Hort Newspaper Archive 2004

February 5, 2006

A Variety of Peppers

Annette Meyer Heisdorffer

Daviess County Extension Agent for Horticulture

Spicy hot or sweet peppers add flavor to food. The fruit of the different varieties garnish food with the colors of red, yellow, green, and orange. You can have your own supply of delicious peppers by growing them in the garden.

Hot pepper types include jalapeño, cayenne, chili, and habanero. The pungency or hotness of the pepper is caused by the alkaloid capsaicin. The hotness will vary within the same group. For example, as you look at catalogs, you will see cultivars of jalapeños with one described as milder than the other. Also, catalogs may be helpful in describing which hot pepper to use in making salsa.

When handling hot peppers, don’t wipe your eyes or face with your hands. The chemical which makes them pungent may cause your eyes to water and irritate your skin.

Jalapeño peppers have cylindrical fruits, 2 to 3 inches long. The green fruits turn red at full maturity. Both the green and red fruits can be eaten. The height of the plant may reach over 26 inches tall.

Cayenne and chili peppers have small, cone to long narrow-shaped fruit. Depending on the cultivar, the peppers are 2 to 5 inches long. After the fruit turns mature red, the peppers are popular for drying and making decorations such as strings of peppers.

One of the hottest peppers is the habanero. It is considered to be extremely hot. This pepper has lantern shaped fruit, which are 1 to 2 inches long. Fully mature fruits turn from green to orange-red. The height of the plant reaches 3 to 4 feet tall, depending on the cultivar. Habanero peppers mature around 90 days after transplanting into the garden.

For the palate preferring sweet peppers, there are many cultivars of bell peppers. Bell peppers have blocky shaped fruit. These peppers make perfect edible containers for stuffing after removing the seeds from inside the hollow fruit. Fruit size ranges from 3.5 to 4.5 inches wide and 4.5 to 7.5 inches long, depending on the cultivar.

Adding color to food dishes is another popular use for bell peppers. Red is still the most common color of mature fruit. Other mature fruit colors are yellow, orange or purple, depending on the cultivar. This range of colors allows the imagination an opportunity to create colorful garnishes for salads and adds color to other vegetable dishes or casseroles.

King Arthur, X3R Red Knight, and X3R Aristotle are disease resistant bell pepper cultivars tested at the University of Kentucky and recommended based on yields and quality fruit.

Sweet bell pepper lovers should be forewarned that a pungent bell pepper is available now. Fajita Bell is a bell pepper cultivar with noticeable heat.

Banana pepper is a sweet, non-bell type of pepper. The banana-shaped fruit range in width at the top from 1.5 to 2.5 inches and 6 to 9 inches long. Banana peppers mature from green to yellow to an orange-red, depending on the cultivar. Plant height may reach over 2 feet tall.

As with bell peppers, a spicy hot banana pepper is available. Be sure to look at the seed package or transplant tag carefully when making your purchase.

Have you thought about using peppers in your landscape? Ornamental peppers (Capsicum annuum) grow vigorously throughout the summer and produce an eye-catching display of small, bright red and orange fruit from August until frost. The fruit is edible but extremely hot. Wash your hands after handling these plants and fruits, because if you touch your face, your eyes will water and your skin will be irritated. Ornamental peppers are also nice in containers.

Cultivars of ornamental peppers with small, tapered-shaped fruit are Candlelight, Fips, and Fiesta. Holiday Cheer is a cultivar of ornamental pepper with round fruit.

Peppers (Capsicum) are native to tropical America and do not tolerate frost. Pepper seeds are planted in the greenhouse or indoors to get a head start on the production of peppers during the summer. Depending on the pepper chosen, fruit maturity ranges from 60 to 90 days after transplanting. It is best to wait until May 1 to transplant peppers into the garden here, since they are very sensitive to frost and will not grow until the soil temperature warms up.

You can have your own supply of delicious peppers by growing them in the garden.

For more information about peppers, contact the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service.

When purchasing flower and vegetable seeds, look for cultivars that carry resistance or tolerance to one or more diseases. One of the most effective ways for the home gardener to reduce or avoid a destructive vegetable disease is to plant disease resistant or tolerant cultivars.

If you have not grown the disease resistant cultivar before, you may want to try it along with your previously grown cultivar to compare the characteristics and quality. The disease resistant cultivar may help you reduce losses in the future.

Educational programs of the Cooperative Extension Service serve all people regardless of race, color, age, sex, religion, disability, or national origin.

Annette Meyer-Heisdorffer is the Daviess County extension agent for horticulture. Her column runs weekly on the Home & Garden page in Lifestyle.