Advice for hot pepper varieties

9 years ago

I needing advice on growing and variety selection of hot peppers. I am not a hot spicy food eater, but I was constantly ask at the market for hot peppers for salsa. I am also going to sell in a new market that is in a city that has a large Hispanic population. I would like to have a selection of heat and would like to have some as early as possible in the season till into October when the market ends. I will have a selection of sweet peppers also. I am planning on following the advice from the thread on how to get early peppers but it mainly covers sweet varieties. thanks John

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Comments (6)

snarg
9 years ago
A general rule of thumb: The hotter the pepper, the longer to mature.

I am in Zone 6(ish) and my super-hots do not mature until the end of September.

Peppers that are good for salsas, but not set-your-face-on-fire hot are jalapenos and habaneros. Once you move beyond habaneros, you start to enter the super-hot range, starting at about Chocolate Habanero.

If you want to grow the super-hots, 1,000,000 Scolville and above, you would have Ghost Pepper (all colors), 7-Pot/7-Pod, Trinidad Scorpion (all variates) and, the king of them all, the Carolina Reaper, currently the hottest pepper in the world.

In my area I have found that I can sell the plants all day long however, when it comes to the fruit, nobody wants them. I end up selling the fruit to a co-op.

We start our seed for the super-hots around the 15th of December. Many of the variates take up to 20 days to germinate. Good luck with it and have fun.
cole_robbie
9 years ago
Mucho Nacho is my favorite jalapeno. I also like Ancho 101 as a poblano.
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Chris, I am interested in both the Golden Cayenne and the White Bullet Habaneros. I would only need/want 6 seeds from each. I have seeds for; Red Savina Habaneros Red Rocotos (can only spare @ 5 seeds) Ground Cherries Yellow Pear Tomatoes Super Hot Chiles (not sure of purity) White Currant Cherry Tomatoes Red Okra seeds I also have many other seeds for flowers if you are interested. I will also have seeds from my Black Czech Hot Pepper, which I bagged(2 peppers for seeds), to prevent crossing. These are just now ripening. I also have seeds ordered from Tough Love Chile Co. (which I could spare a few [5 to 15]) for; Caribbean Red Habanero Charleston Cayenne Scotch Bonnet Orange Habanero Piquin Tabasco Tepin Thai Hot I only need to start maybe 5 seeds from each, from a pkg of 20 ... I only have room for a couple of each plant. I will grow them in the ground and in 5 gallon bucket pots. I plan to over winter any chiles I like in 5 gallon buckets. I should receive my ordered seeds in the mail very soon. Michael
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DMForcier, Edymnion - Thanks for your replies. I now realize my ideas are obviously unrealistic. I just thought that based on all the variations I have been seeing, maybe peppers are by nature highly alterable and adaptable. I figured if I do the opposite of my isolation efforts and let them cross every season I might get a pepper variety more suited to my needs and wants. What I really desire are super hots that would be dwarfed and would produce earlier for use in shorter growing seasons. Obviously desirable traits for up here in Minnesota. I still have the question of why I am seeing so much variation in the varieties - is this normal? Or is this the result of growers I received the seed from not isolating properly over one, several, or many generations? My seeds this season came from several commercial sources as well as several hobby growers, so this can not be blamed on one disreputable seller. Examples of variation I am seeing: I have a tobasco chili plant that is larger than the norm, has larger immature yellow pods rather than green, pods are maturing later, has darker foliage. Plant is vibrant and healthy. Some of my chocolate hab plants have pointed pods, some have smooth round pods, another one has large oblong roundish fluted pods. All nice healthy plants similar in size and appearance. Most of my caribbean reds have the classic hab-shape pods, but two plants have larger oblong round pointy pods (which are much more desirable to me). The dorsets and bhuts are all over the place regarding sizes and shapes of pods. Some have light green to yellow-green immature pods that mature to orange, most have nice dark green immature pods that mature to red. All pods have that nice wrinkled appearance. All plants are healthy. I do not mean to make a big deal about this. I have been growing sweets and chilies for years but I am new to growing the super hots and I just do not understand why I am seeing so much variation, and I am wondering if this is the norm or what. Also, I do not know what to do regarding seed saving and from which plants to harvest seed and how to categorize. Thanks for any input, -Tom
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jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
9 years ago
Jalafuego is the variety of Jalapenos we grow. I really enjoy growing the super hot varieties, they are very pretty and colorful, but they don't sell. Jalapenos will sell, so I just grow them now.

Jay
Slimy_Okra
9 years ago
You may want to add serrano peppers to your repertoire to satisfy people who want hot but not too hot. I sell them at 25 or 50 cents a piece, depending on how much competition there is.
User
9 years ago
Check out the local Hispanic markets and their ads to see what they are selling, because it's hard to compete with a trailer full from Mexico.

Hispanics are more into flavor than pure Scoville bragging rights, so don't concentrate on super-hots. The burn should not be so hot you can't taste the rest of the dish.

Fresh salsa -
Green Serranos for the crisp "green fire" bite they add to salsa and other dishes.

Green or red Jalapenos for a different taste in the salsa,

Chilacas ( a long black-brown medium hot chili)
barrie2m_(6a, central PA)
9 years ago
Don't limit yourself to just a few types b/c often there is cultural diversity in tastes. Probably you want to certainly include jalopeno, anahein and pablano types but my sales in the thick cayenne and hungarian wax are my highest volume sellers.
The serrano, thin cayenne and small chili types just take too long to pick and although I grow them my picking method is to grab around the base of the plant and literally strip everything off to allow for later sorting. Using that method limits one to a single harvest. All of you who grow peppers know the time difference in harvesting. When a customer wants 3 bu. of hung. wax peppers I ask for a half hour advance notice. For Habanero types it could take 5x that much time.
You need to determine what your customers want and that includes shape and color. Surprisingly my primary thick cayenne customers want either all red or all green with no transition peppers. Often I cannot sell a red jalopeno and red serrano types are usually mushy. I have a few customers that specifically request choc. habaneros, but I believe a blend of colors sells better overall.

Advice for hot pepper varieties

Comments (6)

snarg

cole_robbie

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jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)

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