Peppers for the Garden!

[digitS']

I will start them twice as usual but this must be a few days later than the latest I done the 1st go-around. Without bottom heat and only about 70 day & night, they take a long time to pop up in the starting mix.

Probably, most all of you have already sown your pepper seed . . .

Here's my list:

Thai Hot
Super Chili
Takanotsume
Jalapeno M
Garden Salsa
Fushimi Sweet
Anaheim*
Marconi
Giant Marconi
Carmen Italian Sweet*
Snapper Bell
The Big Early Bell
Yummy

*new-to-me, & yes, I can't remember ever having grown a non-hybrid Anaheim

I thought it was kind of cute how an enthusiastic Greenthumb (Mike) sent us a picture of his packets of seed the other day. Yes, we are nearly desperate to get things growing!! ♪ ♫ You can click on my silly picture for a silly song ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

Steve

 

[swampducks]

Actually, I have planted anything yet, being up here in Zone 4. I've only ordered one pepper so far, Sweet Pickle, tiny yellow, orange and red sweet ones. I've never been able to grow decent bell sized sweet peppers, one plant once, gave me a 3" one, but otherwise, forget it. I do like the sweet pepper Gypsy but neither Pinetree or Park offered it and I haven't seen it around anywhere else. I think my nursery may have had them last year, but I can't remember. I really need to start writing things down again.

We don't care much for hot peppers, though the last 2 years I tried growing jalapeno because I really like jalapeno jelly, but last year the plants were a disaster, too much rain and then too much heat I guess and that garden is a 17 mile drive from home and I have to cart water to it.

Apparently, you really, really like peppers!

 

[so lucky]

digitS', I am amazed that you have good experiences with growing peppers as far north as you are. I always thought the reason my sweet peppers don't have good flavor, crispiness, etc, was because I don't have enough warm/hot days. But most summers, it is plenty hot. I want my sweet peppers to be as sweet and crisp as the ones grown in Mexico. Many seasons my sweet peppers are bitter, tough, hard, small, mal-formed, you name it. What should I be doing? Any suggestions?

 

[digitS']

The cool start to the growing year here is really not appreciated by the peppers. When they finally do get warm enuf they can start growing, there's no question that they are somewhat stunted.

Still . . . they have fairly good years, most years. I used to think that the soil was about right for them but I also wonder if the low humidity (intense sunlight) and long daylight hours make up for some of the warmth that would have made for better early growth.

Almost nothing fully ripens to red . . . or orange . . . or yellow . Green peppers are fine with most of us and I don't want a jalapeno (for example) to be old enuf to change color. Super Chili is about the only 1 I can really count on becoming fully mature. The Thai Hots do well enuf that I can save seed. I am trying Carmen this year because it is an Italian Sweet that the seed companies, anyway, tell us matures quickly to red .

The fact that the garden center has 10 sources for seed and each of them have CalWonder as their sole bell pepper is kind of crazy. I haven't grown that one for years after it failed so completely for me a couple of times! No, I go for the early-maturing for these just like the tomatoes. I really wish more folks would try the Italian Sweets. I find them a good deal easier to grow than the bells. Maybe it's that final 4th lobe to the bells - just too many steps for things to go wrong in their development .

I've grown Gypsy! That's a real nice pepper. Jungs, Burpee and Thompson & Morgan have the seed. Burpee along with T&M seeds are sometimes found in the garden centers.

Steve

 

[Collector]

Last year we planted sweet banana, & california wonders. The bananas produced lots of peppers, the cali wonders are a green bell pepper, they way under produced. Out of 6 plants we harvested 2 stunted and deformed peppers. so this year we are growing,

Sweet banana
Marconi Rosso
Orange sun (bell)

hopefully the orange sun does better than the cali wonders did.

Question,, Does anybody know what kind of peppers to grow to make pepperoncini ?
Also what kind make green chilis for canning.?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

my selection of peppers, not all will get planted. the hot one's i have to get started or my dh will be disappointed again this year if i don't get them in the ground!
Ghost-Bhut Jolokia
Orange Habanero
Brown (Chocolate) Habanero
White Habanero
Jalapeno
Thai Hot
Cayenne Long Red Thin
Jalapeno Early
Serrano
Anaheim
Hungarian Hot Yellow Wax
Large Sweet Red
California Wonder
Sweet Banana
Purple Beauty
Quadrato Rosso D'Asti
Quadrato Giallo D'Asti
Corno di Toro Giallo
Red Marconi
Stavros-peperoncini

 

[digitS']

. . . Question,, Does anybody know what kind of peppers to grow to make pepperoncini ?
Also what kind make green chilis for canning.?

. . . Stavros-peperoncini

I got my seed from Totally Tomatoes (Jungs), Collector.

Not being a pickler or a canner, I didn't know what to do with them . . . so, they didn't make a repeat appearance but the plants did okay.

Now that "not being a pickler or a canner" interferes with answering the 2nd question but I'm fairly certain that the green chilis in the cans are NuMex peppers. Joe E. Parker may have been the 1st or near the 1st of the group. New Mexico State University (http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org) is responsible for these. I've grown Joe E. Parker and it did very well .

It may be sacrilege or something but I think an Anaheim would work well for the purposes you may be thinking of also, Collector. However, you might need to toss in a little something else to provide some additional heat.

Steve

 

[chris09]

Were going with
Flexum Hybrid,
Golden Treasure,
and Big Dipper


Chris

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

thanks for posting that pic Steve! every time i've seen a pic of the Stavros they look so full of peppers! my hubby likes to pickle the peppers. mixes all the hot ones together so he can us them on burgers or pizza. also uses the hot ones for his own Habanero pepper jelly. he offsets the hot Habanero with some of the milder peppers in his mix. i get a lot of friends asking for jars when we make it in the fall. he spreads the jelly over a block of cream cheese and uses it as snack or during parties.

 

[so lucky]

OK, digitS', you convinced me to try the Italian Sweet peppers. (If I can find the seed for sale. What company is your seed packed by?) I have grown Gypsy several times. It has a better chance of being good than others I have tried. Love the color changes.