Pepper Identification

[sherkyle]

Hello,

Thank you in advance for any information anyone may be able to provide.

I am growing all sorts of peppers this year, as usual, but two of my "jalapeno" plants are producing fruit that is a little strange. I am including a decent picture of one of the "jalapeno" peppers beside a known jalapeno.

I have eaten two right off the bush, and here are some things to note:

1- They have about the same heat as a jalapeno
2- They taste just like a jalapeno, for the most part
3- The wall of the plant is very firm and thick
4- They are delicious!

I have grown tons of jalapenos and have never seen this before. They were purchased from a local greenhouse and were labeled "Jalapeno" just like the other plants I bought.

Thanks again for any thoughts, and take care.

[imafan26]

It could be a serrano or Fresno pepper. It is slightly hotter than a Jalapeno but firmer. It is smaller than most jalapenos nd more slender. It has a 10,000-25000 SHU rating while Jalapenos can vary from 0-8000 SHU with the average being between 3000-5000 SHU.

You said that it was about the same heat as a Jalapeno. The other thing that is very similar is a Jaloro pepper. It has thicker walls and is slightly more fruity. If you let it ripen it should turn yellow and then red. It is also mild about 5000 SHU.

There are so many jalapeno cultivars on the market that it could very well be a different cultivar. Jalapeno cutivars vary greatly in heat and in size. I am seeing the more slender ones than wider ones. Most of my jalapeno's have some corking. Actually your other pepper looks like it is lobed. That one seems to look more like a small bell pepper or maybe a cross between a jalapeno and a bell.

[imafan26]

I thought I bought Thai hot peppers which I know as a 6 inch tall plant with 1/4 inch very hot peppers.

The plants I grew from seeds of Thai hot chili, are already almost a foot tall with large leaves. They are starting to flower and it looks like the chilies will be long, slender and facing up. They look more like Bird eye or Thai dragon chilies. This is problem because I was planning to put this in my tower planter, but the shorter peppers would be better.

Anyone know where I can get seeds for the short Thai peppers. I remember years ago it was sold as Thai hot ornamental pepper. These came from Baker and the last set of Thai chilies I got were like Kung Pao chilies and they are not very hot. If these are bird's eye they should be hotter, but still taller than I would like.

[pepperhead212]

Thai birds, at least the ones I tried a few times, were the short ones, the peppers and the plants, while Thai dragon, vesuvius, and many others were the tall, productive ones, that I've always looked for. And usually "ornamental" would mean smaller, but you never know until you grow it! I got one "Thai pepper" from Baker that was very small, but that was many years ago, so probably something different. And it was about a foot tall, and about 1/2" peppers, not as small as you are describing.

[imafan26]

I got these seeds from Baker seeds. I know that there is no one "Thai" pepper so it is hard to find them just by the name. All of the Thai peppers I have so far from Baker are tall varieties and not that hot. They do have good flavor though, and I can combine them with super chili which is hotter. I just cannot put a 4 ft tall pepper in the tower planter. Baker keeps changing their seeds so the seeds from years ago may be different from what they have now.

[pepperhead212]

Baker isn't the only one changing the seeds all the time. Another favorite pepper of mine, for many years - Superthai, from Pinetree, was dropped years ago, and unfortunately was a hybrid, that I couldn't "stabilize". Then they put it back in the catalog, but it was like any Thai dragon, or similar pepper I've grown. Same thing with many eggplants through the years.

Superchili is a favorite of mine, as it is always first to produce, and first to ripen, and good green, red, or dried (most Thai peppers are this way, too, but not all peppers, for sure!). The price of those has gone up so much that I am going to save some this year, and see how much different they are! I refuse to pay ridiculous prices for 10 seeds!

[imafan26]

I save super chili seeds all the time. it is stable and breeds true if it does not cross. I actually, rarely have peppers crossing and I have many different ones. Right now, I have not been paying enough attention to my potted plants. I have a couple of super chili, and a thai pepper. I planted cascabella seeds. I am hoping this one grows well enough to save seeds because these seeds are harder to find. The cascabella did not have the best germination or survival rate. I planted 7 pot hot, but nothing yet. They can be really slow, so I may try to plant more seeds again. It is hot enough for them.

[pepperhead212]

So superchili is not a hybrid, even though they say it is? That wouldn't surprise me - I've seen others like that, but I've had many more that, even though I bagged the blossoms, they were definitely hybrids. I just bagged 4 of them today, but superchili will be my next. No way I can just save the seeds - the bumblebees are constantly on my peppers, okra, and zinnia, out front, and that's the only way to keep them from crossing.