Help a newbie to pepper-growing?

[LindyAdele]

Hi! I have only grown one variety of pepper for many years (chinese 5 colour) which has been fun because I bring him indoors in the winter where he flowers and fruits for me (usually). Very hardy as a small ornamental that grows peppers I can eat!

I would like to expand to grow maybe 4 different peppers this year which I can can for pickled pepper rings, and salsa. I am accustomed to tomato growing (normally 15-20 varieties). I have been hesitant about pepper because I don't have a large growing area and have been worried about crossing them. Will a 'cross' between hot and sweet peppers result in peppers that year that are less hot or more sweet than they should be? Or can I just not save seeds from them? Is there anything I need to know about soil preparation that is different than for tomatoes? Do you have recommendations for varieties to start with?
I was thinking Jalepeno, Hungarian Wax and Lemon Drop....

[kayrobbins]

If hot and sweet peppers cross you will not notice any difference in the taste that year. But if you save those seeds your sweet pepper will have heat. Peppers are very prone to cross pollinating. The minimum distance between varieties should be 100 feet but most serious seed savers recommend 500 feet. You can always bag flowers or cover entire plants with row cover to prevent cross pollination.

Since you are fairly new to peppers why don't you just try some varieties with planning on saving seeds this year and then if you find some that you really like you can plant to save seeds the following season.

[LindyAdele]

I have about 100 square feet of garden space total, with some room for pots about 50 feet away from this... since my yard is so shady and half of it is filled with a swimming pool I have to work with the light I have! So I might have to learn to bag. I will be bagging a few tomtoates this year (there is a variety I am trying to preserve and my tomatoes are quite dense) so I might try a few peppers bagged also. What is your favourite pepper?

[drew51]

Peppers can be harder to grow. Chinese 5 color is one of the easiest. People start them a few weeks earlier than tomatoes. I'm still trying peppers to see what I like. Bells are hard to grow. Some threads around here about good ones. I don't have interest to grow them in the next couple of years, so have no suggestions for them. I'm looking for peppers to make red and green sauces for Southwestern dishes, and also powder for paprika.
I also grow Scotch Bonnet for jerk sauce. I just obtained some authentic Jamaican Scotch Bonnet, so am hyped with at last getting a reall Jamaican pepper!
Lemon Drops are good and easy to grow. All you mentioned are decent, good peppers, but many types of Jalepeno exist. I'm still exploring to determine which work for me. Jalepeno M is popular but I have not tried it.

[kayrobbins]

One of my favorites is the Datil. It has heat but also a fruity taste that give it a nice complex flavor. I admit to being prejudice it is practically the Florida state pepper. Another one that I really like is the Serrano. It has more heat than a jalapeno but is not too hot. It is an amazingly productive pepper. I like to let most of them turn red and then smoke them in the smoker for a few hours before finishing them off in the dehydrator. It makes a wonderful pepper powder done that way. I am growing paprika for the first time this next spring. I buy so much smoked paprika that it finally dawned me I should make my own.

For sweet peppers I like Bullnose and Lipstick. If you prefer hybrids Revolution does well too.

If you go to Seed Savers Exchange website they have all their webinars on seed saving archived. You don't have to be a member to watch these and it will show you how to use different isolation techniques to save seeds.

[noinwi]

If you have a small garden space you might want to try growing different species of peppers and there will be a lesser chance of cross pollination. I've added a link to a page about what species will cross with one another. Say, if you grow your Chinese 5 Color(C. annuum)and a Lemon Drop(C. baccatum), there is less chance of cross pollination than if you grew your 5 Color and Jalapeno(C. annuum). I've grown Lemon Drop several times along with a bunch of annuums and my seed has always come true. C. pubescens(Manzano, Rocoto) won't cross with any of the others and it is a very tasty pepper, although a bit harder to germinate and grow. Hope this helps.

http://www.thechileman.org/guide_seedsaving.php

[kayrobbins]

I am glad you mentioned that the Rocoto is hard to germinate and grow. I consider myself a very experienced pepper grower and decided to grow the Rocoto since it would not cross. Out of 25 seeds I only got 12 plants and I will probably only keep 8 of those. It has been a challenge. I knew it might be difficult to grow them in Florida but I did not expect getting good seedlings to be this hard.

[biscgolf]

I've grown as many as 108 varieties of peppers in a season and this year will probably grow around 50. I isolate some varieties and bag others to save seed, however were i the OP I would not worry about saving seed and grow as many varieties as I had room for. Seed is simply not that large an expense in a home garden.

When I grew rocotos/manzanos I did not get a significant harvest until the second year- eventually I gave up on them as too inefficient despite the fact that the pods were delicious. Greenhouse space is at too much of a premium to keep them around for their modest output. They did not like our east coast humidity imo- too different from their preferred environment.

I love datils as Kay suggests- they are probably my favorite hot pepper.

some others I like:
fatalii- best flavor of the superhots, fruity
aji dulce 2 - habanero flavor without the heat- a must for Sofrito and makes awesome pimento cheese
Jimmy Nardello- Italian frying pepper- very sweet- I like to smoke them and make powder from them.
El Jefe Jalapeno- good combo of size and heat

[AlittleSalt]

LindyAdele,

I have some Tabasco seeds that are member of the Capsicum Frutescens species. It is a hot variety (30,000-50,000 Scoville). It can be trimmed. The small peppers (1" long x 3/8"wide) grow upward and change colors from yellowish green - to yellow - to orange - to red during maturity. You can eat them at any maturity stage. Here in Texas, we had peppers covering the two tabasco plants we grew for around 140 days. You might be able to grow them in a very large pot (Not sure, I haven't tried yet).

My av/pic over there <--- is one Tabasco plant I grew this year. I am going to grow them as ornamentals in 2015 because they are beautiful.

PM me your address, and I'll send you some seeds.

Robert (AlittleSalt)

[GnomeGrown]

Definitely grow some Nardellos (sweet)
Datil was a new one for me last year and I really liked it
Fatalii is also a great hot pepper which did very well for me last season

~Happy Harvests~

[Irv Wiseguy]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

LindyAdele,

I have some Tabasco seeds that are member of the Capsicum Frutescens species. It is a hot variety (30,000-50,000 Scoville). It can be trimmed. The small peppers (1" long x 3/8"wide) grow upward and change colors from yellowish green - to yellow - to orange - to red during maturity. You can eat them at any maturity stage. Here in Texas, we had peppers covering the two tabasco plants we grew for around 140 days. You might be able to grow them in a very large pot (Not sure, I haven't tried yet).

My av/pic over there <--- is one Tabasco plant I grew this year. I am going to grow them as ornamentals in 2015 because they are beautiful.

PM me your address, and I'll send you some seeds.

Robert (AlittleSalt)

I grew Tabasco in a pot a couple years ago and it did well. Got lots of peppers off it. I found that if I picked them when green they weren't really hot. Definitely a good one to grow.

Irv

[Misfit]

For me... Tabasco has been my go to pepper, I love the taste and have been growing them for years.

They have worked in a 5 gallon bucket producing a good amount of pods; though in the ground has done better.

-Jimmy

[kayrobbins]

I forgot to mention the African Fish pepper. It is a good pepper and has to be one of the most attractive peppers. The foliage is variegated and so is the pepper. I actually prefer this one when the pepper is green and white rather than letting it turn red.

[LindyAdele]

Originally Posted by noinwi

If you have a small garden space you might want to try growing different species of peppers and there will be a lesser chance of cross pollination. I've added a link to a page about what species will cross with one another. Say, if you grow your Chinese 5 Color(C. annuum)and a Lemon Drop(C. baccatum), there is less chance of cross pollination than if you grew your 5 Color and Jalapeno(C. annuum). I've grown Lemon Drop several times along with a bunch of annuums and my seed has always come true. C. pubescens(Manzano, Rocoto) won't cross with any of the others and it is a very tasty pepper, although a bit harder to germinate and grow. Hope this helps.

http://www.thechileman.org/guide_seedsaving.php

Thank you!! This information has been extremely helpful!!

[LindyAdele]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

I forgot to mention the African Fish pepper. It is a good pepper and has to be one of the most attractive peppers. The foliage is variegated and so is the pepper. I actually prefer this one when the pepper is green and white rather than letting it turn red.

I have never heard of fish peppers! They look beautiful, and I have a soft spot for anything striped!