Garden Corner - Peppers

    It is said that Capsicum has been known since the beginning of civilization in the Western Hemisphere. Being a part of the human diet since about 7500 BC.

    It was the ancient ancestors of the native peoples who took the wild chili piquin and selected for the many various types known today.

Possibly, between 5200 and 3400 BC, the Native Americans were growing chili plants. This would place chilies among the oldest cultivated crops of the Americas.

    Although most chili peppers are indigenous to South America, they are used and grown around the world.

Hot peppers are used in abundance in Mexican, South American, Indonesian, African and Oriental cooking, while the milder peppers are common in European and North American recipes.

No other group of plants shows as much variety in their fruits as pepper plants:

Size: The largest and sweetest peppers are the bell peppers, while the smallest and some of the hottest chili peppers are the piquins, measuring in at less than one inch in length!

Color: The fruits of these colorful vegetables when immature can be white, yellow, light green or purple. Mature peppers are yellow, orange, red, purple, deep green and nearly black. Sometimes all the colors produced by the particular variety will be on the pepper plant at the same time!

Shape: Some peppers are long and slender, others long and plump, and others round or heart-shaped. Some of the hottest are tiny cones and the mildest are large and blocky.

Texture: Some are very smooth-skinned while others have a crinkly appearance.

Growing Your Own

While many pepper plants are perennial (flower and fruit year after year) in their native environment, most garden peppers are grown as annuals (replaced every year).

Pepper Planting

Peppers, especially hot pepper plants with their colorful fruits, are ideal for spot planting around a garden, providing contrast in flowerbeds, or brightening a container garden.

When growing peppers in beds, avoid planting the peppers where other members of the nightshade family have been previously planted as they are subject to similar diseases.

To prevent cross-pollination, hot pepper plants should not be planted near sweet or bell pepper plants.

Growing your own hot peppers from seed can be very rewarding as the selection of hot peppers available at the supermarket is very poor. And although the selection of plants from a nursery or store is a little better, when you start from seeds, there is a terrific variety available. And as hot pepper popularity is growing constantly, the varieties just keep expanding.

Best & Worst hot pepper seed list

Best for small gardens or container planting...
Thai, Tabasco and Pueblo.
Best for dried powder...
Cayene, Turkish Cayenne, Serrano and Charleston.
Best garden novelty...
Peter Pepper. Rated "most pornographic" by Organic Gardening magazine.

Most abundant yeild...
Bolivian Rainbow, Fatalli, Hot Lemon and Purrira.
Hottest...
Red Savina, Caribbean Red, Orange Habanero, and Golden Habanero.
Worst..
Bulgarian Carrot (Tough skin, no flesh), Rocoto (hard to grow, and a poor producer), and Mexibell (not hot at all)