Editor’s note: David Nahan, publisher of the Ocean City Sentinel and Cape May Star and Wave, took a course at Rutgers Cooperative Extension to learn how to grow Pumpkin habaneros. This article details his success.
OCEAN CITY — I was surprised to be enthralled watching pepper seeds sprout in my house late last winter. The excitement stemmed from the combination of a hunger for a special pepper from Rutgers University and an engaging teacher at Rutgers Cooperative Extension in Cape May Court House.
About a half-dozen years ago, Rutgers Cooperative Extension sent a press release to our newspapers announcing that it was selling a new variety called Pumpkin™ Habanero, billed as having the same flavor as a habanero but only about a fifth of the heat.
I’ve grown and eaten habaneros, ghost and other peppers and was hoping that having some less-spicy ones would entice other family members to join me.
I bought a handful of the Pumpkin™ Habanero plants, each about 6 inches tall — a product of Rutgers University’s Exotic Pepper Project — grew them and enjoyed the peppers … by myself. (My family still wouldn’t touch them.)
I didn’t think about saving the seeds, figuring the plants would be for sale again. Either they weren’t or I missed the sales, so I turned back to my other peppers — all grown from plants picked up at local greenhouses.
Longing for those Pumpkin™ Habanero peppers, in fall 2022 a connection at Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) of Cape May County told me I could buy the seeds from the university. I did, but had no idea how to grow a plant from a seed.
So I signed up for Jen Sawyer Caraballo’s Seed Starting 101 course at RCE. After the roughly two hours of the one-evening course, I was on my way.
Sawyer Caraballo made it easy for me. Not only knowledgeable, she was funny and engaging, explaining how to start seeds and turn them into plants and psyching up me and the other students for the process.
Sawyer Caraballo told me she isn’t even sure how she got into gardening but that her family always had gardens.
“Both of my grandfathers had wonderful vegetable gardens in Wildwood Crest, which is pretty impressive since it’s a barrier island and you have like a half-inch of top soil and have to dig to China through sand,” she said, laughing.
“I’ve always been interested in agriculture and because of my science geek nature … I love the challenge of trying to grow different things from seed. I like that hurry up and wait — oh, it’s tomato season … not really, not until August — but there’s the excitement of getting the seeds started.
“And then I got involved in the Rutgers Master Gardeners Program in 2009 and I think that was the first time I did the seed starting class,” she said.
Sawyer Caraballo takes care of the horticultural hotline at RCE and fields all of the calls that come in.
“Because I like it so much and I am fascinated by the whole process — how a seed germinates and comes out of the seed casing and how it grows and the different nutrients and soil health and all the geeky stuff — I want other people to be just as excited and set them up for a successful gardening season,” she said.
She also wants to give people a leg up or perhaps a shovel down, teaching them things she didn’t learn about on her own until later.
“The only part I don’t like is weeds,” she laughed, explaining how that goes along with soil health — which is covered in one of the five-part series of classes at RCE she is offering starting Feb. 28. (See related story.) “Weeds will grow anywhere they can. They will grow better in junkie soil than the plants you put in. So the healthier the soil … you’re going to have healthier plants that outcompete those weeds.”
Sawyer Caraballo said she always wanted to do this series “but who wants to come listen to me five weeks in a row? So if we space it out for a month it gives (participants) the chance to get their soil tests done, and for people who sign up for all the classes we’ll be able to go over that at the next class. And then we can ask how everyone is doing with the seeds they are starting.
“Hopefully everyone will get some success out of it …. Because Mother Nature always has other ideas,” she said, laughing again. “You can’t fight her. You just need to keep your eye on her.”
After the class last year I planted my Pumpkin™ Habanero seeds in the little trays alongside regular habanero, cayenne and jalapeño pepper seeds and some cilantro.
Sawyer Caraballo’s support led to an enjoyable experience and some tasty peppers. It was fun checking on my little seedlings every day, tending to them, watching them grow, transplanting them outside when the time came and then harvesting the fruit late in the summer.
I’ve had success in years past growing things, but last summer it was more fun knowing I grew from scratch the different habaneros — including those tasty Pumpkin™ Habaneros — that I put on nachos, the cayenne peppers I dried and ground up and the jalapeños I put on just about everything else. (Still, no takers from my family.)
As for the cilantro, it grew but it wasn’t very tasty. As Sawyer Caraballo said, there’s always success and failure. I’m so excited about trying the seed-starting process again that I already hauled my starting kit out of the closet.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff