Can anyone make any sense of this?

12 years ago

Because I never had success with bell peppers, I began to grow Corno di Toro peppers years ago. They always bore prolifically and were indistinguishable from bells except in shape. When they turn red, they're sweet and luscious; I still have some left in the freezer.

After a gardening friend bemoaned how few and how late her bells always were, I passed on the rest of a package of Corno di Toro seed. When I asked her recently how they did, she said they were so hot she couldn't eat them and that they must have crossed with her Thai hot peppers. I told her that was impossible; if they had crossed she'd have known it only if she planted seed she had saved from them. She got pretty shirty with me, and insisted they were too hot to eat.

Now, it was the same seed I had used, the same variety I'd been planting for years, and I know they hadn't crossed with the Thai peppers. She wasn't lying. So what happened here?

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Comments (5)

farmerdill
12 years ago
Most likely, she confused her seedlings. Bull's horn is not hot but could be confused with some of larger hot peppers. Most versions of Thai Hot are small, but there are some larger ones.
denninmi
12 years ago
Well, what are the possible explanations for this, assuming everyone is telling the truth as they perceive it, which seems to be the case? I think the explanations are:

1) An unknown mixup of seeds or plants somewhere in the "chain of custody" from your seed package to her garden and then mouth.

2) From doing some quick online research, it seems that this pepper is rated from 0 to 1000 Scoville Units. And, we all know that different growing conditions can affect the heat of a pepper, perhaps something in her climate, soil, or care made them on the hotter end of the spectrum?

2) A physical or psychological issue with your friend. Perhaps she is just super-sensitive to capsaicin, and the low levels present were enough to get her to notice it. Or, perhaps she just developed some kind of pre-conceived bias that a pepper that "looks like that is hot", got a tiny bit of heat, and reinforced that thought in her mind until they were "so hot she couldn't eat them." I believe psychologist refer to this as "confirmation bias."

You may never solve the mystery, but perhaps will just have to let it slide to save the friendship.
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t-bird
12 years ago
the seeds could have been hot if the crossed
sunnibel7 Md 7
12 years ago
I agree, some mix up in seeds or seedlings seems most likely. But you are right about the part where if they had crossed with her Thai Hots, she would not know until she ate fruit from plants grown from the seeds of this year's fruit. I also suspect if she grows and eats those then she's not particularly sensitive to capsacin. Apparently heat and water stress can make hot peppers hotter, so I suppose if you grow yours with some shade and lots of mulch and she grows hers out in bare ground and full sun maybe hers would come out hotter than yours, but again she grows Thai hots, so...

Anyhow, hopefully friendship can endure beyond peppers. But don't tell anyone from the Pepper Forum I wrote that, they will never let me post there again!
laceyvail 6A, WV
Original Author
12 years ago
Well, we may never solve this mystery, but I do value her friendship and she has been going through a number of health issues, so I'm just letting it go.

Can anyone make any sense of this?

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farmerdill

denninmi

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Can anyone make any sense of this?

Comments (5)

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