Re: [CH] Info needed
Jim Campbell (jim@wildpepper.com)
Sun, 06 Dec 1998 09:54:41 +0000
I can only answer a couple of your questions.
On drying- The red hab is thicker walled than your early Scotch Bonnet
which is why you are having a tougher time drying them. There are a
couple of ways around this- 1. You DO have a dehydrator. It is called
an 'oven'. Set it as low as it will go (no hotter than 175 F) and place
the peppers in here for awhile. You can dry them completely or allow
them to get a 'head start' and pull them out after a bit. 2. You can
make a small slit in the chiles to help them shed moisture. Thicker
walled chiles ahve a tougher time shedding the internal moisture which
is why they are rotting. 3. You migiht also try drying the chiles in a
dried part of your house, if you have one. Kitchens and laundry rooms
are not good areas because of the higher humidity. Chiles can be dried
quite well at very low temps if the surrounding humidity is very low.
If you don't have many chiles, you might try getting some dessicant and
placing the chiles in an air tight bag with the dessicant. I've not
tried this before but it sounds like it ought to work.
On mutants- It has been my extensive(?) experience that any given hab
plant will rpoduce a wide variety of pod types. Nothing I've seen in
your note leads me to believe you ahve any true 'mutants'. If I can
prevail upon the nice folks at http://www.habanerosauce.com to post my
pictures, you will see a TREMENDOUS vareity of pod types and sizes that
all came from hab plants. Of course, I have to get the film developed
first :-) Personal experience has also led me to believe that pods can
cross and affect chile in the same season although this is a very rare
occurance. This is a controversial item though, and is not currently
supported by the scientific community. I've too many incidents (both
anecdotal and empirical) to believe that it CAN'T happen though.
I leave others to answer the rest. Hope this helps!
-Jim C (The Elder)
MWPH