If purchasing your peppers from a greenhouse or garden center, you won’t have nearly as many choices as what you will have with tomatoes. Memorial Day is usually a good time to plant here in Ithaca. They cannot be planted outside until after the last frost and the soil has warmed up.

Peppers of course are a warm-season crop. But have some milk or bread handy to minimize the burn. You can impress your friends by biting the blossom end where the heat is less. Within the fruit, the capsaicin is higher near the seeds, and the seeds tend to be near the stem end of the fruit. This ensures that the seed will be spread as far as the birds will fly.Ĭapsaicin is found only in the fruit and not in stems or leaves. Interestingly, birds are not bothered by capsaicin and can eat the fruit without any ill effects. In fact, capsaicin is often used in animal repellants. Scientists think peppers evolved to produce capsaicin to keep animals from eating the fruit. The cross, and the heat, will not be seen in the fruit this year. What you could get are seeds within the bell pepper that have the genetics that could produce hot bells if you saved the seed to replant. If you plant a sweet bell pepper next to a habanero, you will not get hot bell peppers. But it also gives me a chance to correct a common misconception. Looking at this chart gives you an idea of the type of peppers you may want to grow. Scoville Heat Units for commonly grown peppers The table below provides a listing of pepper heat. The hottest pepper on the scale is the Carolina Reaper, coming in at more than 1.5 million units. The Scoville Heat Units are based on the level of capsaicin in the pepper. We have a rating system for pepper heat, using ‘Scoville Heat Units,” named after a Connecticut pharmacist, Wilbur Scoville, who developed the scale in 1912. The heat comes from capsaicin, a compound found within the fruit of some peppers. Perhaps of greatest interest, the level of heat or spiciness in the fruit. There are many different types of peppers to choose from. And since we’re getting to pepper planting time, let’s review pepper protocols.įirst, let’s start with pepper varieties. Read more articles from 2021 | Read articles from 2020 | Visit Cornell's Garden-Based Learning websiteĭo you have a problem growing peppers? Maybe great success one summer and frustration the next? It’s a complaint I often hear from gardeners. By Steve Reiners, Professor and Chair, Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Cornell AgriTech.

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