Didn't grow them last year, but i know i'm going to try them in 2012, thanks for the heads up on them.

Just google searched "cajun belle" and found some pics and info. Looks like they are a super-early type, loaded with pods, mildly spicy and savory, sounds like my favorite type of day-to-day roasting pepper.

Growing one for the first time this year. It is by far outgrowing my other belle pepper plants. I have about a dozen blooms growing right now. I'll try to get a pic when it stops raining.

Here are a few pics of mine so far this year.... In small containers

Holy mackeral, your Cajun Belles look great. My sister and I shared a pack of Cajun Belle seeds from Territorial Seed Supply. She lives in central Illinois and I live in SW Oregon. Her CB plants are some of her best, doing just great. All of mine died, with the exception of one small sickly looking plant that just won't grow. It is two to three inches tall and was sprouted in March sometime.

Our high temp yesterday was 49 and today was 55. This is the coldest, wettest spring I have seen in my 30 years of living in western Oregon. This is one tough year for plants.

I have only mowed my grass twice in 2011! I am usually mowing every 5 to 7 days this time of year. I mow almost 3 acres, so I am usually mowing constantly. Not this year...

I'm finding that aphids are a constant battle on the Cajun Belles where I live (StL, MO).

I have about 30 pepper plants outside this season all in close proximity to each other and the only ones that the aphids seem to love are the Cajun Belles and the Red Knight peppers. They killed 2 of the Cajuns indoors over the winter before I could stop them and weakened the remaining 3. Of the 6 red knights seedlings they killed 5 and severely weakened the last. I've tried everything from DE dust, to insect soap, to hand crushing. Nothing seems to keep them away for long.

Pretty soon I'm going to resort to Sevin. I haven't tried growing any peppers before so if anyone growing Cajun Belles has a suggestion for how to keep the aphids in check please do let me know (I'm lurking in the other threads on aphids and have tried most of those suggestions).

Outdoors, it is rare that ladybugs, wasps, and other beneficials cannot keep aphids in check. Have you tried introducing lady bugs?

Be careful spraying too often, your best defense is beneficial bugs.

Three weeks ago I released "1500" ladybugs throughout the garden - maybe 200 or so in the peppers and tomatoes. Last week I did a thorough search of every plant (top, and bottom) and didn't find a single one. Nor did I see any larvae or yellow/orange eggs. I followed the directions and released them at night. I even sprayed them with a very weak sticky solution to prevent them from flying away as was suggested.

If you pepper pros really thing they are the best way to go then maybe I will try another release.

You can try releasing them over a few nights instead of all at once. I have released them twice a month apart. The first was effective on aphids but they did not stick around. The next time I gave the plants a week off of spraying to build up some aphids. The lady bugs stuck around a lot better and I have spotted some eggs. If your weather is too cool they will not breed readily.

Since backing off the spray, tiny wasps have shown up to help, I can spot lots of parasitized aphids! I am really discovering how a garden must heal itself, interfering can just make it easier for pests to get out of control.

Best of luck!

So I just harvested my first Cajun Belle - I was under the impression that these were *very* mild sweet peppers?

One website showed jalapenos as having 5000 scoville units and these cajun belles at around 100-1000.

I must have done something wrong? These are bright red and are *way* hotter than any jalapeno I've ever tried...

Do growth conditions impact heat in some way? Were mine maybe mislabeled?

There is mixed info but I believe they have a similar rating to jalapenos. Can't wait to try one, tempted to pick one green.

Grew them this year, but probably won't bother again. We'll see if they produce again when temps cool this fall. They have a little bit of heat, but nowhere close to jalapenos or serranos. I'm very disappointed in the size of the peppers.

Two in one bag with serranos and a red pimento and 3 in the other.

{{gwi:19628}}

First time gardener here...and my plants actually survived the Texas drought and some did quite well (esp the basil). I have a 6x8 bed with tomatoes, herbs, 4 jalepenos, 1 serrano,2 reg bell peppers and then 1 cajun.

I planted one Cajun Belle and that's all we needed! It's producing daily and these babies are HOT! They are really spicy and we normally love hot salsa, Red Hot, etc. My poor husband was gasping for breath after biting the top off the first belle. I just cleaned three and couldn't stop coughing and now my fingertips are burning...I didn't realize these peppers would be like this so I jumped online to read more.

I'm going to try stuffing them with goat cheese and see if they are consumable that way. Otherwise they are overwhelming despite our tolerance of all things spicy. My husband jokingly wondered if the serranos and jalepenos cross-pollinated with the Belles. Or roasting through the endless days of 100 degrees condensed the heat? LOL

Just another perspective - I'd hate for someone to read the post about them being weak and get a bad surprise.

Interesting, it seems that the level of spicyness for this pepper is all over the map. I wonder why it isn't advertised that way? Kind of reminds me of long hots in that respect. I can say for certain that the pepper i ate today was WAY hotter than any jalapeno I've had, it was on par with a habanero. Definitely one of the spiciest things I've ever eaten, nowhere near advertised. I'll have to see if the next one is spicy or mild.

I agree that these are a lot hotter (and smaller) than the typical bell I thought I was getting, but the burning is very short lived (unlike jalapenos, etc.). So they give a nice spicy jolt which can add to eggs, hamburger, or tomatoes, etc., but certainly not ruin your day. They're very productive, and I will certainly grow them again. But they should not be confused for (or substituted for) what we usually think of as bell peppers. I only had them red, but hear when green they're milder. Wish I had known that mid-harvest, just to try them that way, too. The point is, they are productive enough to experiment with.

It often depends on where the pepper was grown. The hotter the climate the hotter the pepper. I grow ghost peppers, etc. here in Seattle, [west side of the Mountain] not known for a hot climate, and they are HOT but not as hot as those from the hot side of Washington [eastern.]

Old thread but still interesting to read that Cajun Belle is smaller than a typical bell and has varying spice levels. I've grown Mexibell a few times over the past half dozen years and my experience with them is that they are about the size of a pimento with fruits ranging from having to no spice to easily being as spicy as a serrano (if not hotter). Guess these two hybrids marketed as mildly spicy bells aren't very stable.

Rodney

I grew them from seed a few years ago. I grew three and gave a seedling to a friend. All of mine were very hot -- hotter than serranos I grew at the same time. I didn't like the flavor. One of my friends said all of his were no hotter than an Italian frying pepper, and tasted like green bells even when red. Same seed packet.

We grew them this year. OMG. They are very very hot. When I first used them in the beginning of August, they were not too bad, but suddenly they became very hot. They stay on my fingers and will burn the skin. Tried to make pepper jelly and these are as hot as the hottest serranos I have had- way different than expected.

Having said that, I do like them. They are great peppers. Stuffed they are nice, but be ready for a bite.

We also had a very hot dry year. All of our peppers are very hot- hotter than usual.

3 of my coworkers have grown them. Heat stress seems to make them concentrate more into the pods. The undersized ones that ripen red are like playing Russian roulette for heat.

I just planted some cajun belles earlier today. I absolutely LOVE spicy, hot food, so I'm hoping mine turn out to be as hot as some of the descriptions in this thread. Is there anything that the average gardener can do or add to the soil to make a pepper sweeter? I love spicy peppers, but I also love sweet peppers. To have the best of both in one pepper would be awesome!

I put mine out yesterday. We like Cajun belle, grown in containers. Mine last time didn't seem that hot at all. Hope this year they will be hotter.

Just ate one that I pickled 3 weeks ago, and this is the hottest pepper I've ever had besides habanero! Wow, if your growing this in a hot climate, good luck!

so i grew these cajun belles and same thing there way way hotter then my jalps... And not all on the same plant are the same heat. I had a red one and was like woah maybe ill try a green one (which happened to be way hotter than the red one) im thinkin mayne if i let that one go red itd have been the hottest one.

Mine were wonderfully spicy with a hint of sweetness. I loved this pepper and will grow more this year! My jalapenos were mild in comparison, rather boring. Cajun Belles will give you that zip but not tears in your eyes. I live in central California in zone 9a. My plant was in a raised bed and stayed small ( a little over a foot tall) but had tons of peppers on it. The photo here in comments of the plant that has white rocks under it looks just like my plant.

Our cajun belles turned out to have a good spicy kick to them too. I liked them pretty well, but the wife didn't. Grew them in containers. Our plants stayed small too. Good pepper for containers. Not sure if I'm going to grow them again this year - my wife wants more sweet peppers, and I want to try more varieties we've never experienced.