Hot! Hot! Hot!

Do you remember the growing experience and ups and downs of my small crop of peppers?  I managed to harvest quite a few in the end and the majority ripened red and orange, despite the less than perfect conditions (not enough light and heat towards the end of the growing period).  So, it is with some surprise – and delight – that over the past month my experiment in growing chilli peppers seems to be paying off. 

​The habanero is a hot variety of chili - rated 100,000–350,000 on the Scoville scale.  This is scale is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component.  The levels of pungency (or heat), in terms of Scoville units are:

   Pungency:                    SHU: 

Very highly pungent:     Above 80,000

Highly pungent:             25,000 to 70,000

Moderately pungent:    3,000 to 25,000

Mildly pungent:              700 to 3,000

Non pungent:                 0 to 700

---

Habaneros thrive in hot weather and grow well in an area with good morning sun and in slightly acidic soil.  The habanero is a perennial flowering plant, so with care and growing conditions, it can produce flowers (and thus fruit) for many years.  I have only just found this out so have decided to try to keep them alive and not add to the increasingly large compost heap.  Today’s job, then, is to encase them in bubble-wrap as well as frost-and-cold-proof GH2 as much as possible.
​
BUT, good grief, these small innocent-looking nuggets of orange fruit certainly pack a punch!! You’d think the heat radiating from them would be enough …. phew-eee!