Okay, maybe not quite a peck. I do have an update to our last pepper tour with a few of the varieties that have not done much yet this year, namely the Pasillo Bajio, Chocolate Habanero, and Yummy Snack peppers.

You might remember that the ‘Yummy’ peppers were something of a bust last year, with about 3 peppers all year, and they have been so far this year as well. You can imagine my surprise in looking at these plants last week and finding them actually fairly loaded with immature peppers! I wouldn’t call them highly productive yet, but it looks hopeful. I just counted about 25 peppers on just one of the three plants! Maybe they actually enjoyed this summer?!?

This is the Chocolate Habanero, and no, I haven’t seen any signs of buds yet. No, I’m not too concerned yet, because the Days to Maturity listed is 100 days. I’m sure we’ll end up with plenty of hot peppers. The reason it made this post is due to a different kind of development. You might remember that previous pictures of the habanero plants have been due to the strange coloration on the leaves. I just assumed that it had some kind of virus, and moved on with life. Pretty much everyone shared that opinion. Which is why this picture is so surprising – the new leaves are nice and healthy green! Trust me – viruses don’t work that way. Is it possible that the washed-out white color on the leaves was due to sun and heat bleaching them out? Maybe! If so, let’s hope that we’re beyond that, and with new growth will soon come some nice buds and peppers.

Also on our “late bloomers” list is the Pasilla Bajio pepper. It has been tall and gangly for weeks, but it is just now starting to flower. As you can see, I did manage to find one tiny pepper beginning to develop. Maybe I’m making this up, but it seems like most Ancho/Poblano peppers and now this one get really tall and gangly, and are late starting to produce. We have a poblano pepper in our community garden plot, and it looks very similar to this and is just starting to produce as well.

Most everything else in the pepper garden is either setting peppers or actively producing right now. A few of the bell peppers that have been a little pokey in the heat are starting to set better now, so I think we’re going to have many pecks of peppers in September!