I HATE TEXAS - pepper weevils/maggots!!!!

[Chuck]

I can eat a Habanero but not a Carolina Reaper - they are fricken hot... But I like to make homemade hot sauces!

A few months ago I made some Diablo hot-sauce (Chile de Arbol) and brought some to a breakfast meeting I used to go to. I offered samples to some folks - most declined - but one young fellow from Texas said he liked hot and asked to try some on his scrambled eggs. He was smart, he didn't go overboard, and half way through his eggs he - took a break from eating - but he did finally resume and finish his breakfast, with a little sweat on his brow.

As I was about to leave, this guy from California walks in (everyone knows him), and he asked about my hot sauce and whether he could try some - I said "sure, but its very hot." He acted like mehhh, no problem. I said "are you sure?" He said yeah...

So I opened the jar and he sunk a teaspoon in and covered his eggs in hot sauce. I was like 'WHOW - DO YOU THINK YOU ARE SUPERMAN OR SOMETHING? THAT STUFF IS HOT!!!" He brushed me off and went and sat down. I screwed the cap back on and stood there and watched...

I wish I had a camera. The look on his face when he took his first fork full - I have to be honest, it cracks me us just writing/telling the story even now. He must have thought it was Pace Picante sauce but when it hit his mouth it looked like he ate plutonium. Then, of all things, he picks up his cup off hot black coffee and tries to wash it down. Only a Californian (no offense to anyone - but if you knew the guy)...

He stood up, picked up his plate, started walking to the garbage can with it and says to me as he walks past, "Why would anyone make anything that hot?"

I said "hey, I warned ya."

I cut a Carolina Reaper in 8ths last year, then cut a piece in half and ate it - I'll never do that again, but they do make some kick-butt hot sauce!

Hot sauce is good for your heart and circulation - raises metabolism. Learned to love it when I lived in Hawaii and had some Cambodian and Thai friends.

I have a friend who was like the Californian and a bunch of years ago I grew what is now known a Chilitepin. It's about the size of a pea and football shaped and really hot but nothing even close to a reaper. I told him it was a 3 biter but he put then whole thing in his mouth and chewed it up. These pepper are not immediately hot, it takes a few seconds before the hot kicks in. He literally could not breathe, tears ran down his cheeks and he jumped up and ran to the kitchen and did the worst possible thing. He tried to stop the heat with water.
I grew Trinidad Scorpion last year and made Pepper Tea out of it to spray on plants. This year I am growing a new variety called Thick Walled Cayenne. I ate an older green one last week and it is plenty hot enough for me. I let them turn red and then I dehydrate and make into pepper flakes for pizza and other things. I am also growing Tabasco peppers for pickled hot peppers along with chocolate habeneros. Then I have a bunch of different varieties of sweet peppers. It looks like a good year for peppers but a bad year for tomatoes. The weather is not conducive for tomatoes this year. I'll be lucky to get 5 lbs per plant on the best plants.

 

[The Zen Master]

I had lots of trouble this year - with everything!

I just brought a few habaneros in before the birds get them. They're small but extremely hot, for habaneros... The Ghost and Carolina Reapers are growing, but I doubt that I will get many based on the RoundUp attack they suffered early this year. Nevertheless - I need to get over to Lowe's and get some bird netting to string over them.

 

[Chuck]

I had lots of trouble this year - with everything!

I just brought a few habaneros in before the birds get them. They're small but extremely hot, for habaneros... The Ghost and Carolina Reapers are growing, but I doubt that I will get many based on the RoundUp attack they suffered early this year. Nevertheless - I need to get over to Lowe's and get some bird netting to string over them.

Roundup attack? Explain what happened and if you could send pictures. Maybe I can help

 

[The Zen Master]

Earlier in the year I started a different thread - had a few containers of Habaneros and Carolina Reapers and I moved them what I thought was a safe distance and sprayed some RoundUp on some weeds outside the fence line. Some of the vapors must have drifted over to my peppers and they were looking really bad - I thought they were dead.

Contrary to someone's advice, I cut them back and just kept watering them, and then bought and potted a few more just to be safe. Now they look like little pepper bushes - tempting me to always cut them back regardless of health!

They're doing great now! I'm surprised they survived the RoundUp!

One of my Victoria Red Grapes that came under Pierce's Disease attack is starting to look like it it going to live through it, too!

I'll be back later - I have some work to do writing DIY instructions for a home-building company this weekend! Brain hurts!

 

[The Zen Master]

Made some Habanero hot sauce yesterday and let it chill overnight - delicious, and plenty hot - awesome on a couple of chicken fajita street tacos from the taco-wagon down the highway!

 

[TonMz]

Just spoke to my aunt a few miles over - total organic folks. Started a large raised garden a few years back and quote "just gave up because it was too much trouble to get anything to grow here." The only thing she grows now is Rosemary because it's the only thing that grows and grows without being attacked by some vicious insect or disease...

Wish I consulted her before I started all this...

Yeah, I'm a beginner and I thought I was the only one thinking such things, but I never saw any warnings of using preventatives on all the gardening videos I watched on youtube.. For maggots! I also never saw any disease warnings when watching all the videos on growing from scraps. After the first maggot sight, I'm pretty ready to throw all of my trays away as the soil is recycled from other batches and likely infested with some fly eggs.. I don't want to see any more maggots.

And I decided I'll filter down to what's easiest to grow and , rosemary and other herbs which are hated by pests sound like a great idea lol

 

[TonMz]

It won't help with the Pepper Maggot. Nothing will. But it works great on just about everything else.

So if I'm going to plant my pepper seedlings, should I keep them indoors and.. Is there no preventative including diatomaceous earth that will help to mix with the soil? I have seedlings from fresh pepper seeds and was hoping to see what they could become.

 

[The Zen Master]

Truth is the pepper maggots only got to a few peppers and the rest of the crop was fine - but the first time I saw those nasty things they freaked me out.

 

[Chuck]

So if I'm going to plant my pepper seedlings, should I keep them indoors and.. Is there no preventative including diatomaceous earth that will help to mix with the soil? I have seedlings from fresh pepper seeds and was hoping to see what they could become.

I don't know if you even have pepper maggots in the UK, but, even if you do, it is a fairly rare occurrence and not really terribly harmful

 

[TonMz]

Truth is the pepper maggots only got to a few peppers and the rest of the crop was fine - but the first time I saw those nasty things they freaked me out.

Yeah they're fxcking gross. I threw out the whole chia seed tray.. I can't trust eating off that soil, I replanted 1 onion scrap with great roots into another soil after rinsing and a baking soda dip, sprinkled some diatomaceous earth into that growbox.. Hope it is fine.. Threw out the onion box of soil infested with flies. I had a whole day of trauma cause of that maggot. Disgusting. Stuff of horror movies lol

 

[karstopography]

Gardening in Texas might be about working with the climate and not against it. Right now in the heat of summer, a number of things are doing well out in the garden. Various peppers like Anaheim and Tabasco. Eggplant going strong. Thai red noodle beans could not be more productive. Purple hull peas. Okra. My south anna butternut squash plant in 15’ long. Thai pumpkin plant 10’. Basil plants look like hedges.

I think too many people here try to garden like they are in Kentucky or Connecticut and plant things like broccoli in the spring or carrots or cabbage or some such nonsense. We have cool season vegetables, warm season veggies, and hot season veggies. Maybe the north texas bunch misses out on some of the cool season winter garden crops.

Full sun for these many crops is also a problem in spite of the tags and seed labels. Many burn up in the full sun of Texas. Oregon, New York, blast away sun. Texas, maybe not.

The big box stores don’t help much either selling plants that have zero chance. Ours will have cauliflower and cabbage sets in April, give me a break. Local Feed stores have a better handle on what works when.

Texas is a hugely productive agricultural state and it ain’t all cattle and cotton.

 

[The Zen Master]

I seriously doubt that anyone knowingly decides to garden against the climate whether they are a new Texan or an old one. Most people I know, regardless of where they were born, decide to garden to beautify their environment or produce better fruit and vegetables than they get at HEB. The fact that the garden centers sell plants that are not exactly suited to Texas, or wholly unsuited for Texas, where the Sun actually touches Texas for 6-months of the year, is not something that most normal people are born, knowing.

I just tend to take it easy on people that are struggling with something - not alienate them for being stupid Yankees...

 

[The Zen Master]

Well - I was going to revise the title of the thread but it is too late, no edit option.

I don't hate Texas but gardening here does take some gettin used to...

Hope I didn't offend anyone.

Just in case I need to say this again...

 

[karstopography]

I wasn’t trying to be harsh, not at all, more sympathetic really. Not calling anyone stupid or even implying that. Really just trying to point out adjustments need to be made if someone is used to growing in a different climate. The big box stores are generally unhelpful with some of their offerings and the timing.

I wouldn’t know what to grow and when to plant in upstate new york or Washington state, I’d just realize that people do garden there successfully. Reading about what works and when is helpful no matter where you live. Truth about a location and the things that can be grown is only designed to enlighten, not belittle.