Avoid Cross Pollination with Sweet Peppers However, there is no indication that sulfur makes peppers hotter. Peppers like a slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6 to 6.8 and adding sulfur to alkaline soil can reduce the pH. A match will have no effect.Īll plants need some sulfur and if the soil is depleted, adding more will help the plant grow. Besides the amount of sulfur in the head of a match is extremely small, it’s in the bottom of the planting hole, and plant roots will spread 4 feet in all directions. You will notice it does not contain sulfur, so it is unlikely that sulfur plays a significant role in the plants ability to make capsaicin. The chemical formula for capsaicin is C18H27NO3. Sulfur does add an acrid flavor to things like onions, so maybe people associate this with being hot? Or they think a hot match will make peppers hot? Whatever the logic, it’s flawed. Put a strike anywhere match in the planting hole and the sulfur in the head of the match will make peppers hotter. It is believed that sulfur makes peppers hotter. All you can do is use a high nitrogen fertilizer and add extra to hot peppers. A home owner never knows how much nitrogen they have in soil, so it is difficult to manage nitrogen levels. There seem to be few field studies that would translate directly to a garden, but the science indicates stressing plants with low nitrogen is not the best way to grow hotter peppers. Padrón pepper plants produced hotter fruit with higher fertilizer levels. This study, as well as the one above were done using containers in a greenhouse. Fertilizer stress did not increase hotness. Similar tests on jalapeno peppers showed a steady increase in capsaicin as the nitrogen level increased. High nitrogen gives you both hotness and high yield. The high nitrogen level produced hot peppers as well as increased flowering and fruiting. The low end represented a stress condition. Habanero peppers grown at various nitrogen levels showed the highest capsaicin level at very low nitrogen and at high nitrogen. One site said,”Nitrogen makes plants grow big at the expense of the fruit” and then goes on to suggest, “use a slower and gentler type of fertilizer such as rotted manure or compost.” Side dressing with rotten manure is not going to keep nitrogen levels low!
Most of these claims are very vague and say things like, “fertilize less than normal.” How does that help? You might already be under fertilizing. Waiting until leaves droop is probably too extreme. Water stress should not happen until after fruit set to ensure the flower is properly pollinated and fruit starts growing.
Watering peppers less may produce hotter peppers but these plants are sensitive to water levels. Other researchers have found significant increases in capsaicin due to water stress. Research in hot climates like Mexico, Spain and Thailand have shown that water stress can increase hotness, but testing in California showed that water stress made them milder. UC Cooperative Extension has been testing ways to make jalapeños hotter. This is normally done just after fruit set and some suggest giving plants a drink only when the leaves start to droop. One common tip is to reduce watering so that the plants are stressed. Research has shown that fruit from the second node is hotter than fruit picked from other nodes. I don’t know how accurate the list is, but they certainly list some super hot ones. This link features the Worlds 10 hottest peppers. There are many types of peppers and some are certainly hotter than others. Let’s have a look at each of these to see what science says. Most claims use some form of stress on the plants. The internet provides a variety of suggestions for growing hotter peppers, including the following list. Members of the group quickly pointed to exceptions to this rule, including, “most ghost and habanero point downwards like bell peppers.” Common Suggestions for Growing Hot Peppers Someone on our Facebook group told us that a family elder could identify the hottest peppers just by looking at them ” milder, sweeter papers grow downwards, while hot ones grow towards the sun.” Is this true or a myth? How hot is hot? Scientists have developed a heat scale called the Scoville scale which measure the amount of capsaicin in SHU (Scoville Heat Units).Ĭarolina Reaper: 1.5 – 2.2 million SHU Can You Tell Heat by Looking at Peppers? Carolina Reaper, photo source: Dale Thurber
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