Growing peppers

• Space individual plants 12 to 18 inches apart.

• Before planting, add some general purpose fertilizer and compost to the soil.

• For highest yields, provide extra calcium and phosphorus. Garden lime (calcium carbonate), bone meal or ground up eggshells will add calcium to the soil. Bone meal, fish meal, or well rotted manure are a good way to add more phosphorus.

• Peppers do especially well in raised beds or very large containers, where the roots will feel more heat. They grow slowly in cool soil, so it is best to transplant them into the garden when the weather has stabilized.
  If you want to give them a little extra protection at first, see my tip on the tomato page for surrounding the plant with a temporary “mini greenhouse”.

• Place a stake next to each pepper plant (or surround them with a cage). Pepper plants seem sturdy at first, but as fruit develops they get very heavy and are likely to fall over. (I know this from personal experience and am determined it will not happen in my garden this year!)

• Peppers prefer temperatures of 65 to 85 deg. F. for setting fruit.

• Many peppers can be harvested at different stages. See the individual pepper variety descriptions below to get an idea. It’s your garden. Harvest them when they taste good to you!

  PLEASE NOTE: The plants on my farm table have NOT been hardened off. They are straight from the greenhouse.
  You can do one of the following:
  1. Expose them gradually to outdoor conditions over a week
  -OR (as I do)-
  2. Plant them immediately and give them protection from excess sun, wind, and rain for a week or two.

Bridge to Paris
83 days. We consider Bridge to Paris among the best all-around pepper we’ve grown. A sweet Italian type, this marvel offers staggeringly huge yields of big, elongated fruit with very few seeds and excellent flavor. Emerging green and ripening to red, the peppers can reach 7–9 inches long with a fruity taste. Enjoy the harvests fresh, fried, dried or smoked. The plants get tall, up to 30 inches in our trials and load up with over two dozen fruit per plant. Thanks to Hudson Valley seed for offering this exceptional de-hybridized pepper. Open pollinated. (Territorial Seed)

Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry
70-75 days. WOW! This little snacking pepper is as delicious as it looks, and its plant is pretty enough to fit right into the most stunning ornamental garden. The mini bell-shaped fruit is 3 1/2 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide. It starts out green with white stripes and matures through red with white and finally to chocolate with red stripes. Tasty at any stage, it’s sweet and crispy. The bushy plants are bedecked with vibrant, variegated foliage. A great crop in the garden or containers. F1 hybrid. (Territorial Seed)

Caribbean Red
As a Caribbean man, I have many stories about this pepper that I can tell. Along with some scorpion types and Trinidad 7 Pot Yellow, this one is a favorite of the Caribbean people. In Trinidad, which is I am from originally,  Caribbean Red pepper is one of our favorite peppers for cooking, hot sauces and more. There, it’s just a very accessible and highly used variety. One of my favorite ways to use it is to sit it gently on top of any cooking meal and let its flavor seep in, without the pepper being torn or ripped open. Using this method, almost anything that you cook with this pepper turns out great! Heat is medium, flavor is delicious, aroma undeniable! Prolific plants produce all season long! Open pollinated. ((Renaissance Farms)

Dragonfly
As many as 40 peppers per plant
Days to Maturity: 75 from transplant.
All-America Selections (AAS) Winner 2022
An F1 hybrid purple sweet pepper that sets small, star-shaped flowers, followed by 3 ½-inch, 4-lobed, blocky, bell-shaped peppers with thick, juicy walls and a robust, sweet flavor. The deep blackish purple exterior color contrasts beautifully with the bright lime green interior, but if left on the vine, fruits will turn bright red. Dragonfly grows rapidly, forming an upright, clumping plant that holds the purple peppers high (off the soil), making harvest easy. The plant produces heavy yields all season, as many as 40 peppers per plant. The sweet peppers have a long shelf life. Dragonfly can also be grown in a container. Easy to grow, bell pepper prefers full sun and fertile, organically rich, moist, well-drained soil but adapts to a wide range of soils. Although it is low maintenance, pinching back young plants encourages stronger root growth and a bigger, bushier plant. The plants are heat and drought tolerant and highly resistant to tobacco mosaic virus. F1 hybrid. (Territorial Seed)

Hatch Chili
If you are looking for a really nice roaster, Hatch chili pepper will lock it down for you. These are perfect for grilling if you like just a little heat. I happen to think it’s a great choice for blending with Mexican foods. These ripen from green to red and can be used at any point, especially after reaching full size. You will totally enjoy these in cooking, especially since they are not too hot for the average chili lover. Great choice for cooking with your every day dishes! Open pollinated. ((Renaissance Farms)

Italian Pepperoncini
75 days. Low heat. Even during cooler-than-average summers, we’ve been rewarded with many peppers per plant. The bushy plants provide good scald protection. Sweet yellow peppers turn red in the fall and become amazingly sweeter. Try this unique variety eaten raw or pickled in the traditional way. An Italian heirloom. Open pollinated. (Territorial Seed)

Karmen Pepper
Karmen sweet pepper was a real hit with everyone here. Perfectly sized fruits grew on 2.5-3 feet tall plants and ripened a little later in the season. The wait was totally worth it. Very prolific variety, sweet and and fruity. Needless to say, I ate many in the garden. Crunchy, thick fleshed and has a multiplicity of uses. Cut these up for your fresh salads, have them as a stand-alone snack, use them in your cooking or for plating. Nice rich red color when fully ripened. Open pollinated. (Renaissance Farms)

Lemon Spice
72 days. If you like the spicy zing of Early Jalapeño, then this pepper is right up your alley. Bred at New Mexico State University, it’s the result of crossing Early Jalapeño with a bell pepper called Permagreen. These fruit emerge green and ripen to brilliant yellow with a spicy, fruity flavor. Open pollinated. (Territorial Seed)

Pizza Pepper
80 days. Jalapeño type. If you like the flavor of hot peppers but no so much fire, Pizza Pepper will be a hit. It is the heaviest, most thick-walled pepper we have ever seen. This means big pepper wedges with just a hint of zing. The 3 to 4 inch pendulous, cone-shaped peppers on 14 to 18 inch tall plants are most flavorful when green, and sweetest when red. Early and prolific. Open pollinated. (Territorial Seed)

Primero Red
80 days. The earliest ripening habanero, and also somewhat more gentle, heat-wise, than typical, very hot habanero varieties. Primero Red ripens right around the time of many bell peppers and produces very generous yields of these delightfully fruity peppers. The fruit averages 2-3 ½ inches long and 1-1 ½ inches wide, ripening from green to red with moderately wrinkled skin. F1 hybrid. (Territorial Seed)

One of the Best Producers in our Garden (Susan on 11 March 2023) “Can't say enough good things about this pepper The plants were strong and healthy all summer long. Each produced so many peppers I had a hard time keeping up with them; fresh eating, pickling, freezing, drying. The fruit had thick walls for a habanero, less wrinkles and larger size. Gorgeous on the plant; jewel like colors were outstanding going from a lemon yellow to orange then scarlet red. The skins were smooth, shiny and blemish free and they stored for an unbelievably long time in the refrigerator. The canopy of leaves sheltered the fruit well so I was harvesting these peppers even after a light frost in the fall… I highly recommend this pepper.”

Takara (Shishito)
60 days green, 80 days red ripe. Shishitos are quickly rising to the top ranks in popularity for their tasty, mild spice and snackability. Takara produces richly flavored, 3 inch long, light green peppers that ripen to red. Early and productive, the compact, well-branched, spreading plants provide heavy harvests of uniform, slender, bite-sized peppers with sturdy stems. We love Takara lightly tossed in oil, blackened on the grill, and tossed with a bit of coarse sea salt. F1 hybrid. (Territorial Seed)

Tennessee Cheese
Tennessee Cheese pepper is a sweet variety that we grew for the first time in 2018. This old family heirloom has stunning looks, especially when it begins to ripen from green to bright red. It’s a nice variety for stuffing and making fresh garden salads. Plants produce plenty and grow to about 2-3 feet tall. Fruits have a very distinctive, sweet and satisfying flavor, with absolutely no heat. Tennessee Cheese also has good potential to be a winner on your market stand. For pickling and dehydrating it should stand out!. If you like sweet peppers this one will definitely be a keeper. Try it, you’ll like it! Open pollinated. (Renaissance Farms)