my cayenne peppers

[tjg911]

i ate one about 4 weeks ago and it was hot enough that i thought eating them raw was too hot. yesterday i ate 2 raw, no big deal! now 1 was more green than red so i expected that one to be not too hot. the other was red, all red. i did cut out the pith and seeds but at the pointed end i ate about 1/4 without removing them. neither seemed to be all that hot!

are peppers that ripen outside the strong strength of the sun's rays and the heat of summer not has hot? maybe i just had a red pepper that was not that hot but others will be?

tom

[Blueaussi]

Lot of water, whether from rain or sprinklers, can take the bite out of a pepper's heat, and hot dry weather does seem to make them hotter.

[mjc]

I have Hungarian Hot Wax that when grown out two years ago were so mild that we thought we had Sweet Wax instead (about a dozen plants)...this year seeds from that same commercial pack have produced 6 plants with firey hot peppers...but not nearly as many. The weather here has been very wet and very cool*...so it isn't just wet/dry, but rather several weather related factors combined that can influence heat levels. It is like the more extreme the weather the bigger the difference will be...

*We had nights in the low forties (F) in July!

[Blueaussi]

Ok, I was too vague. Yes, stressing a pepper plant will make its fruit hotter. However, all other things being equal, excess water will make a pepper lose heat, and a pepper ripened in the heat of summer will be hotter than one ripened in shorter and cooler days of fall.

[mjc]

Two summers ago it was very warm and very wet...so, yeah.

Not arguing, blueaussi, just trying to elaborate...

[Blueaussi]

I wasn't trying to argue either, just trying to make sure all the information is out there.

[tjg911]

thanks for the info. i have watered my cayenne plant like my sweet peppers - about every 3rd day. so between the cool days, shortened daylight and very weak sun now, maybe they are not as hot as they should be.

i picked 6 yesterday and 1 was very short, about 1 3/4". i sliced it up removing the seeds and pith and put that on a plate with garlic and capers. i cooked some pasta and broccoli and while waiting for the pasta to cook i washed the knife and then licked it - was was very hot. oh man i was sure i'd ruined this dish by using the whole pepper about 20 pieces.

when the pasta and broccoli were done i tossed it all and added balsamic vinegar and olive oil. much to my surprise the cayenne peppers gave a bit of heat but not too much. my conclusion is when eaten with other food they are not as hot as when tasted alone. now that may seem obvious but based on the heat on the knife blade i really expected the 20 or so pieces to really turn the food into too hot to handle.

tom

[barkeater]

When hot peppers ripen to red (or yellow), the heat (capsaicin-sp?) moves to the seeds, away from the "flesh". That is why I always found the hottest peppers are the ones just on the turn, when the first hint of color change occurs.

And, as Blueaussie said, stress is the best heat inducer for peppers. In my wet, cold climate, I have consistently hotter peppers than I did farming them in balmy NJ. I learned never to fertilize my in-ground peppers. The hottest peppers I ever grew (not counting habaneros) had a mild virus or bacterial disease. Maybe smacking them once in a while would help too;-)

[tjg911]

stress huh? interesting. so not watering them in july and august should make them hotter i'd guess. the fact about heat moving to the pith and seeds when they ripen makes sense based upon what i have tasted.

this being the 1st year i ever grew any hot pepper is a learning experience. so being nice to my cayenne plant seems to have been a mistake while my sweet peppers appreciate my care of them.

since this was such a poor year, even my gyspy peppers rotted and have produced only 1/2 dozen red fruits so far which is atypical for 6 plants, maybe the cayenne is not performing in a typical way? i have lost almost no cayenne peppers and have what seems like a lot of peppers on that plant, maybe the heat is being effected by this season too.

i was considering growing a hotter pepper next year since these seemed to be not all that hot unless i use the pith and seeds. maybe i should grow 1 cayenne plant again but treat it poorly and see the results.

tom

[b54red]

I was told many years ago by an old farmer that if you want really hot peppers side dress them with chicken manure. I tried it a couple of times and the peppers were extremely hot and they made like crazy. You have to water it in well so they don't get burned. I don't use it anymore since I lost my source of free chicken litter, but it was the most effective natural fertilizer I've ever used and also the smelliest.

[Marko]

b54red, I have the same experience with chicken manure. Composted chicken manure is the only fertilizer I use on my peppers.

Regarding stress - it's ok to reduce water when they are turning red, not before.

[tjg911]

here is another observation from someone that never grew hot peppers until this season.

this may seem obvious to those that grow cayenne peppers but i find this odd. the hottest part of the pepper is from the middle to the pointed end. from the middle to the stem end is not really very hot! i remove the pith and seeds from both ends but i would have expected more heat from the stem end as that's where the bulk of the seeds and pith are.

i have observed this on 2 or 3 peppers i ate uncooked. why would the middle to the tip be hotter?

tom

[tonymalone]

i would like yalls opinion on this.

i've found 2 different cayennes.

1 being the long slim cayenne, like the seeds ya buy from heirloom seed companies,,, it ranges from not hot at all, to fairly hot, and has large leafs.

2 being the hot cayenne, i've bought from nurseries, already started.
it is just HOT, and has small leafs.

my dad always said the smaller the leaf on a cayenne the hotter the pepper.

any opinions on this

[Blueaussi]

There are dozens upon dozens of varieties of cayennes, including at least one sweet one that I know of; and probably dozens upon dozens more that I've not heard of at all. I've never noticed any correlation between leaf size and heat, but I haven't been looking for that. I'm pretty sure Charleston Hot had regular leaves, and it was pretty darn hot.

[mensplace]

Originally Posted by Blueaussi

Ok, I was too vague. Yes, stressing a pepper plant will make its fruit hotter. However, all other things being equal, excess water will make a pepper lose heat, and a pepper ripened in the heat of summer will be hotter than one ripened in shorter and cooler days of fall.

Also very true with herbs. If you want more intense flavor don't fertilize or water too much to develop those essential oils and esters.

Guess the same is true with wine grapes..the best wines come from grapes that have a longer growing season..one reason why many of the wines grown on the east coast can't compare with north coast California.