Who in cooler climates grows Capsicum chinense in open field?
I want to grow a zero-capsaicin (sweet) habanero in open field (not covered). Last year I grew out a mix of varieties, started them in plugs in spring and planted out late June. They unfortunately totally failed to produce fruit. The main limitations at that site are low nutrients. My climate is relatively cool in summer, so that limits growth too. I understand Capsicum chinense loves heat. Most people who grow the species here start them very early in the season - sometimes in February indoors under grow lights - because they need time to grow.
This year I want to:
Learn more about the growth preferences of the species. So I’m looking for any input and experiences from you!
Start the plugs earlier to plant them out a month earlier.
Fertilize just a bit
I can’t get any adaptation without fruit, so my goal this year is just to get a multi-variety cross.
Varieties to work with:
Cachucha Purple Splotched
AjĂ dulce
Aji Margariteno
Frontera Sweet
Manabi Sweet
Pink habanero
Vicente’s Sweet Habanero
Yellow Biquinho
De Bico
Habanada
Stuffing Bonnet
Let me know if you know about other Capsicum chinense with zero capsaicin.
I heard om Lane Selman that Culinary Breeding Network has been working on this kind of project. If any of the Americans here can help me get seed from that work, I would be very happy, just hit me up.
I’ve grown habanada a few times now, both inside my hoop house and outside. Starting my peppers in early march, on a bed of compost for bottom heat with greenhouse plastic overtop… they were much much slower to grow than capsicum annum, I ended up leaving them for a few more weeks than the others so they could get big and strong before planting out I usually plant peppers mid may but waited till a week into June for the chinensess. The ones I planted outside only got a couple fruits and they only fully ripened taking them off the vine at the end of the seasons (late September) the ones in my hoop house ripened fully by October and were loaded with fruits. Though they were only 10 inches tall compared to almost 30 inches for all my other peppers…From this and your experience it seems clear they need a long season and as much heat as you can get. I wonder about putting hot caps (plastic jugs) over top of them for the first few weeks after planting to at least give them good start so you can get fruits that you can slowly adapt to not needing the extra heat. Or perhaps digging down and putting manure down a foot or two below your planting so they get solid bottom heat… obviously more intensive than we want to be but for the sake of getting some to seed with your local microbes it may be worth it!
Look forward to hearing about your findings, and anyone else’s suggestions! the habanero flavor with no spice is just spectacular. Almost confusing to the mouth as the fruit flavors are usually accompanied by the spice, it made for such delicious salsa!
I don’t know if the are truly heatless habaneros. I only have experience of pink habanero, which does have a little heat. Since the capsaisin compounds in chinense aren’t as pungent as in the other species that isn’t more than just a little warmth that you can get if you eat it raw, but it should be unnoticeable if used in cooking even for those with zero tolerance. I suspect most of the other “heatless” are the same. At least what I have read seems to suggest that, but I do remember reading that some was truly heatless. No knowledge which. With little heat there is always possibility of getting stress induced hot peppers. Same problem goes also the other way. Even the super hots can produce heatless fruits in certain conditions. So it lends itself quite poorly to landracing since you should go towards stable in isolation several generations to make sure that it’s heatless. Or otherwise you will always have the possibility of random plants making different levels of capsaisin.
Bigger problem is that it needs heat, which is why I don’t really think it is worth it to breed outdoors in northern climates. Greenhouses yes, but even then unheated greenhouse is quite marginal. Some years might be better than others. I don’t know if there even are any strains that can handle cold better. I had one peruvian variety years ago that was supposed to be better suited for cool, and maybe it was, but not to the degreee needed here. Would probably need some mass direct seeding in climate that is cool enough and has long enough season to make some viable seeds. It would be interesting to direct sow million seeds and see what survives. Advantage of chinense is that it’s maybe the fastest to produce, if it has enough heat. So starting early really doesn’t make any difference. Enough heat and light it ripens 3,5 months from sowing. But that only helps in breeding sense. Since the fruits are small it needs longer season to get any decent production. Ad some 1-1,5 months for start of the main harvest.
I’m with you - the flavor is just spectacular. The penny dropped for me when I got whole peppers lacto-fermented and just served as is on a pickling plate. As a starter for a burger meal, lol. Too good. I imagine the different fruity compounds could be enhanced and I’d love to have a breeding population to explore the different directions it could go.
Probably I really need to nurse these plants at least to get the initial cross and probably also the F1 generation - probably use a small tunnel early in the season like your idea of hot caps. Then it could be interesting to start adapting to open field with less plastic in the F2 generation.
I heard that there’s a type of pepper supposedly hot that loves cold weather but it has black seeds I forget what its name was but it’s from South America
C.pubescens “loves cold” to some degree. It still needs fairly high average to prosper, but likes more temperature swings and doesn’t mind if nights are close to zero. Ideally day temperatures should be quite high still. Taste is very different to c.chinensis, closer to black pepper and there aren’t mild versioins of it that I know of. It’s also too distantly related to c.chinensis and the other commonly cultivated species that it doesn’t cross with them.
I think you mean Capsicum Flexuosum, and I learned something from you​. I ordered the seeds and was surprised by the colour. Started them indoors, but no germination at all, and I thought the colour was to blame. Now that we all have access to AI, I asked about it and it seems that I have not been patient enough. I will try again, thank you!
No, c.pubescens (and one of it’s wild relative might have had black seeds as well) is the one with the dark seeds that is relatively cold hardy. C.flexuosum I can’t remember right now which one it was or what kinda seeds it had. One of the undomesticated species had the ability to withstand cold, but you couldn’t cross it directly with any useful species so it’s more of a curiosity rather than a potential breeding stock. C.annuum would be the way to go if someone wants to add some cold tolerance to c.chinense, but that would also bring more pungent type of heat to them. Wild chinense and just sowing shit load in cool conditions should work also in the long run. That’s how it happens in the nature anyway. Life finds a way.
Faroa Islands seems like a challenging place to garden without greenhouse other than brassicas, potatoes, peas etc. Maybe more with a favourable micro climate? Probably at least have less pests there.
. I ordered the seeds and was surprised by the colour. Started them indoors, but no germination at all, and I thought the colour was to blame. Now that we all have access to AI, I asked about it and it seems that I have not been patient enough. I will try again, thank you!