Are Scoville units on plant variety info pages useful?

BonniePlants

BonniePlants

Due to customer interest, we've just updated our website's pepper variety listings to include Scoville units. We realize this doesn't hit the sheer number of peppers *this* community seeks, but as a grower in local hardware stores and garden centers, we want to educate those first-time growers on the fun of hot peppers.

Check out the article and a sample variety info page for our Scoville unit labels. If you think it's helpful to green thumbs, share it!

http://bonnieplants.com/library/pepper-heat-levels/

http://bonnieplants.com/products/vegetables/peppers/cowhorn-hot-pepper
 
The information you posted is very important. People should know the Scoville scale, how it works, and how it relates to the pods they are growing. Pods that are habanero heat and below benefit largely from such a scale in a community of growers who don't know a whole lot about pepper varieties and how hot they are. It helps them decide what to grow and compare pods that they know against other strains. The article posted is informative and useful to anyone growing peppers for 'mortals'.

The problem lies when people use it as a scientific tool to measure heat to a specific accuracy. Pepper heat isn't consistent enough to use the Scoville scale to declare the hottest pepper in the world anymore. Regardless, the scale is still very useful to look at for anyone that wants to know the approximate heat of a pepper using a number rather than their mouth.
 
Scoville ratings on any peppers vary widely. Altitude, soil content, weather, mean temperatures, fertilizers, maintenance, etc, etc, etc all change the amount of total capsaicinoids in each particular plant.
 
Agree with everything above. However, I also think that for first-time growers, and particularly for those uninitiated into peppers, there's some good rule-of-thumb info.
 
The answer is nowadays, YES, the pepperheads are growing exponentially and faster then the speed of light. And of course inquiring minds want to know? It is either be there or be square.
But thanx
 
Some people like to have an SHU number beside every pepper but it obviously isn't that simple. Best in my opinion to just use a 1- 10+ heat rating for non-chileheads who don't know or understand the innaccuracies and/or inconsistancies of HPLC testing. A basic scale will help people understand but trying to list every pepper with exact numbers always causes conflicts. And listing heat ranges is even more difficult. Look at the Trinidad scorpion Moruga blend with SHU ratings everywhere between 500000SHU and 2000000SHU. You know most people selling seeds will label them as 2000000SHU and never mention the 500000 :(
 
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