Anybody here grow peppers?

[UserNotFound]

I'm fond of saying: "Besides old and cranky, peppers and tomatoes are the only things I grow."

The end of the College Football season is my cue to start thinking about planting pepper seeds. Our historical last frost date here in Mississippi is about April 1st, but the weather in April has been really screwy the last few years, so who knows? At this point, I've decided to start my pepper seeds on 1/23, with a plant out date somewhere around 5/1.
This is my projected grow list:

Prairie Spice
Jalapeño
Numex "Nematador" Cayenne
Rooster Spur
Numex Big Jim
Bill's Striped
Fatalii
Dark Snacker*

*This is a variety that was grown from a grocery store pepper by a friend in NC. Several of us from a different gardening forum are growing it out this year just for schlitz & giggles...

I'd love to hear your plans for the upcoming season!!

[mikeysnot]

1. Carolina Reapers

Fresno’s
Jalapeño
Tai Chili
Ghosts
Scorpions

I like it hot.

[UserNotFound]

2. I'd say so!

I grew Reapers several years ago, but I just can't handle that level of heat. What do you do with those superhots? I make a lot of Tabasco-style hot sauce...

[mikeysnot]

7. Chili

I put a whole one in for back end heat. The rest I dehydrate and make into powders… a little goes a long way…

[femmocrat]

3. Those sound wonderful.

I haven’t had good luck with peppers the past few years. I just buy the plants at the garden center.

[Major Nikon]

4. Pepper plants are pretty easy to grow

If you have several varietals some of them can cross pollinate which sometimes leads to some interesting combinations.

Most are very much drought tolerant which means it's more difficult to kill them by under watering. The less you water them, the hotter and/or more intense the flavors will become. The strategy many use is to refrain from watering until the plant looks like it's about to die, and then water them. If you want milder peppers, water them more frequently.

I have also found they don't need as much direct sunlight as other plants which make them a great candidate for growing in containers on my back patio which gets a lot of evening shade.

If you have many plants you will find yourself inundated with peppers during peak season. I string them up with a needle and thread and hang them to dry. Once dry they will keep in mason jars for a very long time. You can then grind them up in a food processor or cheap coffee grinder.

[bikeboy]

5. peppers!

I grow Rocoto peppers. They are from Peru and such a great plant. I live in the Bay Area and we are blessed with an incredible Mediterranean climate so if I protect my plant from frost (like last night) my plant can live up to 12 years or so. I usually get two to three crops a year. I ferment them and make hot sauce and I dehydrate them after fermenting them and make chili powder from them in my grinder. there are red ones like I grow and yellow ones. Yum yum yum!

[Laurelin]

6. My hot peppers got too much rain last year so they were mild

This year I'll grow the jalapeños in a greenhouse. I'm still trying to adjust to gardening in the Netherlands.

My favorite jalapeño cultivar ever is Mucho Nacho. They're amazingly productive and really good when not over watered. They were productive last year too with great flavor but milder than they ever were in Texas. I grew some hatch peepers too; they might just as well have been bells.

I'm growing Sweet Pickle bells this year too just because I love them. The plants are beautiful with multi colored peppers and they're sweet and very productive.

[MissB]

8. I am only growing 2 this year

Fireball and jalapeño.

Space is pretty limited. I grew several more varieties last year but I realized I really like fireball hot sauce and pickled jalapeños. So I may as well grow a bunch of those two.

I ended up with only a pint of fireball hot sauce this past fall. I also grew a bunch of fish peppers and made sauce out of those- over a quart- but I just don’t like it as much as the fireball one.

[UserNotFound]

9. Hmmm,

I've never grown Fireball. I did grow a variety several years ago called "Joe's Round", though. It's got pretty good heat, but I thought it looked better as an ornamental...

[Emile]

10. I grow the big bell peppers.

Love those stuffed peppers for dinner.

[UserNotFound]

11. I've got quite a a few pepper seeds

that have sprouted. My germination rate is not what I hoped for, but it is sufficient...

A friend in NY sent me some Baklouti pepper seeds. It will be added to the grow list. It comes from Tunisia, and is traditionally used to make harissa paste...