Summer 19 hot peppers

[vette-kid]

Sorry, no real pics.

Last year I had an over above of jalapenos. It was awesome. Unfortunately, most were wimpy things more like Bell peppers with a jalapeno flavor. The article was water. Despite carefully controlling the water, even rain was too much. I was using send watering pots, that seen to have been there issue, retaining water in the pan and keeping the soil moist. This led to a huge harvest but NO heat. This year I switched to fabric grow pots. Production is way down, but they are HOT!!! in fact, these jalapenos are almost too hot for me. A good problem IMO.

my other hots had none done well due to a myriad of issues. I think next year will be a block buster season for peppers for me. Varieties will be jalapeno, fish (I will get fish peppers to grow, I will I will I will), Chile's and maybe another wild card. Fabric grow pots (might try larger next time, 5-7 gal). I'm stoked about the heat in this year's harvest and hope I can carry that to next year!

Beginners take note, self watering pots are not great for hot peppers!

 

[Chuck]

I am not saying you planted the wrong variety of Japs but there are at least 15 different varieties that aren't hot , everywhere from sweet to almost hot. And another 15 or so varieties that range from hot to REAL hot. It has happened to me, growing supposedly hot Japs and they weren't. Come to find out the next year that the growers mispackaged the seeds and I bought mild seeds through no fault of my own. In my experience, a hot pepper will be hot but during the maturing stage no matter what but if they get too much water it reduces the heat and if you stress the peppers they will be somewhat hotter.

 

[vette-kid]

Possible, but last year I had there plants from two different venders and all were specifically chosen because they were supposed to be hot varieties. The Lowe's plants are entirely possible to be wrong (Bonnie) but also had one from a local nursery, all were the same gutless wanders.

So it's possible and a good point.

 

[Chuck]

Possible, but last year I had there plants from two different venders and all were specifically chosen because they were supposed to be hot varieties. The Lowe's plants are entirely possible to be wrong (Bonnie) but also had one from a local nursery, all were the same gutless wanders.

So it's possible and a good point.

I find this interesting. What was the growing medium? Potting soil, compost, a mixture .............??? And were the plants all the same variety or different hot varieties?

 

[vette-kid]

I find this interesting. What was the growing medium? Potting soil, compost, a mixture .............??? And were the plants all the same variety or different hot varieties?

Potting soil, hard to say with variety as they were Bonnie's. The local nursery just had their labeled jumbo hot jalapenos and the Bonnie's were "hot jalapenos" if I remember correctly. If guess the local place could have given me more specific details had I asked, but I didn't bother. Thinking about it, these actually came from the nursery as well.

 

[Chuck]

Potting soil, hard to say with variety as they were Bonnie's. The local nursery just had their labeled jumbo hot jalapenos and the Bonnie's were "hot jalapenos" if I remember correctly. If guess the local place could have given me more specific details had I asked, but I didn't bother. Thinking about it, these actually came from the nursery as well.

So, apparently, the sellers didn't know the variety name either. This leaves the grower of the transplants at fault. It's really not surprising. Growing thousands upon thousands of seedlings of different varieties by well-meaning but less than perfect employees it is also surprising that more mistakes don't happen.
I don't think what you did or the amount of water the plants received had very much to do with the lack of heat. I think what happened was a simple mistake at the growing facility. If you ever have a chance to go to a big grower, by all means go. They are fascinating places for a gardener to see. From the mixing of the growing medium to loading the seedlings onto trucks it is all a specifically timed and orchestrated event.

 

[vette-kid]

Interesting. I complained in a thread last season about my gutless wanders and I recall the general hypothesis being over watering. A pepper only had so much capsaicin. As it ages and takes up now water it becomes more watered down.

I did an impromptu experiment last night and picked two peppers from the same plant. One maturing, just starting to turn red; the other young and very green. The young peppers was by far the hotter of the two. The older one did have some heat left to it, but not much. I should point out that we have had a lot of rain lately as well (3.5' for the last 7 day period). Being as they were from the same plant I'm inclined to believe the over watering theory is at least partly to blame.

I %100 concur that variety control is likely a problem as well. Being as these are good hot jalapenos, I'm considering saving some seeds and seeing if the local nursery will start dinner for me in December for March planting. I don't have time this winter to Jess with it (I'll be gone Jan-March...ish