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For my pepper head friends here

15 years ago

This article is about a pepper claiming a Scoville rating 300,000 points higher than Bhut Jolokia. Are they literal when they say it will strip paint?

And why?.....

Here is a link that might be useful: Naga Viper

Comments (17)

  • 15 years ago

    I suspect it will strip paint....and probably will strip the nail polish off your nails and the skin right off your hands. I suspect it might contribute to some stomach problems.

    One of the best (and least toxic, in terms of fumes) paint strippers I've ever used is a citrus oil product. Who would think that oil from oranges could strip paint?

    It would be great as a weapon. Military and law-enforcement-grade pepper spray products have an incredibly high Scoville Heat Unit rating and a stronger pepper like this would be perfect for that purpose.

    Also, as I'm sure you know, people's taste bud receptors die with repeated exposure to lots of capsaicin. As the taste bud receptors die, the tolerance to higher Scoville Heat Units grows and they have to eat increasingly hotter peppers to get the endorphin rush. So, for those people who adore the hottest of the hot peppers, this gives them a new level to move towards.

    I think I'll stick with my little old measley jalapenos and serranos, and the occasional habanero (but only when it is mixed with fruit in a jelly or sometimes added to Annie's Salsa).

    This pepper should be perfect for Jay!

    Dawn

  • 15 years ago

    Yikes.

    I like hot peppers. I love hot peppers. A fair chunk of my circulating blood cells have been replaced by capsaicin.

    But, dang, even I wouldn't eat those suckers. Wow.

    Diane

  • 15 years ago

    "I think I'll stick with my little old measley jalapenos and serranos, and the occasional habanero (but only when it is mixed with fruit in a jelly or sometimes added to Annie's Salsa)."

    My sentiment exactly. I love my Habaneros. But I only use them in cooking or salsa, and then, I use fewer. But really, if I was going to be totally practical, I'd probably only grow my Chile Rayado, which is a type of Jalapeño.

    George
    Tahlequah, OK

  • 15 years ago

    George,

    This year I grew one of the new low heat/sweet habanero types and all I have to say about it is this:

    If you pick regular habaneros on the same day you pick the low-heat/sweet habaneros, you'd better label the bowls they're in and be sure you don't mix them up. Otherwise, like me, you'll take a nice big bite of a no-heat habanero only to discover you've taken a big bite of a hot habanero. That was my biggest "gardening mistake" this year. My mouth burned for hours!

    Dawn

  • 15 years ago

    I saw this yesterday over at IDMG and I have to agree with Dawn and George. My jalapenos are plenty hot enough for this "Hot Pepper Weenie".

    Keith

  • 15 years ago

    I had read some information stating that the Bhut had been surpassed by a few peppers for hotness. I will post one statement about the new ones and the current hotness standings. No they are hotter than I see the need for. A thimbleful would be enough for a large pot of chili. The ground up roasted chiles and jalapeno's with all the seeds is hot enough to season anything for most people including me. I give chiles to some of the Mexican/Hispanics around here. And they agree with me. Jay

    UPDATE;

    BRITISH growers have broken the record for the world's hottest chilli �" for the third time in a year.

    The new record holder is the Naga Viper chilli from Cumbria's Chilli Pepper Company.
    The variety is a cross between searing Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich and Trinidad Scorpions chillies.
    Tests by Warwick University prove it rates a whopping 1,349,000 on the Scoville scale that measures the heat of a pepper.
    That's almost 173,000 units hotter than the previous record holder, the Infinity chilli from Fire Foods in Grantham, Lincs.
    The fearsome Indian Bhut Jolokia is 1,041,427.
    Weapons-grade pepper spray is 2,000,000.
    The new pepper was bred in rainy Cark-in-Cartmel, Cumbria.
    The Chilli Pepper Company founder Gerald Fowler said: "Brits are super competitive about growing and eating the hottest chillies.
    "The testers said it's hot enough to strip paint."
    The firm has approached the Guinness World Records and are sending the seed pods for DNA testing to claim the official record.


    WorldâÂÂs Hottest Chillies

    THESE are the world's hottest chillies, with their rating on the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) scale:
    1 - Naga Viper chilli - 1,349,000 SHU
    2 - Infinity Chilli - 1,176,182 SHU
    3 - ChilliPepperPeter Naga - 1,067,286 SHU
    4 - Bhut Jolokia - 1,041,427 SHU

    Read more: http://pharmerphil.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=planning&action=display&thread=11880#ixzz17C0bJA38

  • 15 years ago

    I am definitly a "hot pepper weenie" and even grow the mild jalapenos. Like Poblanos but they aren't hot either. What I wish I knew is why all of my peppers except the Tam Jalapenos that I raised from seed died one...by...one... this past summer. I raised 6 or 7 types, some from seed and some from plants and planted them in three different parts of the garden. At the end of the summer only the Tams alive. The purchased Mexibells next to them gone, Sweet Banana and Big Bertha in main garden gone. Two or three others in another spot of new ground, gone. They all just wilted and died. You pepper growers, any ideas about what happened. This is a new experience for me. Peppers usually last until frost as the Tams did this year.

  • 15 years ago

    Dorothy,

    I'm sorry to hear you had a bad pepper year.

    Peppers are subject to some of the same diseases that affect tomatoes.

    If your pepper plants were a healthy green and then quite abruptly wilted while still green, then it might be bacterial wilt.

    If your pepper plants had a lot of foliar spotting that caused some defoliation before the plants wilted, it likely was one of the fungal diseases.

    Southern blight is a possibility. Usually southern blight occurs during a period of high humidity/wet soil (and especially if it is slow-draining clay) but I'm not going to say it can't happen with high humidity and fairly dry soil because I'm not sure. With southern blight, after the wilting occurs the plants often develop a white growth on the lower stem of the plant with little round brownish sclerotia growing on them. The sclerotia look kind of like the early stage of the little adventitous roots that develop on tomato plants, but whereas adventitious roots aren't a bad thing, the sclerotia are a bad thing.

    Phytopthera can strike peppers in several different ways and can manifest as a root rot (even as damping off in young plants) or as crown rot and in other ways. I've linked the Cornell University Vegetable MD Online Pepper page about Phytopthera for you.

    Since you're unsure of what it was that killed your peppers, your best best would be to rotate your 2011 peppers to a different area where no peppers grew in 2010 and try to do the same in 2012. Then, by 2013, the soil where the 2010 peppers died should be okay again for peppers. However, insects often vector diseases so there's no guarantee on that.

    Maybe Jay will have some ideas. He's a pepper pro and knows a lot more about growing them than I do.

    Dawn

    Here is a link that might be useful: Info on Pythopthora From Cornell Veggie MD Online

  • 15 years ago

    Dawn,
    I agree with what you said. From the info she gave and without seeing the plants I would say that TAM has a resistance to a disease that the others don't. Environmental factors can also be an influence is why one variety don't get a disease while the others are croaking.

    TAM has resistance to multiple diseases. Among them are TEV, PVY, PeMov and TMV. It is carried by aphids. And insect transmitted diseases are often my main problem here whether on peppers or tomatoes. It could have resistance to some other diseases but I don't want to take the time to do a search. These are just what I had down for a handy reference. And without knowing and searching the other varieties she grew it would be hard to even make a good guess. TAM has always been fairly disease free for me. A few other varieties have been also. Then some varieties are just like tomato varieties. Looking for a reason to die. As I've heard said about people. Some seem to catch something every time they are in a room where someone sneezes. I've been fortunate in that regard.

    The most common problem I have with disease in peppers is TSWV which I experience on my tomatoes also. It is carried by thrips.

    What I find odd is that some seed companies don't list the known disease resistance of peppers like they do on tomatoes. A few will have the abbreviations in their name like TMR which stands for Tomato Mosiac Resistance. But most don't list even in the descriptions what diseases they are resistant too. I've talked to other growers about this and know a few have mentioned it too seed suppliers. I guess maybe it takes more time when listing them.
    Jay

  • 15 years ago

    Oh my, I hate to hear that people are experiencing problems with peppers because they have always been super easy for me to grow. I think I lost one this year and I knew exactly why. I dumped a pan that had been in the chicken coop which I thought was just water, but turned out to have a lot of feed in it and a few other things far to fresh and safe for a garden. I turned the pan upside down at the end of the row and the minute I did it, I assumed I would have a problem with that first pepper. I was right.

    It is easy for a pepper to be too hot for me. George gave me seed for a thin red Thai pepper this year. I tasted a tiny piece of it and knew it was a little too much for me to handle raw. I dried them and made pepper flakes. My DH not only grabs them for pizza, but for just about everything else he eats. He thinks they are the best he has ever had. Next year I will do more.

    I would have to say that my favorite pepper this year was the Yellow Marconi. I used a lot of them while they were still in the green stage. If I was going to heat up the grill for anything, I would usually go pick a few of those and throw them on the grill also.

    I wanted to have enough bell peppers in my freezer to last me all winter so I planted a lot and started freezing my surplus. There was no doubt in my mind that I had enough for winter and I shared fresh ones with two friends and my daughter and son. At the end of the season, I put a large batch in a 'green' produce bag in the refrigerator. I am still using from the fresh ones and haven't even started to use the frozen ones yet. I think I have PLENTY for the year. LOL

  • 15 years ago

    Carol, how do you freeze your sweet peppers? Whenever I've frozen chile peppers, the skin gets "plastic-y" and I can't stand to eat them, not even pulverized in the food processor and mixed with other things. Do you have that problem with sweets?

    Diane

  • 15 years ago

    Thanks, Dawn and Jay, I looked at the site you linked, Dawn, but at this late time don't remember what the plants looked like except that they wilted and died. I don't remember seeing white on the stems, and it was not during a wet humid time that they died. It was during our heat and drought. I just hope I have better luck next year.

    Diane, I roast my peppers on the grill (Or DH does), let them sweat in a plastic bag and then peel them when cool. They keep better frozen that way and they are "naked." No plasticy skin.

  • 15 years ago

    Thanks, Carol. I have frozen roasted peppers like you said and they turn out fine. You just got me excited there for a minute thinking you had a good way to freeze them raw. LOL

    I picked up a nice gas grill from Freecycle just a few weeks ago and easily roasting peppers this summer is one of the first things that I thought of!

    Diane

  • 15 years ago

    Diane, That answer was from Dorothy, not me. I think maybe Jay does his that way to. I do nothing with mine except wash them, cut in small pieces and freeze. All of mine are diced and used for cooking and they work just like fresh ones for me. I love having them that way since I can just bang the bag on the cabinet top to break it up a little, dip out what I want, and stick the bag back in the freezer.

  • 15 years ago

    I was in a hurry when I made the previous post. Meant to post a link to a site I like to visit some. It answers several gardening questions and problems. Also I just enjoy reading some of the articles. I will also include another link in this email. It is too a NMSU article about Pepper diseases. It is the main site I use for pepper problems and questions. As Dawn knows I'm very impressed with NMSU when it comes to growing chilies especially. Jay
    http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/circ549.html

    Here is a link that might be useful: Jerry Parsons

  • 15 years ago

    Jay,

    Jerry Parsons! Just seeing his website made me feel like I was "back home" in Texas, but of course, Oklahoma is home now. Jerry Parsons was instrumental in the development/marketing of so many plants that I have grown and continue to grow. He's a true living legend/plantsman in the state of Texas.

    I visit many TAMU websites when searching for answers, especially when trying to troubleshoot plant problem. I wish TAMU had a Pepper Problem Solver like their Tomato Problem Solver and Cucurbit Problem Solver.

    NMSU has a lot of good info available, and let's not forget that their Chile Pepper Institute sells seeds of many wonderful varieties they've developed and improved, and sells the seeds of few other peppers too. I've linked it below in case there is anyone who is looking for seeds of some great pepper varieties.

    Aas for TSWV, I dread its appearance more than almost anything else, but I seldom see thrips here and I seldom see TSWV. I'm hoping that doesn't change.

    Dawn

    Here is a link that might be useful: Chile Pepper Institute

  • 15 years ago

    Doh! That's what I get for reading while multitasking late at night. So thanks to Dorothy and Carol both!

    I'll have to try again with the frozen sweets this year. For chiles, I'm just as happy to freeze them roasted and pickle the rest since that's how we use them over the winter & spring.

    Diane