Hi all,

It's nice to post my first picture here :-)
My Ají Amarillo just started flowering!
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/aji-flores-089-web.jpg)

Does anyone know how long time it takes from flowering to fruiting, in average?

Another question: I have lots of varieties and I'm growing them indoors.  This means that they'll probably cross-polinate rather easily.  Does anyone have any hints on how to isolate them to avoid cross-polination indoors? I don't have much space, so they need to live very close to each other...

Aji Amarillo is a common name for big yellow pods.
So there are several Aji amarillos.

So depending on the Aji Amarillo -variety, approx. from month to two (or even longer!) if you mean how long it takes  from flowers to mature fruits.

I grew Aji Amarillo several years ago which  was VERY slow to mature it's fruits.

But it's in a matter of days when you see the tiny pods forming after the corollas fall off.  :)

Yes, the Amarillos I have grown have, indeed, been about the slowest maturing chilis imaginable - perhaps even 2 months or so. But the result is worth the wait! :)

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "Fatalii"Aji Amarillo is a common name for big yellow pods.
So there are several Aji amarillos.

Okay, I see.  I bought these seeds from Nicky's Nursery in the UK and they just call it "Aji Yellow (C. baccatum)", so not much information about the exact variety :?

1-2 months until the pods are mature is quite a lot! But I was actually expecting something around 1 month anyway... What about Habanero Chocolate Brown? Do they mature faster? I have some of those growing rapidly now, so I expect that they'll start flowering soon as well :-D

About my other question, does cross-polination happen easily indoors?  I mean, there are not many insects inside my apartment, so do I need to take any precaution if I want to save some seeds without having the risk of cross-polination?

There's always a risk of cross-pollination with several chiles near each other.

But of course the risk is smaller compared to outdoor or greenhouse growing with bees and other insects around.

To get pure seed for sure, use the caging method:
http://juuri.org/fatalii/?u=g&c=search&word=caging&id=1762

I have grown only Chocolate Habanero Long earlier and I'm growing Chocolate Habanero Caribbean at the moment.
Definately faster to mature pods than Aji Amarillo I grew back then.
http://juuri.org/fatalii/?u=g&c=search&word=amarillo&id=32

And be careful with choc habaneros, they are    H O T  !!!!! :)

Thanks for your answers! :-)

I also got the chocolate habaneros seeds from Nicky Nursery, and I also don't know their real variety.  Have to wait and see if they're long or not.

So, with your caging technique, you just wrap a net around the flowers which you want to keep pure, looks easy.  I actually thought about that, but I wasn't sure if it would be a problem for the flowers due to lack of air and/or light.

I'll try that later, when more of my plants start flowering.  Especially because I want to be sure to get some pure seeds out of those nice varieties you sent me ;-)

Yes it works well, the netting or lace cloth must be dense enough to prevent insects from entering the flower, but they still have to let the light in.

The lace cloth is sold by the finnish name "hallaharso" which works well with caging and as a cover to prevent the plants from burning.

I use lace cloth for several weeks after moving the plants outdoor or in the greenhouse.

It's commonly used to prevent the hail damage.

Aji Amarillo/Yellow/Escabeche, btw, is a common name for Peruvian hot-sweet, large, yellow-orange fruit baccatums. That type only seems to be grown in Peru and its close neighbouring areas.

If you look at other kind-of similar hot-sweet baccatums, like Aji Cristal from Chile, the plants are already quite different, and so is the taste of pods. The varieties of Ecuador and Bolivia are also clearly different in many ways, so these very late maturing, huge "Amarillos" are quite unique peppers. Absolutely delicious in all forms, once you just get them mature... And they're delicious even when raw! :)

Thanks for the information! It's very interesting to know the origins and relations to other chiles.  I'm looking forward to trying these amarillos!
Actually, my cousing lives in Peru and I'm planning to visit her, maybe next february.  I'll have[/i] to explore the local markets thoroughly, and I'm sure I'll find some new, interesting things there! ;-)

BTW, I also have some Paper Lantern, Cayenne Slim and Ají Rojo seedlings growing well now.  Do you have any info about these? I've tried to google for this information, but the results are always quite scattered, unclear or very brief... And now I found out that there is very knowledgeable people within a few tens of kilometers from where I live, so... ;-)

BTW, that was me above... forgot to log in  :oops:

Cayenne is a capsicum annuum, heat level somewhere around 8... The plant is typically quite compact and doesn't necessarily live more than 1 year. Some people like its taste, some don't - it's the basic chili of Asian kitchen, anyway, and tends to produce a lot of peppers.

Aji Rojo/Red is a little darker version of Aji Amarillo. The one I have grown was also a lot earlier, thus easier to grow in Finnish climate... The taste is just as fine! From Peru as well.

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "thietavu"Cayenne is a capsicum annuum, heat level somewhere around 8... The plant is typically quite compact and doesn't necessarily live more than 1 year. Some people like its taste, some don't - it's the basic chili of Asian kitchen, anyway, and tends to produce a lot of peppers.

Okay, I know the cayenne, but mostly from buying it in dried form or as powder.  Nice to heat up sauces, but not so special taste.  But if the plant is quite compact , that's excellent to me, since I'm growing my chiles inside my apartment ;-) And it's also nice to have a good  diversification.

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "thietavu"Aji Rojo/Red is a little darker version of Aji Amarillo. The one I have grown was also a lot earlier, thus easier to grow in Finnish climate... The taste is just as fine! From Peru as well.

Great! If the taste is just as good as the amarillos (as I've heard so often from you guys) and it's an earlier variety, I'm sure I'll be happy with it as well!

Now it's been quite some time since my Ají amarillo started flowering.  So it's about time for an update and some more pictures  :wink:

A better picture of a flower:
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/21052005-079-web.jpg)

And this is how some of the fruits are looking one month later:
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/24062005-086-web.jpg)

I can hardly wait for these chiles to ripen! It's taking waaaay too long, but by the words you guys have been saying about this variety, I'm sure they will be worth the wait!

Looks very delicious!!! :-)

Btw: the spots on the flower's corolla are brown - typical for the "Aji" type big baccatums. Very many other baccatums and about all "lemon drop" -type ones have bright green spots. Small detail, but may be of interest to someone, who knows... ;)

Some updates :-)

My ají amarillo (or should it be ají naranja because of its orange colour? ;-)).  It has changed quite a lot in one month! It seems to have enjoyed the warm weather!

General view of the plant:
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/23072005-091-web.jpg)

First pods are (finally!) starting to mature:
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/23072005-098-web.jpg)[/img]

And it has been producing lots of new flowers and pods:
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/23072005-096-web.jpg)

Looking good!  :D

That pic with the flower and the sun on the background is really nice! Nice going.

I've picked up two mature fruits and a green one.  Their taste is excellent! Very nice fresh taste.  The green one, for some reason, was a bit hotter than the ripe ones.  And with a very green fresh taste...  Nice! I'm starting to wonder whether I should wait until they ripen or if I should use them green instead ;-)

Thats the big question.

I like many varieties more at immature stage, fe. Lemon Drop and use the mature pods for drying and making powder out of it.

Aji Amarillo is so damn slow to mature that I would probably smoke and dry them at immature stage.
But if you will wait until they're almost too mature, they'll be VERY tasty!

PS. soon I can taste Aji Cachucha! :)

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "Fatalii"But if you will wait until they're almost too mature, they'll be VERY tasty!

Okay, I'll have to try that :-) There are plenty of pods in my plant, so I guess I'll have the chance to taste them in different ways ;-) I noticed that in Reimer's seeds, they have actually three different varieties of Amarillos.  Two of them turn into yellow before becoming orange.  And one (like mine) turns orange directly from green.  Do you know if there's any different in the taste among these three aparently different varieties?

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "Fatalii"PS. soon I can taste Aji Cachucha! :)

Cool! I have two tiny seedlings from the seeds I got from ColdBOB, but they're extremely slow to grow, I don't know why.  They're under fluorescent lights (as I've done for all my other plants) and two red habaneros that have germinated at the same time are growing faster in the same conditions.  Any idea why?

I actually got two different packs of Cachucha seeds and at least the seeds are quite different from one another, so I expect that the plants/fruits will also be somewhat different...

Looking forward to hearing about your tasting! And I'm still waiting for those pictures you promised to put up on your site ;-)

Aji Amarillo / Aji Yellow is a common name and as you surely know, it translates to "yellow chile", which applies to quite many different varieties.
Commonly it's used especially for C. baccatums, in _most_ cases, "Aji" means C. baccatum even it translates to "chile" etc.

Most often I see two different C. baccatums which are called Aji Amarillo, they're totally different and should taste different too.
There are also few C. annuums called "Amarillo" and often mislabeled as "Aji Amarillo".

And then Aji Cachucha.... (yes it's chinense, confusing, isn't it?) :)
I also notest that it's quite slow to grow, even when compared to other C. chinenses.
My Aji Cachucha seems to produce just few pods, but then again, I germinated it way too late and it's at too shady spot in the greenhouse.
Maybe it'll be one of the few chinenses growing in my greenhouse next year.

I have some Ají Amarillo seeds available, if anyone is interested.

It's a nice variety, with excellent taste both when immature (fresh slightly citric taste) and when ripe (sweeter lemony taste).  I'm very happy with it! It is rather prolific, even under not-so-optimal light/temperature conditions, but the fruits mature very slowly (ca. 2 months).

Well, anyway, you can check the pictures I posted above and I'll be adding a few more fruits pictures here soon.

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "luca"I have some Ají Amarillo seeds available, if anyone is interested.

It's a nice variety, with excellent taste both when immature (fresh slightly citric taste) and when ripe (sweeter lemony taste).  I'm very happy with it! It is rather prolific, even under not-so-optimal light/temperature conditions, but the fruits mature very slowly (ca. 2 months).

Well, anyway, you can check the pictures I posted above and I'll be adding a few more fruits pictures here soon.

dont happen to have a cutling? i sure am interested of those.pm if you see this and still have the beans.

Now that I've been harvesting some fruits, I can post some pictures of them here ;-)

Almost fully ripe fruits:
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/02092005-095-web.jpg)

Cross section (fleshy very tasty fruits):
(http://www.openbots.org/pimentas/photos/02092005-097-web.jpg)

There are few better tasting peppers than Aji Amarillo & Rojo, indeed... These babys grow fast, grow huge, and live very long as well. :)

Yes, I'm starting to believe you more and more about this variety's taste :-)

This plant has certainly given me excellent results.  Its beautiful looks actually helped me convince my girlfriend that it should be an in-house plant and get a prime spot in our apartment ;-) I hope it keeps bearing as many tasty fruits and nice flowers as it's been doing in our balcony during summer!

My Ají Rojo, though, has not produced any flower yet (even though it has grown quite tall and bushy)... I'm a bit disappointed, but it could certainly be the lack of light.

I'm still in hope to get some fruits from my other plants moving them indoors later this year.  I still need to get some results from my chocolate habs, my ají rojos and my other amarillos and paper lanterns...

This is a version called Aji Amarillo Mirasol ( J. L. Hudson Seeds)--don't know where the 'mirasol' came from as the pods are pendant. Slowest of all my peppers to ripen--started 4/13/05 and just now ripening

(http://www.pbase.com/chiles400/image/53510503.jpg)

I have had similar experience, that Aji Amarillo and PI 290983 'Aji Verde' (which looks and tastes exactly the same as Amarillo) have been the slowest ones to mature. Green pods formed sometimes during the summer, unfortunately many of them were eaten by some stupid critters, and just a few weeks ago I got the first mature pod.  Meanwhile, the bushes had to be taken inside from the greenhouse. Sometimes I wonder whether I should just dump them and substitute with faster variteties, but then again, they DO taste pretty good.

Habaneros, Scotch Bonnets and Rocotos as well as some wild species have been quite slow as well, but they're slow to start flowering, not so slow from pod maturing point-of-view.

It took my Ají Amarillos also quite a long time to ripen... Something around 3 months after the fruits set...  But I started quite early (january) and grew them under fluorescent lights for a few months, so I got some ripen fruits during summer time.

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "JartsaP"unfortunately many of them were eaten by some stupid critters...

In fact, I would rather call them clever.  :wink:

My slowest variety to ripen so far has been "Aji Chivay". It is also a big, juicy, aji amarillo -type baccatum without any heat (I have collected the seeds at my semi-scientific botanical expedition (pisco drinking) journey in Peru :P). Anyway, I think this slowness is the main problem with big baccatums.

Hi @ all,

this is my Aji Amarillo 2007 (Plant from 2006)

(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2094/cbaccatum003ajiamarillogr9.th.jpg) (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cbaccatum003ajiamarillogr9.jpg)
All my chilli plants have grown very well and have many pods . After a fertilizer test Hakaphos was specially NPK = 16 + 8 + 22 + (3 MgO) for me the Champ.

Look at the fertilizer test  :arrow:

http://www.chili-balkon.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1310

Greez Jogi

That's an impressive plant! If you can grow it for 5 or 10 years more, it will be huge!

Too bad I don't have the space to grow anything like that.

Jogi, yours Aji Amarillo looks very nice!  :D

Lainaus käyttäjältä: "gine"Jogi, yours Aji Amarillo looks very nice!  :D

@ gine,

many thanks, oder einfach vielen Dank  :roll:
Now the whole work is fun if one the results sees.

The Starfish has also so become good. All C. pubescens also:-)

(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/164/okt2007006starfishsmallmk3.th.jpg) (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=okt2007006starfishsmallmk3.jpg)

Greez Jogi

In November the Aji Amarillo is ripe. Unfortunately only indoor because outdoor was frost .

(http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/954/ajiamarillopot112007ip1.th.jpg) (http://img253.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ajiamarillopot112007ip1.jpg)

Much greetings Jogi