In your climate with your growing season. I would think 100 is a minimum for a good Cayenne.

My cayenne has less than 10 peppers and falls over all the time...won't grow again.
Jerry

Larry: cayennes are heavy producers. Like Bruce said, can't ask for a better climate for peppers year round outside of Florida and still be in the lower 48 states. One good thing about cayennes is that they dry well and it's uses are primarily for dried. I stopped growing them --- decent heat, but there are so many other varieties that also have much better flavor.

gfinnil: Sounds like a root/soil issue. You should have cayennes coming out of your ears.

Kevin

Kevin I think you're right, for some reason however tomatoes do well in this soil but the peppers are struggling. Next year I will amend the soil and try again. Just curious as to which varieties you prefer over cayenne? I like the heat but am new to growing peppers so better flavor sounds intriguing...thanks for your time.
Jerry

gfinnil: If tomatoes are growing fine and peppers are not, I'd say it's a watering issue. Tomatoes love water. Peppers do too, but they like to go through stretches of thirst. In other words--- deep soaks And then nothing until the next deep soak.

I know space is usually limited to most gardeners. But, in the future, try not to grow the two in the same bed. maybe containers. Peppers can be very productive in them.

Regarding other varieties, I've heard the GOLDEN cayenne is much better. But to name just a couple-- chile de arbol and japones are 2 that are a bit below cayenne on the scoville scale. Thai varieties are good. Pequin and tepin varieties. The Ghost and Naga Morich have excellent flavor -- just use a lot less of it than you would cayenne.

I'm probably not the one best to discuss varieties with here though. There are many others that grow tons of varieties that I'm not even familiar with.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Sat, Aug 10, 13 at 14:50