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Update on #jalapeñogate: Mystery peppers identified

Possible varieties matched up with mislabeled jalapeños and purple bells; listen to podcast with Farmer Fred

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUL 28, 2023

Fred Hoffman created this chart to show how similar the seeds from very different peppers can look. Courtesy Fred Hoffman

It wasn’t just jalapeños that got mixed up in #jalapeñogate. Probably five pepper varieties distributed in at least 14 states were entangled in this seed distribution mess.

By now, most gardeners who bought jalapeños – or purple bells – have discovered whether they’re growing the pepper they thought they purchased. But thousands found out they did not.

Farmer Fred Hoffman and I chatted about #jalapeñogate during this week’s edition of his podcast, “Beyond the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred” – “Why Your Jalapeño Peppers May Not Be the Real Deal.” Listen to it here: https://gardenbasics.substack.com/p/jalapenogate?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#details

For his newsletter, Hofffman also recapped the #jalapeñogate saga and added his own experience. Pepper seeds tend to look alike, he noted. Also, online seed vendors may be suspect. Seed sleuths theorize the mislabeled seeds were imported from overseas, possibly China.

Peppers aren’t the only seeds that get mixed up; it can happen with all sorts of vegetables and flowers but rarely on such a scale.

Hoffman recalled, “A few years ago, I was on the hunt for a particular gaillardia, also known as blanketflower. The particular variety I was searching for was ‘Arizona Apricot.’ This red-yellow colorful perennial puts on its best show of daisy-like flowers in the summer.

“I finally found a source for this particular seed via Amazon. Imagine my surprise when the seed arrived, in a nondescript small plastic bag, labeled ‘Gaillardia seed from Qatar.’ Qatar? What the heck, let’s try it. When it blossomed the next summer, it was not ‘Arizona Apricot.’ Oh well, an inexpensive mistake on my part, shopping in a lightly regulated, online marketplace.

“But imagine this scenario playing out on a much larger scale: an American seed distributor who purchases seeds overseas for their clients here, which include home gardeners, wholesale and retail nurseries, as well as farmers growing particular varieties for restaurants and canneries. That is the current situation in the world of Jalapeño peppers – as well as a myriad of other vegetable and ornamental seeds – where seeds grown overseas were mixed up before shipment. And it’s only after the plants grown from those seeds started fruiting that the alarm bells went off.”

Hoffman noted research by John Porter of the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension. Porter tentatively charted out the identities of what was planted and what they turned out to be. Plants labeled as green jalapeño cultivars were actually yellow ‘Caloro’ jalapeño hybrids. The ‘Tam’ jalapeño plants, a mild green variety, grew into sweet banana peppers.

Not only jalapeños were mislabeled. Hungarian sweet wax peppers turned out to be the bell pepper variety ‘Diamond.’ ‘Chocolate Beauty’ bell peppers were actually ‘Red Cherry’ peppers. And ‘Purple Beauty’ bells were Hungarian hot wax peppers.

So, some of the jalapenos actually were jalapeños – just not the variety on the label.

For more on Farmer Fred’s podcast and newsletter: http://www.farmerfred.com/.

How did your peppers grow this summer? Did you get what you expected? Did you have other garden surprises? Tell us. Email us at sacdigsgardening@gmail.com.

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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