Ornoth

Typically, I haven’t kept any plants in the house. Part of the reason for that is the wide discrepancy of opinion about what house plants are and are not dangerous for cats. Another part is that the Puggle has always demonstrated great relish in destroying any living thing I bring into his environment. I used to buy cut flowers for my entryway at the Arlington T station, but gave that up when saving money became a priority.

Last spring I visited a friend from south Texas and we got to talking about my interest in potentially growing my own hot chile peppers. She said that certain varieties grew in the wild in great profusion where she lived, and she later mailed me a bag full of loose seeds and pods from two different species—chile pequins and chiltepins—which I planted in several different batches at the end of May.

Now, chiles are presumably difficult to grow from seed, with a very long germination period, and they demand a long growing season and a very warm environment. I managed to get one chiletepin plant to grow, and it flowered prodigiously, but none of the flowers ever germinated, so I didn’t get any fruit from that one, sadly.

On the other hand, I got more than a dozen chile pequin plants, which I trimmed down to a manageable number. Eventually I think at least three of them flowered, and at least one of them germinated and produced two small batches of fruits: maybe 4-6 pods each.

Now, chile pequins are tiny—about the size of a pencil eraser—but they’re also among the hottest peppers around. My friend also shipped me a huge jar of them; her husband is Mexican, and he puts them in everything! I’ve been adding about a dozen or so each time I open a large jar of spaghetti sauce, with good results. My own peppers also went into those batches, as well.

The only real problem I had was this: they attract little fruit flies like crazy, and it’s been a periodic battle to keep them down.

Of course, now I get to learn whether the plants are going to survive the winter and rejuvenate in the spring. Because I’m trying to keep my electric/heating bills down, I let my apartment get very cold sometimes, and there isn’t much sunlight here in the winter, so they’ve been dropping leaves like crazy. But we’ll see if they can make it through the next couple months. I’m curious to see if they’ll revive. I’m also thinking of planting another round of seeds this spring, but at the same time I question whether it’s worth all the work for just a couple tiny peppers…