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Vegetable Gardening

Red Mercury Peppers?

15 years ago

Has anyone grown "Red Mercury" bell peppers? Are they any good? I googled it and can't find much. Somehow I forgot to order bell pepper seeds this year and the selection in local stores here for bell peppers is pathetic. The only two varieties I have found locally are California Wonder and Red Mercury (anyone near Boise know a good place to buy pepper seed?).

I grew Cal wonder last year and was not impressed, but we had an unusually cool spring / summer last year which might have had something to do with it. My preference is for thick walled, sweet peppers, and I like to wait until they turn red before picking. The Cal wonders were not very sweet and were late ripening for me last year.

I know... I could order some, but paying shipping on one pack of seeds seems a little silly. The Cal Wonder and Red Mercury packets are less than $2 locally. If I do decide to order, what is your favorite variety of thick walled, early, red bell peppers? The year before last I grew "Red Beauty" and they were wonderful... but we also had our normal HOT summer. Thanks.

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Comments (2)

farmerdilla
15 years ago
Mercury was introduced in 1971 by one of the companies that merged into Seminis. Very similar to Cal Wonder, but never captured the market share. I can only find it at Livingston Seed. Like California Wonder it was developed for the green bell market. Where holding the green color is a marketing advantage. Some of the newer introductions designed for the ripe bell market ripen much faster. Most will be hybrids however and take about 20 extra days to ripen.
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keelmt_yahoo_com
13 years ago
Love 'em. Livingston's Red Mercury was a serendipitous find for me when searching locally for sweet red pepper seeds. They are 3 lobed, smaller than Cal Wonder and sweeter. I eat them right off the plant--something I don't do with the CWs.

I can't tell you much about their timing except that they were bearing heavily until our first hard freeze. I still have a few in the fridge.
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