Plant stressing techniques

charlie5heen

charlie5heen

I've heard that stressing your pepper plants can increase the capsaicin content of your chilies, I would like to know if you've personally found this to be true and what methods/techniques do you follow to increase heat?
 
I don't know if it actually increases capsaicin content but stressing them by withholding water does make them taste hotter. I have noticed this in particular with jalapeños.
I no longer stress plants to make them hotter. If I want a hotter chile then I just grow a hotter variety. While stress does seem to me to make them hotter, I feel like they don't taste as good. I get the best tasting pods from plants that have been well taken care of. 
 
AJ Drew said:
I read that in some country ( maybe Cambodia ) there is a tradition among marijuana growers that they shove splinters threw the stalks to increase THC production.  I tried it with a large ghost pepper plant.  No THC what so ever.
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President Trump said:
I don't know if it actually increases capsaicin content but stressing them by withholding water does make them taste hotter. I have noticed this in particular with jalapeños.
I no longer stress plants to make them hotter. If I want a hotter chile then I just grow a hotter variety. While stress does seem to me to make them hotter, I feel like they don't taste as good. I get the best tasting pods from plants that have been well taken care of. 
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I think it is that stressing causes less water in the pepper and slightly smaller size due to the lack of water that causes them to taste hotter rather than more capsaicin in the stressed pepper - which is probably what also causes them to have less taste.
 
Some post stressing has no effect on the heat level of peppers, I usually trust Paul W. Bosland (http://aces.nmsu.edu/academics/pes/paul-w-bosland.html) to give accurate info on pepper growing,  http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/H237/

The heat level in chile peppers is the result of two factors: the plant's genetics and the interaction of the plant with the environment. The genetic control of heat allows plant breeders to produce a chile pepper plant with a certain relative heat level. For example, the cultivar 'NuMex Joe E. Parker' was genetically selected to produce fruit of "medium" heat. However, environmental factors such as temperature and water influence the heat level. A mild chile pepper cultivar bred for low levels of heat will become hotter when exposed to any type of stress in the field. Conversely, a relatively hot cultivar given optimal environmental conditions will become only moderately hot. A chile pepper plant that genetically produces low-heat fruit will not produce hot chile peppers even when grown in a stressed environment. To produce chile peppers of a predictable heat, both cultivar selection and optimum stress-free growing conditions are important.

My method is to not water until plant is wilting.....
 

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Stressed


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Shortly after watering....
 
So, I have to just say...  I see the "stressed" plants that people mess with, and it always seems like those growers are sacrificing growth for the "possible" noticeable difference in heat.  If that's your focus, OK, but I just want to point out that environmental stress will always give you something, at the expense of something else. 
 
The New Mexico State University has researched this and published articles on-line. Off the top of my head I recall that there was virtually no difference in overall productivity between stressed and non-stressed plants. There was a difference in heat. That said the biggest difference in heat levels was noticed in mild and medium level peppers. The super-hots had the least amount of change due to stress.

Stressing for heat levels has implications for commercial growers. I can't imagine buyers would be happy in variation between crops - eg promised mild peppers, but receiving something considerably hotter and visa versa.

Neil
 
Did they stress them by withholding regular waterings?

I'm not a commercial grower, but I have grown in sub-irrigated planters, and I really don't notice any difference in heat, but the plants sure grow a lot better than the ones that water manually, and produce better for me.

Not very scientific, I know.
 
Looking at the article again the productivity of drought stressed peppers varied by pungency.

Impact of Drought Stress on the Accumulation of Capsaicinoids in Capsicum Cultivars with Different Initial Capsaicinoid Levels

Abstract. Capsaicinoids are the alkaloids in hot pepper that cause the sensation of heat when eaten and are affected by a genetic and environment interaction. Drought stress is well recognized as an environmental condition that influences capsaicinoid accumulation. This investigation identified the responses of capsaicinoid accumulation in hot pepper cultivars under drought stress condition. A total of nine cultivars with a different initial
pungency level, i.e., low, medium, and high, was subjected to gradual drought stress during the flowering stage. Plants in this drought stress group were supplied with reduced water applications of 25%, 50%, and 75% by volume at 10, 20, and 30 days after flowering (DAF), respectively. Leaf water potential and relative water content were recorded to measure the level of drought stress. The results indicated that all cultivars were subjected to drought stress because of their decrease in leaf water potential and changes in physiological
characteristics, e.g., growth and yield performance. In addition, leaf area and shoot-to-
root ratio were good criteria for identifying hot pepper cultivars under drought stress because their responses were correlated with the stress level and yield components.
Yield performances of the high pungency group did not decrease under drought stress, whereas those of the low pungency group did decrease. In conclusion, capsaicinoid levels increased for all cultivars studied when subjected to drought stress, except for the cultivars in the high pungency group. A yield response under drought stress for the medium pungency group varied and was not found to be associated with drought stress.
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So I guess it varies.

Neil
 
Nov 14 Matt Simpson took the British record for growing the "Katie" chilli at 1,590,000 ... he supposedly shouted at it ... the article was in the Daily Mail newspaper .. I have just " Googled " it using "Katie chilli pepper stressed" and it is the top entry ... please forgive me my IT skills are poor so I can't link you to the article ... makes great reading and you have to like Matt's shirt
 
0th
Blister said:
Looking at the article again the productivity of drought stressed peppers varied by pungency.


So I guess it varies.

Neil
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That is rather consistent with my conclusions... And actually, the reason why I first mentioned it. (the photo that brought this to mind was a jalapeno, which in my own experience, have always grown and yielded much better with consistent waterings)

Thanks for posting the blurb of the study.
 
TheWalkingPepper said:
I ran across this the other day.

http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/content/files/impact_of_drought_stress.pdf

The results are on around page 5 or the end of 4 if I remember right.
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the quoted article said:
Under drought stress, a plant’s physiological characteristics are affected such as photosynthesis and transpiration (Cornic and Massacci, 1996), which in turn affect plant growth and yield (Aloni et al., 1991; Dorji et al., 2005). In our experiment, all the drought stressed plants expressed a decrease in leaf water potential implying a difference in plant water status (Gonza´lez-Dugo et al., 2007). The leaf area, which is an indicator of photosynthetic rates (Ismail et al., 2002), shoot-to-root ratio, and dry fruit yield were significantly decreased as a result of drought stress.
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Which basically makes my earlier point, that stressing the plant had a distinct impact on yield.  But the few peppers that you get, are going to be hotter. (if that's what you are into - I am not, but to each, his own)
 
Like I said, give something to get something.  It's almost a universal constant.
 
solid7 said:
But the few peppers that you get, are going to be hotter.
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charlie5heen said:
I've heard that stressing your pepper plants can increase the capsaicin content of your chilies, I would like to know if you've personally found this to be true and what methods/techniques do you follow to increase heat?
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That's what the OP asked, I'm sure he's happy you agree!
 
The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
That's what the OP asked, I'm sure he's happy you agree!
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I'm sorry that you like to limit discussion, Mr/Ms. Passive-Aggressive.  Since I'm not you, and you're not me, it's not fair for either of us to assume what somebody else may or may not want to know, should there be other facets to a particular matter, that they may or may not be privy to.
 
From here on out, we can have an agreement, where you are the authoritative truth, and I'm the tangent maker.  If that pleases you, of course, your Highness...  (and by "highness", I mean  :high: )
 
solid7 said:
I'm sorry that you like to limit discussion, Mr/Ms. Passive-Aggressive.  Since I'm not you, and you're not me, it's not fair for either of us to assume what somebody else
 If that pleases you, of course, your Highness...  (and by "highness", I mean  :high: )
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Name calling, condescension & accusations of drug use? I've been baited by much better than yourself...
 
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