Peppers

Pepper Report

Maryland Grows3 Comments

Just a quick note from me (Erica) this month to report on some new pepper cultivars I’m growing. These include ‘Lesya’ sweet pepper, ‘Tam’ jalapeño, and ‘Escamillo’ frying pepper.

First, ‘Lesya.’ Wow, I’m in love with this one.

It’s a heart-shaped red pepper, about 3-4 inches long, thick-walled and super-sweet. Those thick walls make it great for roasting, but it can also be eaten raw or cooked other ways. It also just looks terrific growing on strong plants that don’t get leggy and seem pretty disease-resistant.

I bought seed for ‘Tam’ jalapeño because it’s supposed to be on the milder side, but with some spice to it, unlike the ‘Nadapeño’ heatless type I grew last year (which was kind of boring). The first thing I did with the fruits was to make them into refrigerator pickles (sliced), and those turned out pretty hot. So I thought I’d do a taste test comparing ‘Tam’ to other jalapeños. Please note, this was not a scientifically valid comparison; that would involve a lot more testers (instead of just me and my son), a lot more peppers, and many tests over time. Peppers can be more or less hot depending on the weather, the soil the plants are grown in, the genetics of particular plants, and probably lots of other factors.

Anyway, I picked a couple of peppers from the Derwood Demo Garden, and a ‘Tam’ from my own garden.

L to R: ‘Tam,’ ‘Lemon Spice,’ and ‘Jalafuego’ jalapeños

I’ll also note that picking the ‘Lemon Spice’ fully ripe made the comparison even less valid (but it’s so pretty!), and that I should have found a larger and more mature ‘Jalafuego.’ But onwards. Of the three, ‘Lemon Spice’ was definitely the hottest, nice and eye-watering. ‘Tam’ had practically no heat on first bite, and then it crept up on me, but it was definitely milder. ‘Jalafuego’ was weirdly mild as well; I suspect another fruit on another day would have knocked my socks off. So, nothing definitive, but I think if you want a milder jalapeño ‘Tam’ is worth trying.

Apparently this year some people, in some places, bought ‘Tam’ plants that turned out to be sweet banana peppers – all part of the great pepper seed mixup that you can read about on this Garden Professors blog post – but my seed (purchased from Sow True Seed, for the record) turned out to be the real thing.

Finally, this is my second year growing ‘Escamillo’ frying pepper, and I’m very satisfied.

It’s a nice meaty yellow pepper that can easily reach 6 inches or more, ripens up fast, has thick walls for good roasting, and is also great for frying or eating raw.

And that’s the pepper report!

By Erica Smith, Montgomery County Master Gardener. Read more posts by Erica.

Pepper and okra recommendations, and some updates

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The end of the summer season is a time to take serious stock of what you grew this year, but sometimes it’s just all about the WOW.

These are the Sherwood Red okra plants that reached over 8 feet tall in my garden. They bore moderately well, with pods that started green and finally turned red when pretty large (6-7 inches long) at which point they were still tender enough to eat–and very tasty, too, with only a small amount of mucosity. (I learned somewhere that the best way to fry okra (okay, the second best way, but the best way without coating and deep-frying) is to make sure it’s dry when it goes into the pan, without even a drop of water combining with the oil. I cut mine into the size pieces I want and then pat them dry between dish towels. Much less gooey using this method.)

And yes, I could still pick from the tops of those plants, since the stems bent down nicely without snapping. It just took a little effort. Possibly they violated the height limitations of my community garden, but I bet they impressed my neighbors too.

Read on for some pepper news…

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What to do when your seedlings grow too big

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I started my peppers too early.

Every year I warn fellow gardeners not to rush on getting seeds into pots for warm-weather vegetables. Tomatoes, in particular, outgrow their indoor space under lights much faster than you’d think, but you can make this mistake with many plants that shouldn’t go outdoors until the chance of frost is past and the soil temperature is at least 60 degrees F. There’s often a several-week gap between the average-last-frost day that you used to count back from when calculating start dates and the actual day that it’s safe to put the plants in the garden. That can go either way, of course, but unless you’re inclined toward taking risks, it’s better to err on the side of later planting. The seedlings will grow faster under warm conditions and catch up with their early-planted peers.

So, there was no reason to put the pepper seeds in as early as the very end of February, but I did it anyway. We all have those moments. Mid-March would have been fine, but I know I was feeling anxious about other things and probably projected those feelings onto my peppers. And now I have some large strong well-grown pepper plants that are more than ready to go into the ground–which some of them are going to do this week, soil temperatures notwithstanding.

Some of my large pepper plants hardening off, guarded from inside by a helpful cat

If you have been in this situation, which most of us seed-starters have, here are some things you can do, more or less in chronological order. This applies also to plants you may have bought a while before you could plant them–we all do that too!

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November Harvests: Aconcagua, Senposai, and Watermelon Radish

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Earlier this week, I finally took all the pepper plants out of my community garden plot, in anticipation of a predicted frost. It’s ridiculous that I was still harvesting peppers in November, but this is the world we live in.

The final plant to go was a variety called Aconcagua, which I bought seed for and planted for the first time this year. It’s a sweet fryer-type from Argentina that’s described as growing up to three feet tall and producing fruit up to a foot long. I didn’t get quite those results, though I will admit that I didn’t plant it in the best location in my plot (lots of thistle competition). It was, for sure, a big pepper plant, with fruit frequently at least six inches long, with a fresh fruity taste that was great in salads or fried.

Here’s my last harvest (in November, again! From one plant!).

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What can you start from seed in February?

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I hope all of you are busy planning your vegetable gardens and getting those seeds ordered! If you haven’t purchased seeds yet, now is the time. A lot of seed companies are experiencing larger than usual interest and several have had to temporarily stop accepting orders. Many varieties of seeds are running out. So jump on it!

If you already have your seeds and your plan of action, you may be champing at the bit to get started. Those of us who start seeds indoors feel the urge to play in the dirt (or the soilless seed-starting mix) even in winter, but it’s often not a good idea. When I began gardening, I started many plants far too early, and was sorry later when I had enormous seedlings that couldn’t be put in the ground until the weather cooperated. So as a former offender, I will state clearly: DO NOT START YOUR TOMATO PLANTS IN FEBRUARY. In fact, do not start your tomato plants until late March or early April, and you will be much happier, and so will your plants.

But what CAN I start, you ask, with a pitiful, yearning look in your eyes. I know. I really do. Here’s a  list. It may not include anything you’re actually planning to grow, but I’ll give you another suggestion at the end. Here we go.

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Vegetable garden successes

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One of the joys of this otherwise largely depressing year has been hearing the stories of first-time vegetable gardeners who took the step of growing some of their own food due to economic insecurity, extra time on their hands, a desire to give back to a community via food donation, or a need to be outdoors more. Welcome to the club! We would have a secret handshake, but that’s not such a great plan right now. Distance elbow bump pantomime!

The fall months are a good time to look back on the season and assess what worked and what didn’t. In this post I’m going to mention some of the plants and cultivars that produced well for me this year. I emphasize me and this year because a secret of vegetable gardening is that each year is different and each garden is different, so I’m not guaranteeing these will be as great for you, or even for me next year. But if the descriptions sound good to you, they may be worth trying.

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