Well the first half dozen of my Purple Chilli pods have turned red over the last 2 weeks. The first one was chewed by something overnight about a week ago. Whatever animal it was obviously didn't enjoy it too much. I've decided that it isn't an Hungarian Black, as these are rated as mild and can be dried to make paprika, so I'd be assuming that it is in fact the Purple Naga Jolokia, as these appear to be the most likely plants from my seed supplier.
I picked 5 red pods yesterday and had a little bite (about 1/3 of the pod) from the non-seed end of one and it certainly had a kick. At first it was a very pleasant, almost sweet apple flavour followed by the heat. They should be nice in a dish.
The pod that was nibbled by a critter was cut open and the seeds removed. There was a good 50 - 60 seeds and I immediately planted half that looked the least viable. Already have 8 germinated so they are good seeds. I have the seeds (and flesh) from the next 5 pods in a fermentation jar which I'll dry out and refrigerate for next season. The rest will go into fresh food and I may dry some in the dehydrator.
I'm having some very nice growth with early pods on my Kashmiri (or whatever it is) and the Rajah's have lots of pods. Cayennes are doing well with one exception which I think has some sort of disease. Bacterial Leaf Spot or a fungus, I'm not sure. I've separated it from the others and started treating all with Copper and Mancozeb. The trouble is that we are in a La Nina weather pattern at the moment, which is great, but it is just so humid and wet. It appears that Bacterial Leaf Spot has become a significant problem if the chatter on Chilli pages is accurate.
I have planted a few different varieties now as late season plants hoping that I can grow right through Autumn and Winter. I now have 3 or 4 different propagation batches running at stages and I'm up to over 200 plants. I've added Sannam and Bombay Mirch to my Indian varieties and also some Anaheim. A few batches of seed have proved unsuccessful and difficult to germinate.
The confusion about Kashmiri chilli is very frustrating. I'll post more about this in the directly related thread.
I'm just looking out my front window as I sit here and my 5 year old Thai Birdseye is now over 5 ' tall and it has the season's first 2 red peppers, a heap of green and lots of flowers. I think I took about 2 kg of chilli from it last year.