For many in our area, growing peppers can be a great source of frustration. It takes forever for them to ripen, if they even ripen at all. And, even if you do get a few peppers to ripen, it’s just that: a few.
Last year we grew peppers in the garden, but we grew even more in the greenhouse. The ones in the garden performed about as expected. We harvested a ton of small hot peppers from a variety called Nepali Orange. But, the rest of the varieties only produced a handful of peppers. On the other hand, the peppers in the greenhouse were nothing short of prolific. So, this year, we’re super excited to try out lots of sweet and hot peppers in the greenhouse. We’re hoping, this will result in even more production from our peppers this year in addition to giving us more space in the garden to grow other shorter season crops.
So, here are the new sweet and hot pepper varieties we’re trying:
Sweet Peppers
Carolina Amethyst
Bred by tomato Authority Craig LeHoullier, Carolina Amethyst is a prolific, compact bell-type pepper from Victory Seeds. I’m not entirely sure I read the description though and might have just bought this one based on the stunning neon purple color. Another reason I’m excited about these peppers is that they are supposed to ripen in 70 days, perfect for our growing season.
Sheepnose Pimento
Last year, we grew several different Pimento type peppers for the Seed Savers Exchange ADAPT trials. I had never grown Pimentos and wasn’t entirely sure how to use them. That said, once I tasted them, there was no end of possibilities. Pimento peppers pack a punch when it comes to flavor. The Sheepnose Pimento was our favorite of the 3 varieties due to it’s high yield and early ripening. Shaped similar to a bell pepper, but more squatty (wider than they are long), these are best eaten when fully ripe so you can get the full flavor experience. My favorite way to eat them: diced up and tossed into a taco salad.
Corbaci
The Corbaci pepper is a very unique spirally-shaped frying pepper. A few years ago, I received a start of this in exchange for some eggplant starts. The peppers were fascinatingly long and curly. The flavor was good too, when they did ripen. We didn’t get enough from the one plant to do much with, but I’ve been wanting to try it again ever since. This year, they made it back on the garden plan when I received seeds for them in a Christmas gardening gift exchange.
Zolostisty
Zolostisty! Try getting your mouth around a name like that. This is a sweet yellow bell pepper of heralding from Belarus. This is another Victory Seeds Variety we are excited to try this year. Looking forward to adding these too fresh salsa this summer!
Hot Peppers
Kalugeritsa
Kalugeritsa is a sweet, scratch that, hot pepper similar to a Jalapeño in heat. I guess it helps to look up the varieties you’re growing every once in a while. Anyway, this is another variety I received in the Christmas-time gift exchange. It sounds like the flavor of this pepper is to-die-for, so we’re pretty excited to taste it for ourselves. That’s half the fun of growing new varieties. They aren’t something you can just go to the store, buy, and taste. You have to grow them to taste them.
Ralph Thompson Squash Pepper
Originally, when I ordered the seeds for this pepper, I did so based on the shape of the pepper being reminiscent to a Pimento Pepper. While the shape is similar however, these are not actually a considered a pimento pepper. These peppers have a mild to medium heat and are highly prolific. Great for tacos and salads.
Jalapeno (Traveler’s Strain)
Over the past few years, we’ve tried our share of Jalapeno varieties, and none of them has quite lived up to expectations. The Orange Spice Jalapeno was tasty, but never produced peppers larger than about an inch and a half long. Tiny Jalapenos, just aren’t real good for Jalapeno poppers, nor do they go very far in salsa. We liked the Purple Jalapeno when we got one plant a couple years ago, but it also produced pretty tiny peppers.
So, this year we’re trying a regular green Jalapeno that is supposed to be 3 inches long (about what you’d expect from a Jalapeno). According to Seed Savers Exchange this variety is originally from “Larry Pierce of Cabool, Missouri. Named Traveler because Larry carried this seed with him when he moved to Oklahoma, Wyoming, and then Missouri”.
Aji Mango
While Micah isn’t quite as keen on tomatoes as I am, he is on board to try all the peppers especially the hot ones. The hottest we’ve grown are Jalapenos or the Nepali Orange peppers we grew in 2022. Micah has been wanting to try some of the super-hots, but neither of us really love hot food. So, we got a few introductory peppers to try this year before we move on to anything like Scorpions or Reapers.
The first of these hot, hot peppers is Aji Mango. Aji Mango is mango sweet with searing heat. Fruits ripen to a beautiful tangerine color and are comparable heat-wise to a serrano.
Sugar Rush Red
With a name like Sugar Rush red, how can you not try these? Sugar Rush Red is a hotter pepper I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Well, actually, I wanted to try Sugar Rush Peach, but settled for Red when I found it at NW Seed and Pet. If we like Sugar Rush Red, we will definitely be trying peach next year. Both varieties are superbly sweet fruity peppers that pack a punch.
Bulgarian Carrot
We picked Bulgarian Carrot largely because of the name. This variety is long, skinny, and bright orange. What’s not to love? They are prolific, fruity, hot and early to mature.