Garden question??????

[bloody_peasant]

No they don't look like bell peppers just tasted like one. I guess I pick one to early in its stage. Been doing some reading and it seems that they start off as very very mild peppers and as they mature longer to the point of a dark green pepper and the shoulders start to show little cracks its picking time. Buy the way my bite included the whole pepper.

Thanks

Yep they need to ripen more, and they'll get even hotter if you can let them start turning yellow/red (or whatever their ripe color is) on the vine. mmmmmm

Once they start to get that cracked look on them and start to change yellow they'll be good and hot. mmmmm My habaneros are just starting to fruit

Also as HappyCPE said, over watering and also over fertilizing will produce a weaker pepper or not many peppers (esp. too much nitrogen). Also full sun is a most. Also certain kinds of peppers need other nutrients (e.g. my habaneros need bone meal (calcium) from time to time).

Also the capsaicin is produced in the fleshy ribs inside the pepper not in the seeds and these ribs are typically the hottest part. The seeds just appear to be very hot because they are in close proximity to these ribs and also contain some of the capsaicin.

High organic content in the soil is also important.

 

[Greenhouseray]

Don't do what I did!
I grew several hot chili pepper plants, can't remember the variety. When the peppers turned red I left them to dry in the garden then hung the whole plants upside down in the barn to thouroughly dry out. I then picked the peppers off the dry stems. I put the dried peppers into the kitchen blender to grind them up to use in a shaker for pizza night. When I opened the lid on the first batch I thought I was going to die. The dust from grinding got into my eyes, my nostrils, my mouth, nothing would stop the burning pain. Since then I do it outside when a good wind is blowing and I stand upwind with gloves and a faceshield on.
Greenhouseray

 

[dooleysm]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one around with a stupid pepper story. A guy here at work makes his own habanero powder and says to make sure you have a dedicated blender for making the powder and to do it away from the house and use a face mask and gloves.

He puts his habanero powder in pumpkin pies for our Thanksgiving pitch-in at work. Sounds gross, but they are great. The pies taste like a normal, homemade pumpkin pie, but you get a nice dose of heat with them. I think he uses a quarter teaspoon of his powder per pie.