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Your peppers aren't hot

Oleic said:
Mine are hotter.  Maybe it's because I grow them where the weather is hotter.  I don't know.  But I have taste-tested yours from across America, and mine are hotter than yours.  
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
Oleic
 

I want to see pics of these peppers.
 
THPers like
 
you-talking-to-me-gif.gif
 
Next year im adding the Zapotec. Already got the seeds. I will be surprised if they beat the Mucho Nacho. My plants this year produced lots of huge pods and the late season pods were really hot. Fresno did killer too but i ended up with 2 very different phenos from the same seeds. I do like the Fresno better for drying and they are easier to remove seeds. Eating fresh though the Mucho Nacho is better green or ripe.
 
Couple of things:
 
I bought several SFRB of peppers from folks here, and every person I bought from shipped them out quick, with tracking info, and it was a great experience every time.
 
I also grow my own, but am not experienced compared to any of you guys.
 
I shot my mouth off about my peppers being hotter than yours, and it was rude of me to do that.
 
Despite my post, you guys still answered my questions about Zapotecs, etc.  Which was classy and cool.
 
I can only speak for myself, but yeah, trash talk is a big part of my life. It seldom offends me, but sometimes i roll my eyes a lil.

I take your initial post as an expression of pride in your chiles, even if you choose inaccurate boasts as you're means to express it. I think, bottom line, it's good that you're proud.

So, i love to talk about Jalapenos under any/every context. No need to thank me for it.
 
The big thing for me is the Zapotec are a landrace/heirloom. Mucho Nacho are a hybrid so saving seeds is a crap shoot. I normally just get a couple Bonnie Mucho Nacho seedlings since they are common here. I grew Bike Billy this year too. Nice flavor but production/size did not come close to the Mucho Nacho. Next season will be the last for searching for the ultimate jalapeno. I will need to grow them side by side in ground for a fair comparison. That requires devoting some of my limited ground space which i would really like to use for other plants.
 
My Zapotecs produced well for me, but not crazy numbers please plant or anything. If huge harvests are a big priority, they might not be your best bet.

I grew a few Jalapeño varieties this year. The NuMex Vaqueros were by far the most productive. They tasted decent, i love how the plants grow-- i can't really explain it easily but let's just say they maximize the pods/square foot ratio. . . But the pods were little and the curling was weird and the flavor was good enough, but forgettable. The Zapos aren't as productive, but they stomped the Vaqueros in every other metric.
 
Both my Mucho Nacho and even Chichimeca had production of double or more vs Biker Billy. Even plants i had in pots out produced BBs i had in ground. Ive tried them both ways. A bit less is not a problem but i was very underwhelmed by the Biker Billy plants in general. I also got many early pods off both although they tend to be a little milder that later season pods. An heirloom with reasonable production, heat and flavor is completely acceptable.
 
Grow a Farmers Market if you want to see a really odd jalapeno. My 2 plants are huge now and fuzzy. When they finally start to load up with pods they need to be tied or caged. Mine have sort of a cucumber flavor now too. I dint notice it in the first few pods i tasted.
 
I had 2 Fresno plants produce nodes like a chinense too. There must have been over 6 in a few spots.
 
I've never grown BB Jalapeños, and tbh, I'm not planning on it. The Zapos produced a nice number of pods. More per plant than Earlies, Ms, TAMs, and Conchos. Not as many as the Vaqueros, but pretty close. They are hotter than the other Jalas I've grown, but i never really grew any that were supposed to be hot. CPI claims a pretty high SHU for the Vaqueros, but they weren't particularly hot at all. Conchos are supposed to be pretty mild, and mine were big, extremely mild, and pretty blame. TAMs were supposed to be extremely mild, but they were a bit hot (far hotter than the Conchos) with nice flavor and pretty corkin'... The flesh was oddly mealg, though, and production was underwhelming....

I guess, at this point, I've only grown a half dozen different Jalas, so I'm not that week versed on it.... Maybe the Zapotecs seem great to me due to a dearth of competition. But I'm definitely impressed.

I haven't grown Farmers Markets, but i think i remember reading somewhere that they are not really related very closely to other Jalapeños. I guess they got the name bc of the shape, color, and awesome corkin'... I might be completely misremembering it, but i think i read a hypotheses that Farmers Markets are actually derived from an old Euro variety of annuum...?

I think I'll want to grow them, but I doubt if I'll use them for topical Jalapeño uses/recipes..
 
That "hybrid vigor" is really a thing.
 
It's not surprising that the commercial hybrids out-produce the open-pollinated varieties.
 
Depending on my mood, there's room for both commercial hybrids and open-pollinated varieties in my grow list. It's fun growing the open-pollinated varieties even if they don't produce as much as a hybrid.  I feel like I'm thumbing my nose at Monsanto, BASF, Archer Daniels Midland, etc.  :)
 
Haha, some ppl never learn...

Oleic said:
you guys are the best but my Zapotecs will be hotter than your ghosts, I promise you this.
In all seriousnessness, i don't want to wager a guess as to what the SHU of my Zapotecs might be, but they're on the hot side of Jalapeños. I've heard that some Jalas, like the BB and one of the NuMex Orange colored ones, are like in the 100000shu range, and these are probably not in that neighborhood at all. But they're far far hotter than Earlies, Ms, and Vaqueros. I'm a terrible judge of Jalapeños; they hit me hard without even feeling very hot and all but the mildest Jalapeños give me hiccups almost immediately. Basically, they make me lose my cool in weird ways. But all my friends, including the guy who owns the local Mexican Bar & Grill, have remarked about how hot the Zaps are.

We been snacking on peppers at the bar a lot. Truly juvenile behavior, but it's fun. And ppl often request "the hot Jalapeño." And, the lightweights often ask to avoid it...
 
Ive had a few Early jalapenos that were absolute freaks in heat. I get a few each year but those were the hottest. The other day while cutting up some Mucho Nacho i got another real zinger. It had just a little green left. Seems like that is when most jalapenos have been the hottest or when just starting to turn. Great flavor during the transition too. Something ive been doing lately for small batches is salted lime. Weep in salt and then add some fresh lime juice. They next day and beyond they are killer.
 
I havent had any off the charts Billy Biker but they are hot for jalapeno. Fairly consistent too. I think it was Trent in Illinois said he got some real scorchers from his plants this year. He is close enough to me that the climate is fairly similar. Im sure his fields get way more sun than mine.
 
One of the hottest pepper experiences  I ever had was a jalapeño I got from a deli in the Bronx in 1979. I got two peppers to eat with my sandwich. The first one was good and as expected. The second was a freak of nature. It was so hot it gave me vertigo as I was driving on the BQE.
 
I have had those random Earlies that seem to be hot, about on the Hab level, in the past. Had Ms like that, too. I haven't had any like that from the Jalapeños i grew this year so far, but i doubt if is get any from the mild-by-design ones, and I've smoked or sauces more Zapotecs and Vaqueros than I've eaten, so any wildly hot ones probably were quite literally lost in the sauce.
 
I think its rather funny really. Make up a batch of nachos with jalapeno rings ive prepped. You never know when its coming then BAM. :D I got more than 1 or 2 hot ones in the last batch of rings i pickled. They have been much hotter than Fresno and serrano i grew before. In the past ive added some serrano to them but there is no need this year.
 
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