Peru wrote:A couple of years ago, I was given two green jalapeno or chili peppers (I don't remember which variety) from the same plant. I know they were from the same plant, as I watched them being picked.
One was very hot, and the other was actually sweet!
That's not unusual. Individual peppers on the same plant can vary in heat and sweetness. Part of that relates to how mature the individual pepper is. Peppers start off green and not very hot. As they mature, the heat and sweetness increase. When fully mature, the peppers are generally red and will be the hottest and sweetest for that variety. But, some peppers will just be different. Who knows why. Heat is also affected by how much sunlight the pepper gets, the amount of watering, the type of fertilizer, and the temperature the plant grew in. I used to grow peppers from seed. Peppers like sunlight and warmth. Watering too much will kill the heat. High nitrogen fertilizer will grow stems and leaves at the expense of the fruit, a little Sulphur added to the soil helps to develop heat, and stressing the plant by not watering several days before harvesting also seems to increase heat.
If you are going to harvest seed for planting later, you do want to avoid cross pollination. It won't affect the current crop, but the next planting will be less hot.
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