Anyone have any recommendations for a good sweet pepper. I have grown California Wonder, Yellow bells and Chinese Giants. I like the Chinese Giants the best but all of these peppers have the same problem they only get about five peppers and they are done.
The Kaala bell lasted the longest but the peppers were miniatures, 1/3 of a normal bell pepper so very disappointing.
Banana peppers last a little longer than the bells.
I know some people say that their bell peppers are really productive, so it might be a problem with the soil and pests of which there are many here. Most plants to survive must be heat tolerant, and resistant to nematodes, fusarium and TMV.
If your bells are growing well, what kind of soil and temp variations do you have? Maybe its just my culture that is off. I grow hot peppers just fine, it is mostly the sweets that are the problem.
-
Northernfox
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 870
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:07 am
- Location: Fort Saskatchewan Alberta
-
gixxerific
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 5889
- Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:42 pm
- Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
The weather is great for peppers but the diseases here make selection a problem. Almost everything that grows needs to have viral and fungal resistance as well as be tolerant of nematodes. Most of the time with the sweet peppers I get bacterial speck and pepper weevils for part of the summer. Hot peppers fare better than sweet peppers. Kaala is a UH variety that does fare well against diseases but the fruit is 1/3 the size of a regular bell. When I grow sweet peppers, I am lucky to get 3-5 peppers in all from a single plant. I know California bells, Jupiter, and Keystone are ok to grow here. I have grown Chinese Giant, an heirloom in a pot, to keep the nematodes out. I would like to try Goliath though. I have banana peppers and that shape lasts longer than bells. I might try the corno de toro peppers and some of the others you mentioned. Even if they don't produce a lot of peppers, if they taste good it would still be worth it.
Keystone? Keystone has done okay for me here too, Imafan! It must have broad-adaptability. That's a 25¢ word that doesn't say much about flavor and use 
.
I've been interested in this thread but wasn't quite sure if I had anything to contribute - still don't. Keystone doesn't amount to too much here because it doesn't develop into my top 5 sweet pepper or anything. If I was looking for heirlooms with disease resistance, that might be a problem also. Pepper diseases aren't much of a problem here (knock on wood). The problem is the cool June weather that so often stunts them. Then, it turns into fairly good pepper growing until cool September weather puts an end to their season
.
Imafan, if you would consider hybrids - you can find the big outfits promoting their disease-resistance. In fact, other than laying property claims on hybrids, that resistance might be the important reason for their development.
Johnny's catalog came yesterday! They have some nice "specialty" peppers (link) that I've grown. Carmen does well in my garden. It isn't a very large Italian Sweet but it's real nice, productive and flavorful. Here is what Bonnie's Plants says about it "The plants are resistant to many diseases: verticillium wilt (V), fusarium (F), and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Disease resistance: Tobacco mosaic virus, potato Y virus, and bacterial leaf spot races 1, 2, and 3." I guess I didn't look on the right page to find Johnny's info on disease-resistance.
Johnny's also has a new hybrid bell with that kind of range of resistance: Intruder.
Steve
.I've been interested in this thread but wasn't quite sure if I had anything to contribute - still don't. Keystone doesn't amount to too much here because it doesn't develop into my top 5 sweet pepper or anything. If I was looking for heirlooms with disease resistance, that might be a problem also. Pepper diseases aren't much of a problem here (knock on wood). The problem is the cool June weather that so often stunts them. Then, it turns into fairly good pepper growing until cool September weather puts an end to their season
.Imafan, if you would consider hybrids - you can find the big outfits promoting their disease-resistance. In fact, other than laying property claims on hybrids, that resistance might be the important reason for their development.
Johnny's catalog came yesterday! They have some nice "specialty" peppers (link) that I've grown. Carmen does well in my garden. It isn't a very large Italian Sweet but it's real nice, productive and flavorful. Here is what Bonnie's Plants says about it "The plants are resistant to many diseases: verticillium wilt (V), fusarium (F), and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Disease resistance: Tobacco mosaic virus, potato Y virus, and bacterial leaf spot races 1, 2, and 3." I guess I didn't look on the right page to find Johnny's info on disease-resistance.
Johnny's also has a new hybrid bell with that kind of range of resistance: Intruder.
Steve
Thanks Steve.
Keystone, California bell, and Jupiter were the varieties recommended by UH mainly for disease resistance. I have grown California bells but not Keystone, so thanks for the heads up, I won't bother with it. Jupiter failed to grow for me, but the seeds were old.
I really liked Chinese Giant, it is an heirloom with very large peppers. The peppers were half the height of the plant. I only got 5 but they were good. I have seeds of Carmen but I haven't planted them yet, so I'll see if I can find the seeds and plant them, next year.
Thanks for the link. Hybrids are fine as long as they taste good.
The main pepper resistance that is needed is nematodes and Bacterial wilt.
Keystone, California bell, and Jupiter were the varieties recommended by UH mainly for disease resistance. I have grown California bells but not Keystone, so thanks for the heads up, I won't bother with it. Jupiter failed to grow for me, but the seeds were old.
I really liked Chinese Giant, it is an heirloom with very large peppers. The peppers were half the height of the plant. I only got 5 but they were good. I have seeds of Carmen but I haven't planted them yet, so I'll see if I can find the seeds and plant them, next year.
Thanks for the link. Hybrids are fine as long as they taste good.
The main pepper resistance that is needed is nematodes and Bacterial wilt.
.-
gixxerific
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 5889
- Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:42 pm
- Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B
You could also try to make your own variety. Kaala looks like a good parent to use for cross pollination. I thinks it's a true breeding plant and already has some resistance and yield qualities you want. Cross it with your favorite large bell pepper(s), the results could be interesting. I'm confidant the F1 will have nematode resistance similar to Kaala, but I don't know about the bacterial wilt resistance.
That's a thought, I have not saved seeds from anything except the hot peppers. I might try to do that and see what happens. BTW Kaala is not only small, it isn't particularly tasty either.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/redloon/7155182988/
I may have to borrow your violin Steve.
Tabasco, superchili, cayennne, anaheim, banana, hungarian wax, Thai chili, serrano, and bird chili do the best. California bell and yellow bell get maybe 5 peppers in two rounds; the second round gets considerably smaller. The tabasco, superchili, and bird chilies can live for years. The others will last a few months. Habanero can live a couple of years if I keep the pepper load down under 15. Caribbean Red actually does a little better. I am growing Bhut Jolokia and Trinidad scorpion for the first time. The Bhut doesn't look like a normal pepper plant and I had some chlorosis on the plant so I changed fertilizers and it rained and now the plant is starting to look better. At first I thought it might be a virus, but the other peppers all around it looked fine. The Trinidad scorpion was a lot easier to grow and so far the seedlings are about a month old and they are doing fine. Jalapeno will grow but I have had problems with inconsistency with the heat and so so far I have only had one Jalapeno live longer than 6 months and that one was looking pretty sorry for a while before it came back.
Most of the problems with the peppers are black spots on the leaves. The bigger the leaves, the bigger the problem gets. Most of the hot chilies have small leaves that do well. I do get some mildew especially especially after it rains, but that is a problem with a lot of the plants. Humidity here is around 80% most of the time and sometimes it goes up to 90%. It is rarely below 70%. I don't have a regular spray program but I do try to spray within 3 days of the rain stopping. Peppers grown in pots off the ground usually don't get nematodes, but in the ground it happens.
I have been adding more compost to the garden and I have actually done soil replacements in some parts of it so I haven't seen nematode infested roots for awhile. But, I also grow cultivars with nematode resistance anyway.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/redloon/7155182988/
I may have to borrow your violin Steve.
Tabasco, superchili, cayennne, anaheim, banana, hungarian wax, Thai chili, serrano, and bird chili do the best. California bell and yellow bell get maybe 5 peppers in two rounds; the second round gets considerably smaller. The tabasco, superchili, and bird chilies can live for years. The others will last a few months. Habanero can live a couple of years if I keep the pepper load down under 15. Caribbean Red actually does a little better. I am growing Bhut Jolokia and Trinidad scorpion for the first time. The Bhut doesn't look like a normal pepper plant and I had some chlorosis on the plant so I changed fertilizers and it rained and now the plant is starting to look better. At first I thought it might be a virus, but the other peppers all around it looked fine. The Trinidad scorpion was a lot easier to grow and so far the seedlings are about a month old and they are doing fine. Jalapeno will grow but I have had problems with inconsistency with the heat and so so far I have only had one Jalapeno live longer than 6 months and that one was looking pretty sorry for a while before it came back.
Most of the problems with the peppers are black spots on the leaves. The bigger the leaves, the bigger the problem gets. Most of the hot chilies have small leaves that do well. I do get some mildew especially especially after it rains, but that is a problem with a lot of the plants. Humidity here is around 80% most of the time and sometimes it goes up to 90%. It is rarely below 70%. I don't have a regular spray program but I do try to spray within 3 days of the rain stopping. Peppers grown in pots off the ground usually don't get nematodes, but in the ground it happens.
I have been adding more compost to the garden and I have actually done soil replacements in some parts of it so I haven't seen nematode infested roots for awhile. But, I also grow cultivars with nematode resistance anyway.
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30541
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I'm trying a number of sweet pepper varieties for the first time. They were highly recommended, but I'll be able to post my own review later this season.