Are you ready to add some heat to your gardening game? Pepper plants are a great way to add some flavor and color to your garden, not to mention they are relatively easy to grow.
But with so many varieties to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the best pepper plants for your garden, along with tips on how to care for them.
But before we dive into the list, let me ask you this: Are you ready to discover the hottest pepper in the world? Keep reading to find out!
Tip!
Pepper Plants are a staple in the American garden with bell Peppers being the favorite. Bell peppers do not have to be the only pepper plant in your vegetable garden, as there are hundreds of choices available. The growing times are not that different of this productive plant, so you can plant them all and harvest different varieties at the same time.
Types Of The Best Peppers
There are three types of peppers with several varieties in each one. These are some of the most popular in their growing times. The Hybrid Bell type includes the Bell Boy at 70 days, Lady Bell at 72 days, Purple Belle at 70 days, and Chocolate Bell at 75 days. Salad peppers include Gypsy at 65 days and Sweet Banana at 70 days.
Hot peppers include Thick Cayenne at 70 days, thin Cayenne at 73 days, Jalapeno at 70 days, and Red Chili at 80 days. This is just a small sample, but a good representation of the growing times.
Starting Healthy Pepper Plants
Pepper plants do not like the cold. They can’t be put outside until all danger of frost is past. The only way to get an early crop is to start them indoors, anywhere from 2 to 2½ months before the last frost. Try using plant lamps to stimulate their growth.
Planting The Easiest Peppers
While they are still indoors, work compost, manure, and fertilizer into the soil. When the danger of frost is over, set the rows from 24 to 30 inches apart and put the plants 18 to 24 inches apart. Give them good mulching and fertilizer that is high in Phosphorous and Potassium. This should get you a higher-yield crop. Peppers like moist, but not wet soil.
Harvesting For Fresh Eating
Peppers can be harvested as soon as they reach the desired size. The more you harvest them, the more will grow and you can have peppers all season long.
Problems Of The Young Plants
Peppers can be infected by insects such as spider mites and aphids. If you see a big hole, you have a worm or boring insect. Check with your garden center to see what kind of insecticide is allowed in your area.
Fungus and viruses can also strike pepper plants. Fungicides will work on the fungus infections, but get it on as soon as possible. These infections can spread rapidly.
The ones to look out for are the Alternaria leaf spot, Cercospora leaf spot, and Bacterial leaf spot. If the plant has small and misshapen leaves, it is a viral, not bacterial infection and is probably being transmitted by insects. The thing to do is remove the infected plant before it spreads to the others.
Different Pepper Plants For The Best Results
Pepper plants add interest to gardens with their variety of colors and shapes. People use the fruits raw in salads or on sandwiches, or as ingredients in anything from chili to pizza.
Pepper plants grow as perennials in their native climates in New Mexico, although the home gardener usually grow them as annuals in the United States. With so many different pepper plants, it helps to break down the broader category known as Capsicum annuum into three main types.
Sweet Peppers With A Sweet Flavor
Most people are familiar with mild, sweet bell peppers. Although most commonly found in green bell peppers or red, these popular peppers come in a variety of colors including yellow and orange. Mild, sweet types include bell green peppers, banana, and pimiento peppers, according to the University of California.
Start these bushy plants as pepper seeds inside during the winter and then transfer them to the garden when the air and soil have warmed in the spring. They like well-drained, fertile, and moist soil. Irrigate during dry spells to ensure the fruit sets, according to University of Illinois Extension agents. Harvest the older varieties when the fruits are fully-grown.
Hot Peppers
Like the mild, sweet pepper plant varieties, hot peppers ripen through a color range. Chili peppers come in yellow, orange, red, brown, and purple. They range in heat from mildly hot to fiery hot. Start, plant, and tend hot chili pepper plants the same way you do sweet pepper plants.
If you want your spicy flavor peppers as hot as possible, allow them to ripen fully, according to the University of Illinois Extension service. Hot peppers seemingly have an affinity for high temperatures.
Experts say that long hot summers produce the hottest peppers. Hot pepper varieties include cayenne peppers, habanero peppers, jalapeno peppers, Serrano peppers, and Tabasco pepper. They are great for making hot sauce.
Ornamental Peppers
An expanding variety of ornamental pepper seedlings gives gardeners the option of growing showy edible pepper plants that look good in planters or as landscaping and bedding plants anywhere in the yard or garden.
Follow the same methods of planting and caring for ornamental peppers that you use for traditional sweet or hot pepper transplants.
Ornamental peppers come in surprising colors, such as the Black Pearl, a compact upright plant with semi-glossy, deep-purple to black leaves with shiny round black-purple fruit that matures to bright red.
While the Black Pearl is compact, the Tangerine Dream is a sprawling plant you grow as a ground cover. The prostrate Tangerine Dream pepper plant bears small, orange, banana-shaped edible fruit.
Best Pepper Plants To Grow
Pepper plants offer a mix of tastes that vary from robust to sweet flavor or super spicy. Harvesting your own peppers allows you to get creative in the kitchen by adding these nutrient-packed foods to pizzas, soups, salads, and other dishes. You can even use peppers to make your own homemade salsa.
The University of Illinois says that peppers are a good source of vitamins A and C, but red peppers have the highest quantities of both nutrients. All peppers grow best in fertile, well-drained soil.
Bell Peppers
Bell peppers have a mild tangy taste and firm texture. This vegetable is glossy on the exterior with thick lobes and layers of seeds on the inside. Bell peppers come in a variety of colors, such as red, green, yellow, purple, orange, brown, and even black. Most bell peppers are between 2 and 5 inches in diameter.
This type of pepper is preferred for salads and basic dishes because it’s not spicy. Bell peppers are high in vitamins A, C, E, and B1 and other minerals such as folate, copper, and manganese. Add chopped bell peppers to salads or other mild dishes. You can also combine bell peppers with spicy peppers to create your own salsa.
Jalapeno Pepper
Jalapeno peppers are spicy peppers. The peppers are long and 2 inches in diameter at the widest points. The pepper becomes thinner and more pointed at the tip. These peppers start out green and gradually turn red as they ripen. Jalapeno peppers contain fiber and vitamin C. Add these peppers to your favorite spicy soups or Mexican dishes.
Cayenne Pepper
Cayenne pepper is a very hot and spicy pepper that is often eaten whole or ground up and taken as a supplement. This type of pepper plant is high in vitamins A, C, and K and fiber.
Cayenne adds flavor and spice to your favorite dishes. It contains the compound capsaicin, which is what gives it a hot taste. The World’s Healthiest Foods website says cayenne pepper can help reduce inflammation and clear up congestion.
Sweet Banana
Sweet banana peppers are yellowish-green, and they look similar to an actual banana. These peppers are 8 inches long and 2 inches wide at the widest points. You can eat these peppers raw or fry them up on the grill. These peppers have a mildly spicy, yet sweet taste. Sweet banana peppers are high in fiber and vitamin C. Add these to salads, soups, and other favorite dishes.
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