2021 Peppers

[heirloomgal]

'Salsariffic' - that's clever. Good marketing creativity in that name! Corno di Toro Orange is one of my most favourite peppers of all time. Even compared to bells. I love it raw, so sweet and juicy, gorgeous bright colour and doesn't have that hint of bitterness that some peppers do raw. One of the things I really like about it from a growing perspective is when you pile a whole bunch of these plants into a small, even shallow planter, say 4 in a window box planter, the peppers grow skinnier and longer but produce A TON. The walls are a bit thinner, and the peppers aren't wide, and they grow great out in the open. When I've spoiled this one with a generous container with one plant only, in the greenhouse, they just seem to come out more ordinary, missing that 'spark' - like a one of those bagged peppers from costco. Some peppers really seem to do well when grown crowded and shallow, and this seems to be one of them. I've tried Corno Di Toro Chocolate, and the Red Corno di Toro, and they were nice, but like the bagged ones from costco. I tried germinating Yellow Corno Di Toro seeds this year (to complete the set, hahaha) but there was zero germination with the packets... But I'm still determined to get that yellow one someday......

I'm trying 'Marconi Rossi Giant' this year, sound the same as yours @HmooseK

 

[HmooseK]

@heirloomgal
I’m not sure, it’s a Bonnie plant. It reads Giant Marconi.

 

[digitS']

A Giant Marconi is a hybrid.

It's very nice with large, tender sweet peppers.

Perhaps, not especially productive (at least, it wasn't for me ) but the quality is first-rate. For that reason, I have had it a good number of years but ... not in 2021.

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I keep pinching flowers. I had to use the bigger pots I had for peppers. I am going to start hardening them off tomorrow, put out in the shade and spend the night outside. My kale, collards, cabbage, onions, I should get started planting.

 

[digitS']

Peppers are strange plants.

@flowerbug telling @AMKuska how plants came back after being eaten by groundhogs



Probably a way to come to some understanding about them is to recognize that they are perennials. We are planting shrubs in our gardens.

My experience (in this pepper-challenged climate) is with either scrawny things with 1 or 2 peppers at the end of the season or tiny plants that often cover themselves with fruit - like, Thai Hot or Super Chili do. If there was a tiny sweet variety, I might be interested in adding them to the line-up but messing around with so many plants, especially in the greenhouse this time of year, is something of a bother. About half of them are now in larger pots.

Steve
who likes garden harvests that can be carried out with the wheelbarrow

 

[CDitzel]

Spring is finally here, so many of us are starting seeds (or will be soon). Unless I am growing onions, peppers are the first transplants to be started - especially C. frutescens peppers, which are slow growing. These are the peppers I am starting for 2021:

*Amfora (sweet)
Bacskia (sweet)(to check 2020 seed for purity)
*Bea (hot)
*Beaver Dam (hot)
*Cardinal Black (sweet)
*Elephant's Ear (sweet)
Greygo (sweet)
*Korean Dark Green (hot)
*Melrose (sweet)
*New Orleans (hot)
*Pizza Pepper (hot)
*Red Belgian (sweet, new trial)
*Trinidad Perfume (no-heat C. frutescens)

All peppers are open pollinated; those tagged "*" will be grown under cover for seed.

I can never find seed for those small snack peppers that you can buy in the store. I found the plants last year and grew 6 plants. They were so good. Can I save the seeds from these? I think they are a hybrid so perhaps the seeds won't grow new peppers.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I can never find seed for those small snack peppers that you can buy in the store. I found the plants last year and grew 6 plants. They were so good. Can I save the seeds from these? I think they are a hybrid so perhaps the seeds won't grow new peppers.

I’ve actually saved seeds from the store bought ones and they still produced. Johnny’s, Totally Tomatoes, and Jung all have seeds for lunch box peppers too if you’d rather just purchase seed.

 

[AMKuska]

Haha @digitS' . I don't understand peppers either. I'm hoping some changes I made this year will make my peppers do a lot better.

 

[digitS']

I guess that I gotta have the small, ground-hugging plants. Yes, I've grown a little sweet pepper. It wasn't Lunchbox but I can't remember the name. Very tasty. Should do some research on small size plants.

Moving about half the 2021 plants to pots out of the 4-packs is the change for me.

They never seemed to "need" that extra soil. They might have just been toughing it out and waiting for me to do better for them. Of course, then they would go out in the garden and have to tough out our chilly nights.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

I guess that I gotta have the small, ground-hugging plants. Yes, I've grown a little sweet pepper. It wasn't Lunchbox but I can't remember the name. Very tasty. Should do some research on small size plants.

@digitS' , have you ever tried Melrose? When I last grew it, it lodged (so was relatively ground hugging), proved to have a very short DTM, and had a very high yield. The peppers are long & fairly thin walled, but crunchy & very sweet. I'm growing it again this year, so will be posting photos.