Sweet pepper is one of the most versatile crops in our garden, as it has an unusually wide range of culinary applications. This vegetable is not only filled with all kinds of fillings or used as an ingredient for soups and fresh salads, but also dried, pickled, grilled and even sometimes fermented. A consequence of the huge demand for peppers has been the emergence of countless different varieties and hybrids, differing in color, shape, size and flavor.
5 proven varieties of sweet peppers for your favorite recipes
Of course, every gardener is free to experiment with the varieties he likes and use each at his own discretion. However, I would like to offer you five proven varieties of sweet peppers that have proven themselves to be the best in our kitchen.
Pepper "Hungarian cheese"
The best pepper for stuffing. The fruits of this variety are round and slightly flattened, like cheese heads. The line of Hungarian Cheese colors includes yellow, red and orange tones. Due to its characteristic color, the yellow variety has the greatest resemblance to cheese, which seems to us the most appetizing.
Hungarian Cheese pepper. © Lyudmila Svetlitskaya
When you look at any sweet pepper, you get the impression that nature itself specially created this fruit for stuffing. For these purposes, in fact, almost any variety can be used. However, “Hungarian Cheese” has the most stable base, and when filled with filling, it looks like a real small cup placed on a dish.
Especially, by the way, this form will be necessary in cases where the culinary recipe involves the use of raw stuffed peppers (for example, stuffed with a mixture of cheese and fried mushrooms).
In addition, the small size of the fruit can be an additional positive point, because everyone who loves traditional stuffed peppers with rice and meat filling has encountered difficulties in cutting this dish on a plate. A small “Hungarian cheese”, which can be eaten in just three bites, allows you to get rid of this problem. Thanks to these qualities, even children can enjoy elegant stuffed peppers.
“Hungarian cheese” refers to very early varieties with a growing season of 65-68 days. The bushes grow of medium size and reach from 30 to 50 centimeters in height.
The compact shape and abundance of small, charming fruits allow this pepper to be successfully used for decorative purposes. Its elegant bushes, planted in a container, will become a wonderful decoration for a balcony or terrace.
Read about the features of growing sweet peppers at home in the article “Indoor sweet peppers - growing paprika on the windowsill!”
Despite its small size, the variety has significantly thick walls, as opposed to most small-fruited varieties, and can be used in lecho, soups and salads. Peppers are also great for making sauces and winter preparations. Another important advantage of peppers is their long fresh shelf life.
Cons of Hungarian cheese pepper
As for the disadvantages, this variety actually has none. Not to mention that this cultivar is of hybrid origin, so the collected seeds usually do not replicate the parental qualities.
Sow in trays or cassettes?
This year we will sow in cassettes. Last year we sowed peppers in boxes, and, in principle, we had no problems when picking the seedlings, but some readers write that not all of their plants tolerated the picking well, and not all took root after it. To reduce picking losses to zero, we decided to sow pepper in a cassette with one hundred and five cells, each of which has a volume of 20 cm³.
How long can I keep seedlings in this cassette? Let's do the math. It will take 5-10 days before the shoots appear, and another 15-20 days will pass before the root system completely develops the cell. This means that the seedlings will have to be planted in about a month.
It would be possible to grow seedlings in larger cells, but we now have a catastrophic lack of space in our apartment, and we are forced to squeeze out the pepper a little. Then we will transplant the seedlings into 450-500 ml pots.
- TOP 5 varieties of tomatoes for canning - tasty, resistant to disease and stress
Pepper "Early Sensation"
The best pepper for fresh salads. With the spread of sweet thick-walled varieties, peppers began to be used more often as a component of various salads, and, in particular, for the preparation of the popular Greek salad. As a rule, the classic recipe uses red fruits, but the Early Sensation pepper, despite its yellow color, is best suited for this and other similar dishes.
Early Sensation pepper. © Lyudmila Svetlitskaya
The fact is that this is the most delicate and incredibly juicy pepper, because even when it is cut, droplets of juice appear on the thick walls. In appearance, "Early Sensation" has a classic cuboid shape and is quite large in size - 7.5 in width and 10 centimeters in length with a weight of 150-200 grams. Moreover, the fruits of this cultivar are considered the largest of all early ripening varieties, which explains the name of the variety, which is translated as “Early sensation”.
The first fruits of this pepper can be plucked from the bush 65 days after planting the seedlings. At technical ripeness, glossy peppers have a very beautiful even emerald color and a pleasant sweet taste. They can be eaten with pleasure without waiting for full biological maturation.
A separate advantage of the hybrid is its high yield and increased resistance to fungal and bacterial diseases. The expected height of the bush is from 45 to 55 centimeters, however, in open ground the plants usually turn out somewhat lower and it is recommended to tie them up, since the bushes fall to the ground under the weight of the abundant heavy ovaries.
Disadvantages of Early Sensation pepper
A slight drawback of the hybrid is the delayed onset of biological maturity. The fact is that, most likely, this variety is more suitable for the southern regions, since, both for us and for most gardeners from the Central and Central Black Earth regions, the peppers hanging on the bush did not acquire the declared yellow color, even if they remained on the plant until autumn.
However, the fact that the pepper, in fact, turned out to be slightly underripe did not in any way affect the taste and quality of the harvest. Another small nuisance was sunburn, which ruined the largest fruits in mid-summer.
Pepper varieties for open ground
There is hardly a single gardener who would not try to grow bell peppers on his plot. Experienced farmers, based on their own experience, have chosen the best varieties of sweet bell peppers for open ground, and now they want to share this knowledge with you. Let's find out which varieties of peppers are best to plant, according to experts.
Interesting information about bell pepper
Did you know that bell pepper is recognized as the oldest vegetable cultivated by man? The first evidence of its cultivation dates back to 7 thousand years BC. Initially, it was used as a medicine, and then it was “tasted” and began to be eaten. Despite the fact that this vegetable is most often called “Bell pepper,” in fact, its homeland is America. It came to Bulgaria only at the end of the 17th century, and from here it spread to Ukraine, Russia and Moldova. This crop is propagated by seeds, from which pepper seedlings are grown for planting in open ground. If the seed is stored correctly, it does not lose its viability for up to four years. The seeds are germinated and this crop is grown at a temperature of 20 to 25 degrees.
The best varieties of pepper
Now let's take a closer look at the best and most popular varieties of bell pepper. First, we will look at varietal peppers (you can collect seeds for sowing).
- We will start with the well-known variety “Gift of Moldova”. Its fruits are considered mid-early, weigh up to 70 grams, and are colored in an appetizing red color.
- “Triton” is considered one of the earliest varieties; the color of its fruits gradually changes from green to dark red. The weight of peppers reaches 150 grams.
- Another early variety worthy of attention is called “Sweet Banana”, as you can understand, its fruits are yellow in color and have a delicate sweet taste.
- For those who do not like to deal with staking plants, it is better to choose low varieties with a powerful stem. These include a productive variety of early pepper called “Player”; its fruits reach a weight of 150 grams.
- Another similar variety is called “Mirage”; its fruits are somewhat smaller (up to 100 grams), but they are more suitable for dishes such as “stuffed peppers” due to their durable peel. If you pick it at different periods of ripeness, you can collect a beautiful bouquet of white, yellow and red peppers. Preservation jars will look gorgeous!
- The undisputed leader among contenders for the title of the best variety for canning is the “Corvette” variety. Its peppers weigh only 60-70 grams, but the peel is very strong.
Hybrid varieties of peppers
Now it’s time to talk about hybrid varieties, the advantage of which is resistance to diseases and sudden drops in temperature, which may well destroy the harvest of varietal species. They can be recognized by the F1 prefix after their name; you won’t collect seeds from them, but growing them is much less troublesome.
- Let's start with the leader, the Atlantic F1 variety. Its fruits can be called record large, their weight reaches 500 grams. Due to the fact that the fruits are large and the peel is soft, it is considered a salad variety.
- The next worthy candidate for planting is the Cardinal F1 variety. Its fruits weigh up to 300 grams, ripen early, and yields are always very high, even in the most unfavorable weather.
- For lovers of yellow bell peppers, we can recommend an excellent hybrid called “Orange Miracle F1”. Its fruits are very fleshy, the peel is strong, weighing 260-300 grams.
- This mini-review of the best pepper varieties for open ground “California Miracle F1” concludes. It bears fruit quite early, the fruits are extremely large, sometimes reaching a weight of 400 grams.
As you can see, the choice of varieties is quite large, and despite the fact that only a small part of the best varieties was selected for presentation in this material. The final choice is yours; you need to base it only on your culinary preferences.
womanadvice.ru
Pepper "Python"
The best pepper for drying sweet paprika. Our family loved this pepper so much that it received the affectionate nickname “our pitosha.” Initially, this unique vegetable is misleading in its appearance, as it has the classic appearance of a hot capsicum. However, in reality it turns out to be a type of sweet pepper and has no pungency.
Pepper "Pyton" (Phyton). © Lyudmila Svetlitskaya
Its original pods are rarely perfectly straight and often curl intricately, like a serpentine. With a weight of 60 grams, their length can reach 25 centimeters, and the wall thickness is only 3 millimeters. A strong spicy aroma, thin walls and rich taste determine the scope of use of “Python” as an ideal “paprika variety”.
Peppers with a small layer of dryish pulp are really very easy to dry, and the bright aromatic seasoning gives dishes a special spicy flavor. Usually we dry the fruits in a special dryer (although peppers easily dry on their own) and grind them in a blender. But the amazing fruits seem no less tasty to us when eaten fresh; we enjoy eating them, literally, without leaving the garden bed.
Contrary to the assurances of seed producers that “Python” can reach a height of 1.5 meters, in open ground the bushes do not grow higher than 40 centimeters. The plants turn out to be quite dense, but despite the lack of formation, the harvest was quite plentiful.
“Python” is a high-yielding, early-ripening variety; the biological maturity of the pods occurs 100-110 days after seed germination. We usually start using this variety in mid-July.
Cons of Python pepper
Since “Python” is very different from traditional varieties of sweet pepper, its dryish structure and spicy taste may seem peculiar - “not for everyone.” The Python pods are densely filled with seeds, but in our opinion, the seeds are quite soft and do not affect the taste of the pepper in any way; there is no need to peel the fruits from them.
Description and characteristics of the variety
Earley Sunsation F1 pepper belongs to the early ripening collection of yellow-fruited hybrids. Harvesting is carried out 98-105 days after germination. Cuboid large fruits have the following distinctive features:
- average weight 260-290 g;
- the color is initially green, then golden yellow;
- thickened pericarp 8-9 mm;
- the shape of a cube, flat and moderately expanded;
- dense and juicy texture.
The plants are of medium height, the length of the shoots is 65-70 cm. The shape of the branches is compact, the internodes are short, the branching and foliage are average.
Yellow peppers are a storehouse of carotene and ascorbic acid. They have a rich taste and aroma. Such vegetables are good in fresh dishes and snacks, and the fruits are also convenient for stuffing and freezing.
Marconi purple pepper
The best peppers for grilling. This is one of the most popular Italian varieties. Marconi is available in three colors on the market - red (with the sweetest flesh), yellow (with a milder taste) and the most aromatic - purple. The latter surprises not only with its taste, but also with its elegant appearance.
Marconi Purple pepper. © Lyudmila Svetlitskaya
The narrow, pointed, glossy pods of purple Marconi resemble fantastic purple icicles. Their length, on average, reaches 15 centimeters, the width is only 1.5-2.5 centimeters, the walls are quite thin (4-6 millimeters), elastic and very crispy. You can tell when a pepper is fully ripe by the appearance of a deep peppery aroma and the color of the fruit changing from dark purple to burgundy.
In our garden, Italian pepper has shown itself to be one of the most productive varieties, producing abundant fruit with minimal care. Tall, leggy, standard-shaped bushes (60-90 centimeters tall) were completely strewn with expressive purple pods, which ripened and ripened before the onset of cold weather.
Since the pods of this pepper are quite light and the base of the bush is woody, the plants do not collapse under the weight of the crop and can do without a garter. The deep aroma and delicate sweet taste makes Marconi ideal for salads, roasting, stuffing, marinating and for adding an Italian touch to food. It is also quite suitable for consumption raw straight from the bush. Its fruits are tasty even when unripe, when the “icicles” are small in size and have a dark purple color.
Italian pepper is an early-ripening variety, and the harvest can be harvested 75 days after planting the seedlings in the beds. The strong, pleasant aroma of pepper and thin walls allow Marconi to be successfully used not only for grilling, but also for drying.
Cons of Marconi purple pepper
Marconi has the reputation of being the most successful pepper for frying and grilling. But, unfortunately, when cooked, the pods lose their unique purple color. It is also worth considering that, thanks to the thin walls, the fruits cook very quickly and are very easy to burn by keeping them on the fire.
The variety can be consumed fresh, but, in comparison with classic varieties of sweet pepper, “Marconi” seems dry and has an unusual crunchy structure.
As a feature of the variety, it should be noted that at seedling age, Marconi pepper seedlings look weaker and grow more slowly than peppers of other varieties sown at the same time.
In addition, as the fruit approaches biological ripeness, it becomes more and more flattened, so it is better to use unripe pods for stuffing.
Pepper "Palanichko Miracle"
The best pepper for lecho. This is a rather rare variety of sweet pepper that can only be purchased in online stores. But this wonderful vegetable is really worth finding its seeds and starting to grow in your garden.
Pepper "Palanichko miracle". © Lyudmila Svetlitskaya
The unique pepper came to the territory of Russia and neighboring countries from Serbia, thanks to the enthusiasts of the Sweet Potato Kushchi vegetable farm. According to vegetable growers who distribute the seeds of the Palanichko Miracle pepper, this pepper is the main secret ingredient of the most delicious lecho in the world. He makes this dish similar to a product popular in Soviet times.
Having a wall thickness of more than one centimeter, a fleshy structure, increased sweetness and an incredibly large size, these peppers are sure to become a guarantee of ideal lecho. But, frankly speaking, we have not yet used it for any preparations, since this pepper turned out to be so sweet, juicy and tasty that it was impossible to tear ourselves away from it - we ate it “alive”.
The size of the Palanichko Miracle fruit can be called no less wonderful. The length of our largest pod reached more than 20 centimeters, and its weight was about 400 grams. The pepper has a conical shape with a pointed nose, and the color is deep - rich red.
In open ground, the bushes turned out to be of average height from 40 to 70 centimeters, not too leafy, and had a standard shape. With a very abundant harvest, the plants definitely need a garter. When sowing seeds in March, the main harvest can be harvested in early August. And the second wave of fruiting begins closer to September. However, late peppers are no longer so large, but the ovaries are more numerous.
Cons of pepper "Palanichko miracle"
Sometimes longitudinal scars and irregularities form on the surface of the fruit, which, however, do not affect the taste at all. In addition, often long fruits reach the tip to the ground where slugs begin to feast on them.
Sunburn is also observed in some peppers. The Palanichko Miracle variety is very heat-loving and in cool summers produces a yield that is much lower than possible. And one more small drawback - the fruits are usually not one-dimensional, and on one bush you can find both very large and very small peppers.
Dear readers! Which peppers are your favorites in your kitchen? Tell us about them in the comments to the article. I am sure that there are a huge number of wonderful varieties of peppers, and I have not yet heard of many.
The best varieties of pepper
With this article we begin a series of publications reviewing varieties of vegetables and flowers, which, in our experience, should be recommended to our summer residents. Daria Posevnaya, an employee of the Siyanie Center for Natural Farming, will help us. Daria, like everyone who works in natural farming, is a passionate vegetable grower and florist. At home we live in our own area, mastering and practicing the newest, natural methods of growing plants. And at work...
We are living in the countryside again! A lot of varieties pass through our hands, price lists from leading manufacturing companies, seed reviews - believe me, we have plenty to choose from! We also always listen and remember: what has good reviews from our customers? Why exactly this? What if we compare it with what has already been planted? So it turns out: to Daria’s knowledge of varieties, and even your experience - WOW! We are happy to meet you and share our finds!
Which varieties are better? Let's ask an expert.
Sweet peppers in Siberia have long ceased to be a curiosity. And if, according to traditional methods of working on a plot, the success of its cultivation is variable (“Risk farming zone!”), then in warm beds, and taking into account natural soil processes, we can note: in Siberia, pepper is successful every year. Especially if you have chosen the right varieties for yourself.
Gypsy
How to choose the right pepper for yourself? Think about what conditions you have and what exactly you want from pepper. Low-growing sprinter varieties are suitable for a warm open ground bed or greenhouse. From such early ripening varieties we usually do not expect a thick wall and the shape of the fruit is often pointed. Well-known varieties of this group: Belozerka, Morozko, Lastochka, Novosibirsky
.
If you usually plant these varieties, pay attention to the new modern hybrids. Gypsy
is a Dutch ultra-early hybrid that was tested in Siberia at the Argos variety testing sites.
The fruits have excellent taste, wall thickness is 4-5mm, and produce consistently high yields. Tamara
is an early-ripening hybrid with walls of about 7 mm; according to gardeners, it was distinguished by the sweetness of its fruits even in the last cold, cloudy summer.
Gypsy and Tamara have a pointed fruit shape. But Belladonna, Oda
(Dutch selection) have a cuboid shape.
Aristotle
Taller, “long-lasting” varieties will have time to open up in greenhouse conditions. Early ripening: wall thickness 8-10mm, with a fruit weight of 110-120g. – Dapper
(yellow
), Big Papa
(purple),
Big Mama
(orange),
Pride of Russia
(red),
Robertina
(red).
The plumpest and largest of the early ones (8-10mm with a mass of 200-400g) are Early Sensation
(luminous golden cuboid) and
Aristotle
(red cuboid)
Airlie Sensation
After a week, mid-early varieties ripen: Red Knight, Jupiter, Fat Baron, Golden Taurus, Violet Eastern Star
.
If you want all the colors at once in one package, then we recommend the Siesta
, which we have tested, which in soil and a warm bed produced 15 fruits per bush, and in a greenhouse it produced 3 floors of cube-shaped delicious fruits!
Siesta
Widely known variety California miracle
refers to mid-season varieties.
As you can see, there are better varieties than J. If you don’t want to change the variety, try the California yellow miracle - Yolo Miracle
.
Like other mid-season varieties Bogatyr, Pritavit, Zvezda Vostoka chocolate
, they have a wall thickness of 6 to 10 mm and a weight of 160 to 350 g.
The largest varieties are still the Bull series: Red Bull, Orange Bull and Yellow Bull
. They are demanding on conditions (normally ventilated greenhouse + sunny, warm summer), and when stuffing they require a lot of filling.
Spicy
If you are a fan of hotter peppers, then Spicy Cayenne and Chilean Heat
- what you need.
But the Double Abundance
produces moderately spicy fruits with a bountiful harvest.
Please note that if both sweet and hot peppers are planted on the plot at the same time, then it is necessary to exclude cross-pollination - plant them at different ends of the plot. And if you don’t have a plot of land, but you want peppers, then indoor peppers have been bred especially for you: sweet Window Miracle and
spicy
Aladdin
(on the bush there are multi-colored fruits at the same time) and
Little Miracle.
Whatever variety you choose,
do not forget about...
The most important points in growing peppers:
- sowing too early leads to the stretching of seedlings, but most importantly, to delaying the flowering of plants. You can't fool nature! The age of seedlings from germination to planting is no more than 70 days. At a temperature of 30-35 degrees, peppers germinate in 5-7 days. Below 20 degrees they do not germinate at all.
- In Siberian conditions, a warm bed for growing peppers is an indispensable condition for obtaining the intended harvest!
- the use of modern biological products stimulates plants in a natural and safe way. And knowledge of the processes occurring in plants and in the soil allows you to get a harvest thanks to, and not despite, nature!
I will be glad if the experience is useful. If you need to ask questions, come to us or write on the Internet. Let's talk! And may an excellent harvest of beautiful, ripe, wonderful-tasting peppers await you ahead!
Daria Posevnaya, Sayanogorsk Center for Natural Earth Sciences "Shine"
