Bird Chili's

Ya ever wonder why folk's call em Bird Chili's?

Cause the birds love to eat them!

Many of the wild cultivers of annuum, frutescens and baccatums produce tiny pea shaped or rice shaped chili's that are treats for common yard birds such as Mockingbird's (#1 enemy), Blue jays, Cardinals.

Not to big of a deal if you own 10,000 acres as the birds will drop the fecal matter own your land. If not, then your neighbors will have rare chili's germinating for free!

I had some Chili Pequin last year, but the winter did them in.

The winter will do any Chili in unless you can keep them from freezing and keep them at a constant mid to lower 40 range for a couple months then slowly bring them back up and out of hibenation.

It's not good on a chili to keep them growing all year long. Just as they are decidous and lose leaves once the weather starts to turn simply means they too need a break in winter. As trees take the winter off and come back in spring so to will your Chili's. Most all of the wild and semi wild varieties will fair better through the winters than some of the chinense varieties.

There is an exception to this rule though and that goes to C. pubescens or Rocoto and I actually germinate these seeds in winter but protected from frost. I germinated and grew my red rocotos in 25 to 35 degree closed space. They all grew up to by fine specimen plants.

Well I was told Chili Pequin is a perennial, but I guess it can't stand as cold of a winter as we had.

All Chili's are perennials but a frost or freezing temps will kill almost every single one. You have to consider that all Capsicum originated in South America and of that most in places that never saw freezing. Many of all the chili's that are grown today are cultivars of the original species.

To simply leave a Tepin or Pequin outside when temps are dropping below 40 is no different than trying to keep tomatoes alive when it freezes. Tepin, Chaco, Pequin are all some rather tough wild chili's to grow but leave them out after a frost or night that freezes and you'll be wishing you had brought them indoors.

A perennial Chili simply means that under the right conditions during overwintering it will spring back once weather permits. Though just like some trees once they shed their leaves they die during winter. It is trial and error on hibernating chili's to get a jump on the next year. For a Dorset Naga that survives this Winter may perish next Winter even if the temps are closely monitered. As such a C. baccatum may survive 2 or 3 winter but fade away during the growing season. A Hot Tepin can live for 20 or more years but may only produce for 8 and is only able to survive such a long time if kept from freezes and frost.

So if you have any this year that you want to save take them indoors or put in a garage and take out when temps are above freezing.

lol Mine mostly get eaten by central americans... Seriously, I'm not being ugly. I've got pequin along a street which connects the bus stop with some apartment complexes that tend to have central american and southern mexican tenants. I actually feel pretty good about that part of my "public" gardening. All the time folks are dragging home from work, then see the peppers from home and have a whole happier new body language with something a little familiar. (Then there's a whole nother body language sequence about is it ok to take some. I try to get out there and tell people to help themselves, I'm scared of the little things.)

Mine come back pretty reliably every year, without any special winter care.

I scared most all Latino's away with my hot sauce but them darn city birds in Richardson just helped themselves to what was supposed to be for seed stock. Oh well, I have enough with two 4 year old Tepin and one 2 year old trying to catch up.

Austin is far enough south that the C. annuum var. avicular species would grow well outdoors year round. That's the difference by living further south and the advantage of it too.

Let me know if you want to try Tepin C. annuum var. glabriusculum

These are tasty little guys!

I have 3 Chile Pequins and they all made it through last winter's freeze. Maybe they're in a spot that is more protected, I don't know. The Mockingbirds love them, that's for sure.

I wish mine had made it, they were lovely shrubs.

They grow wild here on the ranch. I had 5 plant in the garden, 3 on the north side of the house and 2 on the south side. Those on the south side and those out in the wild came back although I may not see much in the way of fruit this year. The plants are small and are just starting to produce flower buds.l.

Josephine, I have some dried pequins from last year. Would you like some seed?

Oh, thank you very much Veronica, but Michael is going to bring me 2 plants to the swap.
Josephine.

I've had a chile petin that has come back every year for the past 8 years. RIght now it is about 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide and covered with chiles. I originally transplanted it from my mother-in-law's yard in Beeville. I do try to throw a bucket over it whenever temperatures drop below freezing. I had about 8 growing in various parts of the yard last year, due to volunteers, but only 3 made it through the winter.

Good to know Dennis.

Josephine how much do you sell a Frost-Weed (Helianthemum Canadense) plant for?

I don't have the one you want, this is what I have;
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=VEVI3
and I don't sell plants, but i can give you one if you like.

Ok thanks for letting me know. I will continue to search for the Helianthemum Canadense.