I love planting Cayenne Peppers. Great for seosoning.

I am trying anaheim chiles this year. I've heard in my area, chiles grow better than bells. Judging just by the plants, that seems to be the case. They are growing much bigger and faster than the Ace bells I've also got planted.

I've come to really love Ancho 'St. Martin'. It's a very mild Ancho, and the fruits are large, thick, and very nice. When I dry the fully mature peppers, they seem to lose all vestiges of heat and are great to reconstitute or grind into powder.

It's kind of hard to find. I got a pack a couple of years ago from Seeds of Change, but they no longer carry it. Tomato Growers has it now.

I actually saved my own seeds and grew them out last year. Even though St. Martin is a hybrid, the grow out plants seemed pretty darned close to the original, especially in fruit size and heat level.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ancho St. Martin at Tomato Growers

For sweet peppers, tapered peppers generally grow better for me Carmen and Sweet Melrose are two favorites. For bells I do like Lady Bell, Big Bertha and Keystone Giant.

Hot peppers: I love Pulla, Kalocsai V-2, Jalapenos, Cayenne, Hungarian Hot Wax, Habaneros, and Lemon Drops.

My favorite green bell pepper is Fat N' Sassy (now being sold as King Arthur). Huge yields, great taste, early, very healthy plants.

My favorite jalapeno is Mucho Nacho. These guys really set a ton of large, tasty jalapenos that the hubby loves.

Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: My veggie and flower garden

Gave up on bells years and years ago. Corno di Toro is a great pepper with high yields and good flavor.

This is my first time planting hot peppers and I've got just about every variety I could find to see which ones like our limited growing season. My jalapenos seem to be prone to disease from all this wet weather.

i am growing about 40 varieties this year. i too have given up on bells- there is no purpose for which the sweet italian varieties are not better than a bell. my favorites among those are italia, carmen, and lipstick. lipstick tastes the best but the other 2 are more prolific and yield larger fruit.

among my favorite hots are datil, "andy" cayenne, and cleo's dragon.

I only grow bell peppers. I do not use hot ones. My "favorite" sweet pepper is Brigadier, a green to red.

It is very productive for me, so I harvest it heavily all summer for green peppers for salads, and use it in the fall when it turns red for grilling, dicing and freezing, and preparing that huge double batch of lasagna that I will freeze and eat all winter.

I also stuff a couple dozen peppers with my meatloaf (which contains diced peppers) and freeze them for winter and spring consumption.

I use the diced frozen peppers mostly in scrambled eggs and omelets.

Brigadier is my favorite because of its productivity. I actually prefer the taste of yellow and gold ones (when ripe) for eating fresh. (Early Sunsation and Gold Standard.) I also like the taste of orange ones: Ariane, and Queen.

I got some seed last year for a pepper called Sweet Chocolate, supposedly the sweetest pepper there is. It is sweet, but it is not very "attractive". It also never seems very firm or "crisp" to me.

All of these peppers are included in the bags of frozen, diced peppers I save for winter use.

{{gwi:61415}}From Sweet peppers

This year I hope to keep better records. I buy one each of 12 different varieties from a local grower. Only 2 are hot. Carmen has been on my list as well as Melrose and others. I'm just not sure which ones we like because the markers get lost.

I had really good yields from the Cubanelle peppers I grew last year, and we really liked them for cooking, so this year I started a dozen from seed. I put them out just before we got hit by a very hard rain/hail event and lost almost all of them. If I can find the plants locally I'll buy some replacements, but I expect I'll have to make do with Gypsies and sweet bananas instead.

Chuck

I just harvested my first pepper of the season. It was a Jimmy Nardello and it was excellent in tonight's dinner! I'm also growing lipstick peppers and am looking forward to those. They are getting close.

For hot peppers, I second Mucho Nacho. Other than what Kim already mentioned, anther advantage is their hardiness. Blessed by our mild zone 8 winter, I planted Mucho Nacho once and have been harvesting from the same plants for years.

No specific preference for bell peppers. I grow them for their color in dishes. Even California Wonder only do ok for me here (in California).

first year growing but quadrato rosso d'asti (translates to square red from asti) was a great growing, prolific, tasty firm red bell type pepper. also grew calif. wonder which was ok and serranno for my friend that likes hot peppers. going to try more hots next season and some different italian sweet peppers

I grow the quadrato asti giallo. Second year growing them, very prolific,
and sweet when starting to turn yellow. Jimmy Nardello is also a regular
pepper in my garden.
New to me this year was Super Heavyweight and Big Bertha, both hybrids.
I was happy with both of these peppers, very big bells.
I will be growing all of these next year and adding a new hybrid called
Park's early thickset.

Marconi is the gift that keeps on giving here this year. I've saved seed from the biggest and best to grow again. One of my plants is 3' tall and has 15 peppers on it. I have had 65 peppers from this plant so far this year. That's a winner!

I'm relieved to see that others have had trouble with Califoria Wonder as well. It's not just me! I couldn't get them to do anything. Same thing with Big Bertha. I got maybe 3-5 small bells all season. I switched to a smaller sweet pepper, shaped more like a dagger (not sure what it is) and had amazing production. Way too much to eat. Will try this shape and type next year.

Kim

I have given up on bells, they just don't grow very well here. I plan on replacing the with some type of sweet banana pepper next year. Any suggestions?

The Corno di Toro sounds interesting. Is it hot? The description "Big, plump, twisted 8-inch red peppers are jammed with spicy-sweet tang!" make me wonder.

Jalapenos and Anaheim grow really well for me.

I have no appreciable success with bells either. Corno di Toro is my choice too.

I haven`t grown hot peppers in years but I will probably grow a cayenne next year, for salsa making.

I had tremendous success this season with Gypsy peppers which I got from territorial. Like everybody else I had NO luck with bells, even ones that were supposed to be good for cooler zones like mine. So the gypsy pepper was very productive. In fact, I think I'll support my plants next year to bear the load! They really were thick walled and i thought tasty. I'm sure I sound like a commerical, but I'm just so happy to have found a sweet pepper I can grow in my zone.

Oh nooooo now this thread has me wanting to grow some sweet peppers! my list of veggies to grow this season has gotten long for me who will grow everything in containers on my roof! =)

For sweet peppers (in order of production/reliability):
Marconi - very productive, excellent in a cold wet or hot drought year. Love this pepper!
Chervena Chushka - very productive, in a cold, wet year, it did the best, but still good in drought, too.
Corno di Toro - also very good
Jimmy Nardello's - ripens very early

Wisconsin Lakes is one bell that does fairly well for me, but it really needs a good hot year with consistent rain to shine.

Hot - Early Jalapeno, Peach Habanero, Fish

I am up to my ears in red peppers right now and loving it! If you need an easy eggplant/pepper cooking idea, google "Ajvar". It is fantastic!

Bellatrix

For many years, I have grown about a dozen different cultivars of peppers, so I have tried hundreds over the years. Only a very few are worth growing again.

I am in Z6a - central Ohio. Peppers are extremely easy to grow here. Stick them in the ground, mulch with black plastic, and they grow well. Every cultivar that I planted gas always friend well, but most were not good enough in taste or production to grow again.

California Wonder is my staple. Very productive, and good tasting. Big Bertha is OK, but not as productive. A few of the non-red hybrid bells have been good plants, but I prefer red fruits.

Yum Yum hybrid is a new favorite. Will never garden again without it. 2-3 inch snacking peppers in orange, yellow, and red. Extremely sweet, very few seeds. Very productive. Plants are small and can be spaced 12-15 inches apart. Would be great in pots. Taste is much better than the similar snacking peppers from the grocery store.

This is the first year for Trolli's Sweet Italian, and I will try it again. Beautiful dark red color in salads and casseroles. Early, productive, good-tasting.

I have rejected some that were recommended by others on this list:

Jimmy Nardello was not at all productive here.

Mucho Nacho was far too hot for a Jalapeno. It was far hotter than its Scoville rating.

Carmen was extremely productive and not at all good tasting. California Wonder is so much better in taste.