Peppers: Some Like 'Em Hot!
If you want to heat up your garden, try the peppers that pack a real punch."It's a pretty safe bet that tomatoes will always be America's No. 1 backyard crop," says master gardener Paul James. "But pushing a close second are the peppers, and the leading peppers are those that are really hot." The scorching taste of hot peppers is measured in heat units called Scovilles. A pepper's hot flavoring is actually the result of a chemical known as capsaicin, and Scovilles measure the amount of this chemical within a pepper.
Sample these peppers:
Among the more interesting and unusual chili peppers are the Yatsufusa peppers from Japan (figure A), which measure 75,000 heat units.
The Merah from Malaysia (figure B) heats up to about 100,000 Scovilles.
The Bulgarian carrot (figure C), which isn't a carrot at all, comes in at 300,000 Scovilles.
The tabasco pepper registers 50,000 heat units.
The Red Savina, seen here in its green stage (figure D), tops out at a sweltering 570,000 heat units.
The jalapeno measures a relatively cool 5,000 heat units.
Whether you grow jalapeno, Red Savina or any other type of pepper, growing techniques are essentially the same. Provide peppers with decent soil that drains well, at least an inch of water a week, organic mulch and hot weather conditions. "While the title of the hottest pepper in the world is often disputed," James says, "the consensus seems to be that the Naga Jolokia, "which comes from a remote region of India, is among the very hottest, measuring an incredible 855,000 Scoville heat units."
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