On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 kay wrote:

t's a few years since I grew chili peppers but I did it again
this
year: cayenne, jalapeno and anaheim. The hottest is supposed to be the
cayenne but, for some reason, they are not as hot as they should be. In

fact, they are quite mild - I can put a piece in my mouth and it doesn't

skin my tongue. I still have some dried cayenne chilis from a few years

ago and they are certainly hot. Growing conditions are exactly the same

in my conservatory.


Allegedly, the heat depends on how warm it was when they were ripening.
I know you say the conditions in your conservatory were the same but if
you had a miserable summer this year (we did in Yorkshire) it's possible
that the conservatory was less warm. Or perhaps that they were a bit
slower growing so that the ripening was later and therefore in a cooler
part of the year.

I know you folks oop north have had a lousy summer because my daughter
lives in Lancashire and greeted us almost every day with, "It's raining
again" in a Sybil Fawlty voice. But we down here had a reasonable summer
- or so I thought. But, of course, at the very time when the pods were
ripening we were away in France so it could be that you've put your
finger on it.

Interesting that the jalapeno chilis grown outside have produced tiny
fruits compared with those in the conservatory.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk