Asian Lady Beetles to the rescue. Aphids have recently infested my peppers. I’ve been smashing as many aphids as possible. I appreciate the assistance from these invasive lady bugs.

Planted 03/26/2025 and under the lights:

Beaver Dam (a WESconsin developed variety, courtesy of Finland dwelling pal @svalli )
Biggie Chile Hybrid
Carmen Hybrid
Giant Marconi
Goliath Sweet Hybrid
Gypsy Hybrid
​Mama Mia Giallo Hybrid
Numex Big Jim
Roulette Hybrid
Sweet Sunset Hybrid

The Gotch

@Cornelius_Gotchberg no jalapeños?

karstopography wrote: ↑Sat Mar 29, 2025 7:38 am @Cornelius_Gotchberg no jalapeños?

Not a Hot Pepper guy; 300-500 SHU's is about my limit.

The Gotch

1st Pepper (Gypsy Hybrid) breaks the surface today!

The Gotch

Two (2) more Gypsy Hybrids and a Beaver Dam join in.

The Gotch

one weak, yolo wonder, and staddons select have sprouted from the second planting
a little over two weeks ago. five year old seeds, i expected a little more life than that.
they will be babied in hopes of freshening up the seed supply on these bell peppers.


keith

Cut 27 bamboo stakes for my 27 pepper plants and tied up most of them. Especially breezy today and the peppers were ready for some support. The peppers shook off the aphid invasion thanks to the feral Asian ladybugs. Most all the peppers seem to be thriving now and many are getting their first fruit, including the megatron jalapeño pictured.

Biggie Chili, Goliath Sweet, Mama Mia Giallo, and Roulette Hybrid are up-n-at-'em!

The Gotch

Cornelius_Gotchberg wrote: ↑Sat Mar 29, 2025 8:09 am

karstopography wrote: ↑Sat Mar 29, 2025 7:38 am @Cornelius_Gotchberg no jalapeños?

Not a Hot Pepper guy; 300-500 SHU's is about my limit.

The Gotch

Have you ever tried growing Nadapeño or the Fooled You Jalapeño, one of the heatless jalapeños? Roulette is basically a heatless Habanero so if you like the flavor of a heatless Habanero then you might like the flavor of a heatless jalapeño. Jalapeño flavor is to my tastes a great flavor on its own even if there wasn’t any heat.

The pepper patch one week forward from my last post on these. All systems go. Feeling good.

Megatron Jalapeño, Shishito, Padron, and Better Bell pictured. Good pepper weather ahead.

couple more staddons select came up.
most of my peppers are transplanted and growing well. just waiting on the laggards
to get bigger before transplanting. pepper weather here will be a bit longer in coming.



keith

I will sow my pepper seed in the next 2-3 days. Don’t usually put out to live permanently in grow bags till about June 10th. Depending on night time temps.

NUMEX HERITAGE 6-4
CHERVENA CHUSHKA
ANAHEIM
GIUSEPPE

All the six bell peppers have set fruit. Very pleased. I miss garden bell peppers and we actually use them a lot in cooking.

bell peppers here are never a guarantee from year to year. i always try a few though.
mine are all under the lights as we are still in winter like weather here.
jupiter is doing the best. yolo wonder, and staddons select are still small.
semi bells i have are apple, and franks. i will have to strategize on what peppers go in pots,
and where to put them. jalapenos will be in the back of the truck where it is warmest. sweet
peppers should be some place else so no cross pollination occurs. still figuring it out.


keith

I haven’t tried saving any pepper seeds. My understanding is that peppers readily cross pollinate so I figure I’d end up with weird peppers that are all hot.

Peppers are one of the vegetables that tend to do well here. I’m still learning which ones I like the best and what I can do with the fruit.

I’ve settled on Megatron for my jalapeño. Seems to check every box.

Some peppers check some boxes, but fail to in other areas. Jimmy Nardello checks the flavor box, but seems to really decline as the season progresses. Gatherer’s Gold has great flavor and longevity so I have three of those out in the beds. Giant Aconcagua is another that thrives, but might not be quite as delicious. Franks pepper was tasty, but so relatively tiny and low to the mulch the plants the fruit ended up getting munched on by mulch monsters, like pill bugs.

Golden California Bell was planted as something based on hope rather than anything scientific. But, I’m not especially hopeful they will have staying power although they have set fruit. The three Golden California Bell plants themselves seem to be lacking something in spite of receiving everything the other plants are apparently thriving on. The leaves refuse to green up completely.

I’m going to eventually narrow down what works and what we like to eat and there will be less dabbling in this or that mystery pepper.

I also don't save peppers, unless I have no choice. I have one - Hanoi Market - that I got back in the 90s, from Reimer Seeds, which had the most pepper seeds back then, and after I had used the packet up, was going to order them again, but they were "out of stock". Long story short, they never got them back, even though listed for years! I tried many varieties of orange peppers, including ones that looked the same in my local SE Asian market, but none were the same. Bulgarian Carrot was the only one with the same flavor, but about twice the heat, and plants were determinate, and not as productive, though I grew those until I finally found a source on eBay, in Australia, with free shipping(!), and it turned out to be the real thing! After this (maybe 2005), I have bagged some blossoms on the best plant every few years, and had good luck with all of them. I "buzz the blossoms" through the bag, to make sure it is well pollinated. It used to be one of the slower sprouting seeds, but it's one of the fastest, now. This is the only one I take the time to do this with - I just order the rest when I have to, to keep the sources in business, as long as they aren't pricing themselves out.

If I save tomato or eggplant seeds, I also bag the blossoms, before they open, just in case - I've never been a gambler.

The peppers are really taking off. Won’t be long until I get some blistered Padrón and Shishito peppers. Some Jalapeño poppers look to be a reality in my not too distant future.

Only the Golden California Wonder seem to have something up. I gave them an additional shot of TTF yesterday to see what that might do.

The peppers continue to thrive this season and look especially productive.

Only harvested one Jalapeño and about thirty shishito, plus a few padrón so far.

No disease and very minimal negative insect activity.

Excited about the bell peppers this year. Sizing up well and they all look pretty well formed.