I feel like the amount of water, the soil fertility and the warm temperatures all play a role in the amount of hot, pungent flavor that hot peppers develop. However, I grow mostly jalapenos and not many true Anaheim-type chiles so what I am writing from first-hand experience is related more to jalapeno peppers. I find it is true of habaneros as well. In my garden, for the hottest flavor, I plant peppers into well-prepared, rich and fertile soil, but I never fertilize them after that unless they show symptoms of nutritional deficiency, which they almost never do. I think overfeeding with fertilizer somehow hurts their flavor and makes it less hot. I water the peppers adequately in spring before they are setting peppers. After they bloom and set peppers I gradually cut back on their moisture and grow them as dry as possible. Too much water seems to have an adverse flavor on their heat. I let the plants get almost (but not quite) to the wilt point before I water, and then I don't water heavily. I do not deliberately let them wilt, but both last summer and this summer at very high temperatures (roughly 108-112) they would wilt before I realized it. And, yes, my hot peppers have been super-hot this year as they were last year. The jalapenos I harvest in July and August are definitely hotter in flavor than those harvested in June. Then, as we go deeper into fall, the peppers are a little milder as the temperatures cool down. With most hot peppers the majority of the heat is in the white membrane and the seeds get some of the flavor from the membrane. I use that knowledge when cooking or canning with peppers to control, to some extent, the degree of pungency in whatever I am canning or cooking. This summer, my jalapenos and habs have been so hot that I have to wear 2 pairs of medical-type latex or nitrile gloves when handling the hot peppers. With the habs, if I am working with them for any amount of time, I have to change the gloves every few minutes because the capsaicin seems to find its way through the two layers of gloves and onto my skin. I am a big pepper wimp and don't like the burning sensation on my skin, so if I am cutting up more than one single jalapeno, I always wear gloves. Carol, My dad always made pepper sauce that way. It is funnier that the older I get, the more I find myself doing things the same way he did them. The issue of peppers not being as hot as expected was discussed on the Hot Pepper Forum a couple of weeks ago, and much of what the pepper experts there said was similar to what Jay and I have observed with regard to the environmental influences on pepper flavor. I'm going to find that thread and link it below. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper Thread from Hot Pepper Forum

Hi Seedo13 I would as a new grower nix the peat pots. And if you soaked them in an inch of water they probably took in the whole inch of water and on top of that if you are using a peat based soil it's holding a lot of water so that's what is killing your seedlings. I would get plastic starting pots and go from there. Peat pots soak and dry quickly so hard to gage the right time to water. Mark

Caelian!, you did a tremendous job and are to be congratulated on what you harvested and preserved. I am proud of you and hope to be doing the same this time next year or sooner. For those who do not know what Asian pickles are they are also called Indian pickles and can be made from many different ingredients including mango, cucumber, carrots, etc and combinations of vegetables and fruits. They are either preserved in an oil base or brine base. There are numerous combinations of flavors, etc. You can pickle dried chilis the same way as you would regular pickles but they are better in the oil based brine. Once again great job, Linda.

-BUMP- What kind of pesticide and for what purpose? Hmm that pot is quite small for a plant with that many peppers on it. I also can't imagine it getting enough light in the UK indoors the way it is, though you clearly have gotten it to produce some peppers. Hopefully, the bump will get someone more knowledgeable than I am to come along and help you. But for me, as a rule, I try not to add insult to injury, LOL. :) If it got drenched for a day, no biggie if it just gets dried again, but then spraying it on top of the soaked soil could have shocked it. Basically, it went from indoor to outdoor to flooding to spraying in 24 hours. It's worrisome that a plant that size has not sucked up that moisture in the soil in a full week...