Volunteer pepper plant!

[MYellowRose]

When I was out in the back yard today picking up someone else's trash I looked over and discovered that the "weed" I've avoided pullin is actually a volunteer chili piquin plant! :o Yeah! Now I can pull off those tiny peppers, put them in a bottle and pour pepper over them for some pepper sauce that doesn't cost anything.

[Smoky]

If it's not dead yet, you can also take a cutting and keep it going in the house. Piquins sometimes take a long time to make peppers from seeds, but will bloom quicker if you set out a plant in spring. They root easy from cuttings.

[MYellowRose]

Thanks Smoky. I think I'll put a small cutting in the bucket that had my tomato plant in it. The soil there seems to be in pretty good shape, nice and crumbly, not hard and packed, so it should root pretty good. Should I buy some rooting powder or the like at the beginning of the month to dip it in before planting?

[Smoky]

Usually they root pretty good without the powder. Another thing you could try if the soil has not frozen hard yet, is dig up the old plant. I'd cut the top waaaay back, like 3-4 inches. Pot it up (the roots). You might get some new sprouts from the roots, just keep them pruned short till March and let it grow all it wants then. Put it back outside after frost has stopped.

[MYellowRose]

Right now it's got plenty of peppers still on it so I don't want to uproot it under any circumstances. I don't have to worry about the soil freezing here, never gets that cold. So far I think the lowest it's been is about 40o F, though one morning when I woke up my cell phone gave me a temp of 36oF. I checked the time/temp phone number put out by one of the banks here, same number forever- since the late '60's that I know of, this morning and it was 12o higher than what my phone said, 52o F not 40o F. Our coldest temps usually hit in January and February. Also I'm hesitant to move the plant in case I manage to kill it, something I'm not all that bad at doing. LOL Thanks for the suggestion though.

[Smoky]

It's really hard to kill a pepper plant. Really. If you dig it up and get a ball of roots, it will live. Just cut the top back to match the roots since they were cut off too. As long as it don't dry out (or freeze solid) I don't think you'll have a problem. Moving it would affect the blooms and small green peppers adversely tho.

[Smoky]

So...what did you do? Is the pepper still growing outside? Did you save seeds?

[MYellowRose]

Smoky right now it's still growing out back and still has peppers on it. Since we're not supposed to have a very cold winter I will probably just leave it where it is for the time being. I can always cover it at night like I do my sisters plants that are on the patio and that should keep it going for quite a while.

[Smoky]

Cool. I mean, great! I guess you're firther south than I knew about. Good luck with it. The bushes get a lot bigger and better the second year, not haveing to grow every part from scratch. Save an seeds yet?

[LaDonna]

Hi, I am sort of new to the board. I posted a while back, but not long. I love gardening and I try to do all organic. I was wondering, what is a chili piquin pepper. Is that the little round one that is supposed to grow wild and is the hottest of all peppers. I know there is one that is like a 'b-b' and can send you to ER. I thought it was a Chili Tepin or something. A lady in Texas sent me some seed from her little plant, chili Tepin, but I am wondering what this one chili piquin is.
Thanks,
LaDonna

[cameron]

Ladonna

They are probably the same thing. People call them by slightly different names. Small, round peppers that turn red when ripe. They make an excellent sauce or are good pickled.

While they do have a good bite, they are not even close to being the hottest pepper. I have plants that grow wild around the yard, but I also like to grow habanero, scotch bonnet and mutton peppers. Now those are hot!

[Smoky]

Pequin, piquin, Tepin, chiltepin, there's a lot of names for the group of wild or nearly wild peppers.
The most noticeable thing about them is it's a different heat, hits you with a blast of heat and then dies down quickly. If you take a bite out of a habanero or even cayenne, it's gonna be with you for a while.

[MarechalNiel]

I too am confused by the various names for this group of peppers. I have three kinds; one that makes a rather tall, shrubby plant with conical peppers that are approx. 3/8 to 1/2" long; another is a shorter, less shrubby plant with round fruit (no conical fruit at all on this one) that are the approx. size of a pea; and a very small conical shaped pepper of approx. 1/4" on a delicate plant to about 1.5 ft. with leaves that are not much larger than the fruit. Cone shaped seed from a local flea market vegetable vendor, round one from a mail order, and the small cone shaped from an aunt who does not recall where it came from. And all have been called variably 'Chiltepin', 'Chili Tepin', or simply 'Tepin'. I have done a bit of research which has clarified some questions but created others, so I myself am not sure which is really which.

My plants are in the ground and are two years old. I am hoping to keep holding them over.

Going to try the white habanero this year.

[LaDonna]

Well my Tepin plant was tall and fragile with tiny peppers, I did not eat any of them because I was afraid to even try.

I have grown Habanero's before, the green and the Carribean Reds and one day I thought to myself, why do I grow these, ??? I don't like the taste and even if I did like the taste, I can't eat them, they are just wickedly hot. :o

Last year I grew several Heirlooms and this year I am going to try some new ones along with a couple that I grew last year and really liked. :D

The lady who sent me the Tepin peppers said hers come up ever year and the mockingbirds love them. I want to get me a patch started for the birds to enjoy. I may dry a few if I ever get them going good.

Thanks for the info on the Tepins.

LaDonna