Growing Tip
Space Peppers: China's Hangjiao Programme
Hangjiao (航椒) is Chinese for space pepper, and the name is literal. Since 1987 China has been flying seed into orbit, growing out what comes back, and keeping the mutations worth keeping. The programme has produced 66 mutant crop varieties that way. Ten of them are peppers, and we grow two.
What space breeding actually is
Nothing is edited and nothing is spliced. Seed goes up, cosmic radiation and microgravity knock genes around at a much higher rate than anything on the ground, and the seed comes home scrambled. The work starts there: breeders grow the survivors out for generations, throw away the failures, and stabilise the handful that came back bigger, tougher or more productive. It is mutation breeding, the same principle as dosing seed with radiation in a lab, with the reactor swapped for a rocket.
The results are uneven by species. Space-flown wheat germinated far better than its earthbound control; space-flown rice showed no advantage at all. Nobody has pinned down which part of spaceflight does the work, and the programme is expensive enough that almost nobody outside China runs one.
The ten Hangjiao varieties
There are ten, and every one of them has a record in WikiPepper. They are Capsicum annuum, and the records put the line at 2,000 to 10,000 SHU, which is medium heat by our bands: hot enough to notice, nothing like a superhot.
The two we grow
Afterglow (HJ10) and Super Nova (HJ7) are both in our nursery in South Texas. Afterglow runs cayenne-like, 12 to 15 cm, ripening green through to red. Neither is listed for sale yet, and we would rather say that than take money for a plant we have not photographed. When they go up, the links land on this page.
If you want to know when that happens, tell us and we will let you know. In the meantime our shelves are mostly baccatums and rocotos.
Questions people ask
Programme figures from the mutation breeding literature; variety detail from the WikiPepper records linked above.
What does Hangjiao mean?
Hangjiao (航椒) is Chinese for space pepper. HJ is the abbreviation, and the number after it identifies the variety, so HJ10 is the tenth in the line.
Are space peppers genetically modified?
No. Nothing is edited or spliced. Seeds ride into orbit, cosmic radiation and microgravity raise the mutation rate, and breeders grow the survivors out on the ground for generations and keep the ones worth keeping. It is mutation breeding, the same family of technique as irradiating seed in a lab, with the reactor swapped for a rocket.
How many Hangjiao varieties are there?
Ten, and all ten have a record in WikiPepper: Corona, Meteor, Solar Flare, Comets Tail, Helix Nebula, Pulsar, Super Nova, Total Eclipse, Big Bang and Afterglow. They are Capsicum annuum and the records put them at 2,000 to 10,000 SHU.
Does Austin Peppers sell space peppers?
We grow two of them, Afterglow (HJ10) and Super Nova (HJ7). Neither is listed for sale yet. When they are, this page gets the links.
Are space peppers hotter than normal peppers?
Heat was not what the programme bred for. It selected for size, yield and vigour, and the Hangjiao line reads as a workhorse cayenne type rather than a superhot.