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flavor Banana Pepper Taste

Well im a little confused here cause i finally grew my first pod from seed. I got the seeds online from johnnys seed and it said banana pepper.

Some pics
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It was the first bud on this plant and it finally grew. I am not sure how big they were suppose to get or what the color was. I started seeing some purple showing and it was pretty big so i decided to cut it.

The taste was like a celery/cucumber taste. Not like a pepper at all. I had a couple other people try it. Is this how banana peppers taste when they arent pickled for sandwich topping?
 
the ones I have tasted are about as hot as a jalapeno, celery, cucumber flavor? I suppose that could be a good flavor description.
 
I thought maybe it was a coloration problem like over ripe so i picked another one and just tried it.
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Same taste, these have 0 heat.
 
Not ripe at all. They feel soft when young. As they get older they will get firmer and yellow. Eventually turn orange then red.
 
+ 1, not ripe

That said they're pretty mild heat-wise, which is why so many love them as pickled crunchy treat.

IIRC they're 0-500 Scovies, which is like, bell pepper hot.

Nice looking plants though!
 
Ooo well I guess im too impatient. i think that took about 2.5 weeks to get as big as it did and recently hasnt been getting as big so i thought maybe thats it.
 
agree with everyone else on the ripeness...not ripe yet...but I do not agree with everyone's assessment of heat...

I grow banana peppers each year...there are really two kinds...sweet and hot....and let me tell you about the hots...some of them rival cayenne heat...

thanks for the reminder...I have to plant my banana pepper seeds...they are good when they turn red and smoked...makes a great chipotle
 
agree with everyone else on the ripeness...not ripe yet...but I do not agree with everyone's assessment of heat...

I grow banana peppers each year...there are really two kinds...sweet and hot....and let me tell you about the hots...some of them rival cayenne heat...

Oh, for sure - I agree. I've had hot banana peppers that were easily hotter than cayenne heat. That said, when he said zero heat I just assumed he grew the sweet bananas and hot the hot ones.
;)

I just double checked and I recalled correctly - 0-500 Scoville units FWIW. That's like a range of "ketchup => ketchup + 5 drops of tobasco sauce". :D
 
I found the strain I grow tasted best when the pods were ripening through orange. Back when I bought the parent plant it had 3 pale yellow pods. I learnt that it was a waste to eat them when they're pale yellow as they have yet to develop their flavour.
 
Lack of heat may also be influenced by the fact you are growing them indoors or in a greenhouse during the winter months. Even my Thai Hots are somewhat mild when wintergrown(inside). Are you growing the ones they sell as Hungarian Hot Wax, or were they actually labeled as "Hot Banana/Banana Peppers"?
 
I Agree on what has been said, especially AJ.
Likewise, I been growing them for years. Those and the Hungarian Wax, The Hot Bananna's have a better flavor than the so-called mild or sweet as they claim. Your pepper was the first on your plant and that can happen with the first of the "horn" shaped type peppers. Sometimes they can even start to curl. It must have something to do with the plant's production of pepper/foilage growth while the plant is still young. Those peppers average 6/7". I prefer to let the them ripen to red, that takes any bitterness away. I can recall years back ending up with a bushel full out of a small backyard patch. I'd slice them up in rounds for salads, they do have nice thin walls. I also learned how to pickle correctly, quickly!
Good luck with your plants...

Greg
 
Try the Inferno hot. They get very large- up to 9" for me. Walls of the pods are way thicker and good for stuffing or to pickle. They are prolific and can have a suprising heat also. These are very young pods and still pale green.

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agree with everyone else on the ripeness...not ripe yet...but I do not agree with everyone's assessment of heat...

I grow banana peppers each year...there are really two kinds...sweet and hot....and let me tell you about the hots...some of them rival cayenne heat...

thanks for the reminder...I have to plant my banana pepper seeds...they are good when they turn red and smoked...makes a great chipotle
Yes, I was quite startled by the dish I wound up with last year when I got banana peppers from a farmer's market. I only had the sweet kind before then and didn't know about the hot variety being so hot (the deer got my only attempt at growing them), so I chopped a bunch of them in with onions and sausage. I needed a LOT of pasta with that dish.
 
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