Life, Death, & 'Black Nagas'

It was a mixed day today.

The second Mustard Habanero seedling, as well as one of the two remaining Trinidad Scorpion seedlings and the lone Aji Limo Rojo have all died. The little things were all just limp inside their little plastic bottles.

I thought it might be the bottles themselves, but every other seedling in a bottle is doing fine (in fact, some are doing really well, like the Ring of Fire Cayenne).

Nonetheless, their little plastic bottles were recycled for good use.

I recently 'bit the bullet' (as it were), and purchased untested 'mutant' seeds from a vendor (chillipepperpete), who was selling a rare oddity called:

The Black Naga.

(waits for sporadic 'oooooooh!...aaaaaaaah!')

Apparently a single plant in a Naga Morich field in Nagaland gave a harvest of Black Naga pods, and Mr. CPP was able to get a hold of some the pods and seeds. He sold them on his e-business for £2.00 for 10 seeds, which is about average for the cost of seeds (and cheaper than another seed vendor was selling his 'Mysterious Yellow Bhut Jolokias' for).

They cost exactly the same as his regular Naga Morich seeds, so I surmised, if they end up producing regular pods, at least I did not pay over the odds, and I'd have some more Naga seeds.

I also bought a bottle of his 2012 hot sauce, which has 'Smoked Bih Jolokia', as well as habaneros. I am looking forward to tasting it this evening, and posting a review about it, if anyone is interested (Lutra Lutra, this is the same company that made Dragon's Blood, so this ought to be interesting).

I am anxiously awaiting some seeds from two different parts of Australia and from Brazil, though I fear the Brazil one might have been lost in the post... :-(

Customs officials do not look kindly to seeds being sent in the post, it would seem...

The Voldemort Chilli

I must admit I never thought the Maize Morado could grow at the staggering rate it has been. I brought two of the four plants to work today, and they are pushing six inches in height.



All this after a mere 10 days of being sown on the ground (as it were)! The office is a trade-off, mind you.



At home the temperature is nice and constant, but they get very little light. In the office they will be getting maximum light exposure, but with recent radiator problems (a building that cost an unimaginable amount of money to renovate, and they didn't pay enough attention to the heating...seriously now!), it means that it will be considerably colder than at home.



I'm hoping light wins the battle.



The Roselle seedlings are doing quite well, all first leaves are fully open and taking in the little light available.



Capsicum wise, moving the incubators to the boiler room has worked the charm, as little seedlings are sprouting left and right. So far I've got 'en route':



Mustard Habanero X 1

Jamaican Hot X 2

Fatalii X 2

Thai Dragon X 1

Royal Gold X 2

Brazilian Starfish X 2

Hot Apple X 1

Red Squash X 2



Granted, it's not much yet, but I'm happy with the output so far, specially since there are once again, two Fataliis out of the blocks.



I came across what I consider to be a hilarious thread in http://www.thehotpepper.com/ yesterday which dealt with what can only be described as a seriously touchy subject with experienced growers:



New Strains.



Or in the case of this thread, a possible mutation, or crossbreed, or genetic anomaly, or chilli with an identity issue.



No one really knows for sure, but it did cause quite a stir.



It was to do with the nigh-mythical 'Chilli that must not be named' Yellow Bhut Jolokia...



...or Lemon Bhut Jolokia.



Reading the thread you'd swear blood would be spilt.



It was, however, quite entertaining (Chilli Gods forgive me) to watch two grown men (We presume. You never know in online forums where people have crazy sounding names like...Aji Chombo..ahem!) so adamant about the veracity of the strain origin and what was perceived as an act of fraudulent intentions on the part of one of them.



It was 'Get Medieval' stuff online!



In the midst's of it all, another grower (based here in the UK, but I won't say more) took the time to remind everyone that his super secret product was indeed real and the hottest one in existence (said to kill Male Buffalo if downwind of the plants, able to knock down incoming attack missiles if a slight mist is sprayed on your roof, can cure cancer by just looking at it, and other mighty boasts I just made up), and conveniently changed the website content of his site to reflect that the Yellow/Lemon Bhut he has (which he bought from one of the growers in the fisticuffs in the forum), was a fantastic experiment he hoped everyone enjoyed...



...while charging every customer a healthy amount for the unknown seeds.

And here I thought experiment participants usually 'participated' for free or by being paid.

Silly me, I must be on a different planet.



You seriously cannot make stuff up like this!

It's better than a Mexican TV Soap (telenovela!)



:-)