Serrano peppers are much hotter than jalapenos, so you must have some mis-labelled seeds. Although it is kind of a sneaky hotness--at first you don't think they're hot, then Blam!

Habanero is super hot, and a big producer. Too hot for me though, but I've grown them just because they look so good.

I'm growing poblanos which are a nice medium heat chile. The plants I have now have been producing for two years.

John

Hi Tropicalfreak:

I like bird peppers. They grow well here and are pretty hot. There are many varieties of bird peppers. Habaneros and scotch bonnets are good, too.

Julie in West Palm Beach

Here is a link that might be useful: Scoville rated cooking peppers

Sriracha is my thing for dipping... my ketchup. if that tells ya anything. lol

Jalapenos don't even phase me anymore. lol

I like Habaneros... will look for a plant. thanks.

Oh, does Cayenne grow well here?

Thanks.

Tropicalfreak

I haven't grown cayenne but I've read they grow well here, particularly long cayenne. I think any hot pepper should do well.

Julie in West Palm Beach

Look up Datil peppers, suppose to be very hot. Kinda hard to find the seeds though. There was a thread not to long ago, see if you can find it.

>Sriracha is my thing for dipping... my ketchup. if that tells ya anything. lol

Then you might like scotch bonnets, too, or ghost peppers (although I don't know how well the ghosts do here-bonnets are easy).

Ghost peppers do well here. But the official hottest pepper in the world is the Trinidad Scorpion. You can learn more about it and trade for seeds at thehotpepper.com

The scorpions aren't meant to be eaten whole. Though some have tried. You can see the results on youtube.

Here is a link that might be useful: thehotpepper.com

My ghost peppers are doing awesome this year. I have been growing them for 3 yrs now. Dh really likes them. Much hotter than a habanero so I can't really stand them but I grow them for him :P

I've got the bird pepper plant in a pot if you want it. I need to make a Pompano run soon.

Coffeemom,

Is there anything you are looking for I might have?

Everyone,

Thanks for the info on the peppers.

Tropicalfreak

I grew lemon drop peppers a couple years ago. They are pretty little yellow things. When the first one was ready I left it out, neatly sliced and cleaned, for hubby to taste a little. He thought it was a sweet pepper and popped the whole lot of it in his mouth at once! He still swears I tried to kill him - and we love spicy food. They are very hot, lol!

@ Truscifi,
Fun story. lol

Tropicalfreak

Hi Tropical freak,

I love hot peppers too, and particularly enjoy Mexico / New Mexico peppers. I could send you some seeds if you like.

This year I've been esp pleased with "De Arbol" which is an evergreen tree / shrub with upside down hot red peppers. Quite an interesting plant. I've also had good success this year with my Pimiento (long thin cayenne).

Contact me directly via email if you are interested in the seeds.

Seed offer open to anyone reading this! :-)

best,

Elizabeth

Hi all,

I'm pretty much just starting my garden, and right now in the way of peppers I have a one plant that is already producing fruit, which I got from my sister and she started with seeds from some pepper from the grocery store, so I'm not entirely sure what it is - I think it's serrano, but I was just looking at some pictures of different serrano peppers and mine doesn't look like any of those, so I was going to post some pics to see if anyone recognizes it. It's nighttime right now, so I will do that tomorrow. Then I have another plant that I got from my sister that should be jalapeno, but I think that one is dead. Right now there are some little sprouts coming out of the soil, but I'm guessing those are just something else that found its way in there. I bought some orange habanero seeds and have only gotten one to sprout so far - it seems like it's been like an inch or so high for a couple weeks now, so I'm hoping it will start growing more soon.

I'd like to get a variety of hot peppers growing, so I was wondering if anyone had some seeds that they could send me. I'm interested in jalapeno, scotch bonnet, ghost, cayenne, and I guess serrano if what I have doesn't turn out to be good. Maybe Thai chiles - those are the tiny skinny ones, right? Or if not, the kind that they sell in Indian grocery stores. Or if anyone else has suggestions for good hot peppers that are kind of general purpose or versatile.

I also have a couple questions that I'm hoping some experienced growers could answer. First, how long does a pepper plant live, and what happens to it if left outside over the winter? Second, I'm guessing that most of you save your seeds to grow more plants with - I was reading that for seed-saving it is best to have at least six plants of the same strain, because otherwise the gene pool is too small and you can have genetic drift. Have you found this to be the case, that successive generations of plants start to have undesirable characteristics?

Thanks in advance for your help.
-Matt

@ Matt you could also post on the Pepper Forum. FYI.

-Tropicalfreak

Hi Matt,

I got your email and will be sending you seeds. I find that I can keep peppers going for a few years, but they get weaker and weaker. One of the reasons I'm so excited about the De Arbol is that it is actually intended to be grown as a perennial.

I save seeds and am totally casual about it. Whatever number of plants I have, whatever seeds look good. (Your seeds will come from the orig packet so will be pure :-). I figure if I x-breed then I'm creating the best plant possible for my conditions. lol.

Elizabeth

OK, so does anybody know what this is?

Elizabeth, you're awesome! Thanks! I'll be getting back to you soon with my selections :)

TropicalFreak, thanks for the tip - I'll check that out.

Thanks Elizabeth! I am looking forward to trying them.

Tropicalfreak

Hi TropicalFreak and Matt,

Happy to be able to share. The generosity of folks on these forums and sharing seeds with me has been incredible. So glad I finally have a chance to share back a tiny bit!

Elizabeth

You might be watering too much. In the past, I found there's a delicate balance between watering to keep the plant flowering, and over-watering which seems to dliute the intensity of heat of the pepper. At least that was my experience. Also found that to be true when talked to guys in produce department of grocery store, more so for jalepenos. I live in SoCal by the beach.

I agree with Smitthcdm, the peppers get hotter when they are "denied" water as they say in New Mexico!

Offer of hot pepper seeds to folks remains, but I'm now officially out of "pure" seeds from the orig packet so any seeds sent will be saved seeds from this years crop. No promises but I think the saved seeds should be fine :-)

Elizabeth

Tropicalfreak, Pick your Serranos red and eat them with their seeds.

Matt, I have some Serrano seeds from last year's plants that I can send you if you haven't already received some.
My plants don't make it through winter.

We have to remember when eating those peppers, not only are they hot going in but also when coming back out too. WHEW!!

MOO

@ Smitty, too much water makes sense.

@ Lou, haha so some that be why they like them ..lol

Tropicalfreak

I grew Thai Hot peppers a few years ago and they were HOT! Of course I'm a wimp when it comes to hot peppers. : )
Nancy