pepper cultivation

Do NOT starve them of water. Don't over water but make sure they have enough water to thrive. When fertilizing be careful of the nitrogen content. Too much nitrogen and you'll get beautiful plants but few peppers. Don't plant them too close together, give them room to grow. Some peppers will cross pollinate, but I'm not sure about these. Habanero and especially Ghost peppers are too hot for my taste. I sent Pat May some seeds from my Birds Eye peppers a couple of years ago and she and Robby really enjoyed them.

Andy

my peppers have always been hardy. very drought resistant and hard to hurt them. i have never done anything special to them. plan 'em, water once a week, hit them with some miracle grow if your soil is lacking and pick them when they look ready. peppers are easy.

I don't know a whit about growing peppers, but a friend of mine would like to get his hands on a couple of the ghost peppers if you end up with more than you need.

My email's good in the profile if you're interested in getting rid of a couple of them at a later date.

Good luck with the pepper farming!

Jeff

> I don't know a whit about growing peppers, but a friend of mine would like to get his hands on a couple of the ghost peppers if you end up with more than you need.
>
> My email's good in the profile if you're interested in getting rid of a couple of them at a later date.
>
> Good luck with the pepper farming!
>
> Jeff

it looks like i could very easily do this. if your friend is too far away, i might ship the pepper in a dried state, though. tell him make sure his hospitalization is up to date...

I don't usually grow peppers but I do go through a bunch that I buy. I did plant one habanero in a five gallon bucket this year. I found an article a few years back that said that habanero plants are much like trees and can bear fruit year after year. The article suggested planting them in five gallon buckets. At the end of the growing season they should be cut back (I don't remember how much to cut them) and the buckets put in an area where they won't freeze. Supposedly, when you bring them out in the spring they will begin to grow again. I thought I would try it with this one plant.

As for ghost pepper, I go through about an ounce of dried powder per month. I love the stuff. I even brew my coffee each morning using it. I put about an eight of a teaspoon in the brew basket along with the coffee.

I don't drink hot chocolate but a friend suggested that that might be good with the hot pepper added. That sounds like a good combination. I've seen chocolate products laced with pepper for sale online.

If you have more peppers than you can deal with you might consider turning some into pepper mash. It's a way of preserving the hot pepper (will last for several years). I bought a pound of habanero peppers about 10 days ago and made one pint of mash from them. It takes six weeks for the mash to finish fermenting. If this interest you and you need some pointers, my email is current in my profile.

Eddie

You can't hardly hurt these plants. For me in our garden, we water regularly (but not over water) and that many plants will produce more peppers that you can eat, I promise.

Your climate is different, but we have our jalapenos and cayenes make from about April through November, and I'm way tired of eating them by then. We freeze them so they will last. We don't pickle them as it takes some flavor and heat away.

Not too much water, but watch them. If they start to droop, then you need to water them.

For fertilizer, 13,13,13 will burn the snot out of them. Chicken litter is probably the best I've ever used.

Good luck and enjoy your salsa!!!

Eddie

thanks, these ghost peppers are supposed to be slicker than deer guts on a door knob. ever try one? the only ghost pepper i ever tried was in Mrs. Renfro's Ghost Pepper Salsa. good intro to evil sauce