With fall frosts imminent, I thought I might report on how my peppers did this year. To make better use of my limited space, I planted most of my peppers in 1 to 3 gallon pots. The few I put directly in the ground seemed to bear more fruits per plant than the 1 gallon containers, but the ones in 3 gallon containers did well.
I grew two bell peppersl. Big Bertha had the largest yield as well as the largest fruit, allthough it took quite a while to turn red so I picked most of them green. Colossal did not live up to its name in either size or yield but I didn't plant it in the ground.
I grew many sweet peppers, but the sweetest (good raw in salads) were Gypsy, Carmen and Ljubov Dlan, roughly in that order. A Red Marconi plant (in the ground) out-produced all the others (in pots). Sweet Banana did not perform as well in pots as it did in the ground, and Buran also had smaller than expected fruit in my pots. Golden Treasure and Kurtovska Kapija succumbed to some sort of disease after producing only a few fruits. (The picture is Gypsy)
My wife doesn't like too much sainete so I grew only a few mildly hot peppers. Early Jalepeno, Chimayo and Alma Paprika produced well in the ground but only had about two fruits in 1 gallon pots. I'll try the 3-gallon size next year. Alma Paprika ripened mid season, but the others were rather late.
I started Anaheim and Big Jim seeds, but for some reason, they failed to germinate although purchased only 2 years ago.
I think I found that many peppers do well in 3 gallon pots but 1 gallon is too small. Needless to say, our freezer is well-stocked with peppers this year.
We had an unseasonably cool summer, even for wisconsin, and a wet cold spring.
