G'day guys n gals.I thought I'd start this thread so I could get a rough idea as to what peppers would be the "easiest" for a beginner to grow.
any input is appriciated
Michael
any input is appriciated
Michael
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If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.
Good strain for beginner growers
- Thread starter JolokiaJunkie
- Start date
Tepins can be tricky to germinate but I totally agree they are a very tolerant if somewhat large plant
from 5 rite up to the 10++++ super hots.
I don't know how you feel about hybrids but "Super Chile" is perfect for beginners! They are early producers, compact/bushy, prolific, and seem to produce no matter what! Most peppers are fairly easy to grow unless you have absolutely no experience growing any kind of plants at all, in which case a lot of chiles actually make good beginner plants in my opinion. I think the biggest beginner mistake is overwatering the seedlings. I will also agree with another post by saying Capsicum annuum varieties are usually the easiest, but I don't know if you would be patient enough for Tepin/Piquins.
birds eye and cayenne. no maintenance at all
millworkman
Extreme Member
Everything is pretty much no maintenance, we just look over our plants too much and see every single little problem. As long as you have good soil, or a good soilless mix for pots then you are good to go. Dont worry over every little problem as you will probably do more harm than good at that point.
I vote for the Jalapeno Early. They are practically indestructible, and will grow and prosper in any kind of environment - low sun, a bit too cold, too hot, too much rain, too dry, etc. They grow in large numbers and taste good, too. They have another big advantage - the "early" part. For the beginning grower, it's rewarding to get piles of nice peppers to eat, quickly. I transplant on Memorial Day, and by July 4 we have some jals to toss into the food - less than six weeks, now that's cool!
Burpees sells an Organic Jal Early that I would never be without. Grows like a weed, tastes great, wickedly hot for a jalapeno.
Burpees sells an Organic Jal Early that I would never be without. Grows like a weed, tastes great, wickedly hot for a jalapeno.
Cayennes are a good choice. Jalapenos too, but like many said, they nearly all aren't that tough IF you give them adequate time to grow. Wild peppers can be a different ballgame.
Caribbean Red habaneros have been the easiest for me to grow. They grow like weeds for me and they have set the best fruit under 100+ high heat.
If you decide on a Jalapeno, you may want to reconsider and go with Sante Fe Grande. The SFG is prolific and is about the same heat as a Jalapeno - but is a bit sweeter. I think that they make for a much better popper pepper (easier to stuff) and are just as good as a Jalapeno as a salsa pepper. I think the SFG is a wonderful cooking pepper also. They're easy to grow and produce big yields.
This is my first year growing veggies of any sort, and I ended up with Jalapeno, TAM Jalapeno, and Long Thick Red Cayenne (which is hotter than a "standard" cayenne) simply because that's all that I found at the local nurseries in the spring, pepper-wise. (We did have a kind of weird year as far as the variety of plants being offered and how late in the season they were offered. I was also looking for a Poblano, and couldn't find one.) I haven't managed to kill them yet, which says tons of the hardiness of the plants rather than my skill as a gardener. So all in all I agree with the statement that peppers are pretty easy to grow, in general.
As first-year plants, I didn't get a huge amount of pods in the spring. The TAM was the most prolific at that time, the cayenne the least. However, the jalapeno continued to regularly produce flowers and pods, but never a huge amount at one time. The TAM and cayenne kind of "paused" after the first crop, then in the past few weeks went wildly into bloom. I'm going to have enough pods that I'll have to freeze or dry some, assuming no major mistakes on my part over the next several weeks. (We've gotten down to the low 50's at night here now, and there's always a chance I'll fail to bring them into the house on time.) At any rate, if this second bloom is an indication of what's to come in the second year, and I don't kill them over the winter, looks like I'll have a heck of a lot more than I had this year. All this to say I wouldn't judge a variety based on its first-year production.
BTW - like your choice for your avatar!
As first-year plants, I didn't get a huge amount of pods in the spring. The TAM was the most prolific at that time, the cayenne the least. However, the jalapeno continued to regularly produce flowers and pods, but never a huge amount at one time. The TAM and cayenne kind of "paused" after the first crop, then in the past few weeks went wildly into bloom. I'm going to have enough pods that I'll have to freeze or dry some, assuming no major mistakes on my part over the next several weeks. (We've gotten down to the low 50's at night here now, and there's always a chance I'll fail to bring them into the house on time.) At any rate, if this second bloom is an indication of what's to come in the second year, and I don't kill them over the winter, looks like I'll have a heck of a lot more than I had this year. All this to say I wouldn't judge a variety based on its first-year production.
BTW - like your choice for your avatar!
Bih jolokia for super hots- The plants produce a massive amount of pods and seem to tolerate fairly high temps with out totally dieing.
Lemon drop. Produces tons of pods but you need to like citrus since they taste lemoney.