Black Pearl Pepper. I bought one yesterday. Have any of you

[alfredo]

tried eating the peppers from this plant? How hot are they? I haven't found any Scoville Unit data on them. I usually grow Jalapeno and Thai Pepper. All they say about the Black Pearl is that it is very hot.

[Kolesar]

1. Pepper afficiandos love to write on the internet

I have found many sites with chili pepper data.

Black Pearl: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Black+Pearl+Pepper%27
Black Pearl+Scoville: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Black+Pearl+Pepper%22+scoville&btnG=Search

Dave's Garden gives it 30,000 Scoville Units: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/118938/index.html

I planted a Czechoslovakian Black Chili Pepper: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/83840/index.html

Do you have any opinion about hot and sweet peppers cross pollinating and making the sweet peppers spicy? I "think" I had this problem years ago when they were planted near each other. I planted my mildly-hot Czech peppers near my Jalapenos and may not really learn how hot the Czech chilis really are.

[alfredo]

2. Thanks, I found a lot that said that it was very hot, but I missed any

one with the Scoville Units. So I guess it is close to the Thai Pepper I usually grow.

I've heard of some cross pollination, but I don't know enough to say if it will turn mild peppers hot.

Maybe I can grow some black leaf Jalapeno by grown them near the Black Pearl.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Cross pollination...

The biggest risk for cross pollination is when the pepper varieties belong to the same family. Since both Jalapenos and Czech Blacks are C. annuum, there could be some interesting variation in the peppers if planted close together. Cayenne are also members of c. annuum

There are 4 or 5 capsicum species but the only two with a high likelihood of cross pollinating are C. annuum and c. chinense. The latter include habaneros (!)

That said, my SO grows about 20 pepper varieties each summer and we've never had a big problem of unexpected heat levels among the peppers. The Bell peppers are grown in a separate bed about 50 feet from the hot chiles as a precaution. Still, among the specialty chiles he grows there are naturally mild varieties planted adjacent to naturally hot ones and the flavors remain true for most peppers on the plant. Only rarely do we get a mild variety pepper with heat.


From what we've read the bigger cross pollination issue is seed saving. If you want to save seed then the peppers need to be grown with some distance and barriers because the seed pepper may be the result of cross pollination without exhibiting any traits of the other plant in the current generation.

[Kolesar]

4. Thank you. That was very informative.

Now I can relax and watch them grow. :)