Harvesting History

5 Heirloom Hot Peppers That Flourish in Containers

 
Columbus named the peppers he saw growing in the West Indies, pimiento, because he thought they were the pimienta, spice pepper, grown in the East Indies. He was painfully surprised to find out that the West Indian peppers were incredibly hot. On his several voyages to the New World, Columbus collected many varieties of hot and sweet pepper and brought them back to Spain. The peppers immediately gained popularity and spread to Africa, India and the Far East before they became popular in the rest of Europe and North America.
In Central and South America, peppers are perennial plants, which can grow four to six feet in height, but in North America, peppers are grown as annuals because they are very sensitive to frost.
As many of you know, I think tomatoes and peppers and eggplants grow best in containers. If you are going to grow peppers in containers, there are a few rules you should follow. Peppers should be grown in pots that are at least 14 inches in diameter and 14-16 inches deep: ONE PLANT PER CONTAINER. Peppers grown in containers often require staking, so plant the stake when you plant the seedling. Container grown peppers must be fertilized at least every 2 weeks with full strength fertilizer that is rich in phosphorus. Tomato plant food does a good job.  Plants that are not fed in this way will have limited fruiting.
Pepper plants should be started indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost date. Because peppers germinate slowly, pepper plants should be started with bottom heat applied to the flats. The bottom heat speeds up germination and seems to produce stronger seedlings. After one week of hardening off, plants should be transplanted to the garden or a container after all danger of frost has passed.
When transplanting, add a ¼ cup bone meal to the soil in the container. If the soil is too rich or too much nitrogen fertilizer has been added to the soil, the plant will produce lush green leaves, but few peppers. As plants begin to blossom, dissolve a spoonful of Epsom salts in a spray bottle full of water and spray the leaves. The magnesium in the Epsom salts encourages early and prolific fruit set.
Peppers should be harvested when they change color from green to red, yellow, orange, purple or brown. Once the color change occurs, sweet peppers become sweeter and hot peppers become hotter. The more you pick peppers, the more they will produce.
Poblano
You can purchase Poblano seeds, at the following link to our Harvesting History website:
https://www.harvesting-history.com/shop/poblano/
If you could only choose one hot pepper to grow in your garden, my suggestion would be to choose the poblano.
In their native habitats all peppers are perennial, shrubs which can reach a height of 6-8 feet. In the temperate climates of North America, the plants rarely reach a height of 3 feet, and they die back in the fall after a frost.
Poblanos are a relatively mild, large chile pepper that is believed to be indigenous to the Puebla, Mexico region – a part of Mexico that is located in the southeastern area of the country, near, but not on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
The poblano fruit is about 3-4 inches wide and 5-6 inches long. The immature fruit is bright green which turns to scarlet and finishes as a deep dark red. The red is so dark that, at times, it appears black.
The fruit can be eaten at all stages of its development. The green fruit has the mildest heat, and this heat intensifies as the fruit turns to red and then deep red.
The name, poblano, refers to the fresh fruit. Once the pepper has been dried it is called an ancho chile. The word ancho means wide and refers to the unusual width of the poblano.
Like some other hot peppers, the heat of individual fruit from the same plant can vary dramatically. It is not clear why this is the case, but it is. Poblanos can be eaten fresh, cooked or dried. They are especially good when stuffed and baked, and are the pepper of choice when creating chile rellenos.
Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot
You can purchase Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot Pepper seeds, at the following link to our Harvesting History website:
https://www.harvesting-history.com/shop/hungarian-yellow-wax-hot/
Commonly known as Hot Banana Pepper, this is a Hungarian heirloom that was originally indigenous to Central America. The 4-6 inch fruit ripen from green to yellow to orange and finally to red. For reasons I don’t know, these peppers are usually harvested when they are yellow.
The 30 in. plants produce a profusion of mildly hot, banana-shaped peppers. This pepper is outstanding for 3 reasons. It does well in cool, short season climates.  It is an extremely early producer. Often when purchasing these plants in the spring, you will find a pepper already started on the seedling. It is also incredibly prolific. A single plant often produces 30+ fruit.
 
 
Jalapeno
You can purchase Jalapeno seeds, at the following link to our Harvesting History website:
https://www.harvesting-history.com/shop/jalapeno/
Jalapenos are named after the Mexican city of Xalapa. Jalapenos are named after the Mexican city of Xalapa.Maybe the most popular hot pepper grown, the 30 in. plants produce a profusion of 3-4 in. fruit that ripen to red.

Jalapenos have been cultivated for thousands of years by the Aztecs and other native Central American peoples. They were discovered by the Spanish explorers and brought back to Europe in the 1500s. Spanish Codices of the mid-16th century describe roasted jalapenos and mole (a sauce made from jalapenos) being sold in Mexican marketplaces.
One interesting botanical fact about jalapenos is that from their genetics it has been determined that they are not related to other peppers.
 
Red Cherry Hot
You can purchase Red Cherry Hot Pepper seeds, at the following link to our Harvesting History website: https://www.harvesting-history.com/shop/red-cherry-hot/
The Red Cherry Hot Pepper is an ancient variety that is believed to be native to Mexico, Central and South America. From these areas it made its way to the Caribbean and then to Spain. The first written description occurred in 1586. In 1759, the first written description of the pepper occurred in an English text.
Two factors really make this pepper outstanding. The first is its very thick flesh. The Red Cherry Hot Pepper is only mildly hot, and when you bite into it you experience a burst of sweetness before the heat kicks in. It is a great eating experience. The second is its abundant fruit production. A single plant will easily produce 30-50 fruit in a season.
Unlike the “mini peppers” available today, this pepper is small but large enough to easily stuff for hors d’oeuvres or light eating. It also makes delicious pickles.
 
Black Pearl
You can purchase Black Pearl Hot Pepper seeds, at the following link to our Harvesting History website: https://www.harvesting-history.com/shop/black-pearl/
I am not sure that I have saved the best for last, because in this newsletter, we have discussed some truly great peppers, but I have saved the most extraordinary for last.
The Black Pearl hot pepper is truly a garden standout. It is not an heirloom. It is a very new variety that won the All-America Selections in 2006. It is not GMO or GE, and it was developed using good old fashion breeding techniques.
The pepper is pretty hot, but not habanero hot. It makes great pickled hot peppers, but the most extraordinary factor about this plant is its incredibly black leaves. In full sun this plant is totally black. The peppers begin as an iridescent purple then change to black and finally ripen into striking scarlet balls. The contrast of the scarlet ‘pearls’ against the absolutely black plant is stunning – take your breath away – stunning.
The other extraordinary factor about this plant is that she is a little “huzzy”! If you plant her next to any other pepper and then save the seeds from the other peppers, the fruit from the seeds of the other peppers the following year will all be black. If you plant tabascos next to her, you will have black tabascos. If you plant jalapenos, you will have black jalapenos. If you plant cayenne, you will have black cayenne. This is one little plant that makes her presence known.
Black Pearl is the quintessential edible ornamental. If you could choose only one new plant to try this year, even if you do not eat hot peppers, I would urge you to try Miss Black Pearl. It will be an adventure meeting her and an experience I guarantee you, you will never forget.

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