They're ALIVE!!!! 2010 Garden Growing Tips, Tricks, Pron Thread

Well you can't smoke'm but I would transplant the seedlings to a larger pot with some good soil and use Miracle Grow. Just do not over/under water them.

Call your county extension, they should have a Master Gardener available to help with your questions. you need a local expertbecause of differing climate conditions.

Whoo Hooo!!! Glad they sprouted for you!!! Now it's a battle of the fittest. I'm looking at the clump of seedlings in the lower right. There are three seedlings and the one on the far right is the tallest. Sad fact, but the smaller two need to be weeded out so that the taller one grows faster. Give em another couple days and pinch off the smaller seedlings. That's what I do so the bigger and taller ones get bigger and taller faster. I must have at least 1000 of those little tepin seedlings all over my garden. They are the stray seeds from last year's pods. They grow like weeds and are very hearty. The beauty of tepins is that the plant grows back every year. SO, you need to plant the tepins in an area with lots of room, sun, and some sort of light cover, like under the roof overhang, under a tree, they like to feel protected. (long story about the origins of tepins being grown in thorny mesquite bushes so that grazing animals could not eat them up), One tepin plant (bush) can get 4-5 feet wide and just as high in the right spot.
I REALLY enjoyed those yellow japs last summer. That plant was a pepper making machine. They won't be very large peppers, but they will have a deep heat!! The serrano seeds were from store bought peppers and the guajillo from dried store bought. They may or my not grow, but give a few more days.
I'd say the japs could go in a pot, but cover em till the seedling gets a little bigger. Birds etc love those tender seedlings.
The tepins.........in the ground for sure!
I'm glad you liked em Brother. Hope they bring you some heat..........tell us what it was like to pop a tepin in your mouth?

Bob

The actual name is chil(i,e)tepin. They are thought to be the Mother of All Peppers and have history as far back as the Aztecs. It's also considered the State Chile of Texas. They are also called Bird's Eye peppers.

I grow a salsa garden from seeds each year. Bob's comments about thinning the herd are right on the money. You asked about 'hardening' them off. What I do is set the flat that the seedlings are in out in the sun and air when the temps are above about 45F I bring them in before it gets dark. Once we are past about two weeks after the average date of the last frost for my area (yours will be way different in your location than mine) I start leaving the flat out over night. Once they are well developed, I transfer them out to the garden and water them down with the MiracleGro water.

Hope this helps!

Keep this thread going!

{Midnight ☼ Smoke};1257565 said:

Well you can't smoke'm but I would transplant the seedlings to a larger pot with some good soil and use Miracle Grow. Just do not over/under water them.

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Wouldn't that be the $**t.... A new hybrid bud that was smokable and produced a tasty chili.

Can you smoke that stuff :becky:

Now I want to a damn garden of chilis!

There's another Brother on here who grows and smokes his own hybrid chilis. He gave me some of the ground up result and man, I tell you what... some of the best chili powder I've ever had. I used it as the base for my rub and it was fantastic.

I'd love to hear his thoughts on this process. I hope he's tuned in...

QansasjayhawQ said:

I grow a salsa garden from seeds each year. Bob's comments about thinning the herd are right on the money. You asked about 'hardening' them off. What I do is set the flat that the seedlings are in out in the sun and air when the temps are above about 45F I bring them in before it gets dark. Once we are past about two weeks after the average date of the last frost for my area (yours will be way different in your location than mine) I start leaving the flat out over night. Once they are well developed, I transfer them out to the garden and water them down with the MiracleGro water.

Hope this helps!

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That's a great plan for hardening.
Dave, what is the weather like in Yucaipa during the day and night at this point. That will help us too.

This is a great thread. I grew chiles for years in Indiana and have built up a modest library of pepper seeds that I collected from market produce and friends. I have been storing some prized chihuacle negro seeds that I was given by a family that we befriended in Oaxaca Mexico last year. This is the "secret" ingredient in Oaxacan Mole Negro and other Oaxacan specialty dishes and I'm sure these would give an amazing deep intense flavor to rubs. These are grown in such limited amounts in Mexico that there is no regular supplier Stateside and they often go for $10/oz dried when you can find them. The weather here in San Francisco (fog) has prevented me from growing these successfully but I would be happy to send some to one of the brethren if they wanted to give it a go. All I ask in return is that you sell me back me a couple of ounces of dried chiles if it works out!

Little bit of info...
The original plant that my grandmother, then all her kids, then my dad, then me and then all of those that me and my dad have given seed and plants too, was growing on my Grandmother's Brother's Farm in Anthony, NM. As a kid I remember going to both of her Bro's farms in the summer to help weed the fields. Old fashioned way.....walk the furrow with a SHARP garden hoe and weed em. (Many a rattlesnake meet up with the sharp garden hoe) I remember the plant being more like a VERY large bush almost a tree with a very thick 4-5 inch trunk. That thing was an old Tepin. Course there were plants growing all over the place, it the ditches, next to the house, in and amongst the salt cedars and even out in the field mixed in with the cotton or chile or onion, whatever they wre growing.

Over the years, my grandmother and her sisters took seeds or shoots and planted them in their yards here in El Paso and I can't think of any family member that doesn't have on in their yard. Even my neighbors all have one courtesy of the birds that feast on the pods and then "deposit" a seed packet in their yards. That's a big reason why these plants are found against rock wall, fences, houses, and under trees. That's where the bird was perched when it dropped the seed. I have two plants in the backyard that were planted by a bird and they are up against our rockwall.

As kids, we got a big kick out of getting the new nieces and nephews that were coming up to eat a berry. Us older ones, would take a berry, pop in in our mouths and pretend to chew it. The younger, gullible cousins would copy us and actually BITE into it.............BAWAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAA! We would laugh our arses off. By this time all our folks considered it a right of passage and we didn't get any heat for tricking em.

I think this will be the year my son or daughter will be tempted. I'm not going to trick them, but I have so many plants, it's just a matter of time that temptation gets the better of them.

Tepins are very versatile. One mature tepin plant will produce more peppers than you will know what to do with. I don't mind sharing with the birds. I mostly pick and dry the pods, then grind them into powder and store in the fridge. From there, I use the powder in salsa (my mom in the Queen of Tepin salsa and NO, she will not share her recipe, not even with me!). You can also use the powder as a seasoning like salt and pepper on meats, fish, or soups, stews, and CHILI! I also like a crushed green pod or two in a red beer, bloody mary, or even just in a REALLY cold beer. The icy cold and heat are intense.

You can also pick them while they are green and toss them in a bottle of vinegar and have em with your meals. I like to take green ones and toss em in soy sauce. I pop each pod open first so the soy can get inside. I prefer garlic infused Red Wine Vinegar to the plain. Same thing pop the pod or poke a hole in it with a toothpick so the vinegar can get in.

Once the pods are out, you can actually pick them while they are green and sun dry them in a window and they will turn red as they dry. You don't need to wait for them to turn red on the plant.

My house faces East so I think that's a big reason why my maters and peppers do better in the front yard. They get the nice mild morning and early noon sun. The plants in the back get the later hot afternoon sun, but not really all of it, as they are shaded by some trees. Tepins are easy to grow. Their early and wild roots and nature makes them a very hearty plant. Just give em some space to spread out and they will take off. My plants are still going by October, even, into November. They start off slow, then take off mid summer to late summer. When they begin to dry out, I simply cut them down to about 3-4 inches from the ground and leave alone all winter. They have always come back in the spring. They can also be used as a hedge since they grow so big and so fast and since they come back each year.

There are ditches and canals in NM where people go to pick the pods. The ditches are lined with some huge old plants. Lots of history and tradition in those little pods. I know that they do best in the Southwest, from Texas, AZ, NM, and into CA and of course Mexico. I have heard they don't do as well further up where the winters are hard and will kill it off if it's in the ground. A qt. baggie half ways full of Tepin powder will last a long time and is worth it's weight in gold. It takes A LOT of pods to get that much powder.

Bob

Awesome stories Bob. It is always great to hear good stories of people's geographical and family ties to the "little"ingredients that make all the difference.
I too growing up have fond memories of peppers in the garden. My parents, who moved every three or four years for their careers, always managed to find a plot of land to work near where we lived and cultivated most our produce and my brothers, sisters, and I worked the plot twice a week. Peppers were ALWAYS an important part of the garden equation. Because my Mom was Asian and grew up cooking in the family restaurant we always had four or five hand-me-down Asian heirloom varieties growing along with many from the Southwest and Mexico. We often found that the Asian varieties crossing with the Southern varieties creating new and interesting pepper monsters but these made my mom mad and she made my dad tear them out of the ground. I wish we had saved some of these hybrids although I think my pop still has many of the seeds from the Asian varieties socked away.
Of note, we always raised "HwaJiao" or Sichuan Peppers for spicy dishes. It is a small berry like pepper that gives an awesome heat and fruity flavor to many regional dishes. My favorite featuring these was my grandma's Pork, chive, and taro root dumplings. The heat gives you an awesome numbness/buzzing in your mouth that I would expect you would get by licking on a 9v battery (never tried though, really). I have never found this type of heat from another pepper. I believe Sichuan peppercorns are actually illegal now in the States because they carry a pest that decimates citrus crops but I still have a stack of frozen cryovacked packages the we bust out for family cookouts. We prized these so much we often dug up a plant and tried to take it with us when we moved to a new location.
We also always grew the common "Tien Tsin" long chinese pepper that is similar to a chile arbol. If you have ever eaten kung pao you know what I'm talking about.
Finally, we always had a super long and wide purple variety the size of baby zucchinis that my mom always called "eggplant peppers" that had medium heat and an awesome melon and earth like flavors. We would stuff them with a mixture of pork, garlic and water chestnuts. I'm thinking these would be awesome to smoke- maybe wrapped in bacon. I'm going to have to call my dad and get those seeds while they still germinate!

82muchhomework said:

The weathers been finicky lately. Its about 47F right now and rainy. It dips below 40 at night and reaches about 80 during the day.

My place faces east too. All my plants have to be in the back on the West side of the house. It gets afternoon to evening sun. The summers are typically over 100 and reach 110-115 on the really hot days. I water twice a day on those days.

I have one of those kitchen windows that is made like a mini greenhouse. Everything we have ever put in there has died. Are those things death traps or am I putting the wrong kinds of plants in there? Would the chilis do well in there or better outside?


My other problem is that we are currently renting while I'm still in school (one more year, yeah). I would HATE to have an awesome plant that wont survive a dig up. Would growing the chilis in pots be ok, or should I risk the dig up later when we buy a house.

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With the cooler weather up here in NorthEast I prefer growing peppers in pots they warm up quicker in the sun and drain better with heavy rains, of course the size is diminished but the yield is still ok, have done habs, jalapenos, thai's, and tabasco style with no problems, good luck

Well you ARE going to have to do something with them if you want peppers.

I have have had big problems with my garden here in Florida. Bugs and critters. So, I moved mine inside the screen porch and put them in my own version of an Earthbox http://www.earthbox.com/index.php

They are a little pricey but really do work! I make my own now and if you are interested in the plans, send me a PM If others are interested I will post it.