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Plant stress

jolokia_jas

jolokia_jas

This may be an obsurd question, but here goes.
I keep reading that stressed chilli plants tend to produce hotter pods.

Q1. Are there any other side effects to stressed plants?

Q2. How could you go about "safely" stressing a few plants to see what happens without seriously hurting them?
 
jolokia_jas said:
This may be an obsurd question, but here goes.
I keep reading that stressed chilli plants tend to produce hotter pods.

Q1. Are there any other side effects to stressed plants?

Q2. How could you go about "safely" stressing a few plants to see what happens without seriously hurting them?
Click to expand...

Q1. Lower production (more dropped flowers/buds)

Q2. Let them wilt between watering.
 
Withholding water is an old trick used by cannabis growers to increase the potency of their crop and it works. So its logical the same would be true for Capsicum. I tried it for my last harvest of red Habs and it seemed to work.
 
Nice, not sure I want the dropped flowers causing a lower production rate though. What about taste is there any effect on the taste of the pods?

Thanks SS and AjarnV, much appreciated.

Jas
 
jolokia_jas said:
Nice, not sure I want the dropped flowers causing a lower production rate though. What about taste is there any effect on the taste of the pods?

Thanks SS and AjarnV, much appreciated.

Jas
Click to expand...

The flavor certainly wasn't diminished; full as ever, IMO. Flavor is so subjective though; try it and see what you think. You can always go back.
 
That's good to hear, I might try it on just a few of my plants to see how it goes. I'm also going to do a 50% trial of the asprin mix too, see how that works out.
 
Wait till you have lots of pods before stressing. A lot of people stress their young plants and it just makes them very unhappy.
Personally I don't water stress my plants but I do bring some plants into the hot greenhouse during the summer to develop hotter pods. These days I don't usually bother since the super-hot varieties are insanely hot without stressing
 
jolokia_jas said:
That's good to hear, I might try it on just a few of my plants to see how it goes. I'm also going to do a 50% trial of the asprin mix too, see how that works out.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that's a new one; care to enlighten a bit about the aspirin?
 
I find that my pods are hot enough as it is, especially during the summer and I've never even eaten a super hot yet.
But I imagine stressing experiments would be interesting for comparison especially if you have spare plants.
 
I severely stressed cayennes and Thai Dragons one year and couldn't tell any real difference. But wife says I have a severely traumatized tongue, so how would I know?
 
I'll be darned; aspirin is the only pain killer I normally use, so always on hand. Nice to know this old fart can still learn something new. ;)
 
Addendum: I've posted on many forums over the years and I must say; this one is the most civil and informative I've had the pleasure of being a part of. Cheers everybody. :clap:
 
I grow in both hydro and dirt and have experimented with water/light/fertilizer/mechanical/heat stressing and I see very little difference in the chiles.

As Potawie points out, if you want picante, grow picante chiles.
 
Hey Fade,
Yeah I have nine varieties of the superhots waiting to sprout for me (4 of each) It was more curiosity than anything. Knowing my luck I'd end up unintentionally stressing them to death.
 
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