, both new to me and repeats.

Then the cat mowed the seedlings down, and what wasn't eaten was burned up when the stupid animal knocked the light stand over onto the tray.

Thus far I have salvaged 4 plants. One each Carolina reaper, chocolate hab, early jalapeño, and Ajvarski.

I will probably end up buying plants (need a few more sweet pepper plants)for June 1 plant out target. Getting too late to try to start new from seeds, and I need the heat mat and light space for starting tomato seeds next week. Also I foolishly gave most of my seeds away a month ago after I had good germination and plenty of seedlings under the premise that they were older seeds and needed to be used up anyway.

Ce la vie. Gonna chalk this one up to a learning experience and live vicariously through the other grow blogs on the forum :)

Too bad about the cat messing up your seedling. I hope your surviving plants do well!

I would not say it's absolutely too late for new plants. I also plant out around June 1st and had barely seeded my trays at this point last season, but things worked out well enough in the end. Of course earlier is better, which is why I'm about a month into my seedling this year. :)

I remember discussing your particular climate last season. I'm looking forward to seeing how your plants do.

Good luck!