Hot Tomato?

[Leo Mitchell]

My son says he grew some tomatoes and hot pepper plants one year, and the tomatoes were hot, with a pepper taste? Is it possible for a tomato to cross pollinate with a hot pepper plant? I say not, what do you think? And if not, how did the tomatoes get the peppery taste? This has me stumped!

[rainbowgardener]

No not possible for tomato to cross with pepper without special help in a lab.

AND, if it somehow did that would not affect the tomatoes on the vine, only the seeds in them (unless you were using seeds you saved from last year's tomatoes and the miracle cross pollination happened last year).

Someone else will have to answer why the tomatoes tasted peppery.

[applestar]

My guess is that he prepared the tomatoes and the hot peppers at the same time -- same knife, same cutting board, same hands (oh wait ) and the "heat" transferred.

[digitS']

Agree with above altho' I didn't know that even a lab could cross tomatoes & peppers. Oh yeah, there's that GMO process . . .

Different growing years result in different flavors in fruits & vegetables. You can get what you hadn't expected.

Some varieties have remarkably different flavors from others - certainly, the tomato lovers on here know that. I suppose, that some tomatoes don't even taste all that much like tomatoes!

We could give quite a bit of thought to flavors, acidity, sweetness, etc. Most of us don't do that but when (and if) we stop and think about it, it is usually necessary for us to describe flavors by referring to other flavors. Want to have some fun?? Try the "Silly Tasting Note Generator" for your next trip to wine tasting party! You will never be at a loss for something to jot down !

I am the one being silly here Leo, not your son.

Once in awhile, I like minced parsley on a fresh slice of a lovely ripe beefsteak. But, there's one variety I grow (Thessaloniki) that, I swear, has a parsley flavor without the parsley! Now, this has got me wondering whether some GMO engineer has been sneaking around in my tomato patch!

Steve

[TZ -OH6]

I've had lots of different hot foods from not washing the cutting board well enough. Hot pancakes from not washing the nonstick frying pan very well was one of the more interesting outcomes.

There is an old wive's tale about harvesting hot bell peppers from planting sweet bell peppers next to hot peppers, but that is not biologically possible. The hotness genes are dominant so any cross pollination will result in next year's half breed bell being hot.

My apology to all of the old wives out there. Around here I get most of my old wives tales from 25-45 year old men who's teeth resemble their rusted out cars.

[sixshooter]

Just for the sake of asking....

If you grew some pipin hot habeneros right next to tomatoes ...could the oils from the peppers seep onto the soil and make their way up the tomato plant and into the fruit? Someone tried telling me this happened...was aittle skeptical.

[TZ -OH6]

No, the heat is produced mainly in the placental tissue of the inner fruit wall as the seeds get older. It is an antifungal and anti rodent substance to protect the seeds. It is not in the rest of the plant. We would be eating pepper roots (like horseradish roots) if it the roots were hot.