Tepin, National Park of Tikal, Guatemala
This variety has a nice little story behind it as I got the seeds from a vicar who was a friend of my mother`s.
He brought the seeds from the National Park of Tikal, Guatemala.
The year was 2003.
Here’s a picture from a Jungle in Tikal:
Picture: www.ecosystema.ru
An aerial view from the National Park of Tikal:
Picture: history.com
The plant itself has very small tough leaves which look very heathly.
Large plant can produce hundreds and hundreds of tiny red berries which have a nice peak of pungency which settles very rapidly.
I like this plant mostly because of how it looks and decorates any yard or room.
Somehow most tepins I have grown are a little boring in somehow so this one is a clear exception.
The tiny little flowers look great too.
This plant is very easy to grow and as it’s very tough, it’s great even for beginners
who are interested in growing wild chile plants.
This plant is also very easy to multiply from cuttings and germinating it is much easier than with tepins in common.
Here´s a cutting from this variety:
This variety of tepin has been so different compared to other tepins and it loves when grown indoors, outdoors or in the greenhouse.
It can even survive low light conditions in the winter and you can make GREAT bonchis (bonsai chiles) from this variety.
Here’s an example of an bonchi made from this variety, it’s about 6 months old here:
The pic above is the same plant 6 months earlier. 🙂
In other words, this plant can be grown into a huge bush which is several meters tall, or it can be kept as a small bonsai plant on your windowsill.
This is how it looked months before cutting it down:
One of the fantastic characteristics is it’s ability to grow thick and strong stem very quickly, even when growing it indoors.
For example, on the pic below another plant shown here which is just 7 weeks old:
Here´s the stem little later, notest the small mushroom which is real!
Some more pictures below
Immature pod:
Cutting growing rapidly:
Mature pod.
Here you can see how small the pods are.
Btw, the powder made from this tepin is GREAT!
Cutting down the Tepin plant to to turn it into a bonchi plant:
Note the soil level.
I always keep pots filled with soil, but during the project, I dig out some soil to expose the roots to sun so the roots would get thicker.
I cut off all the small roots earlier little by little thus minimizing the risk of killing the plant.
I planted the stone below the plant when potting the plant.
It’s easy to change the stone later when needed.
Bonchi made from the same plant with some pods and flowers later:
At the moment this Tepin bonchi looks totally different as it’s standing on a tall stone…. pics to come later.