Last year was a not a great year for peppers here. I had insect problems with the seedlings, and many of the plants just never really took off like they should. As a result, we had barely enough sweet peppers to keep us supplied for fresh use. The hot ones did a little better, though the ones that did do well weren’t always my favorites.
assortment of hot peppers
For fresh eating, we have really come to enjoy the Italian bull’s horn peppers. My favorite four were all bred by Johnny’s Selected Seeds, and three of them are AAS Winners as well. The red Carmen and Cornito Rosso and the yellow Escamillo and Cornito Giallo all have done well for me here, and we find them very useful in the kitchen. We like them so much, I have stopped growing bell peppers, which in my garden are sometimes difficult to get to ripen without having issues. I do still grow a couple of orange mini bells, Glow and Orange Blaze. I am sure dreaming of grilled Italian peppers, and hopefully there will be some for dehydrating as well.
Cornito Giallo and Cornito Rosso peppers
Speaking of dehydrating, I also do a lot of preserving of the peppers, and I grow quite a few specifically for drying and making into paprika or chile powder. My favorite paprika pepper has been Dulce Rojo, which has fairly thin walls and a deep red color that makes it great for drying. It’s also not too sweet, which means we aren’t tempted to eat them fresh. I didn’t get very many of them last year, though Hungarian Magyar from Renee’s Garden Seeds did a little better. I’m growing both of them again this year.
Dulce Rojo paprika pepper
A new favorite paprika pepper is one called Nora that I grew last year for the first time. This plant was one of many that struggled, but I managed to get six or seven ripe peppers which I dried and ground into paprika powder. This is a Spanish variety that is used for making the smoked paprika Pimentón. The fruits have thick walls and look like a pimento or cheese pepper to me. I’m dreaming of getting lots more of this one in 2018, and I will try smoking a few of them for paprika.
Nora peppers
I use a lot of chile powder here, and I’ve been making my own for years. I’ve used NuMex varieties like Anaheim and Biggie Chile and ancho types which are usually quite productive. But all of those wind up having a certain sweetness to them when dried, at least the ones I grow here. They also can get quite hot here, too much so for my tastes. A few years back I began growing guajillo type peppers, both open-pollinated ones and the hybrid Minero. They make a flavorful mildly hot chile powder that doesn’t taste sweet to me, and are my new favorite for sure. I did get quite a few of them last year, but I could always use more, and I’m dreaming of a bumper harvest this year!
Minero peppers
I grow a lot of baccatum peppers here, and one of my favorites is Aji Angelo. I ferment this one and use it to make a mild hot sauce that has incredible flavor. I also dehydrate the fermented peppers to make into flakes, which are a tasty way to add a little heat to many dishes. Another one we use a lot is Malawi Piquante, which I pickle to make the peppadew-style peppers you see on salad bars and in groceries. Aji Golden is another one I use a lot. The baccatum plants actually did quite well last year, at least the plants that I overwintered. Ironically, the overwintered plants were likely the source of the aphids that attacked the seedlings. This year I sprayed the pepper plants with a pyganic and neem oil mix before bringing them indoors, and that seemed to help keep the plants bug free. I’m dreaming of getting ripe Mad Hatter peppers this year too. It’s a 2017 AAS Winner that made lots of green ones but due to the insect issues with seedlings didn’t have time to ripen many. I overwintered one plant of it, and it should take off quickly once I put it outside.
Aji Angelo peppers
Lately I’ve become quite fond of my homemade kimchi. At first I used a commercial gochugaru pepper powder, but of course that led me to try growing my own peppers. Last year I tried a few in containers, including Lady Choi and Lady Hermit from Kitazawa Seeds and Korean Hot from Refining Fire Chilis. While they did well, they made gochugaru that was hotter than what I bought, so the search is still on. This year I am trying one from Adaptive Seeds called Korean Hot, and one from Sherwood Seeds called Kimchi. We shall see how they compare, and I am still dreaming of my very own kimchi peppers that aren’t so blazing hot!
Korean Hot, Lady Hermit and Lady Choi peppers
Those are a few of my current dreams and hopes for peppers in 2018. Are there any pepper dreams in your future, or any other veggie dreams for that matter?
Dreaming here too…looking at our seedlings with two proper leaves it is hard to believe wha we are hoping for, isn’t it?
My pepper dreams this year are so big that I could write up an entire blog post like this one! This will be the first year in a long time that I don’t have a bell pepper in the lineup. It’s not that I don’t like them and I found one that does very well here, but I finally admitted to myself that I prefer other types of sweet peppers. This week I sowed seeds for 13 different sweet peppers. And I’m a baccatum addict too, there’s 10 in the lineup this year. But wait, there’s even more! Five more non-sweet annuums and 4 chinense. I don’t know where I’ll put all of them.
I always find aphids on my pepper seedlings and last year I thought that thrips might be joining the party too so I gave the seedlings a dose of Spinosad and had the best bunch of seedlings in years. I think I’ll be trying the treatment again this year as a prophylactic treatment. I also experimented with treating my tomatoes and peppers with an early spray of Serenade because of the devastating powdery mildew infection that took my peppers down in 2016. I had no PM in the peppers and almost no problems with fungal diseases in the tomatoes which was a first. I’ll be doing the prophylactic spray with Serenade again too. I think that if I wait until I see problems that it’s already too late to effectively treat them. So knowing that there’s always diseases in my tomatoes every year and bugs on the peppers every spring I’ll just treat the problems before I see them.
I didn’t cover half the ones I am growing this year, so I could do a second post! I think I counted 9 baccatums, 2 chinense and the rest are annums. I rarely have pests on my peppers so last year was a first.
Like you, my 2017 season left a lot to be desired where peppers were concerned – I’m hopeful that this year will be much better (although I saw TWO rabbits running around and playing in my backyard today…not a good sign!)
Peppers are such an addictive crop – just so many varieties to try! I do want to give Mad Hatter a go but it didn’t end up on the grow list this year. But I do have two of your Aji Golden’s up and running! We seem to have similar experiences with how hot peppers get in our respective climates, so I’ll be watching to see how your search for “not so hot” hot peppers goes 🙂
Just love your blog and hearing about varieties, recipes, etc.
Thanks for all you do!
As far as peppers are concerned your harvst would be a triumph if it was ours.
Wow! So many varieties! That;s great. I cut back this year trying to focus on one’s I use most, but after reading all your varieties I feel like planting more. I have 5 annums. Cayennes: Red Rocket and Red Ember. Annaheim: Highlander. Bell: Ace. And a Sweet green roasting pepper that I am trying out this year: Shishito.
I do not find any pest problems here and have never sprayed anything (fingers crossed for this year), just problems with ripening some varieties and wishing the season was a bit longer. I look forward to hearing how your crop does this year.