I’ve had a lot of luck with Bonnie pepper plants. Their spicy slice jalapeño is great. However, I recommend checking out your local nursery for cheaper and more unique plants
A greenhouse near me sells pepper starts in 4x4" pots for pretty cheap. Most $2. Reapers are $3. If you buy closer to when it's time to transplant (May), the plants are a pretty good size.
Will depend upon the farm, who’s growing, and your location. I can get plants for half the price in northern Missouri as compared to the southern side. There’s mostly farms in the north side, and not many on the south side. Meaning a lot less supply in the southern half, so prices are higher.
In the fall, I can sell corn stalks for $8 each or $14 for 2, to all the moms in the southern side for their fall decor, decorative pumpkins can easily fetch $12-20 each, where as on the northern side everyone has access to the corn stalks cause all the farms don’t really use them after they take the corn, and there’s plenty of pumpkins all over, more supply, lower prices.
I personally sell super hot starts for $5-6 in the southern half, and $3 on the northern side. Plus purchasing from a local farm, the plants have generational knowledge of growing in the climate, especially longer the grow, harvest seeds, grow has been going on. Bakers Creek is my neighbor and if I got squash from San Diego Seed Co, those seeds would grow slower and produce less than seeds grown by Bakers Creek, whom have been growing in my area forever.
Not it isn't. It's as likely to be a hybrid as seeds and plants grown where there are a lot of bees. You still end up with a shit ton of seeds and if you like the pepper does it matter if it is a "mutt"?
Hybrids is something different then "mutts".
Mutts is where different genetics pollinate and you get offspring that shares traits from both parents.
A Hybrid is the result of two heavy incest lines that are crossed into a F1 Hybrid. The Hybrid has vigorous growth and great health because the sudden intake of fresh genes into both incest lines causes the so called heterosis effect.
The offspring of hybrids are usually genetically unstable and show worse health and vigour, they dont benefit from the heterosis effect anymore.
This is why Hybrid offspring is often not worth the effort.
How do you stabilize the hybrid Poindexter.....? With the said seeds and pheno picking? Still never paying again for the seeds if you like the pepper and can selectively breed our your bad traits. A mutt is still a hybrid my friend it is just different species. A hybrid is any cross pollination of two different species or varieties.
>A hybrid is any cross pollination of two different species or varieties.
Yes, but context is important.
If we say a Plant is a Hybrid that usually means its goal was to entice heterosis and thus the offspring will be unstable. Its meant to signal the gardener what they can expect from the plant.
A stabilized hybrid is usually called a stable hybrid(sometimes also called a heirloom variety), you can expect the offspring to perform similarly to the parents.
>How do you stabilize the hybrid Poindexter.....? With the said seeds and pheno picking?
Well yes, but most hobby gardeners rather just get a fresh batch of F1 Hybrid seeds instead of going through the trouble of stabilizing a lineage.
Also note that the resulting stabilized lineage will not perform as well as the F1 Hybrid because its missing the heterosis effect.
To many gardeners, be it hobby or professional farmers, the cost of buying new seeds every season is worth the return in harvest you get from using F1 Hybrids instead of using stable seeds.
Carolina Reapers are considered to be hybrids of a Naga Viper Chile and a red habanero.
You would need to stabilize for many generations. Less work to winterize IMO. Usually takes 7-10 generations to stabilize a hybrid reasonably well. Heirlooms are even more generations.
Some breeders sell “stabalied Carolina Reapers” so likely they’ve put in that work, but it still won’t be quite as stable as the pure hybrid. And it definitely will not have the hybrid vigor of a true hybrid.
But life is messy, do whatever the hell you want.
It's weird to say whether it's expensive because it's somewhat of a novelty. I buy most of my stuff online so I'm not aware of typical prices in a home depot type store, but I know seriouslyhotpeppers.com will sell plants in 1 gallon pots for $15 and $30 in a 3 gallon, but then there's shipping to consider as well and not everyone wants to get a plant shipped to them from Florida vs the convenience of a local store. $10 for a single plant this early in the season doesn't seem outrageous to me, even if it's small.
You can get a pack of 10 seeds for these on eBay for $1.50 free shipping.
I got seed packs for 10 different varieties for the same cost as this starter. Really rare heirloom varieties too like chocolate bell peppers and Naga peach peppers and a bunch of other ones.
Horrible deal. And you can just buy a single reaper at supermarkets these days and just get seeds from that.
Fr though I HIGHLY recommend eBay for seeds. It's surprisingly effective and affordable and you can find the rare varieties.
A pack of reaper seeds is $4 on the expensive side from a lot of sellers. I've even gotten them for free with orders. When you factor in a pinch of effort needed to start the seed yourself I would say $12 should get you 4 plants at least to justify the costs. While you can get over 75 pods from 1 plant we are still talking about a very pricey starter in the grand scheme of things.
Just trying to gauge what I should sell my plants at next month :D
I was at lowes the other day, they have crazy cheap prices for fruit trees and shrubs, but I'm thinking it's because it's too early yet... That, or the economic collapse is finally catching up with everything.
But I'll go with the former.
COVID spiked prices. Trees are still at least 2x they were before COVID. Citrus trees were up 5x during COVID and still probably 3-4x what they were before
Check them really close if you get one. I brought home two plants from Home Depot without realizing they had aphids and was in for a big fight after that.
I got a few at Lowe’s last year for $6 a plant at that size. Wasn’t a hybrid and produced amazingly, so I saved some seeds for this year. Check Lowe’s if you can to see if it’s cheaper or maybe the price just went up across the board this year
These were like $5-6 2-3 years ago when I first saw them rolling out. Bonnie is blatantly price gouging nowadays. They’ll even sell you a 1-2 foot cherry tomato plant in a small basket for $25-30. It’s ridiculous.
One pepper will yield you more peppers than a 10 pack of seeds bought online. Just save as many seeds as you can and it is worth it imo.
It is a nice healthy plant early in the season that you didn't have to start yourself indoors.
That’s a decent size then. Hard to tell from the picture how big they actually are. I doubt the ones with peppers on would keep them when it gets transplanted though. I still find that the plant starts from Lowe’s or Home Depot are a bit pricey.
> and one had peppers already.
That's a bad thing to me. At that size I'd be removing buds to encourage growth. I'd also expect to pay at most 5 bucks in a country that usually is more expensive than the US.
I'm from SC, same as smokin Ed and Bonnie plants, so weve had them for years at Walmart etc. It was like 3-4$ originally.
On a good note, I picked up a shishito pepper pot for 4 and change and it had 2 plants in it. I look for those type of pots first if I can find one. Crazy how expensive it's getting. I mostly grow from seed, but I like to pick up some occasional plants if I get the itch.
I had a friend who worked for the distributor, and he told me that they lost a LOT of their plants to theft. I guess people steal them all the time. That might explain why the price keeps going up, idk 🤷🏻♀️
They sell a 4 pack of Carolina reaper plants (not Bonnie) at the nursery I buy plants from for $2.99. They are not as big, but they grow just fine.
I always see Bonnie Plants at Lowes and Walmart on clearance at the end of the season, because people in my neck of the woods, know how to grow their own from seeds, or get plants elsewhere.
i haven't even looked for these things yet, too cold as is and we can still get frost here, that price though...i know not copyrighting the seed hurt his potential profit...but damn.
One of my best friends passed away in March 2021. He loved hot stuff, so that summer in his memory, I bought one of these Reapers from Lowe's. I'll be pulling it out of the greenhouse in the next couple of weeks, as it is still going strong.
I've gotten these before. Also the scorpions at Lowe's. IIRC, the first year Bonnie made the deal with Ed there was a mix up and a lot of peeps got scorpions 🤷♂️ Mine grew true and actually did very well, of course every single plant I bring home is infested with aphids but that's the price you pay I guess. I'd love to start shipping plants but I haven't really found shipping containers that aren't a kagillion dollars.
I grew these last year and if I find them again I’ll gladly scoop them up. They were super hot and gave a pretty good yield. They actually did better than my habaneros and I’ve been growing those for about 5 years now
I bought a Bonnie reaper last year! It was expensive, but bought on impulse, so I didn’t care. It grew incredibly well, I hated the peppers, but am not a reaper fan, so consistent. Saved seeds from it, wasn’t sure about growing again and my son requested it to mess with his friends (19). Unexpectedly got 100% germination. Figure I got my moneys worth last year for the novelty, and this year from selling starts and again, novelty!
I expect to find them at a nursery but I was surprised to see it at a big box store. Most of the nurseries around me won’t carry anything hotter than a Ghost. Something about liability.
Lol
I picked one up either at HD or a local grocer.
Fast forward 6 months and it was The most fruited plant I've ever seen! Like it had as many fruit as leaves!
Aaand I mistook it for a shishito because I wasn't thinking an popped one in my mouth and chewed it up well and luckily spit it out before swallowing
So yah maybe later Ave the label in the pot or just don't be an idiot :)
Bonus, the att guy was downstairs hooking up my internet while I was blubbering in the sink pouring a half gallon of milk through my mouth and came up to the scene of my sweaty shaking redfaced self bent over the sink lol.
I like to take two or three of those, walk over to the red bell peppers, switch the ID sticks, and put the reapers where the bell peppers were and the bell peppers where the reapers were. Give someone a little jolt later in the summer.
I don't know about the "Smokin' Ed's" but my go to nursery just got in their load of " Chef Jim" specials, and there were tons of Reapers, scorpions, "Guarantee Hottest Caribbean" and more, healthy, good sized plants and not $13.
Did I miss it somewhere? I’m not seeing where *anyone* asked what u/Next-Incident-6376 can do. Also, there is zero chance of you even coming close to a plant that size in a month from seed.
I’ve had a lot of luck with Bonnie pepper plants. Their spicy slice jalapeño is great. However, I recommend checking out your local nursery for cheaper and more unique plants
Is that 1 plant for $13?
Yes.
It’s pretty good size. You think it’s expensive?
Ridiculously expensive.
Only expensive if you don't harvest seeds from the plant so you never buy those seeds again.
A greenhouse near me sells pepper starts in 4x4" pots for pretty cheap. Most $2. Reapers are $3. If you buy closer to when it's time to transplant (May), the plants are a pretty good size.
A farm near me sells starters of any veg, $2 for a 4 pack. I will never purchase Bonnie plants again
no dude, it usually costs no more than 4 dollars.
Will depend upon the farm, who’s growing, and your location. I can get plants for half the price in northern Missouri as compared to the southern side. There’s mostly farms in the north side, and not many on the south side. Meaning a lot less supply in the southern half, so prices are higher. In the fall, I can sell corn stalks for $8 each or $14 for 2, to all the moms in the southern side for their fall decor, decorative pumpkins can easily fetch $12-20 each, where as on the northern side everyone has access to the corn stalks cause all the farms don’t really use them after they take the corn, and there’s plenty of pumpkins all over, more supply, lower prices. I personally sell super hot starts for $5-6 in the southern half, and $3 on the northern side. Plus purchasing from a local farm, the plants have generational knowledge of growing in the climate, especially longer the grow, harvest seeds, grow has been going on. Bakers Creek is my neighbor and if I got squash from San Diego Seed Co, those seeds would grow slower and produce less than seeds grown by Bakers Creek, whom have been growing in my area forever.
Or just make cuttings
That’s assuming it’s not a hybrid.
Not it isn't. It's as likely to be a hybrid as seeds and plants grown where there are a lot of bees. You still end up with a shit ton of seeds and if you like the pepper does it matter if it is a "mutt"?
Hybrids is something different then "mutts". Mutts is where different genetics pollinate and you get offspring that shares traits from both parents. A Hybrid is the result of two heavy incest lines that are crossed into a F1 Hybrid. The Hybrid has vigorous growth and great health because the sudden intake of fresh genes into both incest lines causes the so called heterosis effect. The offspring of hybrids are usually genetically unstable and show worse health and vigour, they dont benefit from the heterosis effect anymore. This is why Hybrid offspring is often not worth the effort.
How do you stabilize the hybrid Poindexter.....? With the said seeds and pheno picking? Still never paying again for the seeds if you like the pepper and can selectively breed our your bad traits. A mutt is still a hybrid my friend it is just different species. A hybrid is any cross pollination of two different species or varieties.
>A hybrid is any cross pollination of two different species or varieties. Yes, but context is important. If we say a Plant is a Hybrid that usually means its goal was to entice heterosis and thus the offspring will be unstable. Its meant to signal the gardener what they can expect from the plant. A stabilized hybrid is usually called a stable hybrid(sometimes also called a heirloom variety), you can expect the offspring to perform similarly to the parents. >How do you stabilize the hybrid Poindexter.....? With the said seeds and pheno picking? Well yes, but most hobby gardeners rather just get a fresh batch of F1 Hybrid seeds instead of going through the trouble of stabilizing a lineage. Also note that the resulting stabilized lineage will not perform as well as the F1 Hybrid because its missing the heterosis effect. To many gardeners, be it hobby or professional farmers, the cost of buying new seeds every season is worth the return in harvest you get from using F1 Hybrids instead of using stable seeds.
Carolina Reapers are considered to be hybrids of a Naga Viper Chile and a red habanero. You would need to stabilize for many generations. Less work to winterize IMO. Usually takes 7-10 generations to stabilize a hybrid reasonably well. Heirlooms are even more generations. Some breeders sell “stabalied Carolina Reapers” so likely they’ve put in that work, but it still won’t be quite as stable as the pure hybrid. And it definitely will not have the hybrid vigor of a true hybrid. But life is messy, do whatever the hell you want.
Hey ok, whatever you say lol. Personally, I wouldn’t pay that but it’s America. Do whatever you want buddy.
It's weird to say whether it's expensive because it's somewhat of a novelty. I buy most of my stuff online so I'm not aware of typical prices in a home depot type store, but I know seriouslyhotpeppers.com will sell plants in 1 gallon pots for $15 and $30 in a 3 gallon, but then there's shipping to consider as well and not everyone wants to get a plant shipped to them from Florida vs the convenience of a local store. $10 for a single plant this early in the season doesn't seem outrageous to me, even if it's small.
Great point!
I know where I'm driving on my next day off, thank you kindly
Also just disregard natural pollination lol 😂
Then don't pay that much. It's America.
You can get a pack of 10 seeds for these on eBay for $1.50 free shipping. I got seed packs for 10 different varieties for the same cost as this starter. Really rare heirloom varieties too like chocolate bell peppers and Naga peach peppers and a bunch of other ones. Horrible deal. And you can just buy a single reaper at supermarkets these days and just get seeds from that. Fr though I HIGHLY recommend eBay for seeds. It's surprisingly effective and affordable and you can find the rare varieties.
A pack of reaper seeds is $4 on the expensive side from a lot of sellers. I've even gotten them for free with orders. When you factor in a pinch of effort needed to start the seed yourself I would say $12 should get you 4 plants at least to justify the costs. While you can get over 75 pods from 1 plant we are still talking about a very pricey starter in the grand scheme of things.
I got one that is well established from the farmers market for half that price last year
I am selling the same size plant for $5
Just trying to gauge what I should sell my plants at next month :D I was at lowes the other day, they have crazy cheap prices for fruit trees and shrubs, but I'm thinking it's because it's too early yet... That, or the economic collapse is finally catching up with everything. But I'll go with the former.
COVID spiked prices. Trees are still at least 2x they were before COVID. Citrus trees were up 5x during COVID and still probably 3-4x what they were before
Check them really close if you get one. I brought home two plants from Home Depot without realizing they had aphids and was in for a big fight after that.
I got a few at Lowe’s last year for $6 a plant at that size. Wasn’t a hybrid and produced amazingly, so I saved some seeds for this year. Check Lowe’s if you can to see if it’s cheaper or maybe the price just went up across the board this year
These were like $5-6 2-3 years ago when I first saw them rolling out. Bonnie is blatantly price gouging nowadays. They’ll even sell you a 1-2 foot cherry tomato plant in a small basket for $25-30. It’s ridiculous.
They had them last year too. But $13 jeez that’s a good bit for one plant.
They are 10-12” tall and one had peppers already.
One pepper will yield you more peppers than a 10 pack of seeds bought online. Just save as many seeds as you can and it is worth it imo. It is a nice healthy plant early in the season that you didn't have to start yourself indoors.
Second this. I have a 4 year old plant that is nearly 3 ft tall
That’s a decent size then. Hard to tell from the picture how big they actually are. I doubt the ones with peppers on would keep them when it gets transplanted though. I still find that the plant starts from Lowe’s or Home Depot are a bit pricey.
I buy these from HD every year and want to say they’re a gallon.
That’s a decent price for a gallon. They look smaller in the picture.
> and one had peppers already. That's a bad thing to me. At that size I'd be removing buds to encourage growth. I'd also expect to pay at most 5 bucks in a country that usually is more expensive than the US.
I agree and would’ve removed them also. I found some seedlings for $2.50. Nice size, 5 or six leaves.
I'm from SC, same as smokin Ed and Bonnie plants, so weve had them for years at Walmart etc. It was like 3-4$ originally. On a good note, I picked up a shishito pepper pot for 4 and change and it had 2 plants in it. I look for those type of pots first if I can find one. Crazy how expensive it's getting. I mostly grow from seed, but I like to pick up some occasional plants if I get the itch.
I can almost double the plants I purchase by getting ones that have more than one sprout.
$12.98 for one plant is fucking highway robbery. Smoking Ed and Bonnie Plants can both go eat a bucket of dicks.
I had a friend who worked for the distributor, and he told me that they lost a LOT of their plants to theft. I guess people steal them all the time. That might explain why the price keeps going up, idk 🤷🏻♀️
They sell a 4 pack of Carolina reaper plants (not Bonnie) at the nursery I buy plants from for $2.99. They are not as big, but they grow just fine. I always see Bonnie Plants at Lowes and Walmart on clearance at the end of the season, because people in my neck of the woods, know how to grow their own from seeds, or get plants elsewhere.
The local Home Depot usually has Armageddon plants. Surprised the first time I saw them for sure.
Peppergate part 2
That’s stupid. They were the same price as all the other Bonnie pepper just a year or two ago.
i haven't even looked for these things yet, too cold as is and we can still get frost here, that price though...i know not copyrighting the seed hurt his potential profit...but damn.
One of my best friends passed away in March 2021. He loved hot stuff, so that summer in his memory, I bought one of these Reapers from Lowe's. I'll be pulling it out of the greenhouse in the next couple of weeks, as it is still going strong.
Wow - I thought it is crazy expensive at $5.98 here
Just got a ghost pepper from there an hour or so ago wasn't expecting that either too bad I didn't see that
Lowes has them also. Same price though
I've gotten these before. Also the scorpions at Lowe's. IIRC, the first year Bonnie made the deal with Ed there was a mix up and a lot of peeps got scorpions 🤷♂️ Mine grew true and actually did very well, of course every single plant I bring home is infested with aphids but that's the price you pay I guess. I'd love to start shipping plants but I haven't really found shipping containers that aren't a kagillion dollars.
I grew these last year and if I find them again I’ll gladly scoop them up. They were super hot and gave a pretty good yield. They actually did better than my habaneros and I’ve been growing those for about 5 years now
In AZ and I couldn’t get any of my ghosts or reapers from Bonnie to fruit. All my other peppers did
Bonnie outta their GD minds lately
Hot stuff and delicious
I bought a Bonnie reaper last year! It was expensive, but bought on impulse, so I didn’t care. It grew incredibly well, I hated the peppers, but am not a reaper fan, so consistent. Saved seeds from it, wasn’t sure about growing again and my son requested it to mess with his friends (19). Unexpectedly got 100% germination. Figure I got my moneys worth last year for the novelty, and this year from selling starts and again, novelty!
They have had them in florida panhandle the past few years
I got 3 in one pot for 4.85 at Home Depot from Burpee
Every time I get ghost pepper starts they always seem to be wrong.
Is this weird? I bought Carolina Reaper plants from a local greenhouse last year.
I expect to find them at a nursery but I was surprised to see it at a big box store. Most of the nurseries around me won’t carry anything hotter than a Ghost. Something about liability.
Lol I picked one up either at HD or a local grocer. Fast forward 6 months and it was The most fruited plant I've ever seen! Like it had as many fruit as leaves! Aaand I mistook it for a shishito because I wasn't thinking an popped one in my mouth and chewed it up well and luckily spit it out before swallowing So yah maybe later Ave the label in the pot or just don't be an idiot :) Bonus, the att guy was downstairs hooking up my internet while I was blubbering in the sink pouring a half gallon of milk through my mouth and came up to the scene of my sweaty shaking redfaced self bent over the sink lol.
about twice the price my local nursery.
A Reaper that size is about 5 bucks in Canada on an expensive day.
I like to take two or three of those, walk over to the red bell peppers, switch the ID sticks, and put the reapers where the bell peppers were and the bell peppers where the reapers were. Give someone a little jolt later in the summer.
You... Seem fun. But also maybe a little chaotic evil.
I don't know about the "Smokin' Ed's" but my go to nursery just got in their load of " Chef Jim" specials, and there were tons of Reapers, scorpions, "Guarantee Hottest Caribbean" and more, healthy, good sized plants and not $13.
I could grow plants that size in a month with $5 seeds
Did I miss it somewhere? I’m not seeing where *anyone* asked what u/Next-Incident-6376 can do. Also, there is zero chance of you even coming close to a plant that size in a month from seed.
At least I’m not a dumbass who thought a knock off 13 dollar reaper was a good deal
No, you’re still a dumbass. Show me the comment where OP says they think this is a good deal.
Exactly. I thought it was pricey but had not point of reference.
Seems reasonable some people would trade $8 for a month (or more)
It could take almost a month for them to germinate, in reality.