Peppers

pepper plants

Peppers are generally classified as sweet or hot, with the most common sweet peppers being large, blocky bell, banana, and Italian roasting varieties. Hot peppers vary in shape and size as well as degree of hotness. Heat level is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which ranges from about 1,000 SHU for Anaheim peppers to well over 1.5 million SHU for specialty hot peppers like the bhut jolokhia (ghost) pepper or Carolina Reaper.

Common hot peppers include Anaheim, jalapeno, serrano, and habanero peppers. Some peppers, such as paprika or cayenne, are commonly grown to be dried and ground into chili powders for seasonings rather than for fresh eating.

Peppers can be eaten either when the fruit is full-sized but immature or when it changes to its mature color. A variety of colors from green to red, yellow, orange, purple, white, and brown (dull purple) are available.

When possible, select varieties that have a compact, bushy growth habit that will withstand wind and heavy fruit set without breaking branches. For colored peppers, look for varieties that have vigorous foliage growth that will provide good shading to the ripening fruit to prevent sunscald. Large-fruited, sweet, bell peppers produce relatively few fruit per plant. If high yields are desired or space is limited, smaller fruited sweet peppers or Italian roasting peppers may be a better choice. Most home gardeners find that 1 or 2 plants of a particular type of hot pepper are sufficient to meet their needs unless a large volume is desired for food preservation purposes. Para información en español, visite este sitio web.