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scovilles Scoville rating vs Growing technique

Island_Dan

Island_Dan

So I have grown Bonda Ma Jaques and Seasoning Peppers for years now and do a lot of growing with hydroponics. This is my first time getting into growing super hots and it is a whole new ball game to me.

I have been doing lots of reading and people have always said that the more a chili plant is stressed, the hotter the pods become and because of this I have started growing some superhots in soil but I also have some in DWC's.
So if I understand this, they say less watering of the plant produces hotter pods. In a water rich environment which hydroponics provide, does this mean that the pods will be a lot less hot than if the same plant was grown in soil and stressed?
I know a lot of members grow in hydro and aero and many grow in soil. Does anyone have any experience with pod heat in different mediums and with different growing techniques?

I will also be willing to provide morugas grown in soil and some grown in dwc's later in the season for members to compare the difference in heat rating.
 
Great question. I've never grown in hydro so I can't provide an answer based on experience. I can pass on a different experience though.

Few years ago I grew peppers on both sides of my home, facing east and west. East facing got the morning sun and shade in the afternoon, opposite for the west peppers. The west peppers got the brutal afternoon sun and the temps that went with it. Plants on the east were 20 degrees cooler and shaded. West side dried out much more often and required more water. They were stressed much more compared to the east. At the end of the season the west plants performed better in production and overall growth. They also had fewer issues with aphids. The pods from the west were much hotter. I haven't grown on the east side since.

How would you stress a plant in hydro? Can you shut the water off? Might try that with a few plants and do some comparisons. Best of luck to you Dan. Oh, you have to eat what you grow. No pawning them all off on other members. You can go easy and be a sissy like me though and just eat small slivers instead of an entire pod. Those people are crazy!
 
I did a TS butch T pod last September. That was it for me. No more eating pods. I will use them in cooking but I won't eat them raw anymore. I value my life. And there is no way to stress them out, in DWC's the roots have to be wet all the time, in a flood and drain system you can reduce the cycles but you always risk drying the roots out which will affect that plant negatively and could potentially kill it if the roots die which can happen in less than a couple hours without a water flow through them. Soil retains water and naturally can preserve the roots for long periods. It is different in hydro setups. Maybe I will built a top drip system and test out how low i can run a water cycle without killing the plant and see if maybe that stresses them out but currently with DWC, that is impossible to do.
 
There are several things you can do to the plants in the DWC to stress them. For example flush the system and run only water no nutes for a period, do a heavy trim on the roots forcing new roots, turn off the air stone during the hottest part of the day and last change the ph level. The last one is tricky and if done too extreme can kill a plant pretty fast. All of these will put a certain amount of stress to a plant what remains to be seen is if it is the right kind to increase/maximize the heat level of the pods.
 
Thanks for that info Dan, I didn't know any of that about the hydro systems.

You have much bigger cajones that I do man! When I first started growing superhots the Red Savina was king. My youngest son wanted to try one, he was 13 or 14 and I let him have half of one. Stupid me stood there with the other half in my hand and I said why not. The worst 10 or 15 minutes of my life! I hated myself. You just know it will never end and for the first few minutes it just keeps getting hotter and hotter. AAAUUUGGHHH!!! Since then I've kept it to slivers going from the top to the bottom. Eating an entire TS Butch T is ballsy the first time, insane the next time. Some of the guys around here have lost their minds.

Good luck with any tests you try. There are always people around here that will appreciate any learning experience you can share.
 
onefowl1, I didn't think of the no nutes for a while or air stones because that would kind of scare me a little and it will be interesting to see if that works. The PH one i would never try because as you said, way too balsy and just plain evil to the plant.

NOW! it comes down to the original question. Is it the stress that causes the hotter peppers? Or is it lack of water that causes the plant to produce hotter pods? Does excess watering dilute the pods somehow? Because it if it the water and not just general stress then I don't think it will be possible to stress a plant out in hydroponics in the way required to produce hotter pods.
And then again, are pods from stressed plants hotter or not? Is there any proof?
 
Excuse the newb question, but what is DWC?

Last year I grew habs, japs, and cayennes in a raised garden. They were all in the same soil, and all endured the same hot dry summer. I used a drip hose to water them, and actually came out with a pretty good yield, though I would say the japs were hotter than the habs. Weird... My dad grew some scotch bonnets in his in ground garden, and the heat was not at all what I would have expected from them. My jalapenos were far hotter than the Scotch Bonnets... I am a new grower, and I am still trying to figure out how to successfully grow hot peppers, but this last grow season was completely puzzling. The jalapenos were extremely hot, and so were the cayennes. But the habs and SBs had a great taste but relatively low heat. It seems completely backwards to me. Any explanation would be greatly appreciated.
 
DWC stands for Deep Water Culture. It is a form of hydroponic growing where the plant rootmass is suspended in highly oxygenated nutrient solution.
Hydroponics is the growing of plants in nutrient solution. There are different methods such as ebb and flow systems, dwc's, top drip etc.

DWC is the cheapest and easiest and requires a resevoir filled with nutrient solution that is being highly oxygenated by using an airstone and air pump to create a constant stream of bubbles through the solution. The plant in a ph nuetral medium in a net pot is suspended in the solution and the solution is monitored and changed out weekly for fresh nutrient solution. The plant grows and blooms in total abcence of soil and normally has a faster growth rate since it is always provided with as much nutrients and water that it needs.

Just a simple explanation for those who don't know what dwc or hydroponics on a whole is.

Now for the reasons why the jalapenos were hotter than the habs, thats just due to the strain of the pepper I think. It comes down to how pure the strain is. It may also be selective breeding. If you grow a jalapeno plant and you find the hottest pepper from that plant and then plant the seeds from that pepper and then from those seedlings you again choose the hottest of all the pods and plant those seeds, you can make 4th and 5th generation plants that will progressively get hotter and hotter. Obviously the habs and SB's were selectively bred to produce less hot peppers, or maybe the seeds came from a cross breed with a variety of hab that has no heat like a Caribbean seasoning pepper which is essentially a habanero with no heat at all. Thats my wild explanation.
 
Search Maximum yield magazine on increasing the taste of fruit by stressing plants. One way to stress the plant they recommended was increasing the nutrient strength.
 
I would not try to stress the plant by giving it more nutes that an lead to big problems.

If you want to stress plants in a dwc there are additives that can be used. The best one is called Bud Factor X and it will trick the plant into thinking it is stressed which results in more oils. These additives that do this are going to be the more expensive ones you can buy and are probably not worth the money to use on peppers.

These additives do work and they will produce a lot of essential oils without negatively affecting your plants yield and health.
 
lock203 said:
I would not try to stress the plant by giving it more nutes that an lead to big problems.

If you want to stress plants in a dwc there are additives that can be used. The best one is called Bud Factor X and it will trick the plant into thinking it is stressed which results in more oils. These additives that do this are going to be the more expensive ones you can buy and are probably not worth the money to use on peppers.

These additives do work and they will produce a lot of essential oils without negatively affecting your plants yield and health.
Click to expand...

Your post just reminded me of salicylic acid. It is a plant hormone that is given off by plants to indicate stress. Some people say that by adding aspirin (of which salicylic acid is an active ingredient) to their soil while planting stresses the plant for a healthier immune system.

You could maybe try to dissolve a very small amount of aspirin in a DWC and see how that works.
 
I talked to the reps that make that Bud Factor X and they said there is some sort of dead plant material that is used to create the fake stress. So that is probably the hormone that is used, and it does look like organic material coming out the bottle.
 
Interesting.

"Bud Factor X is applied with nutrients starting in the early bloom phase to trigger and maintain a higher level of resin secretion throughout the entire bloom phase. The ingredients in Bud Factor X are absorbed by the plants roots and begin to signal the plant to maximize production of these valuable compounds. This is accomplished by signaling receptors that are inherent to the plant directly on an intra-cellular level. When this occurs, not only is the plant of higher quality, it is able to continue to grow abundant harvests."

Maybe I will purchase a bottle of this and experiment with it using 2 DWC's with 2 plants from the same seed batch germinated at the same time.

Let me see if the local hydro stores here have it and I will get back to you all on the results later on. Does anyone have experience with this product?

Some research about this product pulled up a post on another forum.

"This product is not a mystery...

This combines two of their now discontinued products, Scorpion Juice and Colossal Bud Blast...perhaps something else? Anyway....Scorpion Juice induced the SAR reaction in plants...causing them to think they are being attacked by some illness...what this reaction does is causes the immune system to turn on...making the plant stronger and more resilient to disease but also inhibits more oil production as well....

Colossal Bud Blast was a growth hormone....now AN has combined both of them together...

that is all"

So it seems they may be using bug extract to induce a defense mechanism in the plants.
 
I have only used it on other plants and after trying it I never stopped using it. I would try to get a 250ml bottle if you just want to try it, that should run you around 30$. The liters are gonna be closer to 90$.

Also make sure the bottles label is purple with a black x and a scientist on it. They switched logos and the old stuff will have a black logo with a white x. They switch logos a year or so ago at least, but I know some stores can't move product and they will have very old inventory.
 
Thanks I will definitely check it out. We have a hydro store closing down on friday and everything is 45% off. So let me go see if they have any!
 
Okay I found the Article.

http://maximumyield.com/inside-my-com/features-articles/item/16-treat-%E2%80%98em-bad-and-they%E2%80%99ll-taste-better-improving-flavor

Here is some excerpts from it for those who may be interested.

How do I improve the flavor of my hydroponic produce?
Flavor improvement using hydroponics relies on some basic principles of plant physiology. First, when we restrict water uptake by the plant, it tends to concentrate certain compounds within the plant tissue and many of these compounds are related either directly or indirectly to flavor and aroma. Applying slight moisture stress—or in hydroponic gardens increasing the EC to create a higher osmotic potential in the root zone—is a proven way to increase dry matter and flavor in many crops. This is most commonly done in greenhouse tomato crops to maintain fruit quality; however, it can also be applied to a lesser degree with chilies, berries and many woody herbs, although too much osmotic stress can create problems such as reduced fruit size and lower yields.

What are some specific details of flavor improvement methods in hydroponic crops?
With hydroponic chili crops EC levels as high as 8.0 mScm-1 have been applied to boost pungency with good results, although different chili cultivars will respond differently to increases in EC and growers will need to determine for themselves what levels will give the biggest ‘kick’ to their fruit. When using a higher EC to increase the pungency of chilies, it’s best to do so by increasing only the macronutrients in solution (N, P, K, S and Ca) while maintaining the trace elements at normal EC strength levels.
 
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