I could eat hot peppers everyday and there are always at least a dozen varieties growing in my garden. They're a very rewarding plant to grow. You can squeeze them in and still get large yields. And if you grow them fresh, you get more than heat; you get flavor too.
Just like wine grapes, the quality and taste of vegetables is affected by the soil and climate in which they are grown. I like to grow my hot peppers on the dry side and somewhat crowded together. It seems to make them zestier. Or maybe I just like seeing all the colors ripening.
The term hot pepper is relative. When Wilbur Scoville first devised a means to test the heat of peppers, back in 1912, his hottest entry was a Japanese Chili that came in at 20,000 units. Habanero and Thai chilies can go as high as 60,000. (Compare that to the sweet bell pepper at zero.)
You can grow great hot chili peppers in just about any area, even indoors. Here's a quick hot pepper profile to get you going and some more tips and featured varieties.
- The National Garden Bureau Celebrates the Chile Pepper
- Video: How to Harvest Peppers
- Previously Featured Hot Pepper Varieties:
Photo Courtesy of The National Garden Bureau
Comments
I, too am a hot pepper fan. This is the very first time I have tried growing them in pots. Any tips for me. Right now I have Cayenne and Black pepper growing in pots.
I just love peppers but I wouldn’t sa the hot ones and by judging by these they are like super hot, my mouth would never be able to handle the heat
Anna, hot peppers usually do really well in pots because they tend to be smaller plants than sweet peppers. They can’t be allowed to dry out as much as peppers in the ground though, because the soil in the pot gets so hot it can fry the roots.
Potted peppers also require more food than those in the ground, since watering flushes any nutrients out of the pot. Every other week should be fine.
Otherwise, they’re really pretty happy in containers. I’ve even brought some indoors for the winter and had them produce.
I gave my hubby the first jalepeno of the year the other day and he said it was the best he ever tasted. It was grown in a pot with some rabbit manure as fertilizer.
Nice post, I’ve been growing peppers for well over three years now, indoors and in a greenhouse using peat pots. But I still learned something reading this. Thank You.
Expanding on the Scoville rating, take Texas Pete, it rates around 2,500-3,000. While a sweet bell pepper comes in at 0.
The Bhut Jolokia pepper on the other hand tops the charts at over 1 million.
You can read about them here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhut_Jolokia_pepper
Peat pots, I envy you being able to grow peppers year round in a greenhouse. Do they taste any hotter, grown in a hot house?
The Bhut Jolokia sounds like a backyard adventure indeed!
Time to make pepper jelly! Yum!!