Are habanero peppers milder if grown in the Southeast?

My father is thinking about growing hot habanero peppers in his midsummer garden. He thinks that the peppers will be less hot if they aren’t grown in the Southwest. He is going to mulch the plants, water them often, and grow the plants in an area that receives shade in the late afternoon. What do you think?

Durham

Habanero peppers grown in the Southwest usually have a higher mouth scorch because their capsaicin (the peppers’ “hot sauce”) tends to be more concentrated when grown in such an arid, high-heat environment. While planting these hot peppers in a kinder, gentler garden in the Southeast will cool down their culinary fires just a tad, it won’t be enough to lower the heat to tolerable levels for most folks. The habanero is, after all, one of the hottest peppers on the planet! Cleaning the seeds out of the pods before using them in the kitchen will also help drop this pepper’s high-voltage zing, but, here again, it simply means the extreme heat will only be less extreme. And since he seems interested in these peppers in a moth-to-flame kind of way, tell Pop not to be tempted to chomp on a whole habanero straight off the vine because, if he does, speaking from experience, his day’s gonna be different!

Move cast iron houseplant outdoors

I read with interest your comments on the cast iron plant and pruning it outside. I have one in my office, and I was wondering if it is the same kind of cast iron plant you were talking about. It was given to me as a gift, and I really wouldn’t mind taking it home and putting it in my garden.

Durham

Cast iron plant (Aspidistra sp.) does live up to its sturdy name. It is tough enough to thrive in low-light conditions indoors, yet plenty hardy to survive the typical seasons outside in our region. As I mentioned two months ago, it can be a steady performer in a shade garden, but older leaves could be damaged during the coldest of times in the winter. However, a tidy spring pruning followed up by a dose of fertilizer will encourage another fresh round of long, lance-shaped leaves.

Pesticides and bees

When you were writing last month about pyrethrins insecticide being a safer alternative on plants when it comes to bees, it seemed you were talking about a liquid spray. I have pyrethrins in dust form. Would it be as safe or safer than liquid pyrethrins?

Raleigh

Actually, when it comes to bees and other beneficial insects, pyrethrins – or any other insecticide – in dust form is, in my opinion, not as safe. A liquid bug bopper will dry on a plant, posing less danger to insects – that is, unless they decide to start munching on the foliage. On the other hand, a dust will remain, well, dusty until it gets wet. And since bees are flying fuzz balls meant to attract powdery pollen, they are also well-equipped, unfortunately, to gather insecticide dust. And this is a double whammy since such an insecticide not only easily gets on the bees, but some of it is usually transported back to their hives as well.

Editor’s note: This is L.A. Jackson’s last Q&A column, but he still has more adventures in the garden to share. Watch for his feature stories in this section in the coming months. We plan to continue this column so please continue to send your garden questions, including the city where you garden, to: askthegardener@newsobserver.com.

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Are habanero peppers milder if grown in the Southeast?."