Jimmy Nardello. Very good pepper, it is registered in the Food of Arc. Very early, it started to ripen in the beginning of July for me. Peppers are thin walled, very sweet intense flavor. They are the best for drying into the candy sweet paprika. It is good for snacking and probably pickling. Small plants were loaded with peppers. Next year I am planning to plant more of them.
Antohi Romanian. I plant it every year. It is productive early pepper with good sweetness. Medium to small size with very thick walls. It is my all purpose pepper, but I especially like it for staffing, because it has the right shape and size.
Costa Rica, I bought it in Lowe’s and I did not think much about it. It happens to be extremely productive, and it is loaded with large beautiful peppers. It is slightly later than the other two. The taste is not so sweet and the walls are not very thick. But this is what you get for the high production.
In previous year I grew Hungarian wax, which was way too hot for me. Nobody in my family could eat it. Last year I planted Pizza pepper, which looked like jalapeño, but without any heat. It was good pepper but it was too late ripening one. Flavorburst F1 was very good early yellow pepper, I grew it for several years until the seeds were viable. This year I grow my own F2 seeds from original Flavorburst. Not really sure if I like it yet.
I would like if somebody recommend the pepper with very mild heat, because I cannot stand the hot ones. I can share the seeds of Jimmy Nardello or Antohi Romanian if anybody wishes to try them.
Looks good, Anne. I just got in from being out in the pepper patch. I had to do some major weeding, as a lot of my plants were buried in a sea of thick weeds. It was shameful that it got so bad, guess I was spending too much time dealing with the tomato plants.
But, after a lot of bending, pulling, throwing and sweating, I got it looking somewhat presentable. Then I thought I’d fertilize the plants while I was out there. So hopefully, things will pick up after a couple weeks of the fert settling in.
I did find other peppers on the plants, so there were more than I had originally thought. Amazing what you can find while you pull the all the weeds away. Had a few Anaheim Chile’s, Stavros Pepperoncini’s, and some yellow Banana’s, plus some little Jalapeño’s.
Hmmm. I’ve never counted that but by the end of the season I may have an estimate. I think the amount of fruit brought to maturity is more a function of culture and not so much genetics for these 2 varieties. If you read the reviews on any pepper you will see some folks say a given variety is prolific and others call the same variety a low producer.
Do you mean pictures of the plants? I posted pics of the peppers I grew earlier in this thread.
Well I generally follow the kinds of recommendations made by the high brix gardens folks (whispering Dr Reams). I see you are near Philly (I was born and raised there). When you have as much precipitation (rain and snow) as we do, the minerals generally get leached out, especially calcium. A good read is Nourishment Home Grown by Sandy Beddoe. Another is Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon. Following their recommendations for culture has yielded good results. The later recommends how much calcium to replenish each year based on rainfall. Here we avg 45"/year so for my 4x16’ raised beds thats about 5 cups of calcium just to keep up with the leachng. According to these writers, Calcium is utilized by plants more than any other mineral.
I did add epsom salts a few times, but I started pretty late with it. I’ll definitely improve my results next year, but this year worries me, and makes me wonder if it’s even worth it unless I do something different.
Lol, yeah pictures of the plants would be much appreciated, Anne!
If you did that in the western U.S. states (proportional to irrigation and rainfall) you’d stunt the plants with excess Calcium in the root zone. This is why we chose foliar application on plants prior to flower buds. For a water-soluble supplement (liquid or dehydrated) with 10% Calcium the application rate is 1/4 teaspoon per gallon for homeowners and 1 quart per acre for agriculture.
I’m wondering if the mostly bland flavor of my tomatoes is because we’ve had so much rain, and it’s washed out a lot of nutrients, especially calcium. But I haven’t been applying my Tomato Tone as often as I should. It has a good amount of calcium in it. That also might be why I’ve had so much blossom end rot. Little calcium + lots of rain = very mediocre tomatoes?
Is there anyone one here who enjoy the really hot varieties, like ghost or habaneros?
I like to get a jalapeño or Serrano off the plant, slice it up and eat it straight up with a little salt. My wife won’t try them, and thinks I’m crazy. That may be, because I like to feel that good burn and feel the sweat popping out on my face and forehead. Don’t know if i would try that with a Bhut Jolokia or Habanero, tho. Anyone else share that somewhat masochistic tendency with peppers?
Ross, I’m not sure about the Epsom salts, but you may consider at least getting a soil test this fall. Land grant universities usually have these at a nominal cost. Then you aren’t shooting in the dark as to how to balance the soil for growing certain crops. If they have the option, get the low acid soil test. This tells how much mineral is in the form that the plants can extract.
Ok so this is my pepper patch
Raised bed made from an old above-ground pool liner (cut in thirds lengthwise) and surrounded with 2’ high 1" chicken wire. In the right front are Anchos that need to be harvested.
You and Solomon agree (well, Steve Solomon, that is). Y’all don’t get the wash out from rain and snow. The good news for us is our calcium carbonate bill pales in comparison to y’alls water bill.
I also do foliar w/Cal Nitrate and other nutes and it has made a big dif.
Yes, I do, but not as extreme. I like to use them for sauces and in dishes. I have made many a hot sauce, including jerk, which is my favorite. I love jerk chicken. I always grow Jamaican peppers. I have some scotch bonnets from the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture. They though out of 4 plants I have grown never formed the scotch bonnet shape. They look like habaneros instead.
I love the fish peppers too, you can make a very hot white sauce with them. Nice size and flavor.
I grew three hot peppers I turned into bonsai. I kept them for three seasons and decided to get rid of them. Too much work required. One died from lack of attention, then the 2nd one died. So the third one I planted in the garden. It is three years old a black pearl ornamental hot pepper. It took off in growth so now thinking of digging it out and overwintering for a 4th year. Just to see how long I can keep it alive.
Here is is today
All minerals make flavor. Washed out minerals makes for washed out flavor so in addition to what @Richard said consider using something like soft rock phos or Azomite both of which are also good calcium contributors. But a good soil test gives you direction.
So I’m doing an experiment with my 3rd bean sowing (to check out what I read somewhere). After hoeing the rows I sprinkled small pelleted calcium carbonate HEAVILY in the rows - so much so that you couldn’t see the dirt - I mean REALLY laid it on. Then planted the beans on top and covered them. So far, great germination & growth. Stay tuned.
Edit: So what I used is called Hi-Calcium Lime, Course Ground 50# bag $6.50, but on the bag is says Calcium carbonate.
Might I suggest a possible reason for this? Might that be because y’all haven’t had the chronic rains that we have over the last thousand years? So you’ve been fortunate to have the minerals stay on tap. What do you think would happen if a 45" high column of rain water were to perculate though your soil every year?
