Hot peppers not getting hot

MarcV

MarcV

eXtreme
I noticed that my peppers don't seem to get as hot as expected or even not hot at all! I have a cayenne thick red that produces many delicious sweet tasting pods but without any heat. Just now I tasted a jalapeno which also had a nice sweet taste, but also no heat at all!
 
I have a couple of capsicum chinenses growing of which the pods I can easily eat raw (and I'm not used to eating hot food...). I have for instance cheiro roxa and clavo red (which is actually a pink variety sold by fatalii.net). I can eat them whole without problem. I have to say I eat them without seeds as I don't like nibbling on seeds :) . I could also eat a madame jeanette without problem.
 
On the other hand I have a couple of purple ornamental varieties of which the pods are quite hot and they are grown in the same circumstances.
 
Could I be doing something wrong or am I just too tolerant to the heat? I know heat development is dependent on the growing circumstances but how much influence can it actually have?
 
I keep my plants inside in our veranda. Normally temperature in there is at least 22°C, but on sunny days it can easily rise to 30°C or more.
The amount of light they get might be a bit on the low side. The purple ornamental varieties I have (purple flash and orozco) hardly turned purple in there, but they are now permanently in open air and have become entirely black-purple!
 
low light could cause it, but so could a lot of other environmental factors.  two years ago we had pretty bad drought and my peppers came out hotter than hell!  try eating a whole pepper with the seeds and report back - just one whole pepper with seeds.  for science!  lots of capsaicin in the whitish pith that the seeds attach to the wall of the pepper.   the clavo red I'm growing this year is a slow creeping burn that's quite hot.
 
my early jalapenos have no heat this year either, could be many factors.
 
they taste good pickled how ever, mix in some hotter varieties and it all works
 
Well, to be honest, I don't actually need more picante. I'm more interested in their taste. I'm just surprised that they aren't as hot as I expected them to be...
 
Stress your plants by letting them wilt a bit before watering. Research has shown that the mild to medium heat peppers such as jalapeños increase dramatically in heat when grown under such conditions. I've posted links to the articles here before.

The basic equation is genetics x environment = heat level. There are limitations to this though. That said your experience mirrors mine and is a prime driver for why I switched to growing in coco. Wanted a medium that i could grow in and control the factors. I get larger plants in smaller pots and'let them wilt on an almost daily basis before watering again. This is compared to my precious attempts where I couldn't get a Trinidad scorpion to grow to it's full potential in a large bucket of soil.

Neil
 
Blister said:
Stress your plants by letting them wilt a bit before watering. Research has shown that the mild to medium heat peppers such as jalapeños increase dramatically in heat when grown under such conditions. I've posted links to the articles here before.

The basic equation is genetics x environment = heat level. There are limitations to this though. That said your experience mirrors mine and is a prime driver for why I switched to growing in coco. Wanted a medium that i could grow in and control the factors. I get larger plants in smaller pots and'let them wilt on an almost daily basis before watering again. This is compared to my precious attempts where I couldn't get a Trinidad scorpion to grow to it's full potential in a large bucket of soil.

Neil
Click to expand...
 
 Yea i was gonna say,"stress the plants a little" maybe use some sulfer?
 
Check post #6 here for Blister's links and a couple more threads on the subject: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/47990-the-ins-and-outs-of-stressing-peppers/?mode=show
 
Stress those suckers out! Someone mentioned somewhere that a particularly pricey wine uses grapes from vines purposely infected with a fungus for stress to increase flavour. Heat/drought is an obvious stressor and has been proven. I suspect any stress in general will do - my sickly plants last year had pods that were much hotter than the healthiest plants. There are even hydro nutes out there that trick the plants into thinking they're stressed. I may try this out next year. Forget what it's called but it's buried in the links provided in that linked to thread above.
 
I grow for flavour too, but I crave the heat. Whatever I can do to pump that up I will.
 
I'm after the full pepper experience. If I grow a Jolokia I want it to be hot and flavorful. If I grow jalapeños I want their full potential, not some watered down version. I suspect I'm not alone in this regard.

Neil
 
What was the seed source?  You might just have milder versions of the peppers.  Domestic grocery store jalapenos in the US are only a fraction as hot as what I usually grow, they select a strain with lower heat to have broader appeal to shoppers who can't tolerate heat.
 
My seeds come from internet shops like pepperseeds.eu and fataliiseeds.net. I believe these to be reliable sources...
 
Are the pods mature/ripe? Honestly I just think you probably need to stress them a bit. Water only after they have dropped for a while from draught.
 
AaronRiot said:
Are the pods mature/ripe? Honestly I just think you probably need to stress them a bit. Water only after they have dropped for a while from draught.
Click to expand...
 
Hi, i have the same "problem", but maybe i pick them to early.
How long could a pod be on the plant after it got the correct color?
How long should the waiting be when the plant starts to dropp before watering?
 
pwb said:
 
Hi, i have the same "problem", but maybe i pick them to early.
How long could a pod be on the plant after it got the correct color?
How long should the waiting be when the plant starts to dropp before watering?
Click to expand...
 
If it's turned or turning colour you can pick it, or in the case of chiles that are preferred green I would wait a little while after they stopped gaining size.
 
I have been trying to wait until I see a heavy droop to water. In some of the articles linked to above chiles would be watered the morning after wilting was observed. I think this is trial and error and do what works best for you and your schedule.
 
To be honest this is only my second season as a grower and my first starting from seed, so I am mostly just regurgitating what I've read.
 
My first ripe pod of the season was very hot for what it is (cumari do para) and I have been allowing that plant to droop heavily before each watering. I also ate it while it was maybe 15% green still.
 
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