Early Sweet Peppers

[Labradors2]

Just wondering if there are any tasty early varieties.

I've grown Ajvarski, Donkey's Ear, Gatherer's Gold, Jimmy Nardello, Lipstick, Melrose and others. I like them, but it takes forever for them to ripen here. The skinny ones are probably faster, but I'm not crazy about them because it's fiddly to extract the seeds.

My favourite is Gatherer's Gold (70 days) which seems to ripen earlier than the others and to be the most productive. I'm growing Zupa again because it is said to be very early, but I was late to start the year that I tried it.

Linda

[ddsack]

Have you tried Gypsy F1 hybrid? Earliest to turn color for me, starts out yellow, goes through shades of orange to red. Good for fresh or frying. I wish it was a little larger, but then it would not be so early.

[Yak54]

Here is a good one I've grown for many years. Very sweet and productive.https://www.reimerseeds.com/tollies-sweet-peppers.aspx. Not early though.

Dan

[KarenO]

The earliest ripe pepper in my pnw garden two years in a row now was an Ethiopian heirloom called Mareko Fana. Delicious rich mildly hot flavour and dried to a beautiful reddish brown powder. Highly recommend
I never have had any luck with larger bells. Small but deliciously sweet and thick walled cheese peppers are probably my earliest sweet peppers.
my Mareko Fana seeds from growartisan.com
KarenO

[Fusion_power]

Wildgardenseed (Frank Morton's seed site) has several good varieties similar to Gatherer's Gold. I recommend Stocky Red Roaster as it gives a few options in ways to prepare them. If you look on SandHill, Glenn has 2 or 3 that are unique and should mature in your climate. Franks is a dwarf pepper rarely more than 16 inches tall that matures in about 65 days. I recommend it for people in short season climates. It is a mediocre pepper here in the deep south but should be a star performer for you. Take a close look at Red Wonder as it is Glenn's compact early maturing pepper. I also suggest Little Bells which Frank Morton developed but no longer sells. Last is Sirenevyi which I grew last year. It has a slightly spicy (not hot) flavor that is different from most sweet peppers.

[PNW_D]

try growing them in two gal containers ..... only way I've had success here in PNW ...... scroll down to pepper pics

http://pnwtomatoes.blogspot.com/2022...-and-more.html

[Labradors2]

Many thanks for all the great suggestions. I'll certainly try some of these varieties .

I especially liked PNW-D's suggestion as I can certainly grow a couple of container peppers extra-early to get a harvest before September for a change .

Linda

[rxkeith]

we have spoken about zupa.


i grew it last year, and i had ripe red peppers a full month before any other pepper.
zupa was container grown, as was a couple franks pepper plants. zupa wasn't big
in the flavor department, but man o man, it was productive, and early. i will be
growing it again this year.






keith

[Labradors2]

Keith,

That's great to know that Zupa was earlier than the other peppers by a full month, but disappointing to hear that the flavour wasn't all that great.

Linda

[RJGlew]

I'm also a long time fan of Gypsy F1, with seeds still available from OSC racks. Odessa Market will also ripen here and their taste is good. Zone 3a.

[PaulF]

The growing season for peppers in my area is also too short except for early season peppers. The shorter the better for peppers to ripen. We get plenty of green fruit before frost on medium and longer season peppers but to get colors the season needs to be 65 days or less. This is a list of varieties this year:

Baron
Ace
Chablis
Giant Aconcagua
Gypsy
Cubanelle
Aruba
La Rouge Royale

In addition I am trying to plant seeds from a store bought package of multi-colored, small, sweet snacking peppers just to see what happens. I need to look for Odessa Market...there is always room for one more.