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annuum Is this a Purple Serrano?

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Hello,

these are supposed to be Purple Serrano peppers. I have 0 experience with Serranos and similar peppers, so I´d like to ask the more knowledgeable folks to confirm this. I was trying to do a picture search on google, but I was not sure everything what google finds as Purple Serranos are purple Serranos indeed.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, I hope you´ll get a picture about the shape of the pods. Most of the pods are oriented upwards, only a few are hanging. I think I can feel a little bit of hair on the leaves, but only a LITTLE bit...

Thanks for the help, after I get some information in this thread, I´ll post a message in the topic about seed sources. :)


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The pods look a lot like my purple jalapenos, but the plant is more serrano-like. I don't have experience with purple serranos, so can't say for sure. Have you tried one yet for flavor? Also, might be a cross.
 
I can't say for sure since it is a cross but my regular serranos (CPI) look different. The whole plant is covered with peach fuzz! The pods are also a more uniform thickness and not tapered bigger at the stem end. Whatever you have is pretty though.
 
geeme said:
The pods look a lot like my purple jalapenos, but the plant is more serrano-like. I don't have experience with purple serranos, so can't say for sure. Have you tried one yet for flavor? Also, might be a cross.
Click to expand...

I´ve seen lots of pics on google, and on some pictures, Purple Jalapenos look like this, but on some others......I don´t know...this is why I started this topic. By the way..these are the first pods on my plants, so maybe the shape of the pods will change a bit on later pos....I´m not sure about this though.

No, I haven´t tried one yet, I´m waiting for the first pod to ripen and then I´ll try one ripe and one purple pod to compare the flavor and heat. As I said, I´m wery unexperienced, so I won´t be able to tell if it tastes like serrano or jalapeno... :(



woody3says said:
I can't say for sure since it is a cross but my regular serranos (CPI) look different. The whole plant is covered with peach fuzz! The pods are also a more uniform thickness and not tapered bigger at the stem end. Whatever you have is pretty though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. On most pics I´ve seen, purple serranos were less fuzzy than normal ones....but once again, those are just pics....they can be misslabelled or not good quality enough to show the realistic picture of the plant.
 
Looks similar to Hungarian Black. If they're tasty and have mild heat, that may be what they are. :)
 
duane said:
Looks similar to Hungarian Black. If they're tasty and have mild heat, that may be what they are. :)
Click to expand...

Well, I don´t have any ripe pods yet. Despite of this, I was curious, so today I tried some unripe ones. Approximately 1/3 of the pods was still green, the rest was purple/black. I wouldn´t say they were very tasty, but that might be because they were not quite ready. The heat was minimal...nowhere nere what I´d expect from a Serrano... :( Still, these were unripe early pods, so maybe the plant will produce hotter pods in the future.

We´ll see.....even if these are not Serranos, I´ve received them for free.... :)
 
Thanks! :)

If the ripe pods from the second harvest will have as little heat as today´s pods, I´d say maybe Black Hungarian. If they will be hotter, then Purple Jalapeno will be a possibility.....or even some unusually shaped Purple Serrano.....who knows...They were free and I had lots of fun raising them so it´s all OK for me...
 
Did you check out the link I posted above? The pod shape is just like the pod shape of the purple serranos on TheChileMan.org, so I wouldn't say they are "unusually shaped" at all. The heat level of pods on an individual plant can vary, so I wouldn't take heat level as an indicator. Also, even if a plant was producing hotter pods during the peak period, the end-of-the-season pods can be milder. Also, the fact that you are growing it indoors may make a difference.
 
Thanks for the valuable input Geeme,

yes, I checked your link. As I mentioned in a thread about seed sources, pics on 2 sites with a database of peppers match my pod shape, but on other sites, I´ve seen pictures with much less pointy pods. Still, this is probably normal variation. What made me seriously doubt was that after the comment about Black Hungarian pods I did a research and their shape was an exact match, + one of my pods had no heat whatsoever, the second had some heat, but it was barely noticeable.

We´ll see what future pods will be like. If every one of my plants will consistently produce approximately 0-500 SHU pods, it´ll be hard for me to believe they are Serranos.
 
The pod shape is also exactly like my purple jalapenos. My purple jalapenos have varied greatly in heat levels, anywhere from almost sweet to surprisingly hot. This variation in heat has occurred throughout the season, instead of being mild at the beginning and end, with a peak in the middle. Ah well.... we take what we can get!
 
Interesting....I thought the variation in heat isn´t as big as you describe, at least not on the same plant, in the same conditions, in the middle of the season. Well, I think I have lots to learn... :) Good thing we live in the age of internet....it makes learning much easier and much more fun... :lol:
 
The Capsaicin produced by the plant is a mechanism used to protect the fruit (chiles) from being eaten by the wrong creature. the original idea was that birds (well bats, but later birds) will eat the chiles and later on will spread the seeds far away in their feces, and by doing so spreading the genes of that plant. Capsaicin does not affect birds, but it does affect mammals. with that said, when a plant feels "stressed" and because of that threatened, it produces more Capsaicin to ensure the survival rate of its seeds. heat, lack of water etc. are normal threats the plant responds to. similar to the excessive Nicotine production in the Tobacco species when threatened. only there it is used as a pesticide, so it won't be eaten.
 
I might try stressing the plant with unripe pods on it with less water somewhere down the road, but it´s hard for me not to water a plant when the leaves are wilting and have that strange, soft consistency...I might try it though... :)
 
By the time the leaves are wilting and they have that "strange, soft consistency", the plant is stressed - time to water!
 
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