Homegrown Peppers

Pepper plants and seeds are fun to work with (as you probably already know).  So today is an update on the peppers and chiles that I have on deck — plants and seeds.

Bell Pepper, Yellow

This is a plant that I bought, with hopes of getting some more bells.  As you’ll remember in some of my growing peppers in Florida posts, I traditionally have a hard time with bell peppers.  This time I decided to just buy a plant and hope for the best.

It’s doing fairly well, and some blossoms are getting ready to appear — at least six so far.  I’d have liked the plant to be a little larger, but I’ll see what happens.  The size may have something to do with the fact that it’s been cooler than normal these last few weeks — days in the 60′s to low 70′s, nights in the 40′s.

Sweet Banana Peppers

The next on deck and growing well are the Park’s Whopper Sweet Banana peppers.  I love the sweet bananas, and the Park’s produces some nice big peppers.  Too bad they are hybrids, so I can’t save the seeds.  But then again, one pack has enough seeds to last me several growing seasons, so I can’t complain.  They are still a way from planting out in the garden, but they’ve been doing well, in spite of the cooler weather (I have them outdoors in a protected location).

Redskin Bell

Redskin, a bell with a “weeping” habit, is doing well.  I figured I’d try another kind of bell, and grow it out on the screened patio in a pot, see what happens.

Purira Chile Pepper

I love growing the hot peppers that look like Christmas trees, with candles of all kinds of colors.  Purira is a pretty hot pepper with tons and tons of cone-shaped fruits.  Colors vary between ivory, yellow, purple, orange and red, with all colors appearing at any given time.  Oranmental, but drop one small ripe pepper in a pot of chile and watch out!

Pretty Purple Pepper (Hot)

This one is another of the ornamental but hot peppers.  The leaves and stems are mostly purple, and the peppers are purple, ripening to red hot red.  Put one or two in your chili for a nice heat.

Sweet Pickle

Name notwithstanding, I like to eat these Sweet Pickle peppers fresh.  Kind of remind me of the Purira chile, with a Christmas tree appearance.  These are great sliced up in salads, soups and salsa.  Not hot at all — just sweet.  One of these days I’ll have to try pickling them.

The Really Hot Chiles

My has arrived, and I’m waiting for the to show up.  Thai hot, peter pepper, and hot-banero are also waiting in the wings.  Hot-banero is the hottest habanero I’ve ever grown (my own strain), and I want to see how it stacks up against jolokia and the mustard habanero.

I’m not in a super-hurry for the really hot peppers; they like the warmth and it’s still pretty cool.  In my experience, the hotter the pepper, the warmer the soil it needs to germinate, and the longer it takes to germinate.  I don’t plan on putting any of the really hot chiles out in the garden until maybe the beginning of  March.

But I will very shortly be germinating some jalapeno seeds — Jalapeno M variety.  Debating on trying the Jaloro as well; those are some of my legacy (i.e. 10-year-old) seeds.  Germination for the older seeds has been kind of low, but we’ll see what happens.  Jaloro is a yellow jalapeno, instead of the usual green.  But I like to use it red, which gives it a really nice kick.