Misc Peppers - Farm Right (12/2/2017) ** Term 05/05/2018

[drbanks]

I've had these sprouted for months; finally a place to plant them.

• Seven Pot Brain Strain
• Fatali
• Datil

These are in the right half of my new Aerogarden Farm Plus

[drbanks]

7 Pot Brain Strain


From Cayenne Diane:

The 7 Pot/Pod Brain Strain Pepper is regarded as one of the hottest peppers in the world, but its rating is yet to be proven scientifically.
This variety is not a hybrid (which is created by crossing varieties), instead it was developed using selective breeding by saving pods from plants that would produce certain desired traits. In 2010 David Capiello, a well known grower and chile hobbyist from North Carolina, obtained 7 Pot seeds from another grower in Trinidad. This chili pepper is believed to be closely rated to the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. David selected pods with a lumpy grainy, texture like the human brain and named them Brain Strain.
A very productive chile plant, many growers say this is the hottest of the red 7 Pot strain chile plants. 7 Pot Brain Strain plants grow between 3-4 feet tall and fruits ripen from green to red. There is also a 7 Pot Brain Strain yellow variety.
TASTE: Extremely hot with a fruity flavor similar to other 7 pots.

Reputed to be over a million scovilles. Should make more economical chili, if I can use one of these instead of a dozen or more habaneros.

[drbanks]

Fatali Pepper



From Wikipedia:

The Fatalii is a cultivar of the chilli pepper Capsicum chinense developed in southern or central Africa from chilies introduced from the Americas. It is described as having a fruity, citrus flavor with a searing heat comparable to the habanero, to which it is related and from which it may have derived.

History
Originally from the Americas, like all chilli species, the specific variety known as Fatalii was 'discovered' and is thought to have developed in Central Africa. Since commerce between the Americas and Africa has spanned some four centuries or more, this is uncontroversial.

Cultivation
The plants typically grow 20 to 25 inches (51–64 cm) in height, but may reach 3 feet (0.91 m) or taller under optimal growing conditions, and plant distance should be about the same. The pendant pods get 2.5 to 3.5 inches (6.4–8.9 cm) long and about 0.75 to 1.5 inches (1.9–3.8 cm) wide. From a pale green, the most common variety matures to a bright yellow. Less common are red, chocolate and white Fataliis. The red version of Fatalii apparently has a somewhat different flavor and shorter, wider pods, maturing from medium green to dark red but the strain is unstable, throwing yellow and orange fruit. The white Fatalii tastes very like the standard yellow version, but lighter and more citrusy, and has similar heat, perhaps a fraction less.

Raw chilli taste
When eating a whole white chili and chewing for at least 10 seconds before swallowing (not recommended for untrained tasters) the heat may be first felt aggressively in the back of the throat, up the nose, then eventually moves to the roof of the mouth and finally the tongue where the pain is intense, at which point there can be gustatory sweating and tears from the eyes. Some tasters note the strong, fruity Fatalii flavour, which is quite distinct, as being almost identical to the yellow version. Others find it milder.
Hot chili aficionados who have tasted all four colour varieties report the heat increasing from the white, which has pronounced citrus lime and lemon flavours, through yellow, then red, then to the hottest and sweetest being the chocolate or brown Fatalii. The distinctive chinense (species) fruit flavour, also present in Habanero, becomes more prominent in the yellow than the white, and increases and becomes more rounded in the red and the chocolate. The effect of the chili heat also differs in the colour forms. White and yellow have more effect on the back of the throat and are slower to decline than the red and brown, which have more of a searing mouth burn, especially the tongue. The initial taste is of the fruit and sweetness, before the heat starts after about 30 seconds, peaking between two and five minutes when it declines. The heat decline of the red and chocolate falls more quickly than the white and yellow.

Culinary use
The Fatalii is known for its extreme heat and citrus flavor. It can be made into a hot sauce with other citrus flavors including lime and lemon. The heat can be reduced (extended) with oil and nuts. Variations of Fatalii hot sauces often include fruits including pineapple and mango. It can be used fresh diced to add heat and spice to marinades, dressings, barbeque sauces, salsa, and chutney. The Fatalli can be combined with fruit to make jelly and jam. Being thin-walled it is an ideal pepper for drying. It is reported to add a fruity flavor and spice when brewing beer.

[drbanks]

Datil Pepper (Capsicum chinense)


From PepperScale:

Some serious Florida heat…
Scoville heat units (SHU): 100,000 – 300,000
Jalapeño reference point: 12 to 120 times hotter
Origin: United States

Florida is really a state of extremes: extreme sunshine, extreme weather, and extreme heat. So it’s no surprise that the state harbors – pretty much under the radar – one of the hottest peppers in the world. The datil pepper comes from one of Florida’s most famous cities, St. Augustine. And it packs a wallop, similar to the punch of a habanero or Scotch bonnet. It’s one extreme chili that’s surprising in many ways, including how it made its way to and found a home in St. Augustine.

How hot is the datil pepper?
Ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville heat units, the datil pepper is pretty much on par with the more infamous habanero and Scotch bonnet peppers. In terms of our jalapeño reference point, the datil at its mildest is at least 12 times hotter than a jalapeño, but it can range up to 120 times hotter. That’s significant heat, placing the datil up in rarified air on the Scoville scale.

What does it look like and taste like?
It looks sort of like a thinner, slightly longer version of the habanero, which makes sense since they are both from the chinense species of hot peppers. They grow to about 3.5 inches in length and mature to a yellowish-orange or red hue. It’s also very similar to the African fatalii pepper in terms of looks and heat.
In terms of taste, it’s like a sweeter version of the habanero (which is already slightly sweet). It’s more akin to the Scotch bonnet in sweetness, but even that doesn’t quite do it justice. The Scotch bonnet is a little more earthy sweet compared to the mellower datil.
If it’s an American pepper and similar to the popular habanero, why isn’t it widely available?
That’s one of the things that makes this pepper so special. Like hatch chilies, the datil pepper is tied to its home city more than most other chilies.
St. Augustine has been the main purveyor of datil peppers for well over a century and the crops are grown in small batches by local families. These families grow for their local businesses and restaurants. Sure you can find datil seeds and hot sauces online from these local sellers, but to see the real beauty behind this pepper, a little bit of culinary travel to St. Augustine is well in order.

How did the datil pepper end up in St. Augustine?
It’s a bit of a mystery, that’s for sure. What’s believed is that indentured workers from Minorca, Spain introduced datil pepper seeds to the city in the late 1800s. How they got these seeds in the first place is up for great debate as the datil is definitely not native to Spain…or central Florida.
There’s another theory that the chili pepper seeds came from Cuba around the same time period, but local lore holds the Minorca origin story true to heart. It’s really a city-wide love of these hot peppers and the Minorcan heritage. Families of these first Minorcan settlers still grow datil peppers. Plus, every year, there’s a datil pepper festival cookoff. This is a local culture that breathes (and sweats) this chili.

What do people make with datil peppers?
Chilies of this heat caliber are loved for hot sauces, BBQ marinades, powdered dusts, and spicy salsas, and the datil pepper certainly follows suit. Plus, there’s an entire culture around this chili which makes it a staple for all sorts of local St. Augustine dishes, from fiery fish recipes, gator sides, and well beyond. Datil, too, is used to flavor pickles, aiolis, and all sorts of other condiments that’ll knock your socks off.

Where can you buy datil peppers?
Outside of St. Augustine, online shopping is your best bet. You won’t typically find these at your local gardening center. But datil seeds along with datil hot sauces and other bottled or jarred products can be found via Amazon and other web retailers.
Though, to really experience datil, it’s worth a trip to St. Augustine. This is a pepper that’s much more than a simple chili – it embodies an entire way of life.

[MaryL]

Hot, hot, hot!

[drbanks]

And probably about to die because neither pump in my new Aerogarden Farm comes on, nor does the spare if I plug it into the garden.

It's probably in Germination mode? Lots of different things in your farm! I love going custom!

[drbanks]

Nope.  I have it set to run continuously, since they're already germinated.  And, no response to the "Test Pump"

[MaryL]

Well that’s a disappointment.  What does the company say?

[drbanks]

The three pepper plants showed a bunch of yellow earlier this week, due either to the pumps being broken or because I mixed the nutes too strong, but all the new top leaves are coming out a good color of green.

Still not sure what the appropriate strength of nutes is/was.  The seedlings had been sprouted and sitting in a sprouting tray, more or less held in stasis for a couple of months, so when I transplanted them to the farm, I mixed a "week 2" strength batch.  The fact that they then sat in stagnant water for about 3 days probably didn't help, either.

I'm still so paranoid about my "fix" that I lift the lid every day when I get home, just to make sure the pump is still running.  it is.

[MaryL]

I’m glad you got it to work. How did you fix it?  

[drbanks]

At some point, it became clear to me that the power connection to the control box that turns the pumps on and off was broken somewhere, so I researched what the voltage, AC/DC and wattage requirements were, then bought a power brick to bypass the aerogarden's built-in pump power supply.

Feeding that power into the external control box (sits on the floor behind the Aerogarden) now makes the pumps operate normally, and under the control of the Aerogarden's brain.  There are two wires leading into that control box, power and USB.  So, the USB part was apparently working all along.  Using the control panel, I tell the left garden to test the pump, and it comes on for a minute as expected.

Total cost for the workaround was $15, which is still more than I would have liked, but it is an effective temporary measure.

[drbanks]

This is an example of the Power of Prozac.

In my younger days, I would have freaked out over the thing not working, and remained in a state of freak-out until the entire unit was replaced.  Now, I spent a day being upset, then by the next day, I'd calmed down enough to put together all the data I had from my desperate testing of the earlier day to formulate a workaround.  One stop at a geek store on the way home, and I had it running later that night.

Fortunately, didn't have to open anything up or solder anything.  The big IF (aside from whether it'd work in the first place) was whether my eyeball memory of the connector size would be reliable enough to allow me to buy the correct size on the power brick.

[drbanks]

Just did my first dump & refill on the right half of the Farm Plus.

For starters: About 2.5 gallons.  Actually a little less.  As measured by pouring the new nutes solution into the triangle feed area in the front left of the build deck.  It has no cover, and you know it's full when some water is visible in this.

Which is a stupid design, since when I overfilled it initially, I ended up with all sorts of algae brewing in that little slot.

I tried their dump system.  Basically, there's a little cover on the grow deck with the Aerogarden logo on it.  Using the instructions on the touch screen, remove the little cover, stuff the included tube into the top of the pump spout and turn the pump on.

Kind of a cheap and easy system.  When the cover is on, the pump's spout feeds the channels inside the grow deck.  When it's off, it comes out the top of the grow deck and hopefully into the tube.

It is considerably slower than just siphoning it out. but since there's no easy place to put a siphon, other than a grow hole, if you have a fully planted deck, it's certainly better than nothing.  I kind of like it.

And when done, the tubing is stored in one of the hood's side storage areas.

If nothing else, it's a nice sanity check on the state of the pump.

I should have pictures soon.  Was hesitant to show them before, since spending a half a week without any pump at all, i got a lot of damage done to my plants.  They are growing nicely now, and I've moved the Rocoto sprout from the harvest to an empty site in this.  It was having a hard time getting light next to the Sport pepper plant.  I'm obviously going to have to move this again before it's done.

[drbanks]

7 pot Brain Strain, Datil and Fatali (left to right), with the Rocoto peeking out behind the brain strain.

Those leaves on the brain strain are bigger than my hand.

[drbanks]

I've been doing a better job(-ish) of keeping these plants separated.  Just cut a huge leaf off the brain strain peppers.  Starting to see some buds on them.

[Shawn]

Always nice to see buds forming.

[MaryL]

I have to wonder with interest how they came up with the name 7 Pot Brain Strain.  I can kind of understand the Brain Strain part due to the heat of the pepper, but what are the 7 pots about?    

[drbanks]

It's a whole class of super-hots.  It's supposed to be so hot that you could spice 7 pots of stew with it.

[MaryL]

Jan 23, 2018 21:06:43 GMT -5 drbanks said:

It's supposed to be so hot that you could spice 7 pots of stew with it.

Ahh, I see.