OMG....that's all I needed to see I've got it bad. I'm growing 21 different peppers...and your list is 26.

Have you ever heard of or tried "Budapest"? Got the seeds from TT and I'm really intrigued. Let me know if you want a few seeds to try! haha! Maybe I can help "enable" you for once! I also got some Goliath Grillers that I'd be happy to share also!

Paula

Wow..that is a serious list.

Me??

Sangria
Prairie fire
Burpee Carnival
ghost chilli
banana peppers (from transplant)

I want to grow some of the mini bell I saw, they were too cute! So I may order them.

My pepper list is shorter than I'd like, simply because we'll be moving in a few months, and most of what I plant will be in pots, so I can bring them along. A few things will go in the ground, so potential buyers can see growing plants rather than empty veggie beds. Here it is:

Anaheim Sahuaro (hoping this will be a good stuffer)
Cayenne Joes Long
Jalapeno Tam
Serrano Tampiqueno (freebie from TT)
Serrano Del Sol
Jimmy Nardello (love this one!)
Lido Lamuyo (big sweet bell)

cj

Jay,

I saw this pepper at Sam's, its a feet long! Do you know what kind of pepper is this? where to get seeds?

Thank you -Chandra

Chandra - we've SERIOUSLY gotta find you some other hobbies. You're killin' us! So you got out today?

Looks like....a marconi? No, it's too skinny. Jimmy's Nardello? dunno...haven't grown them. Ugh....I think it's a sweet chili...and that's the best guess I can give. Did you buy it and are you saving the seeds? (Not really a question, more of a statement.)

I've already got 26 different peppers on my grow list...and DH is threatening to bar me from the computer if I come up with any more that I want to grow...so I'm just sayin'.....AAARRRGGGGHHHH! =)

Paula

Chandra my first question is it hot, medium, mild or a sweet pepper type. It could be a chile type or a sweet type by its appearance although I would think maybe a chile type. I will post a link to a grower who supplies a lot of the commercially grown seed in the US and Mexico. Interesting to read about him and his farm. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Curry Farms

Paula, I become restless after sitting at home twoooooo days, then thought to go out to check my NH's driving skills! it was topsy-turvily-risky but fun driving in the ice and snow!

Priya told there were very few seeds, but did not save any seeds as she used to cook with seeds. Seed saving idea did not flash to me, will that in mind next time.
I got few pepper seeds in the swap, I was looking to order couple of varieties for sweet, medium hot, hot, very hot and extreme!

I have found few nice Chile Pepper Apps for iPhone, viz Peppers, Chilifarm, Scoville,...

Jay, that was sweet pepper. Taste is quite similar to any other sweet bell pepper. But I was stunned to see such a huge and long sweet pepper! Look at the DVD case, it looks so tiny with giant pepper. I looked at the Curry Farm's Guinness World Record pepper that seems to much smaller than sam's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Review of Chile Pepper iPhone Apps

Chandra,
Email me once you put together your wish list. I have more peppers than I can possibly grow this year and will send you seed. In fact, yesterday when Jay posted, I went to count my list so far. I was completely embarrassed by my list of 53 varieties, so I had to go back to the drawing board. I'm now down to 30. I'm hoping Jay's new seed order will significantly expand his list, because there's just something not right about growing more than the Pepper King. Otherwise, I'll have to pare down some more. Last year I lost count after I put 90 peppers in the ground, but I had fewer varieties. With 30 varieties, I could end up hating myself.

And speakin of quantity....Paula has suggested you need another hobby, but you do know you already have one, right? It's called preserving. With all the stuff you are growing I suspect you're going to be canning and freezing until you can't stand up at night. If you leave all of it to your wife, she may trade you in for a different model! People on campus tend to lock their car doors, so you won't be able to dump excess produce that way, either.

Send me your pepper list and I'll see what I can do.

Still enabling,
Seedmama

Seedmama,

I not have any preferences. What I am looking is highly productive and good tasting 1-2 varieties for sweet, mild, moderate, hot types. I would like to leave my wish list for Pro to decide rather than I making wrong choice. I will go with whatever you send. I am allocating 2 beds of 4'x16' and also thinking to insert few plants here and there...

Here is list of Chilli Peppers I got in the Seed Swap;
1. Sweet Banana
2. California Wonder
3. Bird's Eye
4. Jimmy Nardello
5. Corno di Toro
6. Valencia Orange
7. Long Thin Cayenne
8. Alma Paprika
9. Serrano

Do you have Bhut Jolokia? Wiki says that is world's hottest pepper! I am just curious whether you have any experience growing it and dare to use in any recipes?

Thank you -Chandra

So far I have ordered Mini belle mix, yummy mix, Cajun bell, Tam, and I thought I only lacked ordering BLushing Beauty and Habanero, but I can see now that you enablers have tempted me further I am going to have to revise my "yet to order"
I have never had great luck with bells, so I am hoping this year will be better.
mo

I've not grown Bhut Jolokia and don't plan to. For fresh eating, I don't go much hotter than a jalapeno, ancho or Hungarian Wax. I grew habanero last year because enlightened me on Habanero Gold Jelly. Any other hots I grow are just for salsa, and my family doesn't like it hot, so I don't need a lot.

Chandra and Mo, I can send each of you some things via the onions. I'll try, but don't promise, to email you a list of things I will be sending.

Chandra,
I see Seedma has you pretty much covered on seeds. I will be glad to send you anything I have seeds for if there is something I have that you would like to grow. The majority of what I grow number wise are of the NM Chile type. I also grow several different jalapenos. I roast or grill each of these types. Then what I don't eat then I either freeze whole or I chop them up in the blender and then freeze them and use them in chile, beans and most other things I cook. I know many that buy their NM chile types from the stores but I don't feel I can grow as good as I can grow. I mainly grow the bell and sweet types to eat fresh so don't need near as many of them. I may roast a few of them also next year.

Seedmama the above reasons are why I grow fewer varieties than you do. I wouldn't call myself a pepper king. I grow several varieties of NM Chile types, jalapenos and then usually an ancho and mulato type. But other than those types I don't grow big numbers of the rest. Jay

Thank you seedmama. You are a peach!!
mo

If anyone has some New Mexico green chiles, just the regular old chiles like they roast and use for stew, I have a bunch of different tomato seeds I could trade.
I'm growing jalape�o, habanero and sweet habanero. Also have this tiny Asian chile, have no idea what it is but it's cute, very hot. I need to move it to a more decorative location and also figure out how to use those tiny peppers. I'm thinking they might be good in pickled okra?

I'm trying to expand my NuMex anaheim peppers. We really love their sweet/spicy flavor when we cook salsa to can. I have a couple of varieties but am looking to eventually add some of the 'Heritage' peppers to the collection.

So far, meaning always subject to change, I'm growing:

1. Red Beauty bell
2. Orange bell
3. Yellow bell
4. Valencia Orange bell
5. Ancho poblano
6. Fresno
7. Jalapeno M
8. Jalapeno TAM
9. Early Jalapeno
10. Biker Billy Jalapeno
11. Jalapeno Grande
12. Orange Habanero
13. White Habanero
14. Chocolate Habanero
15. NuMex Barker anaheim
16. NuMex Big Jim anaheim
17. NuMex Joe E. Parker anaheim
18. Cubanelle
19. Corno di Toro
20. Quadrato D'Asti Giallo
21. Quadrato D'Asti Rosso
22. Aji Dulce
23. Mariachi
24. Tequila Sunrise
25. Red Cheese
26. Feher Ozon
27. Fish
28. Chinese 5-Color
29. Lemon Drop
30. Jimmy Nardello

I plan to do multiples of the anaheims and jalapenos for roasting. Yum!

Lynn

Justsaymo I will look but probably have enough seeds to share. At least enough to give them a try. I should have seeds of at least a couple different varieties of NM chiles for you too try.

Lynn I will send you a few seeds of the Heritage types to try. That way you can find out if you like them.

I'm still trying to get some seeds for a few of the Curry varieties. Jay

tracydr, I have a good quantity of plain Anaheim pepper seed, commercial from last year I'd be happy to send. It is not one of the NuMex varieties , but I also have some NuMex Sunrise I harvested from 2010. I received Joe E. Parker in the swap and I'll share some of those too. If you'll email me your address, I can send some. I don't need anything in return.

Justsaymo and Chandra, I emailed you a list of peppers that will come with your onions. I hope that helps.

Seedmama, I got the list, thank you very much. I browsed photos online, looks like very tasty and colorful peppers.

Lynn, thank you for all those nice pepper seeds you sent for the swap.

I can't wait to start my tomato and pepper seeds... who else starting this weekend? -Chandra

I think I've finalized my pepper growout list for this year. Like someone else mentioned above, I'm trying to concentrate on jalapenos, NuMex, Anaheim sorts for the hots. It'll take me a few years but I hope to find a few favorites of those that are dependable producers for me here. Then I can have a no-brainer core of peppers to grow and have fun with a couple of experimental ones each year. Fun, yet not overwhelming.

What are "Heritage" types?

Hots:

1. generic Anaheim
2. Joe E. Parker
3. Habanero
4. "Hot Chili" (came in the swap but I didn't pay close attention to the official name so need to dig it out and check)
5. Hungarian Yellow Wax
6. Jalapeno
7. Jalapeno M
8. Jalapeno Ixtapa
9. Jalapeno TAM
10. Big Jim
11. Poblano

Sweets:

12. Alma Paprika
13. Banana Supreme
14. Giant Marconi
15. Golden Bell
16. Jimmy Nardello
17. Orange Bell
18. Pepperoncini
19. Purple Beauty
20. Red Beauty
21. Roumanian Rainbow
22. Valencia Orange
23. Yellow Bell

Now if I could just finalize my tomato list. Again.

Diane

Diane,
I will try to post again. This is the 3rd time. I will post a link that covers what the heritage series is. Basically they said the flavor wasn't what it was. And they took seeds froze in the 60's I believe and selected for the original flavor along with several other traits for the Heritage series. One of the traits was the ability to do well in saline conditions. Which are predominate in NM and where I live also. Another reason I feel the NM chiles do well here. I'm sure you have figured out I'm high on NMSU and NM chiles. By far my favorite pepper. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Nu-Mex Heritage series

Diane, I've spent the last 30 minutes searching for a wonderful online article I read about a year ago which talked about the on-going efforts in NM resulting in the 'Heritage' pepper varieties. Maybe Jay will remember where it is and help me out here because it really was a great article and I simply can't find it. Hopefully, he'll jump in if I've left something out or have mixed up some of the facts.

Bottom line is that over the years the NuMex peppers have slowly changed due to numerous grow-outs, grow-outs of the grow-outs, seed selection process, where it's grown, etc. They kept getting further and further away from their original taste. Several noted NM chili experts from various institutions got together and worked to create the 'Heritage' versions of each variety through selective breeding to essentially bring back their original taste. I've wanted to get seeds from the NMSU Chili Institute folks ever since I read about their program.

Jay, I would greatly appreciate any of the Heritage seeds you would have to share. I would only need a very small amount - just enough to get a plant going. I want to try roasting some this year to use in our salsa. I can only imagine how the roasting would enhanced their flavor. At the risk of you gasping for breath, holding your side and wiping tears from your eyes from hysterical laughter --- do i have something I could send you in return? -- providing I might actually have something you don't already own (insert additional hysterical laughter here).

Chandra, You are very welcome for the pepper seeds. I know they will grow well for you here and, more importantly, I hope you like them.

Diane, I'm pleased to see so many familiar varieties on your list as well. I can't wait to hear how they do for you in MO. We lived outside KC prior to moving to OKC so I can honestly say that I'm envious of your growing conditions and soil. We inherited a wonderful garden in the last place we lived there and it produced without us having to lift a finger all season -- now THAT'S gardening. :-)

Lynn

LOL I knew I should have just waited for Jay to pop up. See... I missed the whole "frozen seeds from the 60's" angle.

Thanks to you both. Now I'll have to see about adding those for next year. Enablers!

Lynn, glad you noticed. A huge bunch of those are from you. You're my Fairy PepperMother! I've emailed you a couple of times to thank you and ask if you received my package but I think they didn't go through. (Stupid blizzard.) So here's a big, public thank you! :-D

I've always loved, loved, love hot peppers but was content with most of them. The past couple of years, however, I've been refining my tastes and, therefore, branching out into new pepper territory. Plus, the family is now as in love with hot peppers as I am so there are seven more sets of taste buds to please.

Diane

We're not big on too much heat. Grow Tam Jalapeno. But a few years ago found the seed for Poblano and love them. We like them stuffed and in soup. Jay, or anybody else, have a few seeds to spare? Or know where I can order some?

I'm going to attach another link about the Heritage series. Chandra migh enjoy reading it as it mentions they used mass spectrometry laboratory testing also when selecting these new varieties. Lynn I still can't find the newsletter than NMSU published about the series. I know it has to be online somewhere. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: NMSU Heritage Series

Jay-
thank you, I have not grown NM chiles before. I used to visit my aunt in Albuquerque when they would be roasting the Hatch chiles. There is absolutely nothing like that smell! It's wonderful.
Seedmama, got your email and sent a reply. Thanks!
mo

Jay, thank you very much for sharing an interesting link. We too have mass spectrometry in our lab but mainly used of isotope analysis but very interesting to know that it can be for pepper flavor detection! I am going to write Dr. Bosland (Chileman) and seek more details and also tell about our spectroradiometer screening. Cheers -Chandra

You guys are so mean.

I've been devouring the Heritage info since you mentioned it. I drooled all over me keyboard. Bad Jay! Bad Lynn!

Is chilepepperinstitute.org the only ordering option or have they been released for other retailers? I found a few in the UK but none in the US. Admittedly, I am Google-challenged so I'm sure I missed a couple.

Not that I'm buying any more seeds. Nope. Not me. I'm just, um, checking out the options for next year, you see.

Diane

So many beautiful pepper exists in this awesome garden world.

I never never heard about all those wonders of nature, so many choices for home gardeners! I was stunned to see kaleidoscopic tomatoes, now peppers, what else awaiting down the lines...

Now I slowly realizing that non-gardens or people who not growing their own might have been missing one of the important thing in their life.

What I can say is "Gardener's Life is Beautiful" -Chandra

Here is a link that might be useful: Beautiful Peppers

Diane,
I know there are a few other sites that off the Heritage series. Biad Chile and also Sandia Seed I believe. I have always ordered from the NMSU site.

Chandra when I read the info I thought of your post and felt it would be of interest to you. Jay

Thanks, Jay. However, you left me alone in the NMSU store by myself too long. And I happened to have a little "bonus" money leftover because I exercised such restraint in my seed order this year. Hah. Not anymore. But that's okay because I'll get far more $$ worth of produce that I've spent.

To my above list, add the following for this year's grow out:

1. NuMex Heritage 6-4
2. NuMex Heritage Big Jim
3. Mulato
4. NuMex Jalmundo
5. NuMex Sunrise, Sunset, Eclipse
6. NuMex Conquistador

Bad Jay. Bad, bad Jay. Now where's Lynn so I can cuss her out as well?

Diane

shhh...Lynn's gone underground in hiding.

After Diane's comments about what she would do if she was in the PTA I'm just praying that if she heads to SW KS someone warns me before she arrives. LOL. Hope they all do well for you. I'm not sure Lynn or I either can take much credit for being enablers when it comes down to you. Hard to influence an addict too much. Jay

Jay,
I received your package in the mail today. Thanks so much!

Keith

I've still got seeds sprouting but here is what i have green and leafy at the moment

White Habanero
Red Tree Habanero
Fish
Black Pearl
Black Scorpion Tongue
2nd generation long slim cayenne

i am planting greens and tomatos today, and re seeding my tepin, cherry bomb, and one other one i forget the name that have not sprouted.

All this talk about peppers made me want to try some. DW has gone to town and I ask her to pick up some pepper seed. We always plant bell peppers but have not grown much of anything else. We also want to try making salsa this year. WE have eaten very little spicy food so this will be a new adventure for us.

Larry

Here's what I have right now. these are all about 6 weeks old:

-CHOCOLATE HABANERO
-WHITE HABANERO
-GOLDEN HABANERO
-GIANT JALAPENO
-JALAPENO PEPPER-EARLY
-SERRANO PEPPER
-PUMPKIN HABANERO
-KUNG PAO PEPPER
-Ghost Pepper
-Red Savina Habanero
-PETER PEPPER (looks like a dong, but tastes glorious)
-Scotch Bonnett
-Red Lantern Habanero
-Mini Bell Peppers

What is your favorite non hot,sweet non bell pepper? For eating raw or stir fry?
Leava

Is there a higher-yielding variety of sweet bell pepper than California Wonder? I've been growing this variety for a few years, and I'm just not pleased with the results. I'm lucky if I get 1-2 peppers a year from each plant. I just have a small city garden, so I'd obviously like the get the most bang out of it. My garden is mostly shaded from the morning sun by my house and trees. The peppers usually attract aphids or something that makes the leaves look mutated. Not sure if that is hurting my production or not.

I'm sure California Wonder grows well in CA.

I will probably jinx myself by saying this, but I have never had a pest on a pepper that caused a problem. I have had leaves that looked deformed when the weather was just a little too cool for the peppers. It would be best to not expose them to cool temps at all, but sometimes in Oklahoma we get cool spring weather after we have had things in the ground for awhile. If you have a little mis-shaping of the leaves which appears that the center of the leaf is growing faster than the edges, then it has probably gotten too cold. If you are buying plants, that could have happened before you bought them and this very well could limit production. If, on the other hand, the plant is seriously deformed, like curly leaves, then I would suspect herbicide damage. It could be from a lawn treatment, a neighbor, or a mulch such as hay.

Back to California Wonder - They grow for me, but few of them get the size of those in the grocery store. Last year my first bell was Purple Beauty, but when it got really hot they slowed down, but came back again in the fall. I had lots of bell peppers including CA Wonder, Big Bertha, Big Dipper, etc and they all produced but chose their own time to do so. I think the secret to peppers is to not let them EVER get cold (per Dawn's direction) and plant several different kinds. I had the ones above that are available as rack packs almost everywhere, and several more seeds that I bought at Baker Creek.

Don't neglect the sweet non-bell types. I was very happy with Golden Marconi last year, but I noticed that a lot of them didn't get yellow because I was running to the garden to pick them everytime I had the outdoor grill going. I gave my friends a lot of peppers last year, but the number of Marconi they got was limited. LOL

My husband would love it if I would just settle on a few types, but I find that planting several gives me a better chance of a continual harvest. (That's my story...)

I don't remember how much salsa I made last year, but probably 40-50 pints, then I cut up and froze peppers to use for cooking all winter. I freeze bags with sweet peppers in all colors, then I freeze bags that I call spicy mix that have sweets, jalapeno, and pablano, etc. Not super hot, but with a little bite to them. When I need peppers for cooking, I just hit the bag on the cabinet to break them up a little, take out what I need, and stick the bag back into the freezer. It is extremely convenient.

I normally plant pepper seed at the same time I start tomatoes, but put them in the ground about two weeks later. I am getting really close to my tomato starting date, but I may do a few peppers this weekend. It has been hard to think about planting when the snow is still this deep. It is doing some melting today tho, and our temp is a wonderful 42 degrees. Feels like a heat wave.

Peppers grow quite well in containers, if your garden space is limited.

Leava, I don't necessarily have one favorite, but there are several we really like, including these:

Cubanelle, Jimmy Nardello's, Carmen, Corno di Toro (available in both a red and yellow version), Marconi(there's a Giant Marconi (green maturing to red), Golden Marconi, Red Marconi, and Purple Marconi) and Gypsy. Last year I grew Yummy Orange and was happy with it, so this year I'm growing both Yummy Orange and Yummy Mix.

Tulsastorm, It just isn't normal for a plant to produce only 1 or 2 peppers. If your pepper plants are not getting 3 to 4 hours a day of sunlight, the lack of light is affecting production. Other factors that can impede production include planting too early (exposure to cold soil and air temps too early in their life can cause them to be non-productive for the life of the plant), planting too late I(nighttime temps above 75 and nighttime temps above 90 can impede production of sweet peppers), giving them too much nitrogen (all leaves, few flowers or fruits) or disease (peppers are prone to all kinds of diseases that make the foliage pucker and distort). Very high humidity, which certainly was a problem here last year, also can adversely affect pollination and fruit set.

The highest yielding sweet bell peppers I've ever grown are Blushing Beauty and Roumanian Rainbow. Both produced many fruit per plant all summer long. It wasn't unusual for them to have 6 or 8 or 10 fruit in various shades of color all at the same time and they both are fairly short, compact plants. They were growing in morning sun until about noon, then in dappled shade after that.

Other high-producing sweet bells in my garden are Super Heavyweight (fewer fruit per plant but they are huge), Chocolate Beauty, Jupiter, Lilac, Tequila, and Red Beauty.

Last year, I grew Renee's Garden "Jewel Tone" sweet bell mix, which had yellow, orange and red bell pepper varieties all in one package (each is dyed with food coloring so you can choose how many to plant of each one) and was pleased with the performance of all three, but especially with the orange one, which gave me the most orange bell peppers per plant that I've ever had. The three varieties in the Renee's Garden packet were Admiral Golden Bell, Valencia Orange Bell and Vidi Crimson Bell.

Seeds of almost all the peppers I've mentioned here are available from Tomato Growers Supply Company. Yummy and Yummy Mix are available from Totally Tomatoes and its related family of seed companies, and Renee's Garden seeds are available at specialty garden retailers or at their own website, which I've linked below.

Hope this info helps.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Jewel Tone Sweet Bells At Renee's Garden

Thanks Dawn and soonergrandmom. I'm growing them from Burpee organic seed. The deformed leaves sound like cold damage then. Last year, I may have left the seedlings out on the porch on a cold night or two. I don't think I planted them in the ground until early May, but then summer came early. I usually plant them in front of my tomatoes, so if the tomatoes are happy, I think the peppers ought to be happy with the amount of sun they are getting. I'll try a few of the varieties including the non-bells you've both mentioned and see what happens. I might try some in containers on the south side of my house, and see if they like it over there better.

The only thing that gets me through this yucky cold and snowy weather is thinking about the garden I'm going to have in a few [hopefully] short weeks. :-)

Tulsastorm, You're welcome. It took me years to figure out that peppers produce less well if they get too cold too early in their life.

When I lived in Texas in zone 8 where the air and soil warm up about 4-6 weeks earlier than they do here, I could transplant tomatoes and peppers at the same time, most likely because once it warmed up, it tended to stay that way. The peppers and tomatoes would flower and set fruit at the same time. After moving here in 1999, I learned I couldn't plant them at the same time here because tomatoes are a lot more cold tolerant and can handle our wildly fluctuating spring temperatures here, but peppers cannot handle the recurring cold nights. Tomato plants will tolerate temperatures in the 30s (as long as they stay above freezing and are free of frost, which can form at temps as high as 38 or 39 degrees under some conditions). Peppers, though, if exposed to soil temperatures below 55 degrees for even just a few days, can be damaged. You may not see any visible damage on the plant, but the plant growth often will stall and then once the plant begins growing again, it just never really kicks into production very well.

I am very careful to keep my pepper seedlings inside when the weather is cool, and even if I carry them outside to soak up the sun every chance I get, I still carry them back inside on any night when the forecast low goes below 55-60 degrees. I get huge yields from my plants and I believe that's because I never let my pepper plants get cold. I also harvest peppers amazingly early....last year I got the first big harvest of sweet bell peppers on June 22nd, when I harvested 6 lbs. and the first big harvest of jalapenos on June 15th, when I harvested 10 lbs. 2 oz.

Last year, I stopped weighing the pepper harvest at some point (probably early August) because I just thought to myself "enough is enough" but I know I had harvested well over 75 lbs. of hot peppers and over 30 lbs. of sweet peppers by late August and continued to harvest from in-ground plants until the first frost in October. I harvested my last pepper from container-grown plants that I was overwintering (in the garage at night, out on the sunny patio on days when temps were above 40) in January, and then the plants in the garage froze this week. I'm giving you those numbers to show it should be easy to get good pepper yields from plants transplanted into the ground in late April or early May after the soil and air temps are in the right range.

Peppers are prone to many kinds of diseases including those that make the leaves puckered, twisted and mottled. Pepper Mosaic Virus is often the cause of these issues. You also will see yellow or brown splotches on the leaves, and these are caused by many different bacterial and fungal diseases.

Also, if you have sandy soil or sandy loam, root knot nematodes can cause the plants to stunt and be unproductive. One way to know if you have root knot nematodes is to check your plant roots when you pull up the plants in the fall. If you see knots and galls on the roots, you have nematodes. You can do everything right in terms of meeting the plants' needs, but if you have root knot nematodes, you may not get many peppers.

I am confident that if you make sure your young pepper plants never are exposed to cold temperatures early in their lives, you can get a really good harvest from them.

Dawn

Carol, it always astounds me how much I learn from you - like leaf shape determining the plant has had too much cold, and that I'm not the only one into "bag banging" when I just want a little of something in the freezer, lol!

Since growing peppers is new to me, too, I am going to grow 2 or 3 of each variety, and take just one of them outside at a time in our freaky wild spring in case the first one(s) gets damaged. A back up plan in action!

Thank you so much for the insight! Now I know what to look for on the foliage.

I'm only growing a couple of sweets and around 4 hot peppers, including the Jalapeno and Anaheim types, all for Salsa.

Diane - I see you are growing a Paprika. Do you dry and grind them and make your own spice? I love Paprika and I just know that fresh would be better than store-bought. I haven't seen anyone else mention Paprika, so I didn't know how well the plants would do here. Do you have any more info?

Susan

Still one-handed typing so excuse brevity.

This will only be my second time growing a paprika and I didn't dry & grind the other time. I will this year. I've done hot peppers before but not much. The previous paprika grew okay for me in OK but it wasn't a stand-out, if memory isn't playing tricks on me.

Diane

Meant to mention that I cannot remember the variety from back then. It's been 5-ish years or so.

In my opinion the biggest mistake so many gardeners make with okra and peppers especially the hot and chile types is exposing them to cool temps. Cool air temp along with cool soil temp are both equal issues in my mind. Not a year goes by that I don't get asked why someone's peppers or okra isn't growing and producing. They can't understand why they set theirs out 2-3 weeks earlier than mine why I'm getting a bumper crop and they are getting few if any and their plants are stunted. Usually temps was the problem. Again knowing your area and tendencies helps and covering them if you know a cool spell is coming helps also. Here our soil temp will be warm enough usually way before the early morning air temps are. Soil temps maybe 60 degrees when we are still have early morning air temps for a few hours in the 40's and high 30's. I try to wait to transplant peppers unless I plan to cover them till I feel the early morning temps will be in the low 50's. That way if it drops just a little lower briefly I'm ok. In my case I usually set my chile types out around Memorial day. There has been a few years where I took a chance on a early spring and set a few out early. I will be trying that this year. But will be starting plants later for insurance in case the cool hits any I set out early.

I have a few disease issues with my peppers. Like my tomatoes most are insect borne. I've seen Curly Top(carried by the leafhopper), TSWV(Thrips), Mottle Virus(Aphids), Cucumber Mosiac Virus(Aphids) and TMV here. I don't see all every year but have seen each of the above here. I do have a few other issues from time to time but these are the most common I see. I will attach a link to an article by NMSU about pepper diseases. I see most of the disease they do as the insects ride the warm SW winds from NM to Kansas and then stop off to eat on my green garden before continuing. If you look at the picture of wind damage I see that every year. It doesn't really hurt anything overall unless it breaks a stem. I've had several gardeners though that confuse wind damage with disease or spray damage. So many times you may have multiple issues which makes it even more difficult to diagnose your problems.

I usually get fair to good production here on my peppers. Size and production of sweet peppers vary with the weather conditions here more so than the chile types. California Wonder is one I usually plant. It is fairly dependable although production does vary. I plan to use a row cover over some sweet peppers and get them out a little earlier this year. I'm growing Purple Beauty this year as I've seen several here mention it. I will be posting some more additions to my pepper list as I've had a few more seeds arrive. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper Diseases

Thanks, Diane!

Susan