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Project Jalapeño
Never wondered about the lack of jalapeños in my recipes? Let me tell you why: we can’t buy them here. It’s okay, no really, I’ll wait for the shock to wear off.
But seriously, they managed to build this entire country below sea level but somehow growing a few jalapeño plants is an insurmountable problem. Pity us.
The one time I did find a farmer selling Jalapeños, I had to buy a whopping 5 pounds because of a minimum order amount. No problem: I had visions of jalapeño poppers, tables filled with copious amounts of Mexican food, and boatloads of spicy tortilla dips, so ending up with 5 pounds of crunchy, fiery jalapeños could hardly be considered punishment.
They arrived and, happy as a dog with seven tails, I trotted over to my kitchen sure that today would be the day I’d bite down into a fresh crunchy and spicy jalapeño instead of those nasty, mushy canned ones they sell here. Within mere seconds my bubble had bursted… these were little more than glorified bell peppers. There was no heat whatsoever.
It was a black day.
So, I decided it’s time I try my hand at growing my own peppers…
I went out and bought myself a propagator, a fancy one because: A) I’m a girl and don’t want to look at something ugly in my window sill and: B) I’m a girl.
I’ll admit that fancy is rarely a good choice: this one doesn’t have a slide to let the air in so we’ll see how that works out.
Also picked up a few 4″ pots… I like to get ahead of myself.
And, of course, I got the seeds and some decent starter-mix.
See where it says “Exotic Groente“? Groente means vegetables in Dutch. Since when are Jalapeños considered vegetables?! A Jalapeño is a fruit as far as I know!
I meticulously went through the seeds, poking, prodding and checking them, tossing the losers: the smaller, misshapen and colored ones. I sprinkled them in a bowl and poured 1/2 a cup warm (not hot) weak chamomile tea on top of them.
The opinions on soaking the seeds are inconclusive: some say you have to soak them for 2 to 3 days while others say 6 hours max or you’ll suffocate them. I stuck to 6 hours. You don’t want to plant the ones that are still afloat after this time, they’re not likely to germinate, or so I’ve been told.
I filled the containers 3/4 with the soil, gently pressing it down and leveling it.
Drop 1 or 2 seeds in each tray, loosely spread another 1/4″ starter-mix all over.
Gently level it but be very careful not to press it down or replace the seeds.
I wanted the seedlings and soil to be properly hydrated from bottom to top, so I filled the tray halfway up with water and placed the containers in it.
After about 10 minutes you’ll see the moisture emerge at the surface. That’s your cue to remove the remaining water from the tray. We don’t want to drown the suckers!
Place the cover over the containers.
Lucky for me I have a South-facing window with plenty of sun and light all day.
Now we wait…
For the record: I don’t have green fingers. I’ve killed practically every plant I’ve owned, so I figured this needed to be documented. If I can actually get a jalapeño plant out of this, anyone can.
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Wow ! You should really love jalapeno to go thru all this for it ! All the best ! Hey, when I tried to click on your link to Ajam Paniki a few hours back, it said ’Site suspended’, its working fine now, though…just thought I’d let u know…
Don’t get me started on that! :)
Apparently there was a webspider indexing my website (feastieweb) and was causing a server overload.
Instead of blocking the spiders’ IP and notifying me of this so I could block it as well, what you’d expect a hosting company to do, one.com suspended my site, closed down my ftp and then they emailed me with something generic and even stated that they closed it down but I still had to pay for the hosting. Kinda rude, if you ask me.
When I started a support chat they misinformed me and said the problem was one of my plugins. It wasn’t until 15 hours later that I learned what the problem really was.
Something that could have been solved in a minute was stretched out over 15 hours. Great customer service, eh?
Great idea to grow them yourself! I’m growing some herbs this year and I can’t wait to see them sprouting!
I’ve heard that if you want them spicier, you have to stress the peppers a bit as they’re growing. So.. don’t always keep them perfectly watered, let them get a bit cold, things like that.
I think it’s great that you’re going to attempt to grow your peppers yourself. One problem, though. The picture of the pepper on your seed package really doesn’t look like the jalapeno peppers we get here in California. They look more like a serrano or thai type pepper. I work for a wholesale nursery and I’d be willing to scrounge up some jalapeno seed and send them to you in a first class mail envelope, if you’re interested. Also, we soak our peppers in water for a few days to increase germination. Let me know…..and good luck! We truly do take our bountiful produce for granted here in the US.
I had 2 different packages, one I bought from a reseller online and am 100% sure those jalapeños! Curious what’ll come out of these. Also planted some chili seeds.
I had the same problem, so I tried growing my own jalapeño’s two years ago. I have to say, my propagator didn’t look nearly as neat as yours! Growing the plants went really well. They became quite tall, not very pretty plants to have in your living room though.
But I was really excited because there were a lot of flower buds in them. I thought I was gonna end up with loads of peppers emerging from those flower buds. However, I noticed all the flowers just fell off after a while and no fruit replaced them. So after a while (pretty late in the season) I realized I had to ‘help’ the flowers a little by gently poking a small paint-brush in them. This way you’re guaranteed that the flowers are actually ‘fertilized’.
So in the end, I still got a few tiny but really fiery jalapeño’s. It was already kinda too late in the season so I didn’t get more.
Long story short: don’t make the same rookie mistake I made and ‘help’ the flowers as soon as they pop up! (Or maybe if you put the plants outside, the insects will do this for you) Good luck!
Seriously? Can you not even buy the pickled slices? I will gladly ship over a jar while you wait for yours to grow, if that is the case!
We have the pickled slices here, but they’re so mushy!
I am so sad for you, fresh jalapenos are a pleasure in life no one should be denied. I’m crossing my fingers for you and hoping that your lack of a green thumb (I have a brown thumb myself) will not come into play this time. I’ll be eagerly awaiting updates.
Love it! Can’t wait to see how this turns out!
This is a sad, but hopeful story! I will be waiting to see how your garden grows. I also manage to kill any plants I have…usually very quickly. Wish I could send you some jalapenos, we have PLENTY of them here is Texas! Good luck! Patsy
Good idea to start your own chiles, Kay! Here in Northern New Mexico the average daytime temp in the summer is 80-ish and it is down to the 40′s at night. Add 30 mile and hour winds most days and you will realize it’s hard to get plants to grow outdoors. So I grew my jalapenos in a greenhouse last summer and they were awesome! I got about 35 off one plant and they were hot! I had enough to freeze (just froze them whole) and bring out one or two when I need a little spice in my life! After freezing they are mushy, though.
Westlandpeppers.nl soon will have jalapeños again, you can buy them by the kilo.
I did! Those were the peppers I was speaking about that had no heat.
Hello there.
I love to read your recipies and tried some but we are only 2 so sometimes the recipy is too much. You have a great sense of humour, I love that. Keep growing your chillies , I hope it works for you!
Greetings from Vancouver Canada.
Funny thing: the fresh Jalapenos they sell in the supermarket here in Belgium state: “Origin: The Netherlands”… so I am guessing they export them all?
The only Jalapeños you can find here that I know of are from westlandpeppers (those were the ones without heat I mentioned, at least that batch I got), and I believe even they don’t have them now.
I hope you have a bumper crop!
With my abundance of jalapenos I have sliced them and pickled them using what I had handy..Kosher Dill Pickle recipe. Definitely need more crisper(alum/grape leaf) than pickles do. They are an all time favorite!
Nice to see you’re growing them too! They’re easy plants, only problem I have with them is lice. If you need peppers before harvest time you can order fresh peppers here: http://www.pepper-king.com/
Did that two years ago, the peppers were delivered in a couple of days and were hot as hell. Not cheap though…
I am from Texas and MISS jalapeno’s- the can ones just aren’t proper! My only saving grace is that sometimes Hanos has them when they are in season. They are a little pricey, 12€ a kilo, but last time I bought a bunch and used them in everything. I then froze some and also took a few and kept their seeds. I guess it’s time to plant them and see what happens!
I’m sure you miss them like crazy. We never really had them to begin with, so I didn’t grow up with them. They are extremely expensive when you can buy them. I’m hoping I’ll have enough of them eventually to dry some and grind them.
Hi there! I’m an American (New Mexican) in Amsterdam, and have come across good Jalapeños at the Makro now and again, but you never know… Just curious because I’d like to start some seedlings of my own at some point… where did you buy your propagator?
Thanks and it’s so much fun to read your blog and your Jalapeño experiment!
I bought it at life and garden! I had an awful lot of fun … and boy, did it work. I ended up with so many jalapeños that I dried and froze serious amounts.