comparing chilli and pepper varieties - quality, taste and hotness!

foreign_correspondent

Following on from the "comparing tom varieties - quality, taste and yield" thread, I wondered whether it would be useful to have a similar look at our experiences with various chilli and pepper varieties..

There is such a vast range of chillies and peppers, from sweet to fiery, and in all shapes, sizes and colours.

This year I have grown

Peppers
Purple Beauty - striking looking deep aubergine coloured peppers - will tell you what they taste like soon!

Chillies
Hot Carribean blend (Suttons I think) - presumably these seeds are oddments, or the sweepings off the factory floor! I apear to have some birdseye and Habenero in there

Banana Chillies - yellow, long curled, taste dull to me, mild but not ever so sweet either.

Jalepeno - grew these last year - fine, quite hot, great for pickling!

Red Cherry - not tried yet

Chinese 5 colour - pretty, purple flowers followed by small purple upright chillies which then change colour, hence the name! Not tasted yet, but will try soon. I will take a photo of the plants, they are cool!

.. so what are you growing? Which varieties do you love, which will you not bother with again?

delerium

I have what I thought was a red chilli plant(don'tknow actual name) however it is now producing both green and red chilli's don't know what to do!! Are they safe to eat or not?

foreign_correspondent

delerium wrote: »

I have what I thought was a red chilli plant(don'tknow actual name) however it is now producing both green and red chilli's don't know what to do!! Are they safe to eat or not?

yes, the red ones are just riper than the green ones! do not worry!! do you know what variety it is?

mhollins83

Currently fruiting but not yet ripe, I have:

Apache - not tried yet
Prairie fire - supposedly only 1500 SHU, but BF tried one the other night and it nearly blew his head off!!! :rotfl:

Also growing:

bhut jolokia
White habanero
chocolate habanero
fresno
jalapeno
red cherry
cayenne
explosive ember
hungarian black
bulgarian carrot
golden cayenne
fatalii
hot lemon

and also a few pepper varieties:

rainbow mixed
sweet banana
corni di torro rosso
purple beauty
mini red

I will let you know what these are all like if and when they start to fruit

nodwah

Last year I grew Chilli pepper "Flaming Hot" and i got loads of small very hot chillis, none more than about an inch long. They didn't ripen til November (inside the consevatory) but they produced so many that I didn't grow any this year!

xXLARYXx

My OH is currently growing;

Jalapeño
Birds Eyes
Hungarian Hot Wax
Cherry Bombs
Dorset Naga
Naga Jolokia
Scott Bonnet
Peach Habanero
Cayenne

The chillies above seem to have grown to over 5 feet tall and full of fruit in the greenhouse! the only ones to have ripen so far is a couple of the Hot Wax's, Cherry Bomb's and Jalapeño's.

Also Bell Peppers and Sweet Romairo Peppers (not yet ripe), but they seem to work well as decoys for slugs!

I don't eat chillies but my OH seems to have been please with his haul so far, although hes itching for the hotter chillies to ripen!

Jake'sGran

They are really good for you but many people find them too hot. I do like Chilli con Carne though. I grow chillies for my son every year and he said that some of last year's were quite mild and the hottest were the small ones that are many coloured. Can't remember the name. This year I am going to bring the best plant into the house to overwinter and continue growing. This had not occurred to me before but ardent chilli growers recommend it.
This looks to be a good site

http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/

olly300

Jake'sGran wrote: »

They are really good for you but many people find them too hot. I do like Chilli con Carne though. I grow chillies for my son every year and he said that some of last year's were quite mild and the hottest were the small ones that are many coloured. Can't remember the name. This year I am going to bring the best plant into the house to overwinter and continue growing. This had not occurred to me before but ardent chilli growers recommend it.
This looks to be a good site

http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/

The only problem from bringing plants outside into the house is bugs.

This year due to giving a friend a chili plant that she grow only inside I am growing most of my chili plants indoors.

delerium

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

yes, the red ones are just riper than the green ones! do not worry!! do you know what variety it is?

no idea. I will admit to cheating and buying it already half grown from tesco!!

In my defence, this is my first year of gardening and I did manage brocolli, cauliflower, potatos and squash. I will try to grow more from scratch next year!

foreign_correspondent

Well, my Chinese five-colour chillies now have purple, cream, orange and yellow chillies on - very pretty! I picked a red one and an orange one the other day - sliced a little and sprinked it on pizza.... phooo it's hot!:eek:

:beer:

Clive_Woody

My apache chillies are now turning red and are being used in lots of cooking (I grew some of these last years and still have some dried ones left), my tabasco chillies went in late and have only just started flowering. I have grown some called Pinochio's nose chillies (grow up to 30cm long), they too have only just started flowering but are supposed to be quite spicy so looking forward to trying these.