Small Chili (Pick Hom)

[cobbler]

Saw pick hom, which is a small chili.at the whole sale fruit and vegi market at Racherburi.Anybody could roll up with an amount of these and buyers walk straight up and give 150baht per kilo for these x 1000 kilo is 150,000 baht.Anybody have any experience with this type of chili?

Cheers Cobbler

[loong]

I've never heard of this variety. Do you know how it is written in Thai?

[rice555]

or a picture

rice555

[SantiSuk]

Prik hom - similar to what are called bird's eye chillis in UK supermarkets. Pretty fiery (but aren't they all here!) Good for putting whole (de-stalked or sometomes with stalks left on) in Thai cooking. Not worth buying if you are going to pound or slice them - too fidddly.

[loong]

I grow bird's eye chili. I would think that 1 kilo would fill quite a large bag.

[cobbler]

My wife's Aunty grew them for sale some years ago.She said a lazy person can pick 10KG per day.A decent worker can pick 15KG and then up to 20.1KG is about a football size.Sorry ,not soccer ball.

Can grow in sun or shade .If have access to irrigation can get 200 per kilo in dry season.

Sorry I cant get pic but will get a website for you.

whois.domaintools.com/prickhom.com

This is just 1 of the many things you can make good money from in Thai.

Down south have 1 village selling to Malaysia .2500 rai.I will get the website for you from my wife when I can.It's all in thai,but your wife can translate it for you.HAve 1 lady on it says she has 4 rai and is making 200,000 per month,Good money,I'd say,from just 4 rai.

[cobbler]

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=birds+eye+chilli&hl=en&prmd=imvnse&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SYkFUKXID8PSrQfOutirBg&ved=0CFoQsAQ&biw=1093&bih=461

Here are some better photos on this website

Off topic is another good 1 called prickthai or peppercorns again good in shade

Cheers Cobbler

[cobbler]

Buy 1 kilo of prik kee gnu or also known as prik hom.Go home take te seeds out of the red ones coz they are the ripe ones .put them in a light soil,sprinkle a light cover of soil over. (potting mix)keep wet and after 7 days will shoot.Plant out after 3ed set of leaves or 2 months or 8 or 10 cm high.Make sure soil is very wet at time of transplanting.How easy is that??

4 months to grow from seedling to harvest and if you are bored and starving you can harvest 10 kilo in 1 day yourself and get 100 baht per kilo at the local area you live in to a middle man CASH ,he will take it to a big market and get 150 per kilo.

Have a go you'll be surprised

[loong]

My wife's Aunty grew them for sale some years ago.She said a lazy person can pick 10KG per day.A decent worker can pick 15KG and then up to 20.1KG is about a football size.Sorry ,not soccer ball.

Can grow in sun or shade .If have access to irrigation can get 200 per kilo in dry season.

Sorry I cant get pic but will get a website for you.

whois.domaintools.com/prickhom.com

This is just 1 of the many things you can make good money from in Thai.

Down south have 1 village selling to Malaysia .2500 rai.I will get the website for you from my wife when I can.It's all in thai,but your wife can translate it for you.HAve 1 lady on it says she has 4 rai and is making 200,000 per month,Good money,I'd say,from just 4 rai.

200,000 Bt per month? That would be an incredible return from 4 rai. It would also mean that she is picking 40 to 50 Kg of chilies every day. She must have perfect soil and growing conditions.

[cobbler]

My wife's Aunty grew them for sale some years ago.She said a lazy person can pick 10KG per day.A decent worker can pick 15KG and then up to 20.1KG is about a football size.Sorry ,not soccer ball.

Can grow in sun or shade .If have access to irrigation can get 200 per kilo in dry season.

Sorry I cant get pic but will get a website for you.

whois.domaintools.com/prickhom.com

This is just 1 of the many things you can make good money from in Thai.

Down south have 1 village selling to Malaysia .2500 rai.I will get the website for you from my wife when I can.It's all in thai,but your wife can translate it for you.HAve 1 lady on it says she has 4 rai and is making 200,000 per month,Good money,I'd say,from just 4 rai.

200,000 Bt per month? That would be an incredible return from 4 rai. It would also mean that she is picking 40 to 50 Kg of chilies every day. She must have perfect soil and growing conditions.

I will get the website from my wife and post it you can get a Thai person to read it.It will blow you away.Yep see,A lot of Thais are very smart.I'm constantly surprised with the humble way these people make big money.Most falang never see it.I feel very lucky to be mixing with this type of people.

[pigeonjake]

my m/l grows them, im sure she starts the seeds of in little clear poly bags then plants them out, she makes a good bit from them i dont know how much but she does ok,

she take a bit of my pig poo, so im right in thinking they like that,,

[cobbler]

my m/l grows them, im sure she starts the seeds of in little clear poly bags then plants them out, she makes a good bit from them i dont know how much but she does ok,

she take a bit of my pig poo, so im right in thinking they like that,,

Hi pigeonjake,that sounds great.1 plant should be able to get 1 kilo of chillis ove the month of harvest.x that by 1000 plants x that by 100 baht per kilo at the local middleman pick up point ,pay the wages and you still have a nice little cash flow.If you have the land and water to spare ,keep the seeds coming every month and you have cash flow every month.If you have the land to spare try to go so you can have a ton in 1 picking session.,go to a mager market that middlemen sell at and collect an extra 50% for the drive.150 baht per kilo. x 1000 kilo = 150,000 baht.Price does fluctuate but my wife assures me never less than 85 baht per kilo to middle man.The price is set on internet early every morning.So no stuffing around at the market.

[tingtong]

My wife's Aunty grew them for sale some years ago.She said a lazy person can pick 10KG per day.A decent worker can pick 15KG and then up to 20.1KG is about a football size.Sorry ,not soccer ball.

Can grow in sun or shade .If have access to irrigation can get 200 per kilo in dry season.

Sorry I cant get pic but will get a website for you.

whois.domaintools.com/prickhom.com

This is just 1 of the many things you can make good money from in Thai.

Down south have 1 village selling to Malaysia .2500 rai.I will get the website for you from my wife when I can.It's all in thai,but your wife can translate it for you.HAve 1 lady on it says she has 4 rai and is making 200,000 per month,Good money,I'd say,from just 4 rai.

200,000 Bt per month? That would be an incredible return from 4 rai. It would also mean that she is picking 40 to 50 Kg of chilies every day. She must have perfect soil and growing conditions.

OK, anyone feels can call me a bit of a naysayer, or whatever, but for me this numbers just doesnt seem to add up well...

part 'cos we also grow chili in a small scale, and in fact it doesnt take a lazy person to pick 10 kg of these buggers, i did pick our chili a few times, and 1kg takes a long while to collect, especially if i care not to vandalise the plant so it can produce more...

the other part is that magic 200.000....that takes more like 65kg/day ( at the mentioned 100thb/kg price) to get here.

you wont ever!! sell locally that much, and wih middleman i dont think they will settle for anything more than 50% of value...simple they are the smart thai who can do it.

As for one, if these magic numbers would be right, probably you would be the first one to run to buy saws and cut all your rubber trees to plant 20 rai of chili instead to make 1 million baht monthly ( accourding to the 4 rai example), and even after pay good salaries to the pickers ( btw, say how much? since i dont think anyone, least a star picker of 20kg wont work for 10 thb/kg, that is sure!, can reference to IA's post where talk about labour shortage in the villages,and also for the very topic of picking chili, as well a middleman's price of something like 30thb?).

i would love to see the palace this woman lives in after she pockets this 6000$+ salary monthly....from the 4 rai chili. know few farmers, and not many seem to be avare of such goldmine.

all said, chilis probably can make a decent return, even though our return in this small scale now is that wife doesnt need to buy for her somtam ( which needs huge amount in my opinion).

after the rice will grow more, the investment is trully minimal, 1 kg chili can give plenty seeds to have plants to go with, but it surely not the lazy man's crop as needs to be picked quite frequently.

and once again, this is not a post to start a verbal war, i just for one doesnt like to believe these numbers on face value as they are. but would be very happy to be proved wrong by you in 6 months when your 4 rai produced the first 1 million return in the end of the first planting and harvest.

[loong]

This is an article from last November...

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=88778

Cobbler referred to a village growing chilies to export to Malaysia. This article cites prices as high as 17 Malaysian Ringitt per Kg, about 170 Baht. Seems that buyers from Singapore may have been pushing up prices in some wholesale markets.

Of course, that was 8 months ago and prices could have fluctuated some since then.

Of course one has to remember that supply of chillies was affected by last year's flooding. Newly planted crops after the floods subsided should be producing by now.

[slapout]

Is it possible the150 baht/kilo may refer to dried price at retail outlet? Family used to plant a couple rai of these chilies, along with another 4 rai of various veggies. They sold every day out of the village market (main highway and only one for about 5 mile in either direction) It was a full time job for 3 or 4 of them to stay ahead of the gardem, sell at the market, etc.

They would sun dry most of the chili as that seemed more popular than fresh??? We had a neighbor (adjoining land) who planted about 10 rai to chili one year, he went back to multi veggie crop the next year. Said many problems, labor, drying facilities needed with labor, large wholesale market 150 clicks to CM, something about cutworms??? etc. I also recall there was some problem that he could not deliver to the big wholesale maket himself but had to sell to a go between.

[IsaanAussie]

My area grows lots of dry season chili every year. Top price here this year at the gate was 33baht per kg green at the start of the season. Prices bottomed at 15 baht when there was a lot of ripe chili around. A few locals have started buying and transporting to markets. Dont know what margin they received but they were pretty hard at it.

Biggest issue now is the cost of picking labour has jumped very high. Thanks to the influence of the promised 300 baht per day scheme. The crop is very chemical intensive here. They are always spraying some form of sh1t of it for some pest. Now here is it not much more than a marginal enterprise.

[cobbler]

Is it possible the150 baht/kilo may refer to dried price at retail outlet? Family used to plant a couple rai of these chilies, along with another 4 rai of various veggies. They sold every day out of the village market (main highway and only one for about 5 mile in either direction) It was a full time job for 3 or 4 of them to stay ahead of the gardem, sell at the market, etc.

They would sun dry most of the chili as that seemed more popular than fresh??? We had a neighbor (adjoining land) who planted about 10 rai to chili one year, he went back to multi veggie crop the next year. Said many problems, labor, drying facilities needed with labor, large wholesale market 150 clicks to CM, something about cutworms??? etc. I also recall there was some problem that he could not deliver to the big wholesale maket himself but had to sell to a go between.

Thank you for your post .This type of chilli doesn't dry well at all and so therefore needs to be sold fresh.However you are right in saying that labour is an issue.1 pirick kee gnue plant(prick hom) can deliver 1 kg of chilli in 1 month.So therefore 1,000 plants = 1,000 KG X 150 baht at main market that middle men sell at(depending on ,as you say price fluctuation)and you have 150,000 baht at the end of the month.1 person can average 15KG per day .So,60 people get 900 KG in 1 day.We are not sure ,but we're thinking 20baht per KG for pickers.Please tell me if anybody has an exact price per KG for this.Or I will find out.But it's still good money.Keep in mind we are talking about south area.They have prime weather conditions for these.The price for picking depends on sale price on the farm.So,if you pay workers according to farm sale price.Then sell at a major market then you are miles in front.Get your wife to check price in morning on internet and you will see.Iff not drive to Racherburi and see for your self.

Cheers Cobbler

[cobbler]

My area grows lots of dry season chili every year. Top price here this year at the gate was 33baht per kg green at the start of the season. Prices bottomed at 15 baht when there was a lot of ripe chili around. A few locals have started buying and transporting to markets. Dont know what margin they received but they were pretty hard at it.

Biggest issue now is the cost of picking labour has jumped very high. Thanks to the influence of the promised 300 baht per day scheme. The crop is very chemical intensive here. They are always spraying some form of sh1t of it for some pest. Now here is it not much more than a marginal enterprise.

Different chilli

[cobbler]

My wife's Aunty grew them for sale some years ago.She said a lazy person can pick 10KG per day.A decent worker can pick 15KG and then up to 20.1KG is about a football size.Sorry ,not soccer ball.

Can grow in sun or shade .If have access to irrigation can get 200 per kilo in dry season.

Sorry I cant get pic but will get a website for you.

whois.domaintools.com/prickhom.com

This is just 1 of the many things you can make good money from in Thai.

Down south have 1 village selling to Malaysia .2500 rai.I will get the website for you from my wife when I can.It's all in thai,but your wife can translate it for you.HAve 1 lady on it says she has 4 rai and is making 200,000 per month,Good money,I'd say,from just 4 rai.

200,000 Bt per month? That would be an incredible return from 4 rai. It would also mean that she is picking 40 to 50 Kg of chilies every day. She must have perfect soil and growing conditions.

OK, anyone feels can call me a bit of a naysayer, or whatever, but for me this numbers just doesnt seem to add up well...

part 'cos we also grow chili in a small scale, and in fact it doesnt take a lazy person to pick 10 kg of these buggers, i did pick our chili a few times, and 1kg takes a long while to collect, especially if i care not to vandalise the plant so it can produce more...

the other part is that magic 200.000....that takes more like 65kg/day ( at the mentioned 100thb/kg price) to get here.

you wont ever!! sell locally that much, and wih middleman i dont think they will settle for anything more than 50% of value...simple they are the smart thai who can do it.

As for one, if these magic numbers would be right, probably you would be the first one to run to buy saws and cut all your rubber trees to plant 20 rai of chili instead to make 1 million baht monthly ( accourding to the 4 rai example), and even after pay good salaries to the pickers ( btw, say how much? since i dont think anyone, least a star picker of 20kg wont work for 10 thb/kg, that is sure!, can reference to IA's post where talk about labour shortage in the villages,and also for the very topic of picking chili, as well a middleman's price of something like 30thb?).

i would love to see the palace this woman lives in after she pockets this 6000$+ salary monthly....from the 4 rai chili. know few farmers, and not many seem to be avare of such goldmine.

all said, chilis probably can make a decent return, even though our return in this small scale now is that wife doesnt need to buy for her somtam ( which needs huge amount in my opinion).

after the rice will grow more, the investment is trully minimal, 1 kg chili can give plenty seeds to have plants to go with, but it surely not the lazy man's crop as needs to be picked quite frequently.

and once again, this is not a post to start a verbal war, i just for one doesnt like to believe these numbers on face value as they are. but would be very happy to be proved wrong by you in 6 months when your 4 rai produced the first 1 million return in the end of the first planting and harvest.

I can understand your inquisitive post .Really it's not 30baht per KG to middle man.I think you are thinking of a different chilli.Go to Ratcherburi wholesale market and see.Have also 3 levels of sale.1 is local market in Thai150 per KG.2nd is using bag fertilizer but no chemical sprays,price is higher to resterants and supermarkets.3rd is export.,100% organic.at not less than 300baht per kilo.

This is not selling to a local village farm buying middle man

Yes you are right ,this is not a lazey man's job ,but we are talking about people who do this picking for a living,not farang who do it sometimes.Same as you wouldn't go in and shear 100 sheep in a day,you would do 1 and be dead ,but somebody who has practice can do 100 or 200 a day

Cheers Cobbler

Edited July 18, 2012 by cobbler

[loong]

Hi Cobbler, you've mentioned a couple of times about the price being fixed in the morning on a website. is this a website for a particular wholesale market?

Do you have the website address?

http://www.dit.go.th/

seems to have deleted the English language pages and at the moment takes forever to load. It has some market prices of some crops, but not everything. Can't remember if it has chillies or not. I've tried to open the Thai webpages but they won't load properly, so I am unable to see if chillies are included

[pigeonjake]

im sure that once there in the ground and having chillies on them my wife and her mum keep picking every 3 or 4 weeks from the same plant, i might be wrong but i dont think so,

mama like i sat grows them from seed in small bag then plants out, waters in dry season, and also at first she grows other veg in between rows the stuff they put in soup ect,

im to busy with the pigs most of the time to take notice,,,lol,,,

jake

[cobbler]

Hi Cobbler, you've mentioned a couple of times about the price being fixed in the morning on a website. is this a website for a particular wholesale market?

Do you have the website address?

http://www.dit.go.th/

seems to have deleted the English language pages and at the moment takes forever to load. It has some market prices of some crops, but not everything. Can't remember if it has chillies or not. I've tried to open the Thai webpages but they won't load properly, so I am unable to see if chillies are included

Hi Loong.My wife finds these things.But shee's peeling prawwns for dinner right now and says she forget but I will get it for you.

Try the 1 you have and get your wife to translate for you.Name of market at Racherburi is See Muang.Ask your wife to look it up for you.

[cobbler]

My wife's Aunty grew them for sale some years ago.She said a lazy person can pick 10KG per day.A decent worker can pick 15KG and then up to 20.1KG is about a football size.Sorry ,not soccer ball.

Can grow in sun or shade .If have access to irrigation can get 200 per kilo in dry season.

Sorry I cant get pic but will get a website for you.

whois.domaintools.com/prickhom.com

This is just 1 of the many things you can make good money from in Thai.

Down south have 1 village selling to Malaysia .2500 rai.I will get the website for you from my wife when I can.It's all in thai,but your wife can translate it for you.HAve 1 lady on it says she has 4 rai and is making 200,000 per month,Good money,I'd say,from just 4 rai.

200,000 Bt per month? That would be an incredible return from 4 rai. It would also mean that she is picking 40 to 50 Kg of chilies every day. She must have perfect soil and growing conditions.

OK, anyone feels can call me a bit of a naysayer, or whatever, but for me this numbers just doesnt seem to add up well...

part 'cos we also grow chili in a small scale, and in fact it doesnt take a lazy person to pick 10 kg of these buggers, i did pick our chili a few times, and 1kg takes a long while to collect, especially if i care not to vandalise the plant so it can produce more...

the other part is that magic 200.000....that takes more like 65kg/day ( at the mentioned 100thb/kg price) to get here.

you wont ever!! sell locally that much, and wih middleman i dont think they will settle for anything more than 50% of value...simple they are the smart thai who can do it.

As for one, if these magic numbers would be right, probably you would be the first one to run to buy saws and cut all your rubber trees to plant 20 rai of chili instead to make 1 million baht monthly ( accourding to the 4 rai example), and even after pay good salaries to the pickers ( btw, say how much? since i dont think anyone, least a star picker of 20kg wont work for 10 thb/kg, that is sure!, can reference to IA's post where talk about labour shortage in the villages,and also for the very topic of picking chili, as well a middleman's price of something like 30thb?).

i would love to see the palace this woman lives in after she pockets this 6000$+ salary monthly....from the 4 rai chili. know few farmers, and not many seem to be avare of such goldmine.

all said, chilis probably can make a decent return, even though our return in this small scale now is that wife doesnt need to buy for her somtam ( which needs huge amount in my opinion).

after the rice will grow more, the investment is trully minimal, 1 kg chili can give plenty seeds to have plants to go with, but it surely not the lazy man's crop as needs to be picked quite frequently.

and once again, this is not a post to start a verbal war, i just for one doesnt like to believe these numbers on face value as they are. but would be very happy to be proved wrong by you in 6 months when your 4 rai produced the first 1 million return in the end of the first planting and harvest.

Hi tingtong,I was amazed too don't worry.Actually We will be putting them in between our rubber trees,as they grow in the shade as well ads full sun.Also to clear up the money side of it.She has 4 rai.1 Rai can grow 4,000 of these prick hom..1 plant produces 1 Kg of chillis during the harvest month..So 4 rai can grow 16,000 chilli plants X 1 KG = 16000 KG X 150 baht per KG export farm price.1 harvest =2,4,00,000 baht x 2 crops per year =4,8000,000 baht per year.This would be top price .Sometimes the price will drop to 120 or 127 baht per kilo.Take out picking costs and you still have a lot of money.Don't forget ,this area has a dry season of 48 minutes per year.So it might seem imposible to produce this in some parts of Thailand but Thailand has a very wet south.We are just hoping to recieve half a kilo per plant and we will be very happy.We just want enough to get a ton in the back of the ute and go to Racherburi wholesale market and get 150 baht per kilo.= 150,000 baht.pay expences and we will still have not less than 100,00 baht.See how we go

Cheers Cobbler

Edited July 20, 2012 by cobbler

[cobbler]

I've never heard of this variety. Do you know how it is written in Thai?

พริกขี้หนูสวนหอม

Loong when you see this ,ckick on edit and the above line should show in Thai.Don't ask me why

Cheers Cobbler

Edited July 20, 2012 by cobbler

[loong]

I've never heard of this variety. Do you know how it is written in Thai?

พริกขี้หนูสวนหอม

Loong when you see this ,ckick on edit and the above line should show in Thai.Don't ask me why

Cheers Cobbler

พริกขี้หนูสวนหอม

Prik kee noo suan hom

Couldn't read it in your post, but could when it was in the quote.

Ok - Prik kee noo is the "mouse shit chili" suan means garden or field. Normally I would expect suan hom to mean onion field, so that bit is rather confusing.

I just edited and retyped the thai, but it still comes out as gobbledegook???? - wierd

Edited July 20, 2012 by loong

[loong]

Cobbler, I have no idea about how to go about growing these chillie as a commercial venture. 4,000 plants in 1 rai seems a hell of a lot!

I plant them with a spacing of approx 1M x 1M. I would have thought than any closer than this and you would not find it easy to walk amongst them for picking.

Also you talk about harvesting a crop in a single month. I'm not sure as I haven't kept any records, but I think that it takes about 5 months from planting the seed to the first fruit. After that, keep picking from the same plant for many months until the plant is exhausted. Some chill plants will produce for a year.

[loong]

Hi Cobbler, you've mentioned a couple of times about the price being fixed in the morning on a website. is this a website for a particular wholesale market?

Do you have the website address?

http://www.dit.go.th/

seems to have deleted the English language pages and at the moment takes forever to load. It has some market prices of some crops, but not everything. Can't remember if it has chillies or not. I've tried to open the Thai webpages but they won't load properly, so I am unable to see if chillies are included

Hi Loong.My wife finds these things.But shee's peeling prawwns for dinner right now and says she forget but I will get it for you.

Try the 1 you have and get your wife to translate for you.Name of market at Racherburi is See Muang.Ask your wife to look it up for you.

See muang could mean colour purple or it could be 4 cities, one of the problems with writing in Roman script.

Doing a search I found this

http://www.panoramio.../photo/50351604

ตลาดศรีเมือง

Edit, sorry Thai is still showing as gobbledegook!

Website for market

http://www.taladsrimuang.com/

Edited July 20, 2012 by loong

[loong]

Looking through the website for the market, I cannot see any prices for chillies.

It has cabbage,cucumber , cassia, peas and kaffir lime leaves as well as some fruits, but that's it.

[cobbler]

Hi Loong,

Grow your seedlings 1st in a small area then transplant them in this pattern.Sounds like like you got that bit.Rows 1 meter apart to walk down to harvest..

Plant 2 plants in a V shape .The V should be angled into the walk way..Pinch the tops off the plants to make them bushy.Otherwise they can turn into small trees..Next pair of plants are 50cm down the row .Then as you said wait aprox 4 months..Be sure your ground is nice and wet at time of planting..Put some poo or something on them ,it will make them produce much better.I think you already do that.As for harvesting time length ,I'm not sure,I can see different ideas on that.I guess ,if your plants are making you money,keep going.Down south they seem to harvest intensly for 1 month and then move to the next crop. I guess I'll find out in a few months when our 1st 3000 plants are producing.

Because each row has 2 plants in a v shape,this allows 2 people to harvest that row at the same time.While gossiping.

We filled in a dam withdirt 2 days ago.77 truck loads of gravel34,000 baht.leveled at that price too.So we were happy with that.We have a council dam next door to us ,size of a footy field,so our dam seemed like a waste of growing area.We will have 5 loads of top soile arrive today to put on it(if everybody is sober enough to work. .Would have come yesterday but I think I bought them too many beers after work.OOPS MY BAD

I hope this is of help to you..Don't rub your eyes

Cheers cobbler

P.S. I'll get address on prices at market from wife when she not as busy.

[Gary A]

My wife grows enough rat turd peppers for herself and her family. It takes a LOT of these little peppers to make a kilo. I seriously doubt that one plant would make a kilo during the life of the plant. Most families in this area have pepper plants scattered around their houses. To raise them commercially would just be too labor intensive.