• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

No HEAT from any of my peppers...

...first post but hopefully there is an easy answer to my problem.

I built three 4x8 2x10 raised beds this year and planted a variety of vegetables that included carrots, tomatoes, spinach, onions, radishes, cucumbers, lettuce and of course peppers. Beds had 8+ hours of full sun daily. Bed mix was horse manure compost mixed 50/50 with bulk garden mix from a local supplier.

All the vegetables did great with the exception of the onions and lettuce, producing a great crop.

The peppers on the other hand, were very disappointing. I planted the following:

Billy Biker Jap's - from seed, excellent plants.

ANAHEIM TMR23 - Did not produce

ANCHO GIGANTIA - Did not produce

BAILEY PIQUIN - Did not produce

BHUT JOLOKIA - Did not produce

CHERRY TART - No heat

EXTRA HOT (Nu Mex) - No heat

HABANERO LEMON YELLOW - No heat

HABANERO ORANGE - No heat

HABANERO RED SAVINA - No heat

PEPERONCINI - No heat

TABASCO GREENLEAF - No heat


and a few others that I can't remember here at work from transplants from a nursery up in the NE. I have used the nursery before and my orange Hab's produced well and were hot.

Here is the problem, ONLY the Billy Biker Jap's had heat and this was from the first crop or two. Afterward ALL the peppers tasted like crappy Bell peppers.

What might I look for before next year?

I live in lower south central Texas, fairly dry and hot.

Thanks in advance, SV
 
I have absolutely no idea why your peppers didn't/don't have heat...none what so ever....

by the way...welcome to the forum from Fort Worth
 
This is going to be a silly question but one that has to be asked....

Were your peppers ripe...(i.e. had they changed colour from green to a full red colour)

Most of them should go red!!!

Not trying to be sarcastic or patronizing but we have had people say there peepers have no heat and taste horrible and it turns out they are eating them green....and the Billy Biker's are a chilli that can taste good and have heat while green...


Let us know.
 
Welcome! SV1000 as in the Suzuki?

Only thing i can think of to have bhuts that are not hot is what moyboy is saying. Are you trying them when they're still green?
 
That is the strangest thing. Especially here in Texas, where it's hot as hell. Usually peppers get hotter with hotter weather/stress, so I have no idea what to tell you. Even if the peppers aren't ripe, they should still have SOME heat......


And welcome from Austin!
 
Honestly before my deployment I grew a bunch of bhuts,espanole,lemon d, and some red savinas, barely any had any heat . come to find out my drainage in the soil was too great and was robbing my peppers of nutrients.
 
Howdy, thanks for the warm welcome.

Yes, SV1000 as in Suzuki...my dream bike after my daughters finish high school.

The Tabasco, Lemon and Orange Hab's were ripe, the Red Savina green, the Bhut was starting to color, the NuMex's were huge but green. they were the hottest NuMex listed on the website. I picked the variety trying to duplicate green chili's my Uncle brought back from New Mexico. The cherry peppers were supposed to be medium heat, I am not sure what that really is but to me it should have some heat and they were bland, but full red.

The Billy Biker's were hot, and I tried all sizes from 1.5" to 3" in length before I pulled the plants.
 
Talljess said:
Honestly before my deployment I grew a bunch of bhuts,espanole,lemon d, and some red savinas, barely any had any heat . come to find out my drainage in the soil was too great and was robbing my peppers of nutrients.

That may be one area to look at. My soil was draining very well and I remember from some of my reference books, "pepper plants don't like wet feet". I only fertilized twice with Miracle Grow.
 
hello there

hmm is it possible.. maybe .. our friend there has numbed his tongue so he can't taste the heat! hehe :)( i had one of my ex boss , he was a heavy smoker and he takes them with no filter! he has lost/partially his taste for chillies. so he is always looking for a hotter chilli to have food with if not he says the food tastes blend!)
 
Thats very odd that so many plants did not produce anything... Sounds like a very bad nutrient problem or soil issues.

Even in blazing heat, or insane amounts of rain, or almost no rain... You should STILL get peppers from some of them!

Did you ever give them sources of magnesium? (Peppers are a magnesium hungy crop). What was your fertilizer regimen? Did the plants in question look diseased or malnurished?

I'd be willing to bet that one of those was contributing to your lack of production and lack of heat/flavor.
 
I'm driving a TL1000R a nice street bike if you drop 2 teeth on the front sprokit, It surprise's most people on anything. LOL,, But the front can get alittle lite of the start.
 
Richard,

I fertilized with Miracle Grow, 5 gallon buckets at a time mixed per the instructions for vegetables. I did not supplement this with any other nutrients.

All the Hab's were growing in the same bed as the pickling cucumbers that were growing so fast and producing so heavy that I had to carry grocery bags full of fruit to work every week. Same with the tomatoes, had two Better Boy plants in the same bed.

Maybe the cucumbers and tomatoes were robbing the Hab's?

This was my first attempt at gardening, not counting my first garden when I was six years old in West Texas. I made quite a few mistakes but had a good crop of vegetables this year.

I am adding three more beds for a total of six this fall and doubling the height to 18" which should help. I did try to plant to much to close together.

I will also grow my own from seed, the Billy Biker plants kicked butt, probably 42" tall when I pulled them in August and still producing heavy, just no heat!

The transplants came from the northeast, NJ I believe. I don't need to name the nursery, this is most likely the gardener even though the quality of the plants was much lower than what I had ordered several years earlier.
 
Sounds like your plants aren't true or they're mislabelled. I don't think it has much to do with nutrients since I've had hot pods using only staight water in plain soil
Actually with so many that did not produce, you must have been doing something wrong
 
Potawie,

I agree, it's the gardener and I am going to have a talk with him :D

The oddball is the Billy Biker's, they were hot for jalapenos but only the first batch, maybe a few of the second batch and then the plants went lame.

It's no big deal, this is for fun but I don't want a repeat next spring.

SV
 
Our Hungarian Wax peppers did not get hot either.
They taste alright but no heat. They were all nursery plants.
 
Back
Top