The Glade 4.0

Anyone familiar with these? Any tips on growing them? I picked up some seeds two years ago, but due to the recent cold winters, it's taken me this long to get one stinkin plant that's making peppers. I'm not sure if it's because of the cold, or if it's natural, but the plant grows one stem upwards and grows a couple leaves and then sheds them off, but continues to grow vertically. Basically for two years it was a green stick sticking up out of the dirt with a couple leaves on top.

Finally and only very recently it split off into a couple branches and the leaves are proliferating. It's about a two feet tall and I've got it propped up on a tomato rack. It's really top-heavy. Shortly after it split off, it made blossoms, and I manually pollinated with the ol' electric toothbrush trick. Now I've got four peppers (yeah, just four) and hopefully at least one will make it to maturity and make seed.

I've never grown hot peppers, so maybe this is normal? Is there any way to get them to make peppers in shorter than two full growing seasons?

(To Moderators - this would go really well in a new Gardening forum )

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And since we're on the Food forum, if anyone has any really tasty recipes for hot peppers I'll take those too. (Might be a while til I have enough peppers to make anything though! )

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Take a standard jelly recipe.

In place of the fruit, use finely chopped hot peppers (I've had it with jalapenos, Scotch Broom, and Habaneros, jalapeno was too mild, other two were tongue numbingly good. Optional, Add a bit of not so finely chopped bell pepper to add color and texture.

Make small batches until you get the consistency right.

Great on PBJS' and anywhere you might weant to use a hot jelly, i.e. crackers, cream cheese, and heat.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

That sounds good... supposedly these are as hot as a habanero but sweet and fruity. Got any good jelly recipes in mind, or should I just Google 'em?

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Google them, my wife made the jellies and jams, and they were very good.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I usually make salsa with serrano chiles. Last round I roasted them, 8-12 peppers to 3 tomatoes blended, onion/cilantro diced fine and salt/lime to taste. This salsa is hot, but you wont regret it. Well, you might the next day.

Sounds great Lenas, I like salsa on the hot side.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I made pepper sauce a couple of seasons ago. It was a fun exercise - roasting, soaking in vinegar, that kind of thing. Came out pretty well (made one of Tabasco peppers, and another from New Mexico and Jalapenos, I think).

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

OK, tried a very small batch of quick salsa last night.

Two datils from garden, chopped really small and de-seeded
One medium tomato from garden, chopped really small and de-skinned
One scallion from garden, chopped really small
One clove garlic chopped really small
Two squirts of rice vinegar
Four pinches of salt
Two pinches of sugar

It came out hot but not unbearable. I'm not sure how to describe the flavor and smell of the peppers, but it's nothing like a habanero except the heat level is the same. I would not say they are sweet or fruity though.

I had some on a turkey burger with mayo and pepper jack, also had some on a hot dog. Yum.

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UPDATE: Two plants are now making peppers, probably have two dozen of them now in various stages of ripeness. Also these ones are the proper size now (1 inch) instead of the first ones (dime sized).

Also, this: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=6141

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Two ripe peppers, with a couple more unripe ones hiding in the background.

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Update:

The plants are growing at a significantly increased rate since we entered the rainy season here.

We have a lot of peppers. I'm threading them together and hanging them to dry from the ceiling. An earlier, mostly-dried batch is on the left.

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Yum! Looking tasty!

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Alright, note to self and anyone else who might think of drying peppers like this - don't do it if you live in a humid climate. Florida is not the right place to air-dry peppers, about half of them are funky now. But oh man... the ones that are still good are POTENT! Just barely touching an uncut pepper with the tip of your finger is enough to give you serious burn power for the rest of the day.

The next batch I will dry in the oven for sure.

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Apparently the difficulty in starting the seeds wasn't unique to the cold weather we were having at the time.

It's taken me over two and a half years, but I think I finally have another datil plant started. I was on my next-to-last seeds from the 2011 batch, and had almost given up hope. I tried soaking the seeds, potting the seeds, different kinds of plant food, and putting the seeds in a Ziploc bag with paper towel/water/plant food. None of those methods worked so I took a few more seeds and potted them the usual way.

Right now I have a three-inch-tall datil plant started in a pot. At least I hope so... could be a weed too. If anyone else grows these, make sure you save every seed you can get.

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