Pepper heat vs weather.

[Vanisle_BC]

My Anaheim seem much hotter than usual although they've been picked green because of threatened frost. This after a very hot dry summer. Has anyone else noticed this kind of weather effect even on unripe peppers?

[pepperhead212]

It seems that hotter summers make for hotter peppers, at least for me! One super hot and dry summer I had, resulted in the hottest habaneros I ever had (that was before the super-hots). This summer has been a mild summer here, and I had some mild peppers, even the hotter ones, though almost all were good.

[imafan26]

If you grow hot and sweet peppers side by side, they may be cross pollinated and it will show up as hotter seeds.

On pepper that have some heat, drier conditions amplify the heat. In fact that is one way to make peppers hotter is to water them less so the oils concentrate more.