Red Hot Peppers

Hot Peppers
http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?PJCCB Red Hot Peppers.

Four plants in the garden produce about three quarts of peppers. These were planted 1 June 2008, purchased form a supplier with no cultivar name, just hot peppers. They will be dried and blended to produce a semi-powder used similarly as one would paprika.

The peppers are indeed hot, and have sufficient capsaicin for most palates. I like the larger hot peppers, since they are easy to pick and the capsaicin is more than adequate.

When growing, the plants are supplied with a cup of vinegar in about a liter of water periodically during the growing season to keep the roots in a local acid environment.

What a wonderful harvest ! Didn't think it would be warm enough for them to grow there - shows what I know Perhaps you could explain to us the technique you use to dry them one day - I only pickle or make a sauce with mine or use them fresh.

Interested in the vinegar. Never heard of using it for that purpose - to make the ground more acidic for a particular plant I mean. Are you using ordinary household vinegar, Durgan? Interested because I know using horticultural vinegar can make the ground so acidic over time nothing will grow there.

Fran wrote:What a wonderful harvest ! Didn't think it would be warm enough for them to grow there - shows what I know Perhaps you could explain to us the technique you use to dry them one day - I only pickle or make a sauce with mine or use them fresh.

Interested in the vinegar. Never heard of using it for that purpose - to make the ground more acidic for a particular plant I mean. Are you using ordinary household vinegar, Durgan? Interested because I know using horticultural vinegar can make the ground so acidic over time nothing will grow there.

I dry the peppers in the shed, which gets quite hot during the day if the sun shines, and when absolutely dry, I put the whole pepper in the blender and beat them to small particles. I still have some from last year.

Peppers like a Ph of around 5. I use ordinary household (3%) white vinegar, and have some practical evidence that the procedure is beneficial. When I first tried the procedure, I tested on a few plants and decided that the results were worth continuing the practice. Since the acid is localized, it probably does no harm after cultivating the garden for the next season.