The ins and outs of stressing peppers.

Do you actively stress your peppers?

  • Total voters
    26
Ragnar

Ragnar

Hey everyone. So I'm posting this poll to get an idea of how you all go about stressing your peppers, or if many of you do at all.
 
I'm mainly interested in seeing how much stress you put them under as I've read a few different opinions on this and have found the topic to be quite interesting.
 
Please feel free to post your methods or lack thereof.
 
I'm especially hoping to get some of my mild and medium pods to produce as much heat as genetically possible, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the collective goes about this.
 
Thanks for taking the time to post your opinions on this already much-discussed topic.
 
I don't stress mine either. I agree that they are  hot enough without the stressing. If I wanted them to be hotter I would just grow a hotter variety. My opinion is that a happy and healthy plant will produce the best pods. I also like to sell and trade seeds from my pods. I  feel that the seeds will be of better quality if they are given everything they need to grow and the amount of stress is reduced. I really don't even do any drought stressing but there is not an option for that in the poll.
 
Hmmmm.
Not enough choices.
Peppers often droop in the sun---even when soaked to the gills.
 
All my potted peppers (excepty hydro) get to dry dirt before watering.
 
Stressing.
Well, I am stressing my hydros with plain water (no nutes) to get better flowering and pod setting, and will do the same (flushing) when pods are close to ripe.
Potted peppers get stressed most of the time by delaying watering till I see they are drooping a bit----not in the sun.
 
My "pepper plot" in dirt is on a water timer along with the rest of the yard, and hence is doing poorly.
It's getting it's own system next year to cut back on the watering.
 
Here are a couple recent threads on the topic, and at the bottom are a few really cool links blister pointed out in one of said threads:
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/45203-stress-or-optimum-what-makes-for-hotter-fruits/?hl=stressing#entry950156
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/38073-what-makes-peppers-grow-hotter/?hl=%2Bstressing+%2Bplants#entry795839
 
And:
 
Blister:
 
Posted 18 February 2014 - 02:09 AM
I was hoping to post something tonight, but as I dig deeper into the articles it appears that there are some rather large variances in findings. For the most part it would appear that any and all stress has an effect on the heat of a given pepper. Drought stress does affect the heat of a pepper, but dramatically more so in the mild to medium heat level peppers. While there was little to no change in productivity for drought stressed peppers, there was a decrease in productivity in the medium heat level peppers. It's kind of leaving me scratching my head. Basically what it comes down to is

genetics x environment = potential heat level... but it depends...

While I work on processing the information I'll post the links to the articles so others can have a look at them:

http://www.chilepepp...cant_effect.pdf

http://www.chilepepp...ught_stress.pdf

http://www.chilepepp...of_chile(1).pdf


Neil
Click to expand...
 
You need to seriously consider where a person is at in the globe when reading their response. Waywright, who posted "I intentionally overwater my plants,,they love me for it", is in Atlanta, GA - where it's hot much longer than it is where you are at, not just over the course of a year, but even over the course of a day. In the southern-most states it doesn't usually cool down much at night like it does in the north, so it's actually kind of hard to over-water there, due to more rapid evaporation. (I used to live in TX, so I know first-hand about this.) Where you and I live, however, it's much easier to actually over-water. In fact, the "spring" rains we have been having are causing me to haul my plants into the garage to avoid overwatering.  My plants respond to overwatering by yellowing, slowing growth and shutting down production, not thanking me for it. 
 
That said, I do not intentionally stress my plants, but it happens - such as when I end up going out of town on business or just get too busy inside and never make it outside. Are my plants more productive or hotter when this happens? Not that I could tell. But there does seem to be some evidence that stressing can help these things. A couple years back I was in chat discussing this topic, and someone found an article that included a grow in Asia somewhere that the growers intentionally step on their plants while they're fairly young, and claim this helps the plants. Possibly it helps those that are stronger than others, as the photo of the field that accompanied the article did show some very healthy-looking plants, but the field also had some rather bare spots where it seems some did not survive the trampling. 
 
I'd be curious to see the results if you have a control group that you do not stress along with an experimental group of the same types which you do stress.
 
---
An FYI on the mechanics of the poll: it forces an answer to every question; it's all or none.  If the answer to #1 is "Sometimes by mistake" or "No", the other two questions are moot or not applicable.
 
 
 
 
Isn't life is stressful enough already?  :neutral:
 
Growing in container in Aridzona, many of the plants are already into mild wilt by mid-day, despite shade and plenty of water.  I try to provide the best for them, read them bed time stories, and hope they will grow to be big and be productive.
 
I think the people who intentionally stress their plants with leaf and stem amputation, dehydration, and now a good stomping :crazy: are just acting out their control freak issues.  I hope never to work for these people!  :P
 
Geonerd said:
Isn't life is stressful enough already?  :neutral:
 
Growing in container in Aridzona, many of the plants are already into mild wilt by mid-day, despite shade and plenty of water.  I try to provide the best for them, read them bed time stories, and hope they will grow to be big and be productive.
 
I think the people who intentionally stress their plants with leaf and stem amputation, dehydration, and now a good stomping :crazy: are just acting out their control freak issues.  I hope never to work for these people!  :P
Click to expand...
 
     Maybe all your plants are naturally stressed just by living in the desert, and you just can't tell the difference. Other folks in more hospitable climates might be stressing their plants just to mimic desert conditions.
 
I am a newbie so I overwatered initially until I came on here and learnt not to!. The plants have recovered and I let them get stressed so I knew they definitely needed watering. I now know the weight of a dry versus wet pot so will use that as a guide in future - as a superhot newbie I am sure I won't require them any hotter  :P
 
I do know from making wine that grapes raised in poor soil conditions and low water amounts will produce low yields of highly concentrated grapes (high in compounds that are involved in flavour) that produce the best wines (older vines are prized for this and even wines that are highly stressed from disease are highly sought after - see "the dead arm shiraz" by d'arenberg - which is produced by vines riddled with Eutypa Lata fungus. As opposed to well watered nutrient rich soil which will produce high yields of watery grapes which are used to make bulk cheap wine. I assume the same principles apply here, but I have no idea tbh. I will let the chilli experts give their 2 cents.  
 
geeme said:
You need to seriously consider where a person is at in the globe when reading their response. Waywright, who posted "I intentionally overwater my plants,,they love me for it", is in Atlanta, GA - where it's hot much longer than it is where you are at, not just over the course of a year, but even over the course of a day. In the southern-most states it doesn't usually cool down much at night like it does in the north, so it's actually kind of hard to over-water there, due to more rapid evaporation. (I used to live in TX, so I know first-hand about this.) Where you and I live, however, it's much easier to actually over-water. In fact, the "spring" rains we have been having are causing me to haul my plants into the garage to avoid overwatering.  My plants respond to overwatering by yellowing, slowing growth and shutting down production, not thanking me for it. 
 
That said, I do not intentionally stress my plants, but it happens - such as when I end up going out of town on business or just get too busy inside and never make it outside. Are my plants more productive or hotter when this happens? Not that I could tell. But there does seem to be some evidence that stressing can help these things. A couple years back I was in chat discussing this topic, and someone found an article that included a grow in Asia somewhere that the growers intentionally step on their plants while they're fairly young, and claim this helps the plants. Possibly it helps those that are stronger than others, as the photo of the field that accompanied the article did show some very healthy-looking plants, but the field also had some rather bare spots where it seems some did not survive the trampling. 
 
I'd be curious to see the results if you have a control group that you do not stress along with an experimental group of the same types which you do stress.
Click to expand...
 
With regards to over-watering, I'm not too worried about that even with all the rain, but that's not really what I'm interested in talking about in this thread.
 
That grow in asia is interesting, though I think a bit extreme and not well thought out. Seems like a messy version of topping... FIM to the extreme.
 
In post six I quoted Blister's links from another thread on the drought stress topic. There are 3 studies with controls and results on a professional scale. This is what lead me to seek what the more experienced growers here are doing. The findings in the studies linked above show quite a significant difference in mild and medium heat pods that are stressed vs optimally grown. Strangely the hotter pods don't show much variability (at least in the strains they experimented on).
 
I found many of my annuum pods last year to seem quite a bit milder than their suggested average. Cayenne and hot Thai in particular. My chinense pods were plenty hot on the other hand. So I would like to do what I can to pump up the heat in my milder pod -- I have plenty that are going to be extremly hot, no worries there, more a case of I would like to have Jalapenos etc. that pack a nice punch.
 
Celtic67 said:
I do know from making wine that grapes raised in poor soil conditions and low water amounts will produce low yields of highly concentrated grapes (high in compounds that are involved in flavour) that produce the best wines (older vines are prized for this and even wines that are highly stressed from disease are highly sought after - see "the dead arm shiraz" by d'arenberg - which is produced by vines riddled with Eutypa Lata fungus. As opposed to well watered nutrient rich soil which will produce high yields of watery grapes which are used to make bulk cheap wine. I assume the same principles apply here, but I have no idea tbh. I will let the chilli experts give their 2 cents.  
Click to expand...
 
I was just reading about this! Adds fuel to the fire, don't it.
 
They even have hydro supplements out that trick the plant into thinking it's stressed without actually being stressed at all.
 
 
 
 
 
Also, I get that some people's weather is so hot/arid that this thread really doesn't even pertain to them, and that the questions I posted aren't as great as they could have been. First poll learning curve. Never took stats in college or uni - thank god.
 
Another factor to consider, is how you grow. Some soils are richer than others, which tends to prevent yellowing and other problems from over watering, while other soils reveal their worth after a whole lot of rain. My plants have had too much rain or so I thought recently, until I looked out today and saw really great vegetative growth. My Fatalii just exploded with new branches, growing upwards and outwards, among others. I am sure the variety has a lot to do with it as well, and where it originates from. A plant from the mountains of Afghanistan will have a different response than say a plant from Costa Rica, at least when it comes to watering. There are a lot of variables to consider, from the variety and its origins, to where your currently growing, soil quality, light intensity and humidity etc.
In regards to stressing I have noticed that instead of withholding water during pod development, I wait until its time to pick them. When I can tell that several pods are almost ripe, that is when I choose to keep the plant very dry. So pods are pulled when the plant has not received water for a while. I have noticed a heat increase by doing this.
 
I've never understood why people do this. It makes no sense to me. If you look at the origins of a lot of the supers hots none of them are in drought conditions. They are more apt to monsoon/flooding conditions actually. Stressing your plants on purpose to get more heat is a weird concept. How hot do you need them to be for one, and is it worth stalling out the growth of your plant for a little extra heat?
 
ColdSmoke said:
I've never understood why people do this. It makes no sense to me. If you look at the origins of a lot of the supers hots none of them are in drought conditions. They are more apt to monsoon/flooding conditions actually. Stressing your plants on purpose to get more heat is a weird concept. How hot do you need them to be for one, and is it worth stalling out the growth of your plant for a little extra heat?
Click to expand...
 
I suppose it could be because what we want and what a plant wants are often different. The plant wants to produce as much fruit to ensure a high chance of producing plants regardless of how the fruit tastes (so it has evolved to be optimal at reproduction in its natural environment (non stressed?), while we (generally) want fruit which tastes good i.e. rich in compounds associated with flavour, including capsaicin. Although why we grow superhots may vary between growers e.g. taste, heat, aesthetic qualities.
 
Our selective breeding of plants has altered their genome to suit our needs e.g. a banana is sterile, so it can never be considered what the plant "wants" while it is an important food source for us. 
 
Limitting water is not stressing them at all. One should never let this go on for too long. Wilting in the heat of the day is normal, water should not be added. There is a distinct difference between heat wilting and drooping from needing water, you will learn this as you go.
 
Stressing peppers to increase  heat is a myth so no point there.
 
Swartmamba said:
Limitting water is not stressing them at all. One should never let this go on for too long. Wilting in the heat of the day is normal, water should not be added. There is a distinct difference between heat wilting and drooping from needing water, you will learn this as you go.
 
Stressing peppers to increase  heat is a myth so no point there.
Click to expand...
 
 
Is this based on your own experiences or are there controlled studies demonstrating this lack of effect of water on capsaicin production?
 
It is just after a very brief lit search, I found these two papers which conclude that the amount of water (and therefore "water stressing" ) determines the concentration of capsaicin, so stressing your plants by limiting water will increase capsaicin production. I did not find any studies backing up your conclusions, so I was wondering if there are studies out there that do so. Thanks!
 
http://ejournal.sinica.edu.tw/bbas/content/2005/1/Bot461-05.html
 
The second study is in spanish, and I can't find a pdf link, but the conclusions are stated in this review
 
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/5/1549.full
 
See reference; 
  1. Dzib-Echeverria, R., 
  2. Uribe Valle, G.
 (2005) La fertilidad de los suelos luvisoles ródicos y el uso de fuentes de fertilizantes en chile habanero. Nutrition and water management. Second World Pepper Convention.2:205–209.
 
edit: another reference in favour of water stressing increasing capsaicin production.
 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423899000291
 
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