2019 Carolina Reapers

[dr k]

I've been giving them away but will dehydrate for powder to make hot sauce and add to sauces and chili. Less than 1/8 teaspoon on a whole pizza.

 

[blackwrx04]

Today we made reaper gummies

 

[dr k]

Today we made reaper gummies View attachment 405271

I've never seen those mats. Are they silicone? Sounds interesting. Sweet n hot

 

[blackwrx04]

I've never seen those mats. Are they silicone? Sounds interesting. Sweet n hot

They are silicone. We got them on Amazon. And yes she used strawberry flavor and they are very sweet

 

[mneeley490]

Wow, guys. Just looking at those beautiful peppers makes my eyes hurt.

 

[dr k]

I picked these 103 CR peppers from my two plants because tonight will/may get to 32f. So any pepper with color was picked this morning. I have the same amount that are totally green. If it doesn't freeze the forcast shows no freezing temps and Nov is going to be not so cool. Should I pick the green ones as well or risk the freeze? The plants are way too big to move. I have harvested 400 with this batch today so it has been a decent growing season but have another hundred green. I'm leaning toward leaving them to ripen on the plant.

 

[dr k]

*****Update one year fermented Carlonia Reaper hot sauce in 4% brine.
November 2019 before:


November 2020 after:


Pureed mash and used all brine for a thin McIlhenny's style Tabasco sauce. No vinegar so the lactobacillus probiotic is still alive and beneficial to your gut health but has to be stored in the refrigerator. Just pureed mash and two cups 4% brine.


Very bright fruity CR pepper flavor not masked by anything with a tangy fermented flavor that is much more mild in spiciness than I expected from the long ferment. It's a great way to taste the actual pepper without the intense heat distraction. This is my favorite hot sauce and so simple. I'll do this again next Spring with dried pods I have and use a tablespoon of this batch as a starter.


Too thin to control from the condiment bottle so I picked up a couple 60 ml dropper bottles at the local compounding pharmacy to more easily dose. 1/4-1/2 a dropper full for a taco/slice of pizza so not lightning hot whereby one drop will light you up.

 

[chopsaw]

It's a great way to taste the actual pepper

The reapers have a great fruity flavor used in the right amount . That sauce looks fantastic .
I put 2 seeds in an Areo garden , and they sprouted . Not sure if they will produce in there or not . Plan was to transplant , but I think I'll let them ride .

 

[dr k]

The reapers have a great fruity flavor used in the right amount . That sauce looks fantastic .
I put 2 seeds in an Areo garden , and they sprouted . Not sure if they will produce in there or not . Plan was to transplant , but I think I'll let them ride .

I was thinking about that with my two Aerogarden Harvests. I made a couple, be the bee, stem stakers like cheap elec kids toothbrushes that release the pollen from the flowers since tomatoes and peppers are self pollinating and need wind to naturally shake the plant but indoors won't produce fruit unless you, be the bee, and manually vibrate the flower stem. You'll need a magnifying glass and see all the pollen released. I did this for my heirloom cherry tomatoes for 13 months. I have a lifetime supply of super hot pepper dried pods. The Harvests hold 6 plant pods but I have been doing just the four corner pod holders. Seems to get crowded with fruit. I have Oregano in one of the six harvest holders and it's about to expire from last late summer and I'm about to get that out and clean it and do both Harvests with lettuces since it grows fast and likes it below 70 so it doesnt bolt and get bitter. I did both Aerogardens last summer 8 pods with 4 kinds and they bolted in a month not keeping my area under 70°which is too expensive on the ac in the summer. So now is a perfect time to grow lettuces and top 1/3 or pinch leafs at the bottom a couple times a weeks, being the fastest growing plant . One Harvest is clean and ready to go but I have been coasting this winter. Food store chain lettuces keep up taking foodbourne pathogens into the leaves from irrigation systems and iI figured growing it myself is the safest solution. Seems like a problem that just isn't getting resolved.

 

[chopsaw]

We ended up with 3 of the Harvest gardens . I knew about having to pollinate .
Didn't want to buy the tool , so some info on what you did for tomatoes and peppers would be helpful . My Son is good with this stuff too , he's already talking about it .
I was wondering about doing only some of the holes . My Son used the 4 corners in his , but my Daughters is probably to full . Some kind of " golden " tomato .
I used about half of the basil plant last night in pasta sauce , and going to use some of the Thai basil tonight on chicken . He also has Thyme and parsley in his .
I have 2 reaper plants , a jalapeno , thyme and dill .

 

[dr k]

We ended up with 3 of the Harvest gardens . I knew about having to pollinate .
Didn't want to buy the tool , so some info on what you did for tomatoes and peppers would be helpful . My Son is good with this stuff too , he's already talking about it .
I was wondering about doing only some of the holes . My Son used the 4 corners in his , but my Daughters is probably to full . Some kind of " golden " tomato .
I used about half of the basil plant last night in pasta sauce , and going to use some of the Thai basil tonight on chicken . He also has Thyme and parsley in his .
I have 2 reaper plants , a jalapeno , thyme and dill .

View attachment 524141
View attachment 524142

I use distilled water or zero water filter 30 cup pitcher since sometimes distilled water has been unavailable last few years for easy clean up and pump longevity for less calcification. Some use a cheap kids electric toothbrush that has a spinning head that may also move forward and backwards and use the smooth back against the flower stem for the vibration to release the pollen. I had a couple cheap Remington micro trimmers that moves a small clipper forward and backwards by the plastic tip you can see. These were so under powered I cut the trimmer head off to expose a little of the plastic push rod so it's a boxing glove to punch the flower stem. I've only grown tomatoes to need the, be the bee tool. I bought the bigger qt of fertilizer and shake and transfer to the bottle that came with the Aerogardens and use a $1 or so meat njector needle with ml to draw up 8 ml every other week since cap fulls is a mess. I read aerogarden manual but for bigger fruiting plants vs herbs the tomatoes needed 12 ml every other week on their site and search the plants growing for tips and comments. Top the 4th or 5th set of tomato leaves to grow out vs tall. Maybe the same with peppers both being nightshade variety. I did get a couple small fish stone aerators and tiny pumps to run the hose into one of the two rear holes that have plugs where the hose or auto water hose goes to super boost oxygen and ithey are on a timer to run at night and a few 1/2 hour intervals throughout the day to work with the every 30 minute 5 minute pump cycles. Good when it's warmer to keep algae away and the roots are always respiratory, sucking in oxygen, keeping them bright white healthy and can't drown when plants get big. I bought 50 seed sponges with the fertilizer and reuse the pod holders. I will use fridge magnets for empty hole covers and alum foil with a hole over the pod holders with the germination domes and keep them over plant holders as covers to keep light from growing algae after removing domes. I run the clear air hose tubing through black shrink wrap tubing just to keep light from riding into the water bowl till the black tubing is above the light hood. They come on at 4am-7pm which is 5am-8pm for daylight savings to keep regular daylight savings time light in the middle of the summer. I put my two Harvests back to back for maximum light sharing with the fast growing herbs and fast tall dill and to bridge the tomatoes for more growing area. Lots of trimming with the tomatoes make them look gangly but the stems without fruit keep the plant from growing groups of tomatoes. I had 6 plants but survival of the fittest strangles the weak so 3-4 tomato plants per Harvest next time. Takes a few month to get maters going to fruits but then 10 months of fruiting hundreds was great. I did water changes every other month at first like instructed by just filling a siphon hose in the sink and putting one end in the water filling opening and one in an empty gallon jug and lowering the jug to siphon then refill and refeed but will wait till signs show a need for it in the future. I tweezered out plants from pods that grew more than one plant and grew them under the light in solo cups with dirt and transfered outside. I have the LED panel but dirt in the house was bringing with it aphids so if I go that route I need to microwave the dirt to kill pest eggs and need to search what to do because that aphid honey dew sticky mess sucks to clean up and the wasted time of indoor potting but I don't think they can transfer to the aerogarden plants unless touching. Not sure. Don't know how they spread so I need to search that. I just don't want to iinfest the hydroponic plants with aphids.

 

[chopsaw]

1st CR pepper from tropics seeds.

Here's mine from the seeds I got from Richie tropics .
Started in n Aero garden . They were healthy , but wouldn't set any fruit .

Had 2 Reaper plants from seeds . The Jalapeno was taking all the " goods " I guess .

I cleared everything out except the Jalapeno , and planted the Reapers outside . They struggled , and dropped some blossoms , but now they are starting to produce .
Been hot here the last couple weeks . High 90's .
Not sure if they like the heat or not , but they look healthy .
Not sure how big they should be , but here's the 2 I picked this morning . Almost 90 degrees at 8:30 .

Now what ??

 

[dr k]

Here's mine from the seeds I got from Richie tropics .
Started in n Aero garden . They were healthy , but wouldn't set any fruit .
View attachment 637691
Had 2 Reaper plants from seeds . The Jalapeno was taking all the " goods " I guess .
View attachment 637692
I cleared everything out except the Jalapeno , and planted the Reapers outside . They struggled , and dropped some blossoms , but now they are starting to produce .
Been hot here the last couple weeks . High 90's .
Not sure if they like the heat or not , but they look healthy .
Not sure how big they should be , but here's the 2 I picked this morning . Almost 90 degrees at 8:30 .
View attachment 637694

Now what ??

Some .may develop a wicked smaller curled pointed stinger from the seeds we have but most are large reapers. They are hot and i still have the powder he sent with the seeds. I dried all my choc habs and reapers other than the fresh reapers I made into fermented reaper sauce. I am doing a choc hab ferment from dehydrated habs. I didn't rehydrate with distilled water. I just added a 4% brine of distilled water to the dehydrated peppers with the airlock of distilled water. Not much activity but should be ok. I used a Tbls of fermented reaper sauce as a starter. No kahm yeast or cloudiness. Looks like clear strong tea. It's been a couple months the reaper ferment was a year. As long as it doesnt taste like salty chilies and has the tanginess, then it fermented. This is day one before the brine turned to tea.


All the dehydrated pods I have I put in enough in a dedicated coffee grinder to make it as I need it and leave the rest whole and outside with my back to the wind turn them to powder seeds and all. Then find some spice .measuring spoons, Tad=1/4 tsp, Dash=1/8, Pinch=1/16 and Smidgen=1/32. I use a Dash for an entire frozen pizza. Or, weigh a whole dried pod on your cure scale that goes to a hundreth of a gram or a few one at a time to get an average weight for one and you can weigh out powder and crushed pods to get a 1/4, 1/2 etc of a pod for chili, enchiladas etc These two methods seem to be the only way to consistenly dose this stuff.

 

[chopsaw]

Nice . I have a couple of those same measuring spoons .
I wish I understood the fermented hot sauce stuff .
I have 2 packs of powder he sent me . The second one he sent is really fruity used in the right amount .
I use it in sausage and dried beef . It's really good , but like you say it doesn't take much . Get it right , and the heat is good with a nice fruity flavor .

I'm not sure how much mine will produce , but I'd like to over winter one .
Dried beef cured with Reaper powder added . You can see how red it makes the meat . It's addicting .

Also , since I cleared everything out of the Aero gardens except the Jalapenos , they are going crazy . Struggled right after I did the cleaning , but have 5 nice peppers on the plant now and a bunch of flowers .

 

[chopsaw]

Well once again the weather in this area is gonna bite me . Both my Reaper plants are loaded with peppers but they're still green .
Areo garden is still producing Jalapenos . I have a bunch of green bells too , they always come on to late . At least I can use those .

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Well once again the weather in this area is gonna bite me . Both my Reaper plants are loaded with peppers but they're still green .
Areo garden is still producing Jalapenos . I have a bunch of green bells too , they always come on to late . At least I can use those .

We've got a lot of jalapenos, too. They just seem to keep on and on producing...

 

[chopsaw]

We've got a lot of jalapenos, too.

Mine are in an Aero garden in my laundry room . I'm hoping to keep them going through the winter .
Hopefully I get some ripe reapers this week .

 

[mneeley490]

I went the other direction this year and planted Nadapenos. They have the flavor of a jalapeno, but none of the heat. Nada. Yeah, my family are wimps about that.

 

[dr k]

Well once again the weather in this area is gonna bite me . Both my Reaper plants are loaded with peppers but they're still green .
Areo garden is still producing Jalapenos . I have a bunch of green bells too , they always come on to late . At least I can use those .

I just kept picking the ripe ones till the day before the first frost, then picked them all and put in a paper bag to ripen what could ripen on the kitchen table. This last harvest day was 10.11.19

 

[chopsaw]

This last harvest day was 10.11.19

Looks like it's gonna be about the same for a date .
This last week of warmer temps helped out some .
I picked the ones on the left last week . They looked like the ones on the right , but ripened up nice just sitting on the counter . Picked the ones on the right this morning .
I still have some 50 / 50 and all green on the plants .
Temps are supposed to hold up for another few days .