I grew a spicy tomato??? – Reddit Post

Saw a post from 7 years ago that didn’t get any traction, hoping someone has answers now. Dying to know.

The beds contain a variety of tomatoes and super hot peppers. This is an (the only 🥲) heirloom tomato from a plant adjacent to a habanero and jalapeno. The other beds contain reapers, Thai chilis, etc.

Went to nibble our single sad tomato and it burns my mouth like a hot pepper. I am not allergic to tomatoes, so I made my partner try too, with the same result.

How could this happen? Peppers and tomatoes are not in the same family so I wouldn’t expect cross breeds. Do the peppers release capsaicin into the soil that the tomato could uptake with water?