Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 1 JuneAn Armageddon F1 pepper on 5 June, eight leaves quilting up between deeply sunken veins and one small pale bud already tucked into the fork at the top, in sun hard enough to cut the leaf shadows clean into the compost.Week of 1 JuneAn Armageddon F1 pepper on 6 June with the bag collar rolled down around it, ten glossy leaves and no more, standing on a stone apron under full midday sun with a sunlit grass slope rising to a dark treeline behind.Week of 22 JuneAn Armageddon F1 on 25 June, nothing on it yet but a dozen leaves laid out flat and outward, quilted between impressed veins and unevenly colored with the newest at the center palest, each blade catching a hard sheen off the hazy sun.Week of 6 JulyA young single-stemmed plant on 6 July with nothing set on it yet, its glossy leaves waving at the untoothed edge and the nodes flushed faintly purple, while a larger one of the same kind carries two creased green pods out of focus behind.Week of 6 JulyAn Armageddon pepper on 9 July seen from straight above, its twenty-odd leaves quilted and cupped between the veins and split by the low sun into deep bottle green in the shade and pale yellow-green where the light lands, water standing on all of them.Week of 3 AugustArmageddon F1 chilies on 4 August, squat lanterns rather than pods, thrown into such deep wrinkles, dents and lobed bulges that no two are the same shape, hanging from faintly purple nodes with low sun behind them blowing the ground to yellow-green.Week of 17 AugustArmageddon peppers on 17 August, five still green and each pinched by deep creases into lumpy tiers ending in a drawn-out tail, the nearest so thickly beaded after rain that the water and the warts read as the same thing.Week of 17 AugustAn Armageddon pepper on 20 August, still wholly green, its wall thrown into deep vertical folds that run from a squared shoulder down to a tightly puckered tip and stay smooth between, with pale sky showing through a dark treeline behind.Week of 17 AugustAn Armageddon pepper on 20 August turning at both ends at once — one whole shoulder gone bright orange along a clean edge, a duller flush climbing from the blossom end, the green between untouched — shot from below against a white sky.Week of 17 AugustAn Armageddon pepper on 22 August, hung nose-down from a stalk crooked over like a shepherd's hook, orange-red across the top and bruised olive in the hollows with the tip still green, its skin webbed over with fine pale corky lines.Week of 24 AugustArmageddon peppers on 25 August at five stages on one leggy plant — one glistening scarlet, one flushing apricot outward from its middle, and one green fruit folded into a deep S along its side — all of them still wet from rain.Week of 24 AugustAn Armageddon pepper on 26 August gone fully scarlet, its wall folded into gnarled lobes and drawn down to a small rough tip, dew standing in every crease, with a second still dark green and just as crumpled hanging behind it.Week of 24 AugustArmageddon peppers on 26 August, still setting while they ripen — small white flowers open at the nodes among four wrinkled lobed fruit, one flushing orange out of green, one small and scarlet, two still wholly dark green.Week of 24 AugustAn Armageddon chili on 27 August, squat and lobed and ripening in patches rather than by ends — green to olive to bright orange all on one wrinkled surface — with three above it still wholly green on purple-jointed stems.Week of 31 AugustThree Armageddon chilies on 31 August, each broad-shouldered and gathered into deep irregular folds before drawing to a small wrinkled tip, the nearest one ripened through to a wet scarlet while the two behind it are still orange.Week of 31 AugustArmageddon chilies on 3 September, three of them squat and scarlet with the skin pitted and lumped into deep wrinkles, the nearest still beaded with rain and a fourth above it mottled half green and half orange.Week of 7 SeptemberA single wrinkled pod rests alone on cream cloth on 11 September, its broad dimpled shoulders flushed orange and tan while the lower half stays deep green, the creased tip puckered rather than pointed. Warm indoor light falls from the upper left.Week of 21 SeptemberPeppers, Armageddon F1, on 22 September: one plum-shaped pod hangs pendant from a bent pedicel, its deeply puckered skin already orange-red over the top two thirds and still green at the beaked tip. Flat overcast light, outdoors.Week of 28 SeptemberArmageddon F1 peppers on 29 September: the center pod, deeply wrinkled and still green at its blunt tip, has ripened orange-red from the shoulders down, skin still wet and droplet-bright under flat overcast light. Pale ivory corrugated pods hang above.Week of 5 OctoberA woozy bottle of opaque orange-red sauce on 9 October, filled to two thirds with pale flecks and seeds suspended in it, the empty neck above the fill line streaked with dried splashes; soft indoor light, a blurred row of glossy red fruit behind.Week of 5 OctoberA coarse orange-red puree simmers in a stainless saucepan on 9 October, tiny seeds and paler flecks suspended in the gloss, the wooden spoon's bowl half-submerged and stained dark with clinging pulp. Hard front light leaves the panel behind in shadow.Week of 5 OctoberArmageddon F1 peppers on 9 October, about sixteen lantern-shaped fruits piled on a square orange tray, shoulders deeply puckered and split between scarlet and pumpkin orange, several still frosted with ice and sweating under warm kitchen light at night.Week of 5 OctoberHot sauce bottled on 9 October, the pulpy orange-red fill reaching two thirds up the glass with pale seeds suspended in it and a foamy line at the top, the empty neck still streaked with runs. Soft indoor light, a tray of ripe tomatoes behind.Week of 5 OctoberArmageddon F1 peppers on 10 October, a kraft-paper pint box held out in two gloved hands: a dozen glossy red pods, deeply wrinkled and lobed, one still mottled green at the top of the pile. Dusk lays a red cast over the pasture fence behind.
