2023 Pepper Growouts / Breeding Experiments / Ideas

[Steph S]

Sweet Banana was one of the highest yields on my indoor windowsill pepper grow with no supplemental light.  I just regret that they weren't better tasting.  Jimmy Nardello did decently in the low light conditions/cool climate indoors and out.  Petit Marseillais is another early productive one.  Frank's is a very early, probably the earliest red pointy bell type I've grown, and did well in farm greenhouses here too as did PM and JN.   We enjoyed the thicker type peppers like Doe Hill and Pimento, but it was a really long wait for a very small treat.

[Justin Jardinier]

I started landrace sweet pepper breeding projects twice. In both cases, the phenotype moved strongly in the direction of banana peppers.

Nice. Interspecies, or just annuum?

[Justin Jardinier]

immy Nardello did decently in the low light conditions/cool climate indoors and out.  Petit Marseillais is another early productive one.

Thanks. I have Petit Marseillais. I have read many good things about ]immy Nardello, I wonder why I haven't heard about it being grown here!

[Garrett Schantz]

I haven't gotten around to most of my pepper projects.

I may not touch them in the coming year - too many other projects going on.



CAP 1141, Capsicum praetermissum

Yaki Blue Fawn Pepper, is also still high on a likes list. Bhut Jolokia and Filius Blue, are the parents. C. chinese x Annum.

The variety can cross back and forth to either species easier than usual, it's very disease resistant, matures well further north, it's pods are blue. The plant itself looks nice.

The fruits are decent tasting. They're a hot pepper. Great breeding material.



Isabela Island Seasoning Pepper, Capsicum chinense. Seems to be from Isabela Island originally. Seems like HRseeds, seed was obtained in 2019 from Ecuador. The shape and things aren't super common in C. chinense. It's possible that it has some interesting genetics or selected traits.

Capsicum Mirabile

Capsicum Tovarii

Capsicum Parvifolium

Capsicum Buforum

Capsicum Villosum

Capsicum Sp. Nov. (GEB & CCG 3637) Wild Pepper - possibly a new species

Capsicum Friburgense

Capsicum Caatingae

Capsicum lanceolatum

NOT Capsicum parvifolium Pepper (Unknown?)

Ulupica USDA Pepper, Capsicum Cardenasii

Pimenta Berinjela Pepper, C. chinense

Purple Bleeder Pepper, C. chinense


Mini Olive Rocoto, Capsicum pubescens

Sugar Rush Stripey, Capsicum baccatum

Buena Mulata Hot Pepper, Capsicum annum.


Sugar Rush Stripey, obviously lacks traits which give variegated leaves. But, it's fruits are variegated.


And they are variegated when ripe.


Buena Mulata, seems to have originated in the 1920s.

Most purple capped peppers, are C. chinense. That ones an Annum.


Capsicum flexuosum, is still on a grow list.


Many of these listed species, won't cross with Annum or Chinese very easily.


But, I'm seeing Rocoto and some other species become more popular, slowly in the states.


One of those listed species, has a tubular flower.


Obviously any potential bridges between species would be amazing.


I'm still wanting to cross Capsicum flexuosum to gradually create a cold hardy variety which can also act as a good bridge species.

[Adrian]

For the pepper germination i cover rhe pot of transparent wrapping.

[Adam Igra]

Phew! Managed to find my password. Woopsies! Forgot my password feature doesn't seem too functional 

From what I see of the non-anuum species theyre all pretty spicey so im sticking to anuum in my research.
Ive been crawling around for early sweet cultivars, as well as TALL cultivars, which seem oddly hard to find. As with tomatoes and other fruit, dwarf versions seem widely explored, but the opposite of outdoor tree types seems less explored. I have a tiny 10cm bequinho pepper thats just started budding 


In my shadowy narrow fenced garden, and with our northern sun at such a funny angle, height seems like a real advantage. Ive seen a few advertised as 1.5 metres but this is claimed in a greenhouse.
Any recommendations?

I imagine height would have some opposition to earliness, but in the 2nd year and on it should be a great advantage.

[Diane Whitehead]

My yellow Biquinho peppers are the size of my fingernail. Not worth growing, but maybe I'll try one more time.

[Diane Whitehead]

I've just read through my three pepper books, and plant height is rarely mentioned.

There is one annuum 'de arbol', meaning 'tree-like' that is of medium pungency and grows mostly in Jalisco, Mexico.

The tallest species are C pubescens which can grow 15 feet high in the tropics but is usually only 2 feet tall in U.S. gardens.

The one that I find most appealing is C baccatum.  It sometimes has multiple erect 5 foot stems and looks like small trees in a garden.  'Escabeche' has 5 inch long medium heat pods on a tall vigorous plant.

Quite a few of the baccatums have low heat, but height is not mentioned.

I will check on a Canadian company, Atlantic Pepper Seeds in New Brunswick, that sells about 1000 types of pepper seeds each year.    https://www.pepperseeds.ca

Here is one they list:
 Aji Delight    A excellent newer variety that has a very good flavor being sweet and fruity. Pods have no heat plants grow very large with very high yields this is a Rare Variety there is not too many Baccatum varieties that have no heat

[Adam Igra]

My yellow Biquinho peppers are the size of my fingernail. Not worth growing, but maybe I'll try one more time.

They do seem shockingly slow. I believe the pepper is supposed to be that small though.

[Adam Igra]

Ok, ive ordered 3 anuums: Corno di Toro Rosso (some red bullhorn type), BlackKnight F1, Sweet Chocolate and Napia.
Considering getting "Sweet Spot X3R" too. The sources I saw claim these all grow to 1.2-1.5m.
Mostly going off the RHS indoor sweet pepper trial: there is suprisingly little on google that I can find for sweet pepper trials.
Any idea what x3r means?!

A hortsci paper "The Genes of Capsicum (2006)" found a whole bunch of seperate dwarfing genes, all of which were recessive, and a single recessive tall gene: This does suggest the plants have a certain natural maximum height, which would explain why I cant find anything over 1.5m.

I Missed your comment Diana: Thanks for your research. I was unaware there were sweet baccatums. Thank you for the seed source. The first one I saw on google, the spicy "Lemon Drop" claimed heights of 2 meters in a single year, if that can be believed: Ill have to find space for at least one baccatum. Thanks greatly.

[Justin Jardinier]

I was unaware there were sweet baccatums.

I liked Aji Delight. I grew some Dedo de Mocha also but did not think much of it. Both I grew inside so maybe not a fair trial but I did like Aji Delight. Both of these are sweet, no heat. Does anyone here have a favourite non-hot baccatum? Or any ideas on which ones are the earliest ones? I might have crossed sweet baccatum into sweet annuum by the end of this year, with luck. This might be self defeating since I really need earliness, but I am trying, for the sake of disease resistance and for potentially interesting eating.

[reed]

I didn't know until now that there is more than one species of sweet pepper. I don't know which it is, but my favorite is a variety called Jimmy Nardello. It is a long skinny pepper that when fully ripe tastes to me a lot like apples. It doesn't mind a little frost at the end of season but like most others, in my experience, needs a good amount of heat to sprout and take off good in the spring. I haven't grown it for a while and don't remember for sure about its maturity time.

[Justin Jardinier]

I don't know which it is, but my favorite is a variety called Jimmy Nardello

That's Capsicum annuum. I've heard so many great things about that pepper! Almost all the sweet peppers are that species, it's really rare to come across sweet peppers from other species. And many of the hot ones, chillies, are from that species too. But  C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, C. frutescens, and C. pubescens are commonly cultivated also, in different parts of the world. And there are many more wild species. C. baccatum is meant to have a lot of disease resistance which is why I'm interested in trying to cross some rare sweet baccatums into annuum populations. I hear it might have some cold tolerance also? But perhaps more light requirements than annuum.

[Cathy A]

I've had really poor luck with sweet green peppers here. The plants will grow, but produce little fruit per plant.

Cayenne did better the one time I tried it, but the variety 3-pack from Renee's produced nothing.

I would be very interested in a line of peppers, either sweet or hot, that was easy to germinate and grow in a New England climate, and was productive per square unit of area.

Are there landraces of peppers that readily cross on their own? Joseph's "strongly toward banana peppers" landrace would be very useful for me.

[Justin Jardinier]

I would be very interested in a line of peppers, either sweet or hot, that was easy to germinate and grow in a New England climate, and was productive per square unit of area.

Is it cloudy there? If so it might be worth trying Eastern European fat pointy types such as:
Kapia
Amanda
Slovakia
Nova
Amy
Napia

These are reported to have done better under cool cloudy conditions than ones famous as supposedly northern-adapted such as King of the North, Healthy, etc.

I don't know about outcrossing rates. My impression was that they cross rather easily so it might be more down to whether or not different varieties are grown together? Joseph's is deliberately diverse in that regard from what I understand.