Posted on by Mark Linton

Garden Log

So far I have looked at <a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/2003_12_01_journal.html#id107073158735942131" title="The First Seed Catalog">Tomatoes</a> and <a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/2003_12_01_journal.html#id107084130980970874" title="More Seed Catalog Reading">Bell Peppers</a>. Since it is snowing like crazy out today, I thought it would be a good day to continue, and I am going on to the rest of the peppers:

Frying Peppers

  • Biscayne — 63 days to harvest (60 days pale green, 80 days red ripe). 7- by 2-inch, extra long, slim two- to three-lobed, pale lime green to red fruit, tapering to blunt tips. Famous for frying. Biscayne is the favorite Cubanelle.
  • Super Sweet Banana — 70 days to harvest. Extra large 7¾-inch, tapered yellow fruit mature dark red. Top yielding jumbo banana for processing or fresh market.
  • Giant Marconi — 72 days to harvest. Mosaic resistant. Potato virus Y resistant. Large, tapered 8- by 2½-inch, green to glossy scarlet fruits with medium thick walls. The fruits mature earlier to red than other varieties. Incredibly versatile. Terrific in salads, salsa, roasted, grilled, or fried. Best grilled, but excellent raw.
  • Navarone — 74 days to harvest. Very smooth, uniform 9-inch by 3½-inch, deep, two-lobed, bull nosed Macedonia x Bulgarian sweet frying type with bright red fruit, thick flesh, and a great taste.

(More) Bell Peppers

While I was researching the frying peppers, I realized I missed some of the recommended Bell Peppers at the top of the next page. So without further adieu&hellip;
  • Lady Bell — 74 days to harvest. Mosaic resistant. High yielding, attractive green to red fruit. Starts early and produces heavily, even in short seasons. These peppers are better for stuffing and freezing than smaller extra-early varieties and have a delicious sweet flavor.

Hot Peppers

  • False Alarm — 62 days to harvest. Jalapeno flavor with little heat. Brings savory jalapeno flavor to non-heat lovers everywhere. False Alarm makes compact plants that are barely 18 inches tall, yet smother themselves with thick-fleshed, 3-inch peppers. Excellent for roasting, nachos, poppers, and salsa. It is the perfect little hardly-hot pepper for small gardens and containers.
  • Super Cayenne II — 68 days to harvest. Earlier and more productive than the standard Cayenne, this new hybrid produces 6- by ½-inch fruit that ripen from light green to a deep red. Commonly used for drying, culinary and decorative purposes.
  • Mesilla — 68 days to harvest. Mosaic resistant. Potato virus Y resistant. Tobacco etch virus resistant. Big cayenne 10- by 1½-inch wrinkled, slim, light green fruit that mature red. Medium Hot (4000 sc).
  • Hungarian Wax¹ — 70 days to harvest. Medium hot variety. Fruit average 6 to 6½ inches in length, uniform and slightly tapered. Ripens green to yellow to red.
  • Thai Dragon — 70 days to harvest. Pungent, and five times hotter than Jalapeno. Fruits are 3½ inches long and ½ inch wide at the shoulder with thin walls. 26-inch tall plants, well-branched to support a heavy load. Easy to dry.
  • Jalepeno M¹ — 75 days to harvest. The Standard for Nachos and Mexican Cuisine, they are pretty hot. Pungent 3½- by 1½-inch rounded, thick-walled fruit are borne in great numbers on very vigorous 26-inch plants. This is the pungent little dark green pepper found in rings atop nachos and chopped in Mexican sauces — both sweet and hot, with an addictive flavor that has made it one of the most popular seasonings in American dishes. They are ready to pick when dark green, delivering 4,750 Scovilles of heat.
  • Large Hot Red Cherry¹ — 80 days to harvest. Small 1½-inch round fruit. Green ones are not hot. Red ones are really hot.
  • Habanero¹ — 100 days to harvest. The famous 10-alarm pepper from the Caribbean. The legendary hottest of all peppers, its name means “from Havana.” Habanero and its kin long ago migrated from the Caribbean Islands to Central America where they remain extremely popular today. A close relative of the Jamaican Scotch Bonnet, the short (1½ inches long by 1 inch wide) wrinkled green fruits turn orange. To complement its searing heat, Habanero has a delicious, pungent, smoky quality unlike any other pepper; many people find its flavor and aroma irreistible in sauces and salsas. 
&sup1; These are <em>not</em> hybrids.