Good Morning everyone,

I'm a very new transplant here, and learning my way around. It has been fun reading through the forums, and getting a feel of the people here. I am looking forward to meeting many of you in the days ahead. I know that so many of you who have years of experience have much to share and teach those of us who are newer to gardening.

I myself have been at this for 5 years, and each year is a learning experience. This year I have been blessed with an even larger growing area than the year before, and I plan to correct those errors that I had made last year.

Of the many plants that I grow, I would say that peppers are my favorite. (you could tell by the title, no?)
I began planting my pepper seed at the beginning of the month, and am presently at 31 varieties of both hots and sweets. I am not a 'chilihead', and believe that a hot pepper should add 'flavor' to a meal........not the insanity of fire;

thus far, these are the varieties that I have planted;

aji panca
long orange sweet
topepo
anaheim
basque
marconi
tepin
alma
scorpion
yellow bell
black prince
pasilla bajio
aji mango
aji amarillo
turkish sweet
cumra cherry
bishop's hat
dulce marron
7 pod white
criolla sella
red mushroom
marseillais
lemon drop
santa fe grande
thai hot
hot portugal
cajun mini bell
grenada
aji golden
chocolate pepper


When I totaled up my seed count, that is, what I had planted, it was over a thousand seeds! I think I will have a lot to sell and give away!


Anyhow, I am curious if any one you also have a love of the many varieties of peppers as I do.

evoyageur
I do enjoy growing peppers (but just a very few) some bells and a sweet pepper is usually all I plant. There are just the two of us in the family and even with the few plants I plant we have way more peppers than we can eat.
edited to add: My little six pack of mixed (yellow, red, purple, something like that) is on top of the freezer covered in plastic wrap, they have only been planted a few days.

Holy cow, you have a lot of pepper plants going there. Way to go!

Like Larry, I now only plant the milder peppers, namely bell peppers. I used to plant some hot ones and some really, really hot ones (so hot, the peppers are dangerous!), but my GI and peppers don't do so well together. I still love "heat" in/on my food, but I usually end up paying for it...

Keep up the posts.

One or two sweet peppers is all that I grow.
There are others here, who will be able to tell you about growing peppers.
In the meantime explorer this site as there is much to learn.

evoyageur,
Here is something you, and others who have not seen or heard this already, might enjoy.
I like to listen to the podcast even if it is way out of my growing zone.

http://awaytogarden.com/grow-p...

Oddly enough, Larry, that link just takes me back to my G-Mail account.

I guess it worked for me because it came to my g-mail account, I failed to really look at the link, just clicked on it, sorry! Try this.


http://awaytogarden.com/grow-p...

Hi evoyageur, and welcome!

I'm impressed by your list, and also that you can grow those to maturity in Idaho. I thought that was a fairly cold climate, and "Zone 5a" makes me shiver.

My Zone 8 happens not to get very hot even at mid-summer so tomatoes are marginal (except for cherries) and I haven't tried peppers. Some day I hope to make some cold frames and hoop tents.

P.S.
You consider Aji, Scorpion, Tepin, 7 pod and Thai as only moderately hot? My hat's off to you! I was just sweating at lunch over a bowl of hot and sour soup, with no more than a few flakes of Thai.

*Grins* to you, Rick.........

The Scorpion pepper seeds came from a pepper that a friend of our brought back from Ohio. She is an avid chilihead, and likes it much hotter than me. However, since she brought me the pepper, I thought, why not. We'll see if they work out (hasn't sprouted yet) The 7 Pod seeds were a bonus 'gift' in a seed order that I had made recently, so again, why not? I will likely simply dry and powder the pepper, and use it (sparingly) in a blend of spices. Tepin I know is hot, but I am willing to try it. The little Thais are usually as hot as we like it, as they provide a lot of heat, but still have a lot of flavor. There comes a point when a pepper is more heat than flavor.

'Aji' simply means 'pepper' down in South America, so there are a lot of varieties of Aji.

Last season, I ran across a gentleman that was selling a lot of varieties of peppers at the farmers market, something that has been a long time coming to this area, as people here are slow to welcome new things.
One of the varieties he was selling some would classify as an ornamental; 'Black Prince'. It is a small plant, growing no more than a foot in height, and grew thumbnail sized hot pepper, about equivalent to the Thai. Quite tasty!

Because our season is shorter, I am not able to grow several varieties. I did try the Manzano Rocoto, and Tabasco, but they need a longer season.

evoyageur said: I will likely simply dry and powder the pepper, and use it (sparingly) in a blend of spices. ...

I agree that powder is a great way to use things that, by themselves, would be too much. A friend of a firend who live sin thailand says that they just smiled at what I think of as "hot" peppers. They use thiers as ingredients, not spices. But I didn't send them any Scorpion!

>> 'Aji' simply means 'pepper' down in South America, so there are a lot of varieties of Aji.

I didn't know that! I think there is some language where "sahara" means "desert".

BTW, here are some threads you may not have noticed:


Extra hot peppers
The thread "Extra Hot peppers" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

Hot peppers from seed
The thread "Hot peppers from seed" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

Powdering chili
The thread "Powdering chili" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

Peppers
The thread "Peppers" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

What-Peppers-are-you-growing-this-year
The thread "What Peppers are you growing this year?" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

I grew Chi-Chien peppers in 2012. I froze them. For a stir fry or soup I use one or two. Sometimes two is too many:) They are the size of your little finger. Great little peppers.

Capsicum annuum Chi-Chien Pepper, 70-80 day slender and very spicy pepper popular in China for a wide variety of uses. Fruits rate up to 70,000 Scoville and are often used fresh or dried. Peppers form upwards in clumps. Fruits grow to a few inches, with thin skin. 70-80 days 2012. From Trade Winds Fruit.

I do not have a very complete list of the peppers that I have grown, but here are some...

Capsicum annuum Pueblo Pepper, Capsicum annuum 'Anaheim Chili', Capsicum annuum 'Anaheim', Capsicum annuum 'Cubanelle', Capsicum annuum 'Hungarian Hot Wax', Capsicum annuum 'Jalapeno', Capsicum annuum 'Miniature Chocolate', Capsicum annuum 'Pasilla Baijo', Capsicum annuum 'Tam Jalapeno', Capsicum annuum Jalapeno Pepper, Purple.

I used to dry, grind & blend. Now I just freeze.

My tolerance for hot pepper has declined as I grow older. So, it follows that if I reach the point where I no longer enjoy a spicy capsicum treat, I must be dead.

I don't grow any kind of veggies anymore but I used to grow cayenne peppers strictly to make pepper sauce. There seemed to have been a shortage at the farmer's market last summer and I ended up using serrano. I put the sauce up for a year before using so I don't know how it's going to taste yet. I'm more interested in the flavor more than the heat.
@RickCorey hot and sour soup, I could eat it every day!

Welcome.
I occasionally grow sweet and ornamental peppers.

Welcome evoyageur!

I love peppers! Don't often grow them, but every year they're on my list of "hope to grow". I have grown, tried or heard of a few on your list. I like both hot and sweet, and especially those varieties used in Italian, Asian and Mexican foods (I'm Italian born, my wife is Asian born, and we met/ lived in Santa Cruz, CA many years}. I generally keep at least 4-6 varieties of bottled hot sauces on hand. If you can grow them in Idaho (Z5a), I guess I can do it in eastern MA (Z6a). What kind of indoor conditions will I need in order to get healthy starts ready to plant outdoors in mid May? I don't have a heated greenhouse, but I do have a small hothouse

These are the seeds I currently have.
Pepper, Anaheim
Pepper, Arbol de Chile
Pepper, Bell, California Golden Wonder
Pepper, Bell, Jingle Bells, Dwarf
Pepper, Bell, Red, Buran or Tollis, Italian
Pepper, Bell, Valencia
Pepper, Black Pearl
Pepper, Cayenne Long Slim
Pepper, Chili Jalapeno
Pepper, Corno di Toro, Yellow
Pepper, Fresno Chili
Pepper, Grand Bell Mix
Pepper, Hungarian, Hot Yellow Wax
Pepper, Jalapeno Early Hot
Pepper, Pepperoncini, Stravros
Pepper, Serrano Chili
Pepper, Sweet Banana
Pepper, Sweet Red
Pepper, Sweet Red Cherry
Pepper, Tabasco
Pepper, Thai
Pepper, Thai Dragon

Welcome to ATP, Evoyageur -- there are lots of us here that love peppers -- some like crazy hot peppers, but I am more in your camp of peppers should add flavor. I always grow lots of jalapenos and hot banana peppers, pepperoncini, cayenne, serrano, Super Chili, things like that; I have some new varieties this year, thanks to a seed swap on the Cubits.org site -- but I can't remember the names at the moment I grow about 30 pepper plants in total, which I mainly use for making and canning salsa and hot sauce, drying for chili powder and crushed red peppers, making and freezing "poppers," and pickling. You're going to have a LOT of peppers ... are you planning to sell them at market?

Gerry, you should easily be able to grow almost any kind of peppers... even last summer, which was exceptionally cool here (and our summers are probably always cool by many peoples' standards), my peppers grew and produced like crazy. I start my seeds about 10 weeks before I want to plant them outside (which is usually the first week in June), then around mid April I put them out in my greenhouse; I do have a ventless propane heater to use if the nighttime temp goes below 40 or so, but otherwise unheated. Then I usually cover the plants with Reemay for a couple of weeks after I first set them out, just to minimize setting them back from the transplant shock. You'll have to adjust the dates for your zone -- I consider our last frost date to be Memorial Day, although the planting calendars seem to put it a week or 2 before that, so just adjust your seed starting date, etc. depending on how different your last frost date would be. Peppers are honestly one of the easiest things to grow for me !

I normally grow only Cubanelle peppers; here they are light green and fully ripe red.


But a neighbor from Guatemala had some peppers and shared them with us so we could grow them out to save seeds.
This colorful little pepper (any clue what it is?):


And this one which grows on a 4 - 5 foot tall plant.


I'm still a whimp about hot stuff, but am trying to broaden my taste. This year I have added seeds for Thai long chili and for Fish Pepper. Wish me luck!

Gerry,

I apologize for taking so long to answer you. We were out of town, and then my computer 'temporarily' crashed.....go figure.

I usually start my pepper seed in January. I have acquired a few seed trays from local nurseries which oftentimes simply throw them away. These have 300 compartments each, and are fantastic for starting nearly everything for the garden or market. Though the seeds will germinate on their own, I often will borrow a heating pad to warm the seeds to help give them a 'jump start'. Here is my progress thus far........

I like your relatively coarse seedling mix! I bet those are some well-aerated roots.

I don't have any 300-cell plug trays, though I recently bought some 200-cell trays I plan to use some day for starting lettuce indoors. Mostly I use 72-cell trays or 128-cell trays. I WOULD use 98-cell trays, but the only ones I found were very shallow.

I have some 50-cell DEEP trays, but I use those for potting up.

Rick, my wife and I frequent several nurseries throughout the Spring, often looking for specifics, or deals, and once I saw these 300 seed trays in the trash, and inquired about them. I was told that I could take as many as I wanted. Sweet!

I do have a few of the smaller numbered cells, but the advantage with those is that the cells are large, and do not need such constant watering. These days are exciting, because we are seeing new sprouts every day!

I recently came across, and placed an order the 'pepperlover.com', and already seeds from this order are sprouting. He is quite generous with his seeds, and has a fair selection of various sweet and hot varieties.

I used to use a European website that sold over 700 varieties of peppers, but when I had recently revisited this website to place an order, there was this notification on the opening page;

"Important Notice to all US customers!

Some recent shipments to US have been confiscated by USDA and the customers got an empty envelope together with a note that seeds were confiscated because of missing phytosanitary certificate.

We highly recommend to apply for a import permit (small batches of seeds), that can be done online at the USDA APHIS page search import permit PPQ 587 - Plants for planting including seeds.

US customers ordering without this certificate declare that shipment is at their own risk
and they will not get a refund if the seeds were confiscated!"


Sorry, but I am not going to 'register' my seeds with the Gov't! I will shop elsewhere.