HelpfulGardener.com

Subject: Garden wishlists and ideas for next growing season?

TomatoNut95 wrote:Next year I was thinking of growing some hot peppers. Low heat ones-mild that is, to make chili powder from, and a super hot to make a critter ridder spray from. What are some hot peppers that are not super duper hot? I was thinking Anaheims.

Subject: Garden wishlists and ideas for next growing season?

SQWIB wrote:

TomatoNut95 wrote:Next year I was thinking of growing some hot peppers. Low heat ones-mild that is, to make chili powder from, and a super hot to make a critter ridder spray from. What are some hot peppers that are not super duper hot? I was thinking Anaheims.

Subject: Garden wishlists and ideas for next growing season?

imafan26 wrote:Thanks for the pepper chart. I also like cayenne diane's website it lists peppers hottest to mildest. There are pictures and a little more information about the peppers. It still misses a few peppers that I have but it has always been helpful for me.
I like to grow hot peppers because they do well for me. As far as eating them, I can't take the heat of the hottest ones. The heat does not seem to bother the birds at all. The hottest I can handle is a cayenne. My favorites are milder like super chile, serrano, carmen, cubanelle, anaheim,pepperoncini, Hungarian Wax, and Shishito peppers. I ate a tip of a bhut jolokia a couple of weeks ago to id it and my mouth burned for half an hour and it made me tear up. I think I will remember what plant that one is even without a label now.

https://www.cayennediane.com/big-list-of-hot-peppers/

TomatoNut95 wrote:Thanks for the pepper chart, @SQWIB! Wow, it's amazing not to mention scary as to how hot some peppers are. My uncle commented one time, 'there's peppers out there that'll put you in the hospital'!

Yes, thank you for that chart. I didn't see Big Jims listed, but maybe they come under the heading of Anaheims. They look similar. I've found them to be a milder hot pepper, and they've been pretty prolific for me.

Yes, thank you for that chart. I didn't see Big Jims listed, but maybe they come under the heading of Anaheims. They look similar. I've found them to be a milder hot pepper, and they've been pretty prolific for me.[/quote]

Big Jims? Never heard of that one. Is that a hybrid?

Big Jims are an Anaheim chile, and that's one of the milder ones I have out there. Here they are, in the upper right of the photo:
Big Jims, Hanoi Markets, Jalafuegos, Poblanos, Anattos, plus a few Thai long beans. 9-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The hottest pepper I ever tasted was a Chiltepin. It was a very small pepper, so I thought I'd give it a try. I let the peppers ripen to red. Then I sliced some and placed on a homemade pizza. After the pizza was done and was eating a piece.... I'm surprised flames didn't burst from my mouth!! Later on I decided to save seeds from the peppers(not to keep, but to give away). My fingers felt like they were on fire for the next 24hrs after handling the peppers and their seeds.

So, I can't stand hot peppers, but I am fond of some foods with a slightly spicy kick- so I plan to hunt for a mildly hot pepper to use for pizza's, and hopefully make chili powder with, thanks to @gary350 for giving me lessons on how to make it. The Big Jim Anaheim sounds perfect, but I've never seen plants of it offered, or seed packets in the store or Baker Creek or Seed Savers either. Does anyone know where I can find them? Maybe someone has some leftover seeds they don't want?

I do want another REALLY hot pepper to use to make a liquid spray from to use as a critter deterrent.

TomatoNut95 wrote:The hottest pepper I ever tasted was a Chiltepin. It was a very small pepper, so I thought I'd give it a try. I let the peppers ripen to red. Then I sliced some and placed on a homemade pizza. After the pizza was done and was eating a piece.... I'm surprised flames didn't burst from my mouth!! Later on I decided to save seeds from the peppers(not to keep, but to give away). My fingers felt like they were on fire for the next 24hrs after handling the peppers and their seeds.

So, I can't stand hot peppers, but I am fond of some foods with a slightly spicy kick- so I plan to hunt for a mildly hot pepper to use for pizza's, and hopefully make chili powder with, thanks to @gary350 for giving me lessons on how to make it. The Big Jim Anaheim sounds perfect, but I've never seen plants of it offered, or seed packets in the store or Baker Creek or Seed Savers either. Does anyone know where I can find them? Maybe someone has some leftover seeds they don't want?

I do want another REALLY hot pepper to use to make a liquid spray from to use as a critter deterrent.

If you want hot, try Habanero, Ghost Peppers, Butch T Trinidad Scorpions and the dreaded Carolina Reaper. They start around 350,000 Scoville Units and go up to around 2,000,000. To put that into perspective, a Jalapeno is around 8,000 units.

Habanero is on my, 'I might get list' for hot peppers. Oh yeah, I heard of the scary Trinidad scorpions and Carolina Reaper. But I'd rather not have one that was so hot, I'd be a little afraid to touch.

TomatoNut95 wrote:Habanero is on my, 'I might get list' for hot peppers. Oh yeah, I heard of the scary Trinidad scorpions and Carolina Reaper. But I'd rather not have one that was so hot, I'd be a little afraid to touch.

I grew Trinidad Scorpion Butch T's last year, along with jalapeno, Belgian Hot Wax, Ghost and Habanero.

This year I have habanero and Ghost peppers in the garden putting out peppers in our hot summer months. I use them for pepper jelly, my own hot sauce, pickle some with other vegetables for a bit of zip in otherwise mild pickled okra, green beans, etc.

I also dry some to grind and make my own pepper flakes. I will also use them when making chili or other Tex/Mex type dishes.

Just have to remember a little goes a long way, especially when cooking since my wife can handle way less heat than I can. No point making it so hot she can't enjoy it when all I have to do is add some hot sauce to mine to make it the way I like.

I don't blame ya, can't stand super hot either. The main reason I want a hot pepper(one plant only, that is) is to create a liquid pepper spray as a critter ridder. Not for eating. The mildly hot peppers such as the Big Jim's @Taiji suggested, I would like to dry and make powder from to sprinkle on pizza's and pasta.

I would not want to eat habaneros. I grow Caribbean Red, which is a hotter habanero. A couple of my friends are hot heads and like very hot peppers, but they don't like habanero because of the "gasoline" /turpentine aftertaste.
Smaller peppers are usually hotter than larger ones. Chiletepins are hotter than larger hot peppers except the superhots from India which are usually rediculously hot. Jalapeno's are not very hot at all. I prefer Serrano or Fresno peppers which have more consistent heat. I usually like to use the super chile to make pepper sauces and add 1-3 peppers to a pot when cooking. Thai cuisine uses a lot of peppers, but there is usually coconut milk or something else to balance it.

People do cross peppers and some people have given me seeds of crosses. I have grown peppers side by side for years but rarely have they every crossed. In fact, I can't think of a single one that I have grown that has crossed. It is possible, but I don't deliberately cross them and they don't naturally cross that often. The problem I have is when I grow new peppers, I lose the tags and don't remember what they are.

Whoops. Didn't mean to end up for ya'll to end up starting a whole new thread all because I was wondering what mildly hot peppers to grow in 2020.

I think this discussion will be of interest to many gardeners


...I grew Aji Dulce Amarillo this year — It has no heat to speak of, but has intense habanero or scotch bonnet like aroma and fragrance.

I'm interested in the Big Jim Anehiem, if I could find seeds for it.

TomatoNut - I have extra seeds of Big Jim - I had it listed as 30+, and I only used 6 (and all germinated, even though they are from 2016). And the plants are not the least bit slowed down by the seed's age.

I shop for peppers at these places the most
https://pepperjoe.com/
https://www.tomatogrowers.com/Peppers/departments/15/
https://www.peppergal.com/peppers_seeds?page_6494204=0

@Pepperhead, if you're sure you won't mind sharing your seeds, I would love to try them! I'd want to pay you for them of course, or perhaps trade if you would look under my thread under the free seed section to see if I have anything you want.

The Anaheim chili is also my favorite mild chili pepper, only partly influenced by the fact that I grew up in Anaheim, California.

Oops ... I got confused, because the garden wishlist thread also has a bunch of stuff about mildish chili peppers. I moved this post to there.

I grow Anaheim and enjoy cooking with them; but this thread confuses me. I see mention of Anaheim, Big Jim's and big Jim's Anaheim.

Is big Jim's an 'expression' of Anaheim or a different variety altogether?

I've never heard of Big Jim Anaheim's either until @pepperhead told me about them. They must be a hybrid cross between two types of Anaheims. Just like Big Bertha bell pepper, it is a hybrid bred to be huge.

Big Jim has been around a while. I have grown it. It is a numex hybrid. It is similar in use to an Anaheim just bigger and a little hotter.

https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/chil ... I-peppers/

I've never seen Big Jim listed as a hybrid, and I often see it listed as an heirloom. Even the "improved" versions of Big Jim that I've seen listed weren't hybrids - just another hotter Numex pepper, and they are trying to use the well known name, to sell another variety!

I think that description of the Numex meaning hybrids, is from developing the original Numex from several types of peppers, and eventually they stabilized them. There are many varieties out there, for commercial growing, but few are hybrids - that costs money! lol

Another Anaheim I was thinking of trying is the Joe E. Parker. Some have said that it is the highest producer, if they weighed the peppers, and also have a very thick flesh. I'm also thinking of taking some seeds from the best tasting Numex dried chiles I buy, as none of the varieties I've grown produce the same flavor when I dry them.

Well then if Big Jim is hotter than a regular Anaheim, then I'd rather not go with that one. I'm looking for a not-too-hot pepper to make chili powder from. I like chips and things with a slightly hot kick, like Jalapeno Cheetos and Vienna sausage, but not so hot to the point it burns my mouth like those little Chitepin peppers did!

I don't think that the Big Jim I have is hotter than a regular poblano (around 1,000 - 2,000 SUs). I got the seeds from Redwood City. I have seen some sources saying that it is 5-6,000 SUs, and those are those supposedly "improved" Big Jims, which may have some Big Jim DNA, but it's not the original Big Jim! And if they say it is a hybrid Big Jim, that's probably a hotter - and smaller - Big Jim, crossed with something to add heat. I even saw one that said it was 15k-30k, and said that it was a "mildly hot pepper"!

I know weather stress can affect the heatness of peppers, correct? I used to grow TAM Jalapenos because they were mild. One year when I grew them, the weather was bad...I don't remember if it was hot and humid or hot and dry.....but the TAM's came out hotter than usual. That's when I switched to Fooled You Hybrid, because it stays completely heatless no matter the weather. But after this year, I'm exchanging the Fooled You's for Baker Creek's Nadapeno, since it proved to be just as terrific.

Stress causes more heat in peppers. The worst summer that I have had - an incredible drought, and temps over 100° sometimes, killing many of my other plants. The peppers survived, and were the hottest ever, of those varieties I grew then.

Can keeping the pepper plants consistently watered throughout a drought and providing a bit of afternoon shade help control the heat intensity of the fruit?

Has anybody ever grown Poblanos? According to Baker Creek, Poblanos are milder than Anaheims.

I have some poblanos this year, and they are not very hot - about the same as the big jim this year. And both of them are easy to clean out, with two veins lengthwise, so most of the heat can be removed.

I have some poblanos this year, and they are not very hot - about the same as the big jim this year. And both of them are easy to clean out, with two veins lengthwise, so most of the heat can be removed.

Taiji wrote:Subject: Garden wishlists and ideas for next growing season?

TomatoNut95 wrote:Next year I was thinking of growing some hot peppers. Low heat ones-mild that is, to make chili powder from, and a super hot to make a critter ridder spray from. What are some hot peppers that are not super duper hot? I was thinking Anaheims.

SQWIB wrote:

TomatoNut95 wrote:Next year I was thinking of growing some hot peppers. Low heat ones-mild that is, to make chili powder from, and a super hot to make a critter ridder spray from. What are some hot peppers that are not super duper hot? I was thinking Anaheims.

imafan26 wrote:Thanks for the pepper chart. I also like cayenne diane's website it lists peppers hottest to mildest. There are pictures and a little more information about the peppers. It still misses a few peppers that I have but it has always been helpful for me.
I like to grow hot peppers because they do well for me. As far as eating them, I can't take the heat of the hottest ones. The heat does not seem to bother the birds at all. The hottest I can handle is a cayenne. My favorites are milder like super chile, serrano, carmen, cubanelle, anaheim,pepperoncini, Hungarian Wax, and Shishito peppers. I ate a tip of a bhut jolokia a couple of weeks ago to id it and my mouth burned for half an hour and it made me tear up. I think I will remember what plant that one is even without a label now.

Yes, thank you for that chart. I didn't see Big Jims listed, but maybe they come under the heading of Anaheims. They look similar. I've found them to be a milder hot pepper, and they've been pretty prolific for me.

I have learned that good chili powder is a blend of 2 or more chili powders. I grow Anaheim original known as New Mexico peppers. I also grow Jalapeno. Anaheim is very mild with lots of very good flavor, 500 SHU with no seeds, 1000 SHU with seeds. I dehydrate 50 Anaheim peppers along with 2 jalapeno peppers grind into power the blend is hotter than mild closer to medium. Add as many Jalapeno as you like to Anaheim to get the hotness you like and good flavor too. I decided it would be good to have 5 different chili powders each one being progressively hotter but then I decided it is much better to have 2 quarts of Anaheim chili power in one container plus 1 cup Jalapeno chili powder in another container. When cooking chili I add enough Anaheim chili powder to get good flavor then add enough Jalapeno to get the spicy flavor I want. Anaheim is excellent for making enchilada sauce. Winter I tend to cook hotter spicy food than summer. Few days ago we made hot spicy pizza sauce with garden tomatoes. Sometimes we make hot spicy spaghetti sauce. Thai food they add very hot spicy in very small amounts so not to change the flavor of the very good flavor oriental food. Paprika makes a very good chili power with Jalapeno chili powder added. Dehydrate peppers at 100 degrees F so not too loose color and flavor. If you dehydrate at 160 degrees you loose spicy hot flavor, color is very dark red with a roasted flavor.

When peppers are dried, they become hotter than fresh. It seems you are thinking of peppers in the 500 SHU range which is about what an Anaheim is. Anaheim, pepperocini, TAM jalapeno, Numex Big Jim, Paprika/Pimento, and Espanola. All of these usually range from 500-5000 SHU. Paprika is better if they are smoked before being ground. Dried and ground peppers are best stored in the freezer. If they are not used in a timely manner, the chili oil becomes rancid.

I ended up getting Poblanos. Aren't they suited enough for drying? I like spicy with a mild kick, but not overly mouth-burning. Like the Jalapeno Vienns Sausages. They have a nice kick, but not excrusciating. Even the mild TAM jalapenos I used to grow got too hot if under too much weather stress, which is why I went to Fooled You and then to Nadapeno.

Poblanos, when ripened and dried, are anchos, the most common pepper in Mexican cooking. Last season, I roasted and peeled a lot of the poblanos, but later in the season I seeded and diced a bunch of them, and dehydrated them. Now I use them in a lot of curries, and other dishes where I would often use diced up peppers. I also ground a bunch of them up, which gives a totally different chili powder - something the Indians call "white" chili powder. There is very little heat in it, with just poblano, but I added some hotter green chiles, as well.

Poblano is a mild pepper. It is good roasted and stuffed. It has a little bit of heat. When Poblano peppers are dried they are usually called Ancho Poblano.

I find TAM jalapenos to not be hot at all. However, there is a great variation in heat of the newer Jalapenos. Early jalapeno was hotter than Jalapeno M which is supposed to be hotter. Biker Billy, Mucho Nacho, and Wailua have had more consistant heat. I prefer serrano peppers because the older variety has more predictable heat. Hungarian tomato peppers are usually used to make paprika and they are sweet and mild. To tone down the heat of your chili powder, you could add more dried sweet peppers with zero heat.

Cubanelles and Hungarian wax peppers are other possibilities. Cubanelles are usually less than 1000 SHU. Hungarian Wax can be sweet or hot so there might be more variability. Pimento would probably be one of the mildest.

The Black Hungarian pepper (which looks like a black jalapeno) is supposed to be somewhat mildish.

No, the TAMs I grew were quite mild, but the heat turned up when the plants got upset with the disagreeable weather. Fooled You and Nadapeno both stay heatless under pressure.

What is a tomato pepper? A tomato that looks like a pepper....or a pepper that looks a tomato?

TomatoNut95 wrote:The Black Hungarian pepper (which looks like a black jalapeno) is supposed to be somewhat mildish.

No, the TAMs I grew were quite mild, but the heat turned up when the plants got upset with the disagreeable weather. Fooled You and Nadapeno both stay heatless under pressure.

What is a tomato pepper? A tomato that looks like a pepper....or a pepper that looks a tomato?

I have seen tomato peppers at the grocery store, they look like tomatoes but they are peppers. I have no clue how spicy hot tomato peppers are never eaten one. TAM Jalapeno taste like nothing to me, they seem to be very low flavor as well as low spiciness. Poblano is about 1500 spicy range not as hot as Jalapeno. I have been making chili powder about 20 years a good dehydrator that only gets 100 degrees F or can be set to 100 degree F makes the best chili powder. Green chili powder is about 2 times hotter than red chili powder. Don't use seeds in chili powder they double spicy hotness and reduce chili powder flavor. Make white color chili power with all seeds. I use to have a very good dehydrator 20 years ago, if I make more chili power I need to buy a good dehydrator again. Slice peppers in thin strips or thin rings they dehydrate much quicker in smaller pieces. Remove vanes it gives chili powder a bitter flavor. If your dehydrator is too hot 140 deg F bright red very spicy hot chili power becomes dark red color that is less spicy hot flavor, if your dehydrator is hotter 180 deg F you get very dark red color with most of the spicy hot flavor cooked away. Peppers dehydrated at 230 degrees are almost black color.

TAM peppers are not hot. They were developed for people who did not like a lot of heat. Actually, people do have to develop a taste and tolerance for the heat. Most times people just don't know how to prepare them right. Most of the heat is in the membrane and the seeds, so removing that removes most of the capsaicin. When you cook or eat peppers with bread, milk, coconut milk and other heat tamers and use peppers in moderation, it is more tolerable. If all you get out of a pepper is the heat and you can't distinguish the "flavor" of the pepper, I.e., sweet, citrusy, 'gasoline" you have to burn off a few taste buds first.