A thread for hot pepper-a-holics...

Actually, Chilly Chili, the All American Selections winner is an ornamental chile that has no heat. However, the plant is suitable for indoor pots, produces 2-inch long pods that grow upright above the foliage. The pods transition from yellow to orange to red as they mature. Probably one of the most commonly grown hot chilies is the Habanero with a heat factor of between 200,00 to 300,000 SHU. The hottest Chile pepper in the world is the Bhut Jolokia (In the Assam language it translates Ghost Chile). The Bhut Jolokia holds the Guinness World Record at a stunning 1,042,427 SHU. Any chile pepper can be grown in a container. At the risk of overgeneralizing, the smaller podded varieties adapt best to container growing, especially to the smaller containers. The more compact types, like bell peppers, yellow wax, and ornamentals, grow well without needing any pruning. Tall, robust plants like ajis need to be pruned periodically to maintain a coiffured plant. Container growing of chile peppers, has become so popular that many seed companies are breeding varieties for container growing. For example, Jingle Bells, is a compact plant that will produce a dozen 2-inch pods at a time. Other preferred container varieties are just more compact in their growth habit and work well in containers, these include Early Jalapeño, Thai Chile, Big Early, Super Chili, Tangerine Dream, Redskin, Mohawk and of course most all ornamentals. - Millet (1.197-)

 

This is incorrect, because I've been eating them for two months straight, and they are full of heat! A lot of pepper plants are labelled as ornamental, but they are perfectly edible - and hot.


: )

 

HLB, it certainly is not my wish to cause a controversy, so aside from my personal knowledge, I have taken the time to double check the heat content of Chilly Chili. The Compendium, list Chily Chili as a no heat ornamental chile pepper. Mr Paul W. Bosland who leads the chile pepper breeding and genetic research program at New Mexico State University (NMSU) where Mr. Bosland directs the University's Chile Pepper Institute, and is also chairman of the annual New Mexico Chile Conference states, and I quote "Chilly Chili, an ornamental that has no heat". I only inject these facts to ratify that Chilly Chili certainly does not have heat, so that Eve von Paradis is not disappointed after taking all the time and effort required to grow the plant, only to find out that it is a variety that does not produce the heat content she was hoping for. I'll leave it at that, and feel no need to reply again concerning this issue, as I do not wish to make this a long drawn out controversy. Eve is free to chose to follow which ever advice she wishes, either way I have done what I thought was helpful and right. Have a good day. - Millet (1,196-)

 

Yes of course, lets listen to all your books, research, and "facts" Millet, instead of validating someone who is actually GROWING the plant, and eating it!!!!!


You are right - I must have been totally imagining the heat I tasted. Silly me.


So many books and sellers tell me that this pepper and that pepper, are not edible, but when I grow them, I come to find out they are indeed edible. I even called over to a few greenhouses this summer that were selling so-called ornamental/non-edible capsicum plants, and told them the difference. They were very grateful.

Anyway, didn't you say I was DEAD to you and that you'd be ignoring me?!!! Until I get an apology from you, which I know will be right around the time when donkey's fly, I would appreciate you not addressing me in future. Thank you.


: )

 

HOW TO WIN A CHILE PEPPER EATING CONTENT WITH A FRIEND: Capsaicin, the chemical in peppers that provides the heat, is produced by glands at the junction of the placenta (the mid rib inside the pod) and the pod wall. Capsaicin spreads unevenly throughout the inside of the pod, and is highly concentrated in the placental tissue, and also in the upper part of the pod (stem end). The styler end (the bottom flower end) has the lowest amount of capsaicin, thus the lowest amount of heat. Therefore, in a contest with a friend, you first bite off the pepper's bottom leaving the hot placental tissue, and the pepper top, then pass the pepper to your friend who will only have the hottest part of the pod to consume. - Millet (1,196-)

 

For most peppers this is very true, but on some varieties, it doesn't matter where you bite - they're hotter than hell.


Try biting into the bottom half of a Bhut Jokokia!!!!!


: O

 

If you mean Jolokia, I have eaten many Bhut Jolokia peppers. We have them growing here at the greenhouse complex. A very interesting fact is that in the Assam region of India, during their pepper eating contests, the contestants not only eat as many Bhut Jolokia peppers as they can during the time limit, they also rub them in their eyes during the contest to show their courage. The last three contest were won by women. BTW if it will help with the peace on this pepper form, I do apologies to you for the death remark. Take care. - Millet (1,196-)

 

Yes, it does help, and I appreciate it Millet. Apology accepted. Thank you.


: )


Yes, some people have a high tolerance for hot peppers and can stand a lot of intense heat. I belong to a hot pepper forum and there are people who brag about eating bhuts whole, and it just makes me cringe. I can't do it - not sure if I will ever be able to.


That is just insane about rubbing it in their eyes! Almost comical too, picturing it!


: O

 

i just made a random trip to home depot for some pvc and a utility knife and stuff and stumbled across a chilly chili in the garden section. i thought i saw a pic of one on here before and im not certain that this was what i saw. it was a small plant with purple and green leaves, and small mistletoe type peppers on it...either way if thats the right plant it defintely has heat to it. ill admit its not unbareable since i kept it in my mouth for 20 minutes occasionally sipping a coke while at home depot. so could that be the right one? or is it another type all together???

as far as bhuts go, of the six peppers my plant made last year before dieing, i only licked one of them. i literally mean licked it, only! it didnt seem that hot at all to me, kinda like a tabasco i guess, but the lingering effects were horrible. i dont know if its cause i didnt eat anything soon after or something, but it burned my *** for 2 days. i know thats too much info and all, but just the thought of that pain from one lick of the pepper is enough to scare me. cant imagine eating the whole thing...


red

 

Hello Millet,

I think I will grow a habanero and the ghost pepper. I have attempted to grow habanero outdoors in the summer, but my yield is very low. I did grow it in a very sunny spot, but perhaps, it`s just not hot enough where I live. Do habaneros require loads of heat to grow indoors? What temperature do you suggest.

I`m not familiar with the ghost pepper. Is it suitable for indoor growing if I only want a compact plant?

Also, if I don`t have access to a sunny window, plus being in Vancouver means not much sunlight in the winter anyways, what do you recommend? should I buy some lighting system? I think I`m so inspired by this thread that I want to invest in something that will permit me to grow chillis indoors!!

Thanks

 

Unfortunately Redster, that does not sound at all like Chilly Chili!!!


: O


Not to worry, because garden centers mislabel things constantly. Glad whatever you have is hot though, and you can enjoy eating them.


: )


P.S. Show a pic later, if you can...

 

its possible its mislabeled or a new type they come out with...who knows

i didnt buy it, just borrowed a pepper to taste test

so what you get is a horrible picture of a half eaten pepper, just for you!

 

LoL - too funny! Sorry I misunderstood.


: )

 

Eve, you can grow any variety of chile peppers indoors, even in the cool, low light conditions of Vancouver (one of my most favorite cities), but to have success with your container chile plants you must insure that the plants meet the five basic requirements. First, the container must provide good drainage, with good root zone oxygen. Next, using the correct size of container is important, especially if you wish to grow your pepper plant longer than one year. A third need is for regular watering, followed by the fourth requirement, regular fertilizing. Containerized chile peppers should be fertilized every week early on in their growth stage, using a good liquid fertilizer like 10-10-10, with the concentration diluted more than what is directed on the label. If you prefer organic growing, fish emulsion also works well enough, but normally produces somewhat of a foul odor. Osmocote slow release fertilizers also work well. Last, and very important, all chile pepper plants require the appropriate amount light. Most all Chile peppers can take all day sun light, but they MUST have a at least a minimum of four hours a day to stay healthy. Indoor artificial lighting helps providing this requirement. As far as artificial lighting, the least expensive way to set up an indoor chile pepper growing area is with fluorescent light. They are efficient and in expensive to set up, most fixtures accept two 40 watt tubes. Keep the chile pepper plants 2 to 3 inches below the tubes. Standard cool-white fluorescent tubes can be used. Many growers prefer Sylvania Gro-Lux with its pink and purplish light, high intensity output lights or Vit-Lights which provide a high level of the spectrum of natural sunlight. Supplemental lighting is helpful, but full sun helps chile plants to set more fruit. The plants should ideally have 3,000 foot candles of lighting for flowers and fruit. Less than 2,000 foot candles will keep the plants green and healthy, but without fruit. Metal halide lamps have a spectrum like the bright midday sun are an excellent source for providing light to indoor plants. Anything that will hold a growth medium can be used to grow chile peppers. Depending on the variety grown, the container size can range from 4 inches to 5 gallons. For containerized chile peppers that are kept growing longer than one year, a 12 inch deep container is always recommended. Normally, the larger the container, the larger the chile pepper plant will grow. You can start you plants either from seed or purchase a live plant. If you would like to start with a live pepper plant, or purchase a fresh chile pod to sample and extract the seeds for germination, Cross Country Nurseries (www.chileplants.com) sells five hundred varieties of chile pepper bedding plants in season, and fresh chile pods in the late summer and early fall. Indoor peppers require and optimum temperature of 75 to 85F (24 to 29C) and constant humidity for the best production. In order for the plant to produce a good fruit set, the night time temperatures should not go below 65F (18C). If you want your indoor peppers to fruit, you will have to hand pollinate the flowers using a cotton swab or a soft brush.

HABANERO: Habanero are among some of the hottest pepper you can grow, and have become famous as the key ingredient in hot Jamaican sauces. Habanero need a long and hot season (90 days) to fully reach its pungent potential, maturing to bright orange, yellow red or brown. The possible reason for your limited Habanero success last summer in Vancouver is probably due to the long hot season required for growing this pepper. By growing peppers in containers indoors, Northern growers can grow some of the long season hot peppers if they provide the plant the needed ingredients.

EARLY JALAPEÑO: Is a hot pepper variety that is highly recommended for Northern gardeners. This pepper has a short 60 days to harvest.

SUPER CHILI: Hotter than Jalapeños producing 2.5 inch cone shaped thin walled pods. Normally harvested when green, but also can be used red. This variety does very well as a container plant, even indoors growing in containers. Great variety.

HUNGARIAN WAX: A standard, all purpose hot pepper (70 days) that is easy to grow in the North, (62 days) bares early and produces well in cooler climates producing prolific crops. Hungarian wax peppers are mildly hot. Excellent for canning, dries well and then usually ground for homemade " paprika".

RING OF FIRE CAYENNE: A wonderful pepper. Earliest and most productive (60 days) Cayenne variety for Northern growers. Used either fresh or dried.

Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Chile) Really not recommended for a first time pepper grower, as an indoor plant. Pod production is usually very low when not grown under ideal conditions. However, if you have the room it might be fun to give it a try. Presently, the Ghost Pepper is extremely popular among hobby pepper growers, because it is the world's hottest pepper.

FIESTA: Is a fiery hot ornamental pepper (80 days) adapted to container gardening. The plant normally only grows to 9-12 inches tall, and produces an abundance of long slender pods.

HOLIDAY TIME: Is another ornamental that matures earlier than Fiesta (65 days). The mature red fruits are hot. This variety was also an All American winner.

OTHER RECOMMENDED VARIETIES: Tangerine Dream, Redskin, Mohawk and Big Early.

Gook luck, I bet you will do just fine.

Millet (1,193-)

 

Oh gosh, I hate to do this, but I must say that this statement Millet, is just simply not true, and makes me wonder if you have actually ever grown a pepper plant inside, but I don't mean that in a rude way...

All of my indoor pepper plants that you see in this thread, have never been pollinated - hand or otherwise! Pepper plants do not require pollination to produce fruit. Don't waste your time.

I do find that outdoor peppers however, definitely pack on a larger yield of course, but you have all seen for yourself my indoor pepper plants, and I assure you that no polliantion is necessary to get lots of fruits.

Also, some of your information Millet, although good, is too black and white - as if it were the only way to grow peppers. For instance, a very interesting experiment I did a couple years ago, actually proved to me, that using smaller containers for peppers, instead of the giant 12" deep ones that you referred to, makes them grow many more peppers - the opposite of what I was taught! I grew a cayenne plant last season in my south living room window, in a 5" deep and wide pot...

It was so packed with peppers that you could barely see the leaves! I had been suspicious for awhile, because it seemed like every time I neglected to transplant a pepper plant into something bigger, it was loaded with more of a crop than my plants in bigger containers!!! This is what prompted the experiments.

Not just pepper plants either - flowering plants were flowering sooner and more plentifully, when I kept the plants in smaller than recommended containers. Using smaller containers, kept the growth in control, and allowed the plants to focus more on their fruits or blooms. If not for my experiments, I might not have believed it.

Also, I prefer to fertilize my pepper plants richly with a formula more high in Phosphorus (P), so even 15-30-15 would work well.

Unless four fluorescent tubes are being used, it is difficult to get a decent crop of peppers using fluorescent lighting - and even then. I like to use my metal halide to do the job. I do grow my seedlings under the fluorescents though, and it does an excellent job. I use aquarium plantgrow bulbs, with a wide spectrum. I've also used cool deluxe bulbs but like the grow bulbs a bit better.

With fluorescent bulbs too, the plant leaves can actually be touching the bulbs, because they don't give of any or very much heat. My halide is a different story - if the leaves were touching the bulb, they would be fried to a crisp!

I also want to warn people about buying cheap soils to grow their indoor pepper plants - or any plants for that matter, in. Cheap soils are ridden with insects and their eggs, and your pepper plants will be infested very shortly. Always buy sterile soil, that's clean and pest free. It will save you a lot more money in the long run, not to mention a major headache.


: )

 

HBL, if you are actually able to grow a bigger, stronger and better crop of containerized peppers, by not helping your indoor plants set their maximum crop through pollination, intentionally making your plants root bound by forcing them to grow in undersized containers, and giving your plants deliberate and intentional neglect, I would say you certainly are a very impressive gardener. Some day I hope you will teach us your technique. We would be able to lay off most all of our employees, go to a 3 day work week, and still make a good living. Wishing you the best, take care. - Millet (1,193-)

 

My pictures of my plants back up my words entirely. Funny how we never seem to see any of yours though. Hmmmm.


: )


P.S. I've described many of my methods on this forum - they're no secret.

 

millet, when it comes to keeping citrus in a container, i know ive seen it said that a bigger pot isnt always better. giving it too much root room and stuff is actually worse because of air, water, and all. i dont feel like looking up all the details right this moment, but couldnt the same be said for a pepper plant??? while i agree no plant needs to be root bound, theres definitely no reason to over do it either...

red

 

I certainly never once said that my select few pepper plants in smaller containers, were bigger - nor did I claim they were stronger. The plants in bigger containers are way larger of course, but the ones in smaller pots will produce much sooner, and they seem to pack on a lot more fruits.

The truth of the matter is folks, there are so many different ways to grow your pepper plants, and don't believe it, if you're told there is only one way - even by me!

When I first started out in gardening, I didn't take anyone's word for it, I experimented and tried things my way. This is what I like to promote and encourage most with new gardeners, is experimenting and seeing for yourself.

Doing things the way they appeal to you is how you should carry out your gardening endeavors. It doesn't matter if it's not the same way that others grow them. Gardening is a very personal experience, and experimenting is what it is all about.

Also, for those who believe that pepper plants need pollinating indoors, and that they can't produce an absolutely huge crop without being in an enormous pot, should really have themselves a look at my seed grown pepper plant, that was never been pollinated, and I had it in quite a small pot then too...


: )

 

Doing things the way they appeal to you is how you should carry out your gardening endeavors. It doesn't matter if it's not the same way that others grow them. Gardening is a very personal experience, and experimenting is what it is all about.

i dont think you can stress this piont enough. besides my love for peppers, i garden to relax and enjoy the ummm fruit of my labor. even if i do it wrong ill learn for next year. and theres nothing wrong with that...


red

 

No, Redster, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that whatsoever - you're right. You will become a much better gardener learning things by experiencing them, instead of just reading about them.

Besides too, it's so much fun!

 

Hi there all, at the end of the punsher post he/she said what kind of fertlizer should he use on his (chill) plant, which I think he/she said ment to be chilly plant.



His post said nothing really bad... and all millet posted was a rime (or maby a bible cut out) I cant quite rember...


Hope someone will tell you what kind of fertlizer to put around your chili plant, altho I think its too late to put fertlizer around your chili plant... Unless you will be growing them indoors over the winter...

:)

 

I believe both Millet and The Hollyberry Lady previously mentioned what fertilizer they used on peppers.

My peppers were grown in soil with added peat moss and manure. I believe I fed them once with Osmocote 10-10-10. They did quite well. I brought two pots in for the winter. One contains a candlelight pepper and the other has an Aurora and a Firecracker. I couldn't bear to see them killed off by frost. I don't imagine that they will set more fruit, but hopefully the peppers on them that haven't matured yet will do so.

 

I just ordered some MILD Habaneros to plant this spring.
I think Habaneros have the best flavour of all chilies but i usually have to go into training for three months intensive pepper eating to cope with the heat. So the new mild ones will be intersting to try.

I have also ordered some But Joker (my pun on the name) to test out on "nothing is hot enough for me" friends. :)

I also have some Manzano just popped up although they will be 18 months off producing much fruit.

Fertiliser
For plants in pots I tend to use tomato fertiliser (liquid "Miracle Grow" is good) + Osmocote (quick release 3 month).
Plants in the ground have to suvive organically in symbiosis with the soil wee beasties.

 

In answer to Hollyberry's ridicule of my thread concerning the need for artificial pollination of indoor grown containerized peppers, I refer to research done both at New Mexico State University, and also by Erwin et al. It was found that *ONLY* 46 percent of self-pollinated pepper flowers set fruit, compared to 71 percent (almost double) of flowers left to open pollination either by bee activity, or through artificial pollination. It is impossible for indoor grown pepper plants to be bee pollinated. Therefore, according to established research, in order to insure that the plant will produce nearly double the number of peppers, the flowers must by pollinated by artificial hand pollination. Without hand pollinating indoor pepper flowers, the plant will only produce approximately 1/2 the amount of pods, that the plant could produce if it was artificially pollinated. Further, *IF* a pepper plant is going to be grown in a container *FOR MORE THAN ONE YEAR*, in order to obtain the largest harvest of peppers, the plant needs to be in at least a 12 inch deep container. AS WAYS in agriculture, KNOWLEDGE of a genius, and of its proper cultivation WILL ALWAYS yield the healthiest, and most productive crop. Lastly, any plant whose roots are restricted, and or, kept root bound inside a container that is much to small for a plants root system, NEVER EVER produces more fruit, NOR earlier flower production ,---- no matter who makes this erroneous claim. Claims can be made of in home experiments to the contrary, but they simply do NOT AGREE WITH SCIENCE. - Millet (1,191-)