favorite peppers

[lily51]

I'm ordering seeds now and wondered what people's favorite peppers are.
I start all kinds, from sweet to mildly hot.
My favorite from last couple years is Carmen, a large red, sweet horn pepper and a prolific producer.
Any recommendations for the new growing season?

[gumbo2176]

I grow the standard green bell pepper every year since I use them in much of my cooking. I also grow Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, Jalapeno, Habanero and this year I am getting some Bhut Jalokia (Ghost Peppers).

This year I'll put in some different sweet bell peppers to use in cooking with varying colors to dress up some of the dishes a bit. Yellow, Orange and Red Bell Peppers are very expensive in the markets and no harder to grow than the basic Green variety. If you have the time to wait, the green ones will turn color when left on the bush.

Last year I also grew Poblano peppers but they stayed relatively small for some reason and were not near the size I'd use for stuffing like the ones in the market.


My pepper plants get so heavy with them I have needed to stake the plants to keep them from falling over.

[lily51]

With the prices of yellow, red and orange bells in the grocery, I thought about starting a pepper produce business.

I also liked the heatless jalapeno.

[PhillyGardener]

Last year I had more luck with peppers than anything else, and I LOVE them, so this year I'm going nuts! In my 4 x 6 plot and some large containers, I plan to grow:

Carmen
Jalapeño
Hungarian hot wax
Garden salsa
Park's early thickset (bell)
Caballero (poblano)
Sweet pickle peppers
Atris (sweet horn, probably similar to Carmen)

I plan to grow them all from seed and will probably end up with another 1 or 2 from the local nursery. I had terrible luck with the 2 tomato plants I grew from seed last year, so I am ceding some of my tomato space (and the zucchini, which I got sick of) to the peppers!

[lily51]

Philly...are your pickle peppers those small multicolored ones?
and do you really pickle them or use on salads?

anyone try marbles ?

[Royiah]

I had horrible luck with all my bell peppers last year. the only thing that really produced was some jalapeno hot peppers that I planted because I didn't know what else to plant. (I don't like hot peppers except in small portions in dishes I make.) I got so many that my neibors were sick of them. Probably got at least 3 5g buckets of them. It was insane!
This year I'm gonna try miniature bells along with yellow since they did better then all the rest of my peppers.

[dustyrivergardens]

I love peppers I will grow about 30 or more variety's of peppers lots of sweet and lots of hot mainly heirlooms but some hybrids.

My favorite is jalapeno M also the Santa Fe Grande they produce real well I love banana peppers and there real easy to grow fish peppers are real cool I love variegated plants. the super hot peppers are fun too, people love to try to eat them. lol I like peppers that really produce and the sante fe grande out preforms any other chile I have grown. My personal favorite is the Jalapeno for taste and if I have to eat them. What I end up doing with most of them is grinding all of them up together hot sweet super hot adding onion and garlic and making a pepper relish I love that stuff.

[lily51]

wow,Dusty! that's a lot of ppeppers. they look great,too
sonce you are in Arizona, when do u plant, when do you harvest?

[PunkRotten]

I grow:

Bulgarian Carrot pepper (hot, similar in heat to serrano and fruity)
Serrano (kind of hot, I like to pick them when they are ripe/red they are fruity)
Aji Limon aka Lemon drop (Hot, hotter than serrano and has citrusy undertones)
Pepperoncini (almost no heat, very productive, I was getting a crop every month in the Fall)
Hot Cherry (a little hot, about 1/2 hot as a jalapeno, very productive, great for pickling and grilling)
Chocolate Bell ( like a red bell pepper but sweeter)
Aji Dulce (small peppers, no heat, and sweet)


2013 I plan to grow Puyo, Cayenne, and Chimayo. All 3 make great spice.

[rainbowgardener]

I also like the California Wonders for bell peppers.

This year I will also be growing Anaheim chili peppers. I picked them partly because Anaheim (Calif) is my hometown , but mainly because they are a mild chili, more similar to jalapenos than to habaneros or super hots.

[dustyrivergardens]

wow,Dusty! that's a lot of ppeppers. they look great,too
sonce you are in Arizona, when do u plant, when do you harvest?

I will start my super hots right now and grow them in the house until early June and the rest of the peppers I plant a month before my tomatoes. Planting early you really have to protect these plants. I harvest for several months my first peppers I am picking by mid end July which is a month before anyone in my area but I plant early and protect my plants.


cover during the night open during the day

[digitS']

Lily, I can use you as an example of a good gardener in contrast to one who can really mess things up out there!!!

Carmen and heatless Jalapenos?

I grew a Jalapeno with no heat a few years ago. Unfortunately, I kept mixing them up at harvest with the Jalapeno M that I also grew . . . ! "Is that a hot one?" "I don't know, I'll have to taste it."

Carmen was my swing & miss in 2012. I really wanted to see if they had time to ripen in my garden with its cool nights & fairly short season. Who knows???!

I lost the plant tag and harvested those 4 plants with my other green Italian Sweets! I think they might have ripened.

I really like the Italian sweet peppers and pretty much, all the varieties that I've grown. I've read that even the ones with Caribbean names are of Italian heritage. The Giant Marconi was the one that made me a believer in their wonderful flavor and the Italians just do a lot better than the bells in my garden.

The Big Early was the nice bell that I've grown the last couple of years with pretty good success. Yummy are little sweet peppers that are from small productive plants that have real tender, flavorful fruit - also, for 2 years running.

I've grown Super Chili for a long time & never have any problem with those fiery little guys.

Steve

[PhillyGardener]

Philly...are your pickle peppers those small multicolored ones?
and do you really pickle them or use on salads?

anyone try marbles ?

Yep, those are the ones. I haven't tried them yet, but I grew some small mildly hot banana peppers last year that were similar, and they were great pickled or sauteed.

[prettygurl]

A double wow, Dusty.

I have a BUNCH of peppers that I will be growing this season. As far as sweet peppers go, I prefer the taste of the Marconi shaped over the bell.

[dustyrivergardens]

I love Red Marconi one of my all time favorite sweet peppers and I will be growing them again this year.

[imafan26]

Wow! What a response. Lots of people just love peppers.
I also grow the reliable California Wonder, Yolo wonder and Keystone peppers. I also love the heirloom Chinese giant, the peppers are huge! I like the colored peppers Yellow Bell and Chocolate Bell. Bell peppers are not that productive for me in the long run as they will not produce in the heat, so I also like to grow Banana peppers which produce more peppers and live longer than the bell pepper. Japanese peppers (shishito) are good for cooking or frying. I also like the flavor of the mildly hot Hungarian Wax, serrano, and Anaheim. The better hot pepper for sauces is the Tobasco or super chili. Tobasco can live for years and produce hundreds of peppers. Cayenne is hot, but it has a good flavor.