Pepper suggestions

[Jtexans4]

Hi all! Quick question. Town I grew up in has a farmer that sells these jars of peppers. I grew up eating them and now my parents bring me them when they come to visit. They are comfortably hot, not like a jalapeño or habanero where it leaves my mouth burning. I put them on everything. Pizza, burgers, breakfast sandwiches, lol.

I want to try growing something similar this year but there’s so many different peppers I have no idea where to start. Can anyone suggest a comfortably hot pepper that these might be? Pic below. The website just says hot peppers under ingredients. I’m thinking maybe the long hot Italian ones describe the heat i’m looking for.

 

[Fueling Around]

Red and pale yellow?
MY guess is something in the Hungarian wax. They come in a variety of heats

 

[SmokinEdge]

They could be some variety of Calabrian pepper. If you can’t find those I would suggest Fresno Chile peppers.

 

[chef k-dude]

Can your parents not find the farmer and ask him what they are? He might even have some seeds. They can be mailed.

Curious, are they pickled or just canned with a little salt?

Most pepper seed packs and even seedlings (thats how I learned to buy them when I grew) have a description of the heat level.

With just a quick web search and using the filters on this web site, I got several results for "slightly hot".

Pepper Seeds - Organic & Heirloom Varieties | Johnny's Selected Seeds

Johnny's Selected Seeds

www.johnnyseeds.com

When I grew peppers, it was a crap shoot. I often grew Hungarian wax and jalapenos and then a third wildcard every year. Some years the Hungarian wax were insanely hot and they weren't supposed to be...it varied. Jalapenos would vary from plant to plant. One plant would be relativity mild, others were murder-hot. If you have a plant that produces peppers you really like, dry/save some of the seeds every year to repeat it. I used to just buy seedlings/starts and got what I got as far as heat. My wife and I can handle quite a bit of heat. I never grew any peppers that weren't supposed be at least a little hot except poblanos when I went on a kick of wanting to make chili rellenos. I quickly got over that! I'll let the Mexican restaurants handle that for me...what a pain.

 

[Jtexans4]

Can your parents not find the farmer and ask him what they are? He might even have some seeds. They can be mailed.

Curious, are they pickled or just canned with a little salt?

When asking, they only tell me hot peppers. Nothing specific.

The jars have the peppers, soybean oil, salt and sodium acid sulfate.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Raising peppers one must be mindful of cross pollination. You can raise bell peppers that are unbearable hot if they cross with say a jalapeño.

 

[nlife]

When I grew peppers, it was a crap shoot. I often grew Hungarian wax and jalapenos and then a third wildcard every year. Some years the Hungarian wax were insanely hot and they weren't supposed to be...it varied. Jalapenos would vary from plant to plant. One plant would be relativity mild, others were murder-hot. If you have a plant that produces peppers you really like, dry/save some of the seeds every year to repeat it.

I went pretty deep when it came to peppers. At one point I had over 75 different varieties of peppers. Everything from mild to wild. I've since found what I like and have cut back to two varieties. Scotch Bonnet and Jolokia.

Along the way, I found research conducted by the New Mexico State University Chili Pepper Institute that pointed to environmental factors contributing to the relative heat of peppers. Their study showed a much greater increase in heat for mild peppers that had been stressed (letting them wilt before watering) than those that had not been stressed (regular water cycles). The hot and super hot peppers hadn't shown much of an increase at all.

It sounds silly to have a chili pepper institute, but peppers do contribute to some countries GDP and having consistent heat across crops is a good thing for those making any given product. Like you found, you can be surprised by a drastic increase in heat.

All that said, they peppers can vary from plant to plant.

Raising peppers one must be mindful of cross pollination. You can raise bell peppers that are unbearable hot if they cross with say a jalapeño.

Yes. This is a good point if you are planning to save seeds and grow them the next year since genetic changes show up in the next generation. I have seed from a Jolokia that had crossed with a Trinidad Scorpion. It looked a lot like a Jolokia, but had a scorpion tail and a lot more heat.

Wife and I are slowly working our way through a dried 1g ziplock bag of them that I grew in 2016. They give just the right amount of heat when we cut them with cayenne.

 

[JLinza]

We use Aniehiem peppers a good amount. Mostly cause they are mild enough for my wife lol

 

[Chasdev]

Heat can indeed be variable, last year I grew one Jalapeno plant which was supposed to produce jumbo peppers but they all turned out small and yet were hotter than the habenero's I had growing next to them, and the Habs came out mild!

 

[chef k-dude]

I would love to have a mild habanero. Love the flavor, but way too hot, even for me, and I like to sweat a bit from my food.

 

[GonzoAcres]

I would love to have a mild habanero. Love the flavor, but way too hot, even for me, and I like to sweat a bit from my food.

There are several varieties of "no heat' habanero's out there, most popular being "Habanada", but i've also grown "nu-mex Orange suave" with good results, I found that both of them are not as heavy producers as common habaneros (which can often times have 50+ chiles in various stages of ripening hanging on the plant) things to remember with any of the super hots, including habanero's are they really benefit from soil temperatures close to 90 degrees while germinating, once they break the surface they can be taken of that heat but without those high soil temperatures it can take 21-28 days and germ rate drops significantly, and planning for the long season can stave off massive disappointment if you live somewhere cold, count on them taking 90-110 days to ripen from the date they are transplanted, which means planting them 6-8 weeks prior to transplant date, otherwise the are just barely starting to produce when first frost comes...

 

[LhornR]

Weather plays a part in how much heat the peppers will have also. Last year for instance I had perfect weather here and none of the Poblano's, Anaheim's or other types had even a slight heat to them. I actually have to buy a can of hot adobo chiles to put some heat in my chili now.

But 2022 when we had a heatwave here everything was hot...almost to the point it was too much for me. If you want higher heat try stressing the plants a bit. I also find on the same plant you can have one pepper with no heat and the one beside it will light you up. Lots of variable.

 

[schlotz]

I would love to have a mild habanero. Love the flavor, but way too hot, even for me, and I like to sweat a bit from my food.

You can easily take a hot habanero and tone it down (make mild) for use in all sorts of food. De-seed it, cut into thin strips and let them soak in Sprite for an hour. I do this when making a special pesto to serve with salmon. The habanero flavor really adds to the pesto but with very little heat.

 

[bradger]

don't know any by name or your tolerance level but here is the scale

sorry it didn't come out as clear as i hoped.

 

[Fueling Around]

I've stripped the seeds and membrane to drop the heat for years. Sometimes they are still a bit on the hot side.

You can easily take a hot habanero and tone it down (make mild) for use in all sorts of food. De-seed it, cut into thin strips and let them soak in Sprite for an hour. I do this when making a special pesto to serve with salmon. The habanero flavor really adds to the pesto but with very little heat.

Never heard of the Sprite rest.

 

[Fueling Around]

don't know any by name or your tolerance level but here is the scale
View attachment 696093
sorry it didn't come out as clear as i hoped.

Peppers vary greatly depending on heat and sunlight.

 

[millerbuilds]

Tough to tell, but if I had to guess... Italian Hot Peppers or maybe Anaheim??? There are so many varieties out there, it is tough to tell from a picture....
If you deseed/de-vain Jalapeños they are actually pretty mild.

- Jason