Our sweet pepper harvest is always unimpressive. We harvest a few fruits but they take a long time to ripen.
This year we bought some mini peppers from our greengrocer.
We've always overlooked them on the past on account that we presumed there would be more waste than anything else. On this particular day I was looking for some bits to put in an omelette and a large pepper would have been too big so I bought a pack. This lot cost just £1.
There's no denying that they are very cute.
As it turned out they have very few seeds and if anything are easier to prepare as when preparing their larger cousins I end up with seeds everywhere.
They are also very sweet and good eaten raw so some sneak into our sandwiches.
The revelation made me wonder whether mini peppers would prove more successful for us and so I searched the seed catalogues looking for something similar to those we had bought. As it was most catalogues had a version that matched. In the end I added a packet to an order that we had already prepared and ordered these.
We are still going to grow a couple of the larger varieties and have ordered.
Maybe 2017 will be a good year for peppers.
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Oh, I love these little guys! I hope they work out for you. They only have two carpels instead of the usual three. Also peppers heatcheck at temps over 90F here, but you don't have to worry about that. Old Farmer's Almanac has some interesting tips. Matchsticks?
ReplyDeleteNo our problem is coldcheck, Jane. I had a look at the Old Farmers' Almanac but couldn't find a reference to matchsticks? I'm intrigued!
Delete"Put two or three match sticks in the hole with each plant, along with about a teaspoon of fertilizer. They give the plants a bit of sulfur, which they like."
DeleteThanks, Jnbe we may have to try this with some to see if it makes a diffrrence.
DeleteHi Sue, I'm located in Upstate New York where we also struggle to get peppers to ripen in our short season; it was so bad that I stopped even trying to grow peppers for a while. Last year I found an OP variety through Adaptive Seeds that was bred in Wales for cold areas. It is a Sheeps Nose/Pimento type and it was prolific. I actually had red peppers in late July, which is unheard of the pests left them alone and I had no disease issues either - they produced until I cut them down just before our first frost. They were small but very sweet and my freezer is packed with the things! The variety is Sunnybrook and they got it from Ben Gable of Real Seeds in Wales and the Irish Seed Saver Association - maybe you can track them down. DebS
ReplyDeleteI had a look at the Real Seeds website Debs and strangely they don't sell it. I'll keep a lookout though maybe for next year.
DeleteThey are adorable and fun to grow as well.
ReplyDeleteI picked the WRONG variety for my foray into the world of minis and the one I chose was soooooooo seedy. I got them for a grab-n-go snack. My neighbor loved to scoop out the seeds and stuff them.
I'll be watching for updates on yours.......I would like to try them again.
The variety that I have chosen may yet turn out to be seedy, Sue.
DeleteI love those little peppers ~ they are so versatile in cooking and are great stuffed, roasted, or raw. I hoped to grow some last year but it was too cold and my plants never made it outside on the south facing wall.
ReplyDeleteOurs will live in the greenhouse, Deborah although if we have too many plants (I can't believe I said that) some may end up outdoors.
DeleteI hadn't considered stuffing them.
I liked the hint about the matchsticks a lot!! Good luck with these mini peppers. Hope you will update later in the season about them Sue.
ReplyDeleteI certainly will, Bren
DeleteI'm always impressed with your peppers Sue, but I know what you mean, they do take forever to ripen. I grew some longer banana type ones once that did okay, but I don't bother now. I would if I had a greenhouse though, I remember we used to grow them in the greenhouse when I was little. There wasn't a massive crop, but the peppers were a good size. I'll be intrigued to see how the little ones do.
ReplyDeleteLast year we had very few peppers ripen, CJ and many just didn't fully develop.
DeleteSmaller peppers ripen faster than the bell peppers for me. I like to grow pepperoncini I and pickle them. They are ready to pick sooner than the bell types?
ReplyDeleteRay
That's encouraging, Ray.
DeleteA very interesting thread Sue, and I shall be following the mini peppers progress through the season, as I too really struggle to get full size ones to ripen. I have got so disheartened that I decided not to grow any this year. I love the mini peppers raw as well as cooked, but it never occurred to me to actually grow them.
ReplyDeleteWe like them raw too. Jane
DeleteWe eat a lot of sweet peppers Sue but I've only grown them once and it took forever for them to ripen. I will watching out for your verdict on these later on in the year.
ReplyDeleteThese seem to have generated a lot of interest Anna, I'll be sure to update on them.
DeleteThe peppers are so cute!
ReplyDeleteThey are aren't they, Endah
DeleteThey do really look cute in orange colour!
ReplyDeleteHope you will have a wonderful harvest of pepper this year!
So do I, Malar
DeleteHmmm.....two or three matchsticks into the planting hole..sulpur peppers like...scribbles into little red book :) Thanks for the tip !
ReplyDeleteThanks due to Jane, Debs
DeleteGood luck for you Sue! I've never had success with peppers, perhaps they need more warmth. Why you don't collect seeds inside peppers you bought?
DeleteThe seeds we bought are F1 hybrids Nadezda so chances are the seeds from bought mini peppers wouldn't grow true
DeleteI am going to have a look for some of these. We put peppers in a lot of our meals, I'm trying to get as much Vitamin C into the family as I can...
ReplyDeleteHi, Maria, quite a few seed companies offer a variety of minis
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