I get asked a lot of questions about chile plants and how to grow them. They are easy to grow, but they will taste different depending on where you grow them. The heat and flavor change based on soil conditions, whether they are picked just after a good watering, and maybe most important—nighttime temperatures.

Of course the type of chile matters also, but given the same seeds, the chile will be hotter if grown in New Mexico with its different soil and cooler nights than if grown in Texas. Yes, I actually tried this experiment. I took seeds from a chile grown in NM and grew it here in Texas. It was not nearly as spicy (hot).

I have also noted that jalapenos and poblano peppers are hotter during the early or late production cycles. The cooler the nights, the hotter the pepper. No, I didn’t scientifically record temperatures, but my jalapeno plants produce mild fruit in the summertime and chiles with a lot more heat in October. The same thing happened to my poblano plants. Getting an early start growing these plants yields hotter chiles early and milder ones as the summer warms.

Chile plants can actually live for years; I had an Anaheim plant in Houston for five years. The plant got about five feet high and four feet across—quite a bush. At that size, it produced enough for an entire family on the one plant.

My favorites: Jalepeno, one or two plants will be enough for the season, Poblano, yellow and red bell pepper. The fleshier chiles seemed to do better in Austin Hill Country than anaheims, big jims and other long green peppers.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet of some of the chiles I’ve grown.