jalapenos not hot

Question

My jalapeno peppers are not hot. Why?

Answer 1

There are a few reasons that this could be happening.

First, you may be removing most of the "hot" flesh when preparing the peppers. The veins and seeds inside the pepper are where most of the heat from the pepper come from. If these are too well removed, the pepper will be mild tasting in food.

Another possibility is that you have a jalapeno variety that is milder. These varieties are popular these days in the nurseries and you may have inadvertently purchased one of these.

Yet another possibility is that you are just being too nice to your peppers. The compounds in the pepper can become diluted if a pepper plant is too well watered and fertilized. You may want to look at stressing the plants just a little to increase heat.