My first habanero pepper turned red but had no spice or seeds. Why?

Question

It turned red yesterday and I picked it this morning. I sliced it in half and there were no seeds. I ate it and there was no heat.

Are there types of habaneros that are like this? If not, what could have happened?

Answer 1

Well, most of the capsaicin is said to be on the pith. I'm guessing seedless peppers would have a lot less pith, and thus a lot less heat.

As for why it's seedless, there are various reasons that could be the case. The most well-known one is probably parthenocarpy. Some peppers are parthenocarpic, which means they can set fruit without pollination (but if they're not pollinated, then they're seedless).

It's possible there are parthenocarpic Habaneros, but it's not common to advertise that trait, since few people actually know which peppers are parthenocarpic. The only one I know about for sure is Planet F1.

Parthenocarpic peppers aren't terribly uncommon, despite few varieties being known for sure, but it's probably not the most common cause of seedless peppers.

It's possible that your pepper was pollinated by an incompatible species, or the sperm or eggs of your pepper weren't fully viable (perhaps due to temperature/humidity), and that's why it's seedless. It may come as a surprise that plants have sperm and eggs, but they do.

Another possibility (however remote) is that for some odd reason your pepper is a triploid, or another odd-numbered polyploid, in which case every fruit should be seedless (not just ones that aren't pollinated). This is unlikely, but if your pepper is actually an interspecies hybrid, I wouldn't consider it that unlikely (still rare, but worth considering). Interspecies hybrids (such as among carp) sometimes become allopolyploids.

Answer 2

There is a Halloween habanero plant. I picked one up on mistake once. It was orange and looked exactly like its counterpart, but with ZERO heat. I know peppers are touchy when it comes to capsaicin production; water, heat, etc.; however, I have never had issues with habaneros producing heat.