Seedlings Mixed Up - Ways to Differentiate?

[KitchenGardener]

So I'm losing my mind - or at least my memory. I always tell myself "oh I'll remember that" (whatever that is) and then of course I have no clue whatsoever.

So I planted California Wonder Peppers and Pimento de Padrons in pots and left them outside apparently way too early. When they didn't come up, I reseeded the pots. By this time, the sun had bleached out the labels, but I knew I wouldn't forget which was which Yeah, right. So now they've come up and I have no clue which is which. From your experience growing these two types of peppers, do you have pointers as to how I might tell them apart from their leaves or growth habit?

[MichaelC]

That should be an easy one to solve. First, I have grown Pardons several times, and have a CA Wonder plant this year as well. I found the CA Wonder seedling to have much larger leaves and space between nodes. Patrons will grow funny little shriveled fruits, and you should pick them then they're small. They fruit prodigiously, if you harvest every week you should have a good amount until fall. CA Wonder will fruit like a bell pepper I assume, though this is my first time growing it so I don't really know.

[KitchenGardener]

MichaelC: thank you so much for your response. I've grown padrons for the past 5 years or so, so I know what the fruit are like. But I was hoping that there was a way to differentiate the plants at the seedling/young plant stage so that I knew where to put them in the garden. I don't want to plant more than 2-3 bell pepper plants, whereas I wanted to have at least 6 padron plants.

I just did a google image search for the plants of each type, and although there were a ton of photos, for the life of me, I could NOT tell them apart whatsoever! But thanks for the tip on leaf size and nodes. Hopefully, I'll be able to see what you mean, if not, when the plants are bigger, I can take photos and perhaps you and other folks here can help me ID them...

[rainbowgardener]

I haven't grown that particular variety of hot pepper. But in my experience, the hot peppers are slower growing (I usually plant them a week earlier than bells to give them a head start), smaller, narrower leaves, not as dark green and generally not as sturdy looking as bell peppers, when in the seedling stage. These are not my pictures just ones I found on line:

chili peppers:


bell peppers


the bell pepper picture is labelled 12 days (from sprouting, I presume), the chili one didn't say, but I bet it was more.

The differences are a bit subtle, but I bet you will be able to tell.

[imafan26]

I just usually wait for the peppers to appear. I grow so many varieties that there are only a few I can tell apart. You can tell them apart if they are a different species. Frustescens, chinense, baccatum, annuum have different features.

Since the bells and Pimento are both capsicum annuum, it makes it harder.

[KitchenGardener]

Thank you all - now I wish they'd hurry up and grow so I can see. I'll update this thread and take pics when I can tell them apart.

[AnnaIkona]

this is the Californian Wonder. I feel like their leaves are "fatter" and wider.

[KitchenGardener]

Thank you Annalkona - great photo and super helpful!

[MichaelC]

That photo says it all. I didn't realize that your seedlings were so young. you'll be able to tell soon enough!