Which sweet pepper to plant next year?

[tedln]

In years past, I've grown Jalapeno peppers, Bell peppers, Habanero peppers, and mild Banana peppers. Banana peppers are easy to grow, and produce well, but for me they are basically tasteless. I don't plan on growing them again. Jalapenos grow well, produce well, but I am the only one in my family who will eat them. I currently have some jalapeno plants about four feet tall loaded with peppers. I only grow the Habaneros because the plant is so pretty and the orange fruit is very attractive. They look like miniature Christmas trees with pretty ornaments hanging on. I will eat them as a seasoning in food, but I have to prepare my food separate from other folks food. I grow sweet Bell peppers because all of my family will eat them.

I plan on only growing Bell peppers next year and not wasting space on veggies no one wants. In the past, I bought Bell pepper seedlings from different vendors. The most common variety is "California Wonder". For me, it has been a mediocre grower and producer with a limited number of small fruit per plant. Last year, I accidentally bought a seedling of a different variety which grew three times as large as the California Wonder, produced heavily, and the fruit were larger than the grocery store peppers. I don't know what the variety was but I want to find out before I plant next spring. If anyone is familiar with a Bell pepper that grows and produces that way, let me know. I will buy some seed and germinate it myself. I thought the same thing last fall and bought a couple of varieties to germinate myself. Both varieties were touted as huge producers of huge fruit but I wasn't able to get them to germinate in starter kits sitting right next to tomatoes which were doing very well. Needless to say, all the conditions were the same. I think the vendor sent me bad seed. I never complain and simply chalk bad experiences to a learning experiencing which was well worth the cost. Any one have some good ideas of varieties to plant. Please don't say "California Wonder" I am convinced the only way I can grow California Wonder is with a drip IV of nutrients attached to each plant. They definitely don't hold up to the heat well in my garden in Texas. They probably are a wonder in California. I also know either the California Wonder was a four lobed fruit and the other was three, or the other was four and the wonder was three.

Ted

[garden5]

Lilac sweet peppers are early maturing and, for me, have been producing a good amount of peppers per plant. Another early-maturing variety that has been producing well for me is the early Niagara.

Now, I can't give you relevant info on max size since my growing season is shorter and cooler than yours and the deer tend to keep the plants down to about a foot tall, anyway.

[Shoontok]

How about Peperoncini?

[FieldofFlowers]

We don't grow jalapenos because our very macho next door neighbor, Juan C. begged me not to plant more jalapenos. It seems our jalapenos burned his mouth!

I must be missing something here, unless you were sharing the peppers with him and he was not picking them himself.

I have very limited knowledge on bell peppers. This is my 2nd year growing some. The first year I tried plants from the Bonnie peat pots. Those did rather poorly.

This year I planted Burpee's sweet crispy hybrid with the statement on the packet it is an early producer. So far looks like it won't disappoint. Some of the plants have about four of them growing on them at the same time. Size is smaller than the typical store pepper, but not too bad. I usually plant more than I think I will need.

[lorax]

I've always been fond of Anaheim Bells, which are terrific little plants. Don't expect the massive store-size peppers unless you're willing to grow then fully hydroponic, but they're prolific and the peppers have fantastic flavour.

Big Bertha is also a nice cultivar, not as prolific as Anaheim Bell but produces much larger peppers, good for stuffing. They've weathered the heat here really well, so they shouldn't have a problem with Texas.

McFayden up in Canada also offers a Mini Sweet Bell Mix, which I just love - they've performed well in almost every garden I've ever planted. Tiny peppers, bursting with flavour.

[applestar]

My Anaheims, grown from a gift shop seed packet of mixed hot peppers that must have been 10 or more years old, are doing great! Very early, very prolific, very big.

For Belle pepper, Quadrato d'asti Rosso and Giallo do well for me but the fruits are not growing that big under my ho-hum care. (Good enough for me though ) I'm also growing Giant Orange Bell (labelled GOB ) but they are just starting to set fruits so I haven't seen what they can do yet.

Can't speak for heat tolerance though. Good luck in your search.

[csvd87]

Could try Sweet Cherry peppers, or Cow Horn, You can even try Fooled You Jalapenos, Jalapeno's without the heat(hybrid), Sweet Cayenne.

Try this site, you don't have to buy from them, but you can get ideas:
[url]https://www.tradewindsfruitstore.com/servlet/the-Sweet-Peppers/Categories[/url]

I'll be growing the Fooled You hybrid next year, pretty sure my Sweet Cayenne has blight (stupid sprinklers) I want to try a tone of peppers, already have about 15 I will be trying to grow next year, mostly in containers to keep them out of the rain. I have a few I will be bringing indoors to try and encourage more production (Chocolate Bell, Hot Cayenne)[/url]

[garden5]

Big Bertha is one I would have liked to have grown, but since I'm in a cooler/shorter climate, I worried that it may not have a good enough season to ripen.

That's the one thing about the early peppers, they don't get very large.....eh, but they're still great tasting .

[lorax]

The Big Bertha available at the link I posted earlier is a faster type, adapted for the super-short Canadian growing season. I'd give it a shot - they're great peppers.

[wolfie]

I have the chocolate bells and a mixed variety I think from gurneys. both did really well in my 60 days of 90+ degree weather and lots of peppers