Opinions on highest yielding HOT chili

18 years ago

I realize that this question is very subjective. But I have been on a quest for the past few years to try to find the highest yielding HOT (the hotter the better) chili pepper.

I am looking for total weight of peppers per plant (not just the number of peppers).

It would be a no-brainer that a plant that offers high yields of a large pepper should come out on top. However, in my quest I have found that the hottest chilis often tend to be the smallest and the larger chilis also tend to yield less peppers per plant.

I was not too impressed with the yield from my long thin cayenne.

The tabasco peppers that I planted last year didn't give a real high yield (maybe they will do better this year).

I have been very impressed with super chile plants. The peppers might not be very big, but the plants grow into nice little bushes and are literally covered in peppers and they are HOT.

This year I am trying Carolina Hot. They are a large cayenne type. Are they similar to Charleston Hot (maybe the same)?

I am also growing 7 habanero plants this year. I suppose if we judge a pepper plant by total scoville units, it would be tough to beat a hab.

What are your opinions for high yielding HOT pepper plants?

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Comments (52)

jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
I am attempting to germinate some Biker Billy's right now.

That Billy Goat looks interesting. I might have to give that one a try.
groovy1
18 years ago
Fatalii are very productive, and very hot, as well as having larger fruit.
Red habs are pretty prolific and so are caribbean reds. Grenada scotch bonnets are pretty prolific.

Peruvian white habaneros and white bullet habs are very hot and prolific.

Limons are a nice choice, not as hot as the above but still very hot and extremely productive.

Cumari ou passarinho is hotter than hell, and very productive but small pods. I am growing them for the first time this year and have seen pics of the plants, they are very productive. I have tasted the pods (others sent me samples) they are extremely hot.

Numex bailey pequins are very hot and very productive, but as with the COP they have smaller fruit.

Orange habs are very hot and productive.

Out of all of these if you are looking for best taste and largest (most massive) fruit production I would go with the fatalii, as they have larger pods and are prolific with very high heat level and excellent taste.
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lil_rhody
18 years ago
My third year growing peppers from seed I got these in trade.
The bullet shaped pods were labeled Prairie Fire and produced lots of firey pods.
The round shaped pods to the left were labeled the same but don't know what they really were, some type of bird pepper I presume.

{{gwi:1163885}}

Although I took this next picture before it developed pods, you can see by the flowers that it turned out very prolific.
This is Purple DeArbol.

{{gwi:1163887}}

Paul B.
cmpman1974
18 years ago
Beautiful plants Paul! I really like that purple one.

Chris
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
WOW great info in this thread. This is exactly the type of info I was looking for.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
NewMex Sunglo is another good producer. A closer look reveals the pods mainly hang under the canopy.
This picture isn't a good representation of the plants potential as I took it late in the season (early Oct.)

{{gwi:1163889}}

Probably the highest yielding pepper I've grown w/ nickel to quarter size diameter pods was Gumdrop.
Upright pods splashed in magenta and purple. A good number of pods exist below the canopy as well.
Low to meduium heat level peppers that are absolutely perfect for pickling.

{{gwi:1163891}}

{{gwi:1163894}}

"I am looking for total weight of peppers per plant (not just the number of peppers)."

jdog006, what role would this play?

Paul B.
Guy_Holman
18 years ago
Hi

If its total weight you are after then take a look at fatalii.net and you will see why Jukka reckons the pubescens are the best bet!

From the larger podded plants I grew last year the Orange Hab from Redwood City Seeds was the winner...mind you it was in a fifty litre (13 gallon)tub. It produced 295 pods, which I was very pleased with.

Problem is that it depends on individual growing and climate so much.

I have found Jalapenos very weight productive and take up only a small amount of space in the garden, Purira may be worth a go too.

Whatever you grow end up growing....enjoy!!!

All the best

Guy
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
"I am looking for total weight of peppers per plant (not just the number of peppers).

jdog006, what role would this play?"

I mainly use my peppers to make hot sauce. The number of peppers I harvest is irrelevent to the amount of hot sauce I can make. The amount of hot sauce that I can produce is directly proportional to the weight of the peppers that I harvest.

The same would apply to most uses that I can think of off the top of my head (grinding into powder, canning, pickling, etc.) For example, if someone were to tell me that I could harvest 100 peppers, I think that would be an incomplete statement. 100 piquins might fill half of a canning jar. But 100 anaheims might fill a dozen canning jars or more.
Guy_Holman
18 years ago
Hi

Send me an email and I will send you the results in terms of number of pods and toatal weight for the 82 vars I grew last year.

Not doing it the same way this year though....pissed with counting and weighing pods from 400+ plants when continuous harvesting. Going for an easier life this year.

It was also a bad year but the relative weight per plants should be useful to you.

All the best

Guy
lil_rhody
18 years ago
What I am understanding is that you would like recommendations of a pepper that is very hot (hotter the better) w/ large fruit and a high to very high yield.

Don't know if one exists. As you stated, usually small peppers provide more heat and higher yields where large pod varieties demonstrate more weight per pod, less heat and less yield (in quantity).

One the other hand, in some cases, it's 6 of one and Â½ dozen of the other. A ton of bricks opposed to a ton of feathers are equivalent in weight.
You may have 2 types of peppers that are similar in heat. The larger pod variety (A) may yield let's say 20-25 pods where the smaller variety (B) may yield 100-200. Total weight may come close. So in respective quantity, a variety w/ litlle yield opposed to a variety w/ a high yield may weigh the same.
(A) may fill (X) number of jars where (B) may fill the same amount of jars respectively.

Also, as Guy stated much depends on soil, growing conditions and climate.
I can add, through my personal experience, periodic spraying w/ an Epsom Salt solution increases yield. There are mixed opinions on this board regarding this technique and I don't want to steer this thread off track. That would be a topic for another discussion.
I've had good results w/ this method and continue to employ the practice.

Paul B.
John__ShowMe__USA
18 years ago
Guy writes: > Problem is that it depends on individual growing and climate so much.

That was my thought too. Do you grow in the ground or containers? What zone? Are you willing to put up with a modest (at best) first year for an awesome 2nd year production?

Paul B's pickled Gumdrop sure look good!
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
I grow in the ground and in a hydroponic garden.

I've grown peppers for years. I was just fishing for some suggestions from the forum for high yielding hot peppers that I might like to try.

I live in an extreme zone (9b Arizona). It is too late for me to start any new plants for the summer. We get a grow season in the early spring and another in the early fall. It is just too damn hot during the heat of the summer.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
Wow, that sux.
jdog006, not to get off topic but, could you use a shaded canopy that filters a certain percentage of sun? Or is the heat level itself just too overwhelming?

I never gave that part of the country much thought about growing conditions. I thought a warm climate would be a gardeners dream. But I guess that's why it's called a desert.

Paul B.
John__ShowMe__USA
18 years ago
9b Arizona... totally out of my personal experience. I'm zone 5/6 (somewhere in there) & it gets too hot mid-summer here to set pods.

Perhaps there is a desert gardening type forum someplace?

Sorry,
jt
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
very good questions lil rhody.

I do strategically place plants in places where they will receive shade during the heat of the day.

The heat is very extreme. 115 degree days are what we expect for a couple months in summer (occaissional days around 120 degrees are not surprising). Mature pepper plants will survive the heat OK. You certainly can't set new plants out in that kind of heat. Pepper plants start drooping a little in the early afternoon hours but one drink of water perks them right back up. Production of peppers slows to almost a complete hault. I will still harvest a few peppers every now and then, but not near as many peppers as I will get in the spring and fall. It is tough keeping them watered properly. Because evaporation works overtime at those temperatures. If I run the hydroponic garden, I can lose 10 - 15 gallons a day to evaporation.

Even with the challenges of the summer I really don't deserve anyone's sympathy. I get real long spring and fall growing seasons and we might have 1 or 2 nights a year that will get cold enough to freeze. So as long as I pay attention and protect my plants on those rare cold nights and baby them through the heat, my peppers can grow outside year round.
Guy_Holman
18 years ago
You lucky dog!!

Guy (getting peppers in cos its going to freeze tonight)
lil_rhody
18 years ago
For 2 yrs. I lived in the Ca. high desert (George AFB, Adelanto) while in the Air Force. While there I traveled by car to Barstow and drove through Death Valley to Las Vegas.
That was in the early 70's when the furthest thing from my mind was gardening. I know what you're saying about the daytime temps. But the evenings were soooo nice (cool).

Tonight here in Rhode Island, our over-night low is expected to be 30Â°-34Â°F.

Paul B.
fledglingardening
18 years ago
That numex sunglow looked really good--one of those would probably keep me in peppers year round, even with my short season! lol.

Any reason not to grow something less hot that's high yield & then spice it up with fewer hotter peppers? If you're making sauce I'd assume things would get well combined.

I read in a garden mag/book about some xeriscaping dudes from the southwest. They had things set up to recycle "grey water" ie shower, handwashing etc into their garden. Might look for more on that for your area.
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
I'm definitely going to try out the fatalii's I haven't had time to pour over the data from Guy's charts yet. But I'm going to take a good hard look at all those plants and how they produced.

lil..., those gum drop peppers look a lot smaller on the plant than they look in the jar.

I've mixed hot peppers with not-so hot peppers in hot sauce before. I am always trying to produce the hottest hot sauce possible. I LOVE heat (I can go through a large bottle of tabasco in a week). The hotter the sauce, the less I use and it lasts longer. If I water it down with less heat, I'll go through the hot sauce too quickly. Extreme heat is a guaranteed way to make sure it is rationed and it still makes you break a sweat so you are satisfied.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
"lil..., those gum drop peppers look a lot smaller on the plant than they look in the jar. ".

It wasn't a comparative photo, it was atop the plant. The jar is a pint jar.
Here's what the plant looked like prior to my ritual spraying of Epsom Salt soln.

{{gwi:1163896}}

Here's another after photo:

{{gwi:1163898}}

For some reason unknown to me, when they are pickled they turn pale yellow.

Paul B.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
Most resources on the web state this plant gets 18" tall w/ a span of 15".
After periodic spraying w/ Epsom Salts, I saw results of 30"-36" tall and 24" wide.

Freak? NOT.

Most if not all of my peppers supersede specifications using this spraying regimen.
Although some may contest this practice, I stand by it.

Paul B.
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
I use epsom salt in my hydroponic garden for magnesium.

What is your spray (epsom salts and water)? How diluted?

I've heard that peppers like magnesium.

It doesn't surprise me that it makes a noticable difference in the plants. Does it affect the peppers? Are they bigger than specs? That might be an easy way to get some highly desirable heirloom seeds from a regular run-of-the-mill variety.

I always save my seeds from the largest and hottest peppers. It might be a pipe dream, but I foresee myself developing my own strains that display the characteristics that I want in my peppers.

The problem is that I can only grow so many plants each year and then I have to wait a year or so before I can grow out the new seed. When it's time to plant seeds again, I've found some new varieties to try and I end up back where I started - I can only grow so many plants each year...and I keep getting another year older.
kj_57701
18 years ago
small side question! I was also wondering about the Epsom salt method. I was also wondering if anybody has tried to provide sulfuric acids to the pepper plants (in the form of a box of matches stuffed into the ground next to a pepper plant).
lil_rhody
18 years ago
"How diluted?"
I use a 2% soln. (20 grms. / litre) and spray my plants every 2 weeks unless it rains, then I spray the beginning of the next clear spell. I also make a non-aggressive attempt to spray the underside of the leaves.

"Does it affect the peppers? Are they bigger than specs?"I haven't seen an increase in the size of the pods. I have however had great results of larger, bushier plants w/ a huge increase in buds which leads to more pods.
The plants themselves take on a much healthier look in appearance and color. Overall, they are happier plants. :)
On more than one occassion, I ran comparative tests to determine if the results I had been seeing were directly related to the Epsom Salt soln.
Needless to say, I continue to use it.

Paul B.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
jdog006, you need to find out the name of this high yielding chile. :)

I've read where they all came from one plant. Hahahaha...

Paul B.
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
That picture reminds me of the hatch valley (New Mexico) chilli harvest.

I bet that NuMex Sunglo is a variety that they grow in Hatch Valley.

The conditions are just right in Hatch Valley for growing peppers. Something in the climate or soil (or both) is condusive to large yields and I have heard that for some reason the pepeprs grow hotter there.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
Your'e RIGHT! It came from a site that supplied much info about Hatch.

Paul B.
habbob
18 years ago
That pic is amazing Rhody. They look dry but if they all came from one plant I would love to see that chile tree.

Don't you wish you had one of those big long bunches? I have a perfect spot in the kitchen for it.

I've had good luck with super cayenne 2s. Fast growing, hot, prolific and easily grown from seeds. Although those NuMex Sunglos look very nice. I think I need to try those out.
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
I've never figured out how to post pictures in-line. But here is a link to my Super Chile plant.

This plant provided me with loads of peppers over a 3 year period. It's no longer with us but I am currently growing out seed that was saved from this plant.

Here is a link that might be useful:
habbob
18 years ago
That's a beauty jdog. Do they ripen red or yellow?
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
they ripen to a deep red.
John__ShowMe__USA
18 years ago
jdog,

Super Chile was one of the first hot peppers I ever grew & overwintered. It was a hybrid according to the seed package. Is your's open-pollinated?

jt
john47_johnf
18 years ago
Open pollinated version of Super Chile

Here is a link that might be useful: Matchbox
opqdan
18 years ago
kj 57701
small side question! I was also wondering about the Epsom salt method. I was also wondering if anybody has tried to provide sulfuric acids to the pepper plants (in the form of a box of matches stuffed into the ground next to a pepper plant).

The reason people do this is so that the plants can get sulfur. I'm not convinced that it actually does anything. A while back, when I first started growing peppers, I threw some matches in the hole with the roots. When I pulled up the plants in the fall, the matches were still there, only damper.

It just takes far too long for a match to decompose for it to offer any sort of benefit to the plant. Plus, along with sulfur, there are a bunch of other chemicals in a match. I would stick with a general purpose fertilizer.

Epsom salts (magnessium sulfate) does work wonders though. I've got a devil's tongue pepper (3 years old, in a pot), that it geting close to 4 feet tall, and growing a couple inches a week. This isn't only due to the epsom salts, but I have noticed that those I spray get lusher, darker green foilage and have less problems than others. Of course, I have never done a complete double blind scientific test with 50-100 plants, so this is really only anecdotal.
John__ShowMe__USA
18 years ago
Is the form of sulphur in matches useful to plants?
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
I'm not sure what to expect from the super chile seeds. I have seen super chiles labeled hybrid and seen others labeled open pollinated.

I've also heard of seeds being labeled hybrid when they really are not hybrids.

I've got my fingers crossed and I'm hoping for a plant true to the original.
fledglingardening
18 years ago
Intersting the epsom salts do so much. I'd like to see a comparison between that spraying regemine, foliar feeding, and just misting. Have you ever tried it as a soil ammendment thing like they mention on the roses? It wouldn't be altering soil ph though, right?(just to weed out variables for anyone attempting an experiment)
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
Yesterday my wife asked me if I'd like to go to the Hatch Chile Festival this year. It totally floored me. So we're gonna load up the kids and head to Hatch New Mexico the firt of September. WOOOOHOOOOOO.
kj_57701
18 years ago
Cool! Excursions like that is always fun! I have never made it to any Hot Pepper festivals though. I have a friend in Albuquerque, maybe I will have to visit him during the Hatch festival one year :)

And add me to the list of Epsom Salters. I'll take any advantage I can get. Besides, maybe the deer will stay away from my plants (very afraid that they will chomp on the pepper plants when I put them outside). I have no idea if we have any free roaming animals here in South Dakota that cannot get enough lush green pepper foilage.
organic_nut
18 years ago
I have seen some of the new Serrano Hybrid peppers. they are huge. I dont like the look of them as I am used to the small serrano. However, this is suppose to be very high yielding. and I can believe it from the size of these.

I am not recommending them. but they are worth looking into. I have not tasted them so I can not really say. but I do love the old fashioned serrano. but these are just huge.
jdog006
Original Author
18 years ago
I am very intersted in varieties LIKE the serrano hybrids. But I prefer open pollinated varieties. I really want to be able to sustain myself with future seed for peppers that I like.
hendrik_vanderdekin
18 years ago
For sheer volume and total weight of peppers I had a Red Rocoto last year that was over 6 feet tall and at least as wide that produced three five gallon buckets of 1.5" - 2" diameter peppers over the season and it looks like it survived the winter with all the snow and rain and 95 mile an hour winds we had here.

Sure wish I knew what PI number it was as it's one tough pepper.
wayright
18 years ago
My white bullets put off a TON of pods not sure what the weight was,my orange habs always produce alot also..but if you want hotter sauce, dried pepper added to it is the trick!you can grind fresh habs into a paste and it is nothing compared to when you add dried flakes to it!
I see alot of debate on epsom salts on here "I use them religiously"but today in wall mart I saw miracle gro brand epsom salts for lawns!!If miracle gro does it then it has to work!---Kevin
pkapeckopickldpepprz
18 years ago
Lil Rhody, you saved any of the seed from those Prarie Fire, Gumdrop and the Nu Mex Sun Glow? I'd like to try them here in Florida. If not where can I find those seeds? Thanks.
koolguymike
18 years ago
I would also be interested in a source for the gumdrop seeds. They sound good and look great.

Michael
John__ShowMe__USA
18 years ago
> For sheer volume and total weight of peppers I had a Red Rocoto last year...

A 2nd year Red Rocoto (from Reimer's!! & not a PI# from USDA) is my best ever single year (by weight) producer. Maybe a total of 70-80 pods. Doesn't sound like much compared to 15 gal of similar sized pods, but pretty darned awesome when compared to the total weight of any other species of capsicum. I've grown some baccatums that were very heavy producers the 2nd year too, but nowhere near the total weight of the rocotos.

> Sure wish I knew what PI number it was as it's one tough pepper.

Ditto!

Second year rocotos can supposedly survive temps that kill everything above ground and still regenerate from the roots. Two days in a row of 25Â°F temps have always killed mine. One night of upper 20s & have had plants lose their leaves, but still survive.

Mr Dutchman, you have grown the most awesome rocotos of anyone I have ever known. (a pod of 150 grams!)

jt
hendrik_vanderdekin
18 years ago
Yeah but I had the greatest teachers in the world. :)
dangould
16 years ago
DID anyone get any seeds from hendrik_vanderdekin. His email address does NOT work. Or maybe someone has a similar Rocoto pepper. It really sounds interesting to grow. Maybe someone knows how to contact him.

Thanks everyone

Dan
willardb3
16 years ago
I find that the small chiles give the most bang for the buck including high production.

This is a tepin with lots of picante fruit:

{{gwi:1160351}}
dangould
16 years ago
There is a New Mexico variety with high SHU.

http://www.biadchili.com/xxhot.htm

60,000 to 70,000 SHU

I am sure the yield is lower than the Joe E Parker but the heat is much higher.

Here is a link that might be useful: XX HOT

Opinions on highest yielding HOT chili

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