9 sweet pepper varieties harvested today

[WoodSprite]

I harvested 9 varieties of ripe sweet peppers today. Some were the first ripe ones of the season. I plan to grow Carmen F1, Gypsy F1 and maybe Stocky Red Roaster again next year since they were delicious, productive and earlier than the others. Italian Sweet Frying produced OK but it had very thin walls and I didn't like the flavor or shape as much as the other three. The rest of the varieties (along with 3 more varieties that are not in the photo) took too long to ripen in my garden for me to consider growing again.

Group photo: Frank's, Nick's Thin Skin, Earlired, Early Perfect Italian, Holy Italian Red, Stocky Red Roaster (though they are normally longer), Gypsy F1, Italian Sweet Frying, Carmen F1.

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Close-ups:

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[bower]

Those look great.
I once grew out some Carmen F2's, they were really variable in sweetness and ripe time.

I bought some Ontario grown, big long red sweet peppers last year called 'Red Shepherd' and they were fantastic - and I just got them again this year. The walls are fairly thick, and the flavor and sweetness is intense.
Just did a google for seeds and found this:
https://www.stokeseeds.com/ca/super-she ... 262a-group
It is an OP with "very high brix". Says 68 DTM but I bet it takes a lot longer to ripen them, they are huge.

[WoodSprite]

Thanks, bower. I would love to find an open-pollinated pepper that is as early, good tasting and reliable as Carmen F1. That was part of my reason for growing some of the varieties that I did this year and other years. I love Carmen but don't want to get in a situation like other favorite hybrids that were discontinued (like 'Cute Stuff' and 'Jingle Bells' peppers and 'Nelson' carrots). I'll enjoy growing them for now while I continue to look for something similar.

Super Shepherd is actually on my wish list. Good to hear that you like it so much.

[WoodSprite]

My husband and I just did a taste comparison of the peppers in my photo. These are our opinions:

Gypsy & Carmen were very, very sweet & very, very flavorful. I liked Carmen slightly more than Gypsy but they were my two top picks from today's taste test. Gypsy was Mark's favorite with Carmen being his second favorite. He felt the Gypsy was sweeter. I plan to grow multiple plants of both next year.

Early Prefect Italian was good, sweet & flavorful but not as good as Gypsy & Carmen. We both agreed. It has only produced one ripe pepper so far which isn't good. Our first frost will likely be mid-October. I don't plan to grow it again but it was good. It's just not worth it for me due to all of the work for 1 or maybe a few (if more ripen) pepper.

Holy Italian Red wasn't anywhere near as good as Gypsy, Carmen or Early Perfect Italian. We both agreed. It has some sweetness and some flavor but not much of either. I'm not growing it again.

Stocky Red Roaster was sweet and flavorful but definitely had a bit of heat to it. From my understanding of what I read before I bought the seeds (from Sand Hill Preservation Center) and just double-checked, it's not supposed to be spicy. It's supposed to be sweet. I'm very sensitive to spiciness but Mark isn't and enjoys hot peppers. Even he thought it was spicy and drank some milk afterward after eating a bite of it. Despite the heat, it was sweet & flavorful enough that I might grow it again next year and mix it with Gypsy and Carmen when I use it to dilute the heat.

Italian Sweet Frying was very sweet and flavorful but not as tasty as Gypsy, Carmen, Early Perfect Italian or Stocky Red Roaster. It had a different flavor undertone I didn't like. The walls were so incredibly thin that it made the skins seem very thick. When we did a taste test earlier in the season (with some of the same and some different peppers), this was Mark's favorite but he didn't like it this time. I thought it was sweet and good but can't get past the thin walls and the skin. Thinking back to Jimmy Nardello that I grew last year and didn't care for, I think Italian Sweet Frying had better flavor. It did give me a few harvests but I won't be growing it again.

Frank's, Nick's Thin Skin & Earlired were all huge disappointments for me. Not only did they all have very thin walls but the flavor for each were literal spitters for me. Yuck. They didn't even taste like sweet peppers to me. Mark didn't like them either. I composted what was left because neither of us wanted to eat more of them.

[MissS]

Thank you for your review. How was you production on Gypsy and Carmen?

[WoodSprite]

@MissS, you're welcome. I would have liked more per plant but I wouldn't call them stingy either.

Carmen (plant 1) - Harvested 5 so far, first one on 7/21. There was also an unripe pepper that was touching the mulch and rotting so I removed it on 6/5.

Carmen (plant 2) - Harvested 7 so far, first one on 7/28.

Gypsy - Harvested 12 so far, first one on 7/28.

Additional information:
03/20 - Sowed seeds indoors.
05/28 - Planted outside in raised beds.
I'll most likely harvest a few more before frost gets them.

[WoodSprite]

@MissS, I grew Carmen last year, too. From one plant, I harvested 17 ripe peppers. When I went to pull the plant on 10/14 due to coming hard frost, I also harvested 2 partially ripe and 18 green peppers from the same plant. So, yeah, this year's harvest wasn't as good but they are delicious.

[JRinPA]

"Gypsy F1" looks a whole lot like the antohi romani that I've been growing for 7-8 years. They are OP and grow great here in PA, much better than bells. Just looking at the size shape name taste description, I have to wonder...

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