Smokin' Chilies---New Mexico Style
Posted by Keisuke Kuroiwa on
Last week I made it out to Deming and met with some REALLY excited farmers. This year they learned about EM•1® and decided to put it to the test. As you can see, Zack is pretty happy. His chilies are about a month early. In addition to that, the seeds, which are hybridized by a local grower, normally have one stalk and push buds from there. We walked about 5 acres of plants and I don't think I saw any 1-stalked plants. What I saw were plants t
hat were pushing 4-10 stalks, with dense budding and beautiful canopies. The more leaves you've got, the more sun that can be absorbed and pull nutrition to the fruits being produced by the plants. We tried a few pre-mature chilies and they were absolutely delicious. You can see the extra stalks in this photo on the left. Zack and his father, Kevin, are growing on about 3,000 acres in Deming, New Mexico. They have been involved in a crop rotation program and incorporate crop residues between each crop. They are not growing organically and do use herbicides and synthetic fertilizers.