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My pepper plants are in hot chile heaven! I’m growing Ghost peppers, Tabascos, Habaneros, Datils and Jalapenos. They are exploding with fruits. Even our tomatoes, which we grow in pots (we grow everything in pots since our space is limited) are giving us the best harvest we’ve ever had. I did manage to kill off a mortgage lifter but an autopsy showed that death was due to drowning. We put the pot in a tray that was too small so it blocked the drain holes and didn’t allow water to escape. We looked at the withering leaves and assumed it was from the 104 degree temps, adding more water to an already overwatered plant. When I pulled out the plant to reuse the pot I saw nothing but mud. Now we are using that pot for a transplanted Ghost Pepper plant. We will have a record harvest and the combination of blistering heat and good soakings will turn the fruits into little fireballs.

I read a post in last week’s gardening thread about starving Jalapenos to make them hotter. While I agree that overwatering them will make them milder they are still, after all, Jalapenos and their DNA will only make them so hot. Even if they wer 10x hotter than normal you still wouldn’t begin to come close to the power of even a Tabasco. For those of you who don’t eat a lot of hot stuff a strong Jalapeno may seem like a firestarter but the burst of heat is brief. Chew on a Ghost Pepper and you get an immediate burst of heat like a Jalapeno. The difference is that 15 minutes later it’s not only just as hot, it’s getting hotter, and it could be 45 minutes before the heat wears off.

Our one big failure so far is Missouri Wild Peas, which were sent to us by a generous FReeper. I’ve tried to germinate them in hot weather, in the shade, indoors, in soil and on moistened cotton balls. So far not one has germinated. Still have a few pods left to try.

A few years ago I grew a Tabasco and those little pods are hot hot hot! It was prolific. I used just two of them in a pot of red beans and they made it pretty darn hot!

I also grew a Habanero Pepper plant and did not know what to do with them.

We visited South Texas this past weekend. At breakfast, I asked the waitress for a fresh jalapeno. She told me she had some salsa made from the hotest pepper in the world, “would I like to try some?” of course I said “yes”. It was very nice and “spicy”. Hubby put a drop on his little finger and said “WOW, that salsa is HOT!” It really didn’t have much “ghost pepper” flavor, other than the normal spices, minus jalapeno flavor, it was just “spicy”. She didn’t have the plant, just the pepper. Evidently she didn’t save the seeds, and needed some seeds. I sent her 4 of mine. Hopefully she’ll plant them and save the seeds. I’m looking forward to see my little peppers begin to sprout. They are in a pot with a tomato, I’ll move them to their own pots when they get some leaves.