PEPPER SECTION

Peppers are native to tropical America, and are perennial in the tropics, grown as annuals in temperate regions.  All our peppers are germ. tested and comply with federal standards.  General cultivation: Pepper seeds have a fairly short life span.  Sow within a year of receipt.  Start in greenhouse  40 to 50 days prior to the last frost. When seedlings emerge, protect from freezing and thin to at least 2 inches apart in the flat.   You can leave them in a deep flat or transplant to pots, but do not overcrowd seedlings in their containers.  Transplant out to garden after the soil has really warmed up. Peppers like a scanty, even water supply, good drainage, full sun and a long, hot summer.  The best compost for peppers is higher in phosphorous than nitrogen.  Amend with colloidal rock phosphate.  Seaweed such as Kelp is well tolerated and makes for outrageous yields. Harvest mature peppers prior to the first frost and use fresh or hang indoors to ripen. Only the red ones make good dried peppers, so if they won’t turn red, then use them fresh (undried). Peppers are an anticarcinogenic, warming, carminative, digestive and nutritive spice.  The older we get, the more we need CAPSICUM!

African Bird..............Capsicum annuum v. aviculare
 ~180,000 Scoville Heat Units
These produce tiny, fiery hot, thin-skinned and easily dried bright red fruits on a small-leaved but spreading bush up to 18 inches tall.  Start early—requires a long growing season.  Lovely.

Aji Colorado ...................Capsicum baccatum
 ~30,000 Scoville Heat Units
Member of a relatively unknown group of peppers native to Bolivia and Peru (see also Criolla Sella).  Makes a fast growing, flat-topped bush 24-30” tall, loaded with ornamental flowers giving way to red, elongated lantern fruits.  These sweet, thin-walled fruits make incomparable chili powder.  The plants are highly adaptable to N. American temperate gardens, with easy germination in cool soils and a short maturation period.  They handle wet conditions and high elevation better than other peppers—resistant to viral pathogens.

Cayenne  (Ring O’ Fire).........Capsicum frutescens
 ~77,500 Scoville Heat Units
Long, thin, very dark red fruits. These are generally ground to powder and used on food or for medicinal preparations. This organic seed has been absolutely reliable in germination and produces prolifically fruited plants. If you can mature tomatoes in your garden, you can mature Cayenne.

Chile Hidalgo .................Capsicum frutescens
 ~60,000 Scoville Heat Units
Pubescent leaves, flowers purple-tinged and ornamental.  Short plants to 16 inches.  Produces hot, red, swollen, cylindrical fruits; thick-skinned, very shiny.  Similar in taste and hotness to Cayenne.  Very prolific.  Northern adapted, but prefers hot summers.

Criolla Sella ......................Capsicum baccatum
 ~30,000 Scoville Heat Units
Similar to Aji Colorado, very fast growing, with fruits golden-orange, thin and tapering to 5 inches long. Very hot.  Judged best producer in the Horizon Herbs 2001 garden.

Guajillo.....................Capsicum sp.
(Chili travieso)—Spanish for “naughty chili”
 ~5,000 Scoville Heat Units
Shiny, shaped like giant Cayenne, deep orange-red at maturity. Good for fresh consumption, on sandwiches, in salsa and hot sauces.  Vigorous, high-yielding bushes.  These are especially suited for cool weather and performed best of all our pepper trials in the 2000 summer garden.  The peppers start out tasting mild, but after a little aging, they pick up quite a bite.

Habanero Red .................Capsicum chinense
~350,000 Scoville Heat Units
The world’s hottest pepper!  These are best for making sauce, and for nibbling fresh if you are adventurous.  Squarish fruit up to 2” long, orange at maturity.  Requires a long, hot and humid growing season to mature fruit.  Ideal exotic pepper for SE U.S., especially Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.  Sometimes successfully grown in the field in S. California, but in the temperate north perform best if grown in the greenhouse.

Scotch Bonnet .................Capsicum chinense
~200,000 Scoville Heat Units
Scotch Bonnet makes orange or red, bell-shaped fruits.  The plant is short and compact.  Among the hottest peppers found worldwide, these are used primarily for spicing tomato-based sauces or for making hot sauce.  This is the preferred variety of C. chinense for temperate gardeners.

Tabasco................Capsicum frutescens
~50,000 Scoville Heat Units
Slender fruits, 1 1/2”   long.  Much sought-after heirloom sauce-making pepper.  Very hot. Best grown in hot, humid conditions, either in the South or in the greenhouse.

Tabasco Sauce Recipe (1868)

The ripe fruit is mashed to a pulp and mixed with vinegar and rock salt, in the proportion of one pint vinegar and one handful of salt to every gallon of pulp.  The receptacle containing this mixture is closely covered, and allowed to macerate for six weeks, with daily stirring.  The juice is then expressed under pressure from the pulp and seeds, which may be composted.  This juice is true tabasco sauce, an item which many cannot do without.

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