Warning hot! If you like it fiery, you can't avoid growing chillies. Find out here how to get your chillies really hot.
Hot dishes are not only found in South America or Southeast Asia, but are also becoming increasingly popular in Germany. No wonder, then, that the chilli (Capsicum) has long been at home in German gardens. The reason for the fiery taste of the chili: capsaicin, an alkaloid that docks onto certain receptors and thus triggers a heat or spiciness stimulus. The more capsaicin, the hotter the chilli tastes. If it can't be hot enough, you should follow a few tricks when growing your chili - in the following 5 tips we'll tell you how your chillies in the garden can get fiery hot.
Tip 1: Choose hot chili varieties
Some chillies are hotter than others. While this may be obvious to everyone, the differences between each type of chili are intriguing to many. For many, the 'Jalapeño' is already at the upper end of the pain threshold with a maximum Scoville value of 30,000.
Tip: The Scoville scale evaluates the hotness of pepper plants based on their capsaicin content and ranges from 0 to 16,000,000. A score of 0 means no capsaicin is present, Tabasco sauce scores from 2,500 to 5,000. Values above 3,000,000 are only achieved by concentrated chilli sauces or pure capsaicin crystals.
If you like it particularly hot, you can use significantly hotter types of chilli: With a maximum value of 2.2 million Scoville, the 'Carolina Reaper' chillies are considered the hottest chillies in the world and are only for die-hard fans suitable. This hottest chilli variety is actually so fiery that it is advisable to wear a face mask, gloves and safety goggles during harvesting and processing to protect yourself from the heat.
Between the 'Jalapeño' and the 'Carolina Reaper' there are of course countless other types of chili, ranging from mild to extremely hot. So who doesIf you reach for a hotter variety in the store, you don't have to worry about pods that are too mild later.
Tip: You will find a selection of chillies with different degrees of heat in our Plantura chili cultivation set. In addition, the chili set contains all the materials you need for successful and easy chili cultivation.
Tip 2: The right time to harvest hot chilies
While the chilli plant grows and thrives, capsaicin is mainly deposited near the seeds and on the inner ribs of the pods. The longer the pod stays on the plant, i.e. the more mature it is, the hotter it becomes. Green pods are therefore significantly milder than the mature yellow or red pods of the same variety. But be careful: In the last stage of maturity, the plant hardly stores any capsaicin, but much more water and carbohydrates. As a result, the content of capsaicin falls again in relation - the sharpness can be significantly weakened. The perfect time to harvest hot chili peppers is therefore when they are fully ripe, but harvesting too early or too late should be avoided.
Tip: Capsaicin is only formed in gland cells that sit on the placenta in the fruit. The placenta is located just below the stalk and from it the ribs with the seeds of the pepper berry emanate. The placenta and seeds usually contain 99% of the capsaicin in a pepper or chili pepper, with only a small proportion distributed to the rest of the tissue. That's why the tip of a chilli is always much less hot than the base.
Tip 3: Increase heat by removing water
Capsaicin is the chili's natural repellent, which the plant uses to protect itself from predators and pests, for example. In order for the chili to store more capsaicin, its defense mechanisms have to be activated. And there is a very simple remedy for this: stress. But how do you stress a plant?
The easiest way is dehydration. In addition to the capsaicin that is additionally released, the lack of water has another advantage: the water concentration in the pods also decreases, so that the capsaicin content in the pod is less diluted. The interaction between the increased capsaicin production and the low water content in the pod ensures a fiery taste experience.
But you have to be careful here too: If the chilli plant does not get enough water, it can restrict the formation of the podsand the harvest is sparse. In the worst case, a lack of water can also lead to the plant dying. For this reason, it is recommended to only use this method for a few days directly before harvest, when the pods have already reached their full size. As soon as the chillies have been harvested or if the plant shows clearly withered leaves, you should use the watering can again.
Tip 4: Fertilizer for hotter chilies
Good care is the be-all and end-all if you want to grow he althy, hot chili peppers. In addition to high-quality vegetable soil, such as Plantura organic tomato & vegetable soil, the right chili fertilizer also helps the chillies to thrive. You can find out how to fertilize chilies properly in our special article.
American chilli growers swear by a fertilizer that mainly consists of worm excrement. The worm fertilizer with highly concentrated nutrients and minerals should not only increase the growth and yield of the chili, but also have a positive effect on the spiciness of the pods. Why the worm fertilizer significantly improves the sharpness has not yet been scientifically proven, but the success proves that the American chilli breeders are right.
Tip 5: Competition for hotter chilies
If you want your chili to be as hot as possible, you shouldn't limit yourself to just one type. Researchers have proven: If chillies are in the vicinity of competing varieties, they become hotter. Here, too, stress is a decisive argument: Since the chillies are under pressure from the competition for nutrients and water, they produce more capsaicin to defend themselves and thus become significantly hotter. Incidentally, the whole thing doesn't just work with other types of chili: Grass is also a suitable opponent to increase the spiciness of the pods.
Would you like to find out more about the hot plants? In our article on preserving chillies, we tell you how to best preserve the fiery taste of the chili.