"Kay" wrote in reply to ...
Peter Lavington
who writes
I grew some chillis from seed this year. The originals were red chillis
bought from a supermarket and were fearsomely hot to eat. They have now
grown into nice plants with plenty of baby chillis. I've tasted a couple
but
they just don't have any 'heat' in them at all. They are bright red and
look
fully ripe to me. A few years ago I grew some from seed and they turned
out
just as hot as the originals. What has gone wrong this time??


1) Genetic variation - in the same way as you don't look like your
parent. Even species show some variation, but your chilli was probably a
hybrid of two or more species, and you were lucky the first time and
unlucky now.

2) Do chillis get hotter if they have less water when the fruits are
developing?
--
I understood it was lack of water in the final couple of weeks that caused
Chillies to be mild tasting, certainly it was the cause of my neighbours
mild chillies that were fearsome with me (grown outside on the allotment).

--
Regards
Bob
in Runnymede, 17miles west of London, UK