Been growing hot peppers in our greenhouse for many years now. Mostly Jalapenos and Pablanos. Normally they are spicey but not super hot; which is what we prefer. This year though, all these peppers are WAY hotter than they normally get. To the point of being inedible for us.
Since these are all in a GH, I don’t think that weather variation is much of a factor (but it has been a bit hotter than usual). And they have been getting the usual care and fertilizing.
Actually at the point where I am about to pull these pepper plants, but thought I would ask first: Any other factors which might cause these same varieties we usually grow to come out so much hotter than past years. What makes a hot pepper hotter than usual?
As it was explained to me, anything that stresses the plant increases the production of capsaicin, the chemical that we experience as the heat of a hot pepper. The two primary causes that I understand to induce that stress are the heat the plant experiences during the ripening of the fruit as well as dry growing conditions. Have y’all watered less than in previous years? Is the seed from the exact same batches as y’all had grown from before?
Is there someone nearby who is growing peppers even more hot than yours? I have speculated that, similar to with certain fruit trees, the pollination partner of a pepper plant can affect the quality and characteristics of the fruit it produces.
Weather has been hotter this summer, but these plants are in a GH which has a fan which comes on at 90F automatically. Not that the GH stays at that temp, but it only touches 100F for an hour or so on a handful of days.
Water stress may be a factor. While I do water almost every day, I do occasionally miss a day or am late. Would the once every 10 days or so letting them get drier really up their heat that much? I mean I did miss water days in these past years without having this.
Not much in the way of other peppers to pollinate these as the GH is screened.
Hmmm. Something to think about. Did not think I was that bad with the water, but maybe the plants do
Genetics and environment are the cause. If you want mild peppers, grow some varieties noted for being mild. Tam Jalapeno is typically about 2000 scovilles. Poblano in my experience is far hotter than most people expect. I have not seen a true Poblano that was not hotter than I wanted to eat. You might find an Ancho that is more to your liking.
Lack of water in high temperatures is known for causing accumulation of capsaicin. Watering more often can help. Using shade cloth on your greenhouse can help. Of course, the horse is already out of the barn so closing the door is not going to help much.
Maybe i should grow you a poblano or give you some seeds because mine never get spicy at all.
My jalapeño though… you have to cut them with gloves on or it’ll burn your fingers. Not even my Thai chili does that.
Maybe try watering every day a little bit? Or get a watering timer with a reservoir. Extra water might help to dilute it unless it’s like mine and just wants to be super spicy. Or leaving it in the fridge for a week might help
Much of the heat is in the placenta of the fruit. If you cut that away (use disposable gloves or coat your hands with oil and wash with detergent to keep or get the capsaicin off) the peppers will lose most of their heat. The placenta is the soft white tissue near the seeds.
You can also cook the peppers with red sweet peppers and put them in a blender. Push the pulp through a strainer with a large spoon to make hot sauce any temp you please by altering the ratio of hot to sweet peppers. Freeze the sauce you will need later in plastic bags and you will have the exact heat you want.
For the record, I do/did water every day (except on cloudy/rainy days or when I forgot). I can try putting more water on the peppers, but vegetative growth has been good as well as the number and size of fruits.
@alan not to worry, won’t throw any peppers we’ve gotten so far away. Just don’t need or want any more at this level of heat.
When I used to grow hot peppers. If I wanted heat, I would refrain watering them except when they absolutely needed it (droopy leaves). Sometimes water is uncontrollable though.
I wish that I could conclusively answer that for you, but I have never tried an experiment to find out if missing a watering event every tenth day had a meaningful impact on the spiciness of the peppers grown. I am still curious if the plants that you have this year were grown from the exact same batch of seed from which you have grown in the past.
Mostly the same seed. Jalapenos were the same, actually the same plants as previous year, can over-winter peppers in the GH. Poblanos were new plants, some the same seed as previous years, some a new variety; but all are hot.
@JesusisLordandChrist just curious, how long a period did you put your plants on a “water diet” to get the heat up?
As long as I could before rains returned. This was before all these new hot peppers (scorpions and reapers) put the open pollinated varieties to shame. I no longer grow hot peppers. I grew older and my stomach seems to be thankful I did. Why does it always have to turn into a hot pepper eating contest?
If you are growing several varieties with various degrees of heat together that’s your problem; The cross pollination from hot peppers is spiking your milder peppers.
One of my earliest memories from childhood is about my mom discussing this with a neighbor. She was complaining about her sweet peppers turning hot and my mom asking if she had a hot pepper plant nearby.
I always grow several varieties of hot peppers together but they still maintain their varying degrees of hotness, and most often come true to seed the next season. This is outdoors.
I also grow sweet peppers nearby, and only occasionally end up with a hot pepper from a sweet plant so I don’t think this would adequately explain all the peppers being hotter, at least on my own experience. Every year for the last 30 I’ve grown a wide range of peppers without separating them much.
My Jalapeno in its second year is much hotter than it was in its first. I don’t know if its because of the amount of stress its had in its life or just because its older though.
That should only matter in the offspring. Pollination shouldn’t effect the current plant’s fruit, only the fruit of the plants grown from the crossed seeds.
If it has been sunnier this year than normal, then they will be hotter. Not necessarily warmer, just more sun. My peppers are hottest in spring because clouds dont exist for 3 months, even though its cooler.
Buying “hot” peppers in the supermarket is increasingly fraught because they’re not. I can’t always tell whether I’ll taste any spiciness in a finished dish.
In this case the trend is a choice on the part of Big Ag to breed peppers with no heat and add the heat during preparation of packaged food. They are only too happy to sell the new varieties as versions of old strains known for spiciness. I don’t know why.
In your case the increase in spiciness could be genetic drift because you are evidently saving seed from plants housed together the previous season.
Could be the sun. It has been one of the driest (cloud-less), sunny summers I can recall. And of course in a GH that makes it one of the hotest as well.
A little tip in advance. If you dry those peppers like i have done, before you grind them in the blender put a towell over the top to stop the fine dust. The dust is very fine and quickly escapes the blender. No doubt the inventer of pepper spray and mace experienced what i did my first time grinding a few quarts of pepper in the blender.
