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Old October 25, 2016   #1
TomNJ
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Default Swimming in Serranos

In reading up on Serrano peppers on the Internet, several sites mentioned they are usually picked green and to expect up to 50 peppers per plant. Personally I only pick red ripe Serranos for use in hot sauce and salsa. So with the season's first frost looming, I harvested the last of my Serranos today and tallied up the season's yield.

My seven Serrano plants yielded a total of 22 pounds of red ripe peppers. At an average of 0.23 ounces/pepper, that's over 1500 peppers or about 220 peppers per plant! And that's just the red ones - there were probably a couple hundred green Serranos left on the plants I pulled today, and I'm also not counting what some friends had picked earlier.

Are these unusually productive Serrano plants, or do the Internet sites have their typical yield figures wrong?

TomNJ
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Old October 25, 2016   #2
Worth1
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Tom your just better than they are.

What are you going to do with them?
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Old October 25, 2016   #3
dmforcier
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It must be the magic dirt.

AFAIK, that's a superb yield. Congrats.






Now don't eat them all at one sitting.
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Old October 26, 2016   #4
pmcgrady
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I had similar results growing Big Thai Hot peppers this year, close to 400 peppers per plant. My dehydrator has been running nonstop for over a month.
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Old October 26, 2016   #5
Father'sDaughter
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Tom, I think you did find some magic dirt down there!

I'm happy my one plant in a five gallon grow bag only yielded somewhere around 75. I wouldn't know what to do with your harvest either! Sadly mine didn't have time to turn red and were all picked green.

Many were used along the way for cooking, but the last pile of them is now a pepper mash fermenting in a mason jar. When it's done, I'm turning it into hot sauce.
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Old October 26, 2016   #6
Salsacharley
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That is insane production! You can pickle them, including the green ones. For each 2 lbs of peppers, stemmed and sliced like jalapenos in a jar:
3 Cups distilled white vinegar, 2 Cups water, 2 T salt, 2 T sugar. Pack the peppers into 4 clean, hot pint-size canning jars, leaving 1/2 in headspace. combine the vinegar, water, salt and sugar in a medium nonreactive saucepan and bring just to a boil. Pour the hot brine over the peppers to cover by 1/4 in. Leave 1/4 in headspace between the top of the liquid and the lid.
You can then refrigerate them by cooling, covering and refrigerating them. They'll last up to 3 weeks. Or you can can them using the boiling water method: Release trapped air, wipe the rims clean, center the lids on the jars and screw on the jar bands. Process for 15 minutes. Turn off heat, remove the canner pot lid and let the jars rest in the water for 5 min. Remove the jars and set aside for 24 hrs. Check seals and store in a cool dark place for up to a year.

This recipe is from "Put'em Up" by Sherri Brooks Vinton. I use it for all kinds of peppers and it makes excellent pickled peppers.
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Old October 26, 2016   #7
TomNJ
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Yes my soil is quite good here - excellent drainage (no puddles), pH of 6.6, and all nutrient elements tested as very high. I have full sun and sit on top of a ridge at 2600 feet in the Blue Ridge mountains of southwestern Virginia, so the climate here is a bit cooler and drier than the coastal plain.

I put up 25 pints of hot sauce from my Serranos this year, probably a three year supply so I have been giving some away. I also have plenty of dried powdered peppers of several varieties, mostly Poblano, and have a half gallon each of crushed Serranos and Tabascos fermenting and will can these next month. Yesterday I picked the last half bushel of sweet peppers, a half bushel of Poblanos, and a quarter bushel of Serranos. Since I am up to my eyeballs in peppers I will give these away to local friends or the food bank.

Next year I plant less!

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Old October 26, 2016   #8
dmforcier
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Tom, you should look into growing C.pubescens - Manzano and Rocoto. Thick-walled, black-seeded peppers of about the heat level of Serrano, maybe a bit less. They developed in the uplands of the Andes and like cooler weather. The pods make outstanding powder and preserves, especially when smoked. Much more flavorful than Serrano, which I consider pretty boring.

The problem is that they are hard to get up and running. I admit that I have only ever been able to bring one Manzano to fruit**, and others have similar results. But once running, they crank out the good pods and, word is, can even take light frost. Maybe your magic dirt will prove the difference.


** I got one up to 20" this year, got it blooming, and it suddenly died. Cause unknown.
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Old October 31, 2016   #9
franknmiss
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Tom,
I had the same experience this year with Serrano pepper. My Son loves hot peppers and asked me to grow him something hot this year. I bought a pack of Serrano seeds while at a "Dollar General" at the beach in Alabama for 25 cents early this spring.
Grew a few seed out and planted one in a 5 gallon homemade self-watering bucket.
The amount of ripe red peppers coming off this one plant was unbelievable. It supplied all he could eat as well as for a couple of my neighbors.
It is still producing today as we are having temps near 80 still going into November.

I enjoy reading all your post about your garden in the mountains. It sounds beautiful there.
We are only at 175 feet ASL here and it is very hot and humid in the summer for sure.
Frank
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Old October 31, 2016   #10
TomNJ
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Hi Frank,

Yes life here in the Blue Ridge Mountains is really tough. This is what I have to face in the mornings from my front porch...
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Old October 31, 2016   #11
GrowingCoastal
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Lovely. A nice counterbalance to the harsh realities of life.
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Old October 31, 2016   #12
efisakov
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Tom, this is beautiful scenery.
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Old October 31, 2016   #13
franknmiss
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Tom. Wow!
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Old October 31, 2016   #14
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Smoke from boot leg stills that is what my dad always said.
worth
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Old November 2, 2016   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Worth1 View Post
Smoke from boot leg stills that is what my dad always said.
worth
Lol, back in the day most likely
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