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[Sunshine]

Hey seedians,

Last year I grew some habaneros outdoors and some Moruga scorpion peppers indoors. The odd thing is, after trying them both I found the habaneros to be hotter. I also found my habaneros to be hotter than the store-bought ones. They also had an extremely floral taste to them which neither the store-bought kind or the home-grown scorpion kind had.

I hypothesize that gardening conditions may play a big role on how spicy a pepper is. I also think that harvest time may come into play.

Has anyone experimented with plants of the same variety and noticed a significant variance in spiciness? Do you guys think that stressing the plant or 'flushing' the plant and starving it of water the last month or so of growing would concentrate the spiciness/flavor?

Here's a snipit from a pepper growing website;

I Want My Peppers HOT! Pepper Joe,
Is there any way to get my peppers hotter? I read that they are hottest in a drought. True?
Stephanie Richards, a big Pepper Joe Fan

Hi Steph,
Good to hear from you again.
There are a lot of myths about getting Chiles to grow Hotter.
A drought won't do it. What it will do is hasten ripening because when a Pepper plant is stressed it goes into a survival mode and ripens some peppers fast...although they may be puny...so the seed matures and the plant is assured of reproduction.
The major factor in Heat Levels in Hot Peppers is genetics. If the parent plant bore Hot Chiles, the offspring is very likely to do so also, providing the plant didn't cross-pollinate.
Heat levels are tricky...sometimes a varieties heat level varies from seed to seed even from the same pepper.
Your best bet is to buy seeds from a reliable company.
Check out my 'Pepper Joe Heat Scale' to see my opinion of the Hottest Peppers that we offer at
http://www.pepperjoe.com/about/heatscale.html
Pepper Joe

It seems he is claiming that genetics is the only determining factor. I find that hard to believe.

Here's a snipit from another website;

If you have no heat in jalapeños, what could be the problem? First of all, hot peppers like sun, preferably hot sun. So numero uno, make sure to plant in full sun to prevent future issues with jalapeños not getting hot.


 
Secondly, to repair the horrendous issue of jalapeños not getting hot enough, or at all, cut back on the water. The ingredient in hot peppers which gives them that zing is called capsaicin and is referred to as the pepper’s natural defense. When jalapeño plants are stressed, as when they are lacking water, the capsaicin increases resulting in hotter peppers.

Jalapeño peppers too mild still? Another thing to try to correct the jalapeños not getting hot is to leave them on the plant until the fruit has fully matured and is a red color.

When jalapeño peppers are not hot, another solution may be in the fertilizer you use. Refrain from using fertilizer high in nitrogen since nitrogen encourages foliage growth, which sucks the energy from fruit production. Try feeding with potassium/phosphorus based fertilizer like fish emulsion, kelp or rock phosphate to alleviate the “jalapeño peppers are too mild” matter. Also, fertilizing generously tends to make jalapeño peppers too mild, so hold back on fertilizing. Again, the idea of stressing the pepper plant so it produces more capsaicin concentrated in fewer peppers equals hotter fruit.

Another thought to fix this perplexing problem is to add a bit of Epsom salt to the soil – say about 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of soil. This will enrich the soil with the magnesium and sulfur peppers require. You may also want to try adjusting the pH of your soil. Hot peppers thrive in a soil pH range of 6.5 to a neutral 7.0.

Cross pollination may also be a factor in creating jalapeño peppers that are too mild. When chili plants are grouped too close together, cross pollination may occur and subsequently alter the heat level of each particular fruit. Wind and insects carry the pollen from one variety of pepper to another, contaminating the hot peppers with pollen from peppers lower on the Scoville scale and rendering them a milder version and vice versa. To prevent this, plant the different varieties of peppers far away from each other.

And lastly, if you want to avoid a succinct message stating “jalapeño peppers not hot,” you can try the following. I have not tried this myself but read about it and, hey, anything is worth a shot. It has been said that picking the jalapenos and then leaving them on the counter for a few days will incrementally increase their heat. I have no idea what the science is here, but it might be worth a try.

1 Like gnosis likes this.

[BubbleCat]

I recorgnized the hottness and the floral taste in my habaneros, sadly I never got the floral taste into any other of the varieties, all my first seeds have been bought as chilis from the veggie store I remember having them in pots sometime Ive abandoned them quiet a long time and I worried to get them back alive at all, standing in the sun all rootbound ... but the crop was awesome so I secund the water theory.

[Ian Morris]

Lots of pepper growers here so this thread should be good.

First the Morunga should have been hot, not just "wow thats hot" but "maybe that was a mistake... did I just poison myself... oh god what have I doooonnnnneeeee?!?!"  Seriously its in that category of heat that isn't really useful for anything but biological weapons and cancer research.  I cannot say what went wrong there except second what the pepper expert said, the hottest peppers need strong light.

Second I think both experts were right.  Genetics are of primary importance (for a look into the human experience I suggest The Bell Curve) when determining the differences in attributes.  I can say that having grown multiple generations of the same peppers I only select the sweetest/tastiest/hottest from each batch and they have remained a consistently attributable across generations.

Finally, cross pollination is a really big factor with peppers.  Experiment for yourself but I have put the mild banana peppers next to habanero to produce mildly sweet banana peppers with heat greater than the hottest jalapeno  .  Basically you have to segregate your peppers if you want them true to their genetics.  In my dad's garden (he is crazy about the heat, more so than I) we have a front yard plot for the sweet/mild peppers and a back yard plot for the hottest peppers.  What we have noticed is that the hotter peppers have a greater effect on the mild peppers.  I have never noticed a hot pepper "weakened" but have several times had mild bells come out with a wonderful kick.  My guess here is the sheer volume of flowers that the ornamental or hotter peppers produce vs. the lower numbers on the generally larger mild peppers. 

-Ian

[BubbleCat]

Sounds like I want some of your peppers Ian my strains are only three generations old and I simply always put them all in a very tight spot hoping I will get a big variance in offsprings

[Ian Morris]

Are there a lot of wasps (not the country club kind but the insect kind) where your peppers are?  I noticed this summer that my peppers were almost exclusively pollinated by a variety of wasps.  I let the nests be and before fall there were three large colonies in a smallish back yard, where before we would only get a nest every other year.
-Ian

[Auxin]

In my experience, yes genetics certainly establishes the maximum heat level a variety can achieve and under poor conditions like poor light and poor nutriment the heat will take a hit, but the flavor and odor will suffer more. Its like a red tomato, give it poor conditions and it'll still be red... it'll just be less vibrant red and will taste like cardboard, not to mention being more prone to damage by insects and disease.

My favored way to get peppers of different qualities is to grow more varieties That and breeding them.

[BubbleCat]

No wasps on mine for sure, Im always happy when some insect comes to pollinate them and this year I put them somewhere else so the game may change. I found gently shaking them makes them self pollinate, when you have one indoors because its cold for example. Theres a kind of butterfly looking like a humming bird in my area, I really like that one and it sometimes visits the capsicum

[chamomeleon]

I've never really been able to replicate the "stress for more heat" method with my jalapeños.  The fact that I like my plants to be as healthy as possible at all times doesn't help. 

Indoor selective breeding and hand pollination is probably the best route to take.  Slow and steady, no need to rush.

[Roze]

Just found the the Scoville scale..very interesting!