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Bell alternatives

slade122

slade122

I'm wondering what everyone prefers to use or grow instead of bells for sweet peppers. My bell pepper production has always been low, and I seem to need quite a few plants to provide myself with sweets.

I'm mainly looking for overall productiveness and taste. I hate to waste so much space growing bells that dont produce enough pods.

Please include seed company, plant name, and a breif description of how the plant performed for you.

Ex:
Territorial Seed - Mini Red/Yellow bells. Insert description here.
 
Sweet Apple pepper....A little smaller than large bells but the flavor is better in my opinion. You can get them from a few vendors or I could send you seeds in a few weeks :)
 
Giant Orange Manzano or Giant Red Rocoto. Remove all the placenta/ribs and you lose 90% of the heat. 
 
Seeds from store-bought pepper (Orange Manzano) or Semillas.de
 
Both are C.pubescens varieties and both get to be as large as a good sized apple. 
 
The plants are very large, sprawling types, but can be trained to grow up a trellis in small areas. They do not like heat. Above 85°F for a few weeks and they really don't do well. They won`t set fruit when it`s hot, either. I start seeds in November/December and hope for the first crop around June. 
 
The flavors put annuums to shame. They are fruity in a peach/apricot kind of way, sweet and extremely juicy. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9XHCp9NY0I
 
Sweet Italian varieties particularly the Nardellos and Carmen from Johnny's Select Seed. The Nardello's are great but their shape excludes them from some applications like stuffing.
 
Jimmy Nardello is a great sweet frying pepper that I grow every year
 
Melrose is a huge cowhorn type pepper that is also an Italian pepper.
 
Patio Red Marconi is about the sweetest pepper I have tried.
 
I also grow Liptstick and Gypsy peppers every year.
 
I grew Atris and Aruba this year as well and they did fine.
 
Another sweet tasting pepper is the red mini bell.  I just can't seem to get any size to mine.
 
Justaguy said:
I have nard seeds.
Click to expand...
Haha! I have one growing in the kitchen and some how the plant got the name "Nard dog". Actually im impressed with the plant it self because it keeps setting indoor pods. Its not a very big plant but I'm curious how it will do outdoor for season two.
 
Corno Di Toro is the sweetest I have had from Totally Tomatoes. Orange Manzano/Giant rocoto from Judy at Pepperlover.com for a pepper that is shape wise similar to a bell but with about twice as much heat as a jalapeno. Very Juicy like Nigel said. It seems the heat varies quit a bit from pod to pod. Going to try the Giant aconcagua, carmen Hybrid and sweet apple pepper this year.

Which one is the sweetest?
 
wildseed57 said:
I like Sweet Cayennes, dont like the flavor of Jimmy Nadello,  red, orange and purple Marconi peppers, Trinadad perfume, no heat Jalapenos, giant Aconcagua, mini bells, biscayne and red and yellow Corno Di Toro.
Click to expand...
 
Same here on Bells,
This year my money for volume will be on Giant Red Marconi. Would have gone with Carmen but couldn't locate OP seed.
My '13 Jnards did a dozen+ good peppers per plant, but that's still not a lot of volume. But I'll grow at least a dozen plants again this years because they are so good smoked and roasted.
 
I second the corno di toro. It's extremely sweet. Got mine at the local grocery store, imported from kiwi-land, and just saved the seeds. Have some babies popping up now too.
 
 Forgot to say where I get my sweet peppers, the majority come from Tomato Growers supply Co. out of Florida, but I get a lot also from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, they have a large amount of heirloom and OP vegetable seeds. They are my main go to as they are located 25 miles from where I live, so I and my sister drive up there not only for their seeds, but for their spring and summer festivals.  They have a Vegan restaurant on site, you just pay a small donation toward the meal if you like it,  I've eaten there a few times the food is ok, I find it rather bland as they don't use a lot of spices in it,  as most of the people that eat there would rather eat food a little on the bland side so that they can spice it up to their own personal liking. I keep a little bottle with my hot pepper power along with some three spiced salt.  Its worth getting their catalog even if you don't buy from them as the catalog is really great to look at.
This spring I will have a space problem as I have about 50 sweet peppers that I will be growing, that I will have to find a place for them and some where around 200 or more hot peppers.
Then I have my tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants, okra, squash, yard long noodle beans and three different types of pole beans, and Thats just the tip of the Iceberg.   So much to plant and so little space to put them all in. 
 
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