In your zone it may be difficult to get much early ripening, regardless of the variety, simply because of the cooler weather. Peppers really need the heat. I have the best luck with Cupid, a mini bell, and Tangerine Dream, also a mini. I can get lots of green bells early but nothing with much color. Will have to give Melrose a try even though farmerdill has a much better pepper growing climate than I do.

Dave

Bells take a long time to ripen, even in my climate. The frying peppers are much faster.

I think the best way is to start them really early inside so that they are nice and big at plant-out time. Mine seemed to take forever to ripen this season.....

Linda

Early jalapeno is a good one, and you can give Ace bell a try, though I didn't find it terribly early grown in the ground back when I lived in Colorado, but it might be better grown in a container.

If you go to Native Seeds Search, which is out of Tucson, they sell one called Tarahumara Chile Colorado which always produced pretty early for me. Its a very mild, sweet even, thin walled pepper that its probably ground into powder most of the time. I dry them and store them whole rather than grind them though. NSS also sells several other chiles from high elevation pueblos in New Mexico that would probably work for you as well.

https://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/chiles

Sweet banana and Carmen are two sweet non-bells that do well for me...faster to ripen than any bells most years. I'll look over my bell list for an early one or two...can't remember the exact names just now. Growing in containers or raised beds can help in cooler climates, too, since the soil warms up sooner.

Even though I grow my earliest pepper varieties in a high tunnel there are some varieties that will produce earlier outdoors.

For sweet peppers I'm picking Lunchbox series, Midas, Eros and Sweetie Blend weeks before others. Mid size bells like Cute Stuff Gold & Red and Orange Blaze are early for their size. Larger sweet bells and bullhorn types that come ripe fairly early are Sprinter(red), Red Knight(red), Catriona(yel) and Yellow Sparkler. Some people say Carmen is early but it is later than any I mentioned for me.

Some hot peppers are ready for picking fairly early. Shishito and Padron appetizer peppers are very early to produce at the green (desired) color. My Red Scotch Bonnets set fruit as purple pods that are attractive at that early unripe stage.

Although I don't grow Sweet Banana or hot Hungarian Wax peppers in tunnels they are the first to harvest of my outdoor peppers. Many cubanelle peppers are ready to harvest early also.

In your area which is just west of me you could benefit by planting pepper transplants into black plastic mulch. It can give you up to a 3 week harvest advantage for all varieties. I won blue ribbons again this year for large red, yellow, orange bell peppers at our county fair because my larger field grown Aristotle, Lafayette and Garfield peppers were nicely colored by late August.

New Ace has been the first bell to ripen for me since I started growing it 4 years ago. Fedco seeds has it.

According to my notes I picked my first ripe Carmen, Escamillo, and Ace all on June 16th this year. As a comparison I picked my first Flavorburst yellow and Gourmet Orange bells on July 20 and 31 respectively. There were very few Escamillo and Ace left on the plants when I picked them bare yesterday but quite a few Carmen yet. Our first freeze is predicted for Saturday morning at 29 and we will probably get a frost Friday morning.

I am dropping Gourmet orange in favor of Orange Blaze next year because I don't want to be picking 1/3 of the total harvest green before the first frost like I did yesterday.

Carmen has been a perennial favorite of mine but I also want a good thick fleshed bell to roast for the freezer. This year it was Buran (Pine Tree seeds). I wasn't paying attention to things so I lost the first Zolotisty (yellow) bells to furry critters. The flavor is wonderful. Buran was very prolific but the seed catalog says they ripen late, like mid-September. The flavor is great. I figure I can have some early red with Carmen but Buran is #1 for the freezer. Urfa Biber had a little bit of heat. Was also prolific but a smaller pepper than Buran.

Thanks! I am looking for sweet peppers and I start them early inside then transfer outside into a large cold frame with heat if needed! Still wait way to long......

I'll second the recommendations for Melrose and Carmen; Melrose in particular because it bears very heavily. Sweet Chocolate (not to be confused with Chocolate Bell) is also both early and productive. Tennessee Cheese is the earliest pimento type that I've grown.

Oddly enough, my favorite "sweet" pepper is actually a hot pepper. Pizza Pepper is hot if picked in warm weather, but becomes sweet - or nearly so - if picked just before frost (as I did today). The ripe peppers are nothing special, it is the fully grown green peppers that have the best flavor. They look like over-sized jalapenos, and to judge by the plant habit & high productivity, jalapenos were probably one of the ancestors. Walls as thick as bells, with a distinctive crispness, and delicious flavor. Kept in the fridge, many of them will keep until Christmas.