I grew Pepperoncinis in 2010, Petey.
Like you, I never pickled a pepper in my life. But, I really should have made an exception with the Pepperoncinis . . . However, I didn't :/.
Really, I was just trying to expand my
small sweet pepper selection from 1 (Fushimi). Fushimi was such a great little pepper when I grew it that I really thought I was on a roll. The last 2 years, the Fushimi hasn't been all that great - a little too spicy and thin-walled. Don't know what happened there. It really must be the growing conditions from 1 year to the next, I suppose.
Anyway, the Pepperoncinis were fine and I may just go with them sometime in the future instead of that little Japanese pepper. Something I hadn't realized about them is that they are wrinkled
. Oh yeah, I knew they were wrinkled in the jar but I thought that was from the vinegar, or salt
.
Smaller peppers seem to work better for me, Petey. A cool start to the growing season, which is real common around here, means that the heat-loving plants (like peppers) never get very large. If they produce small fruit, that fruit can just
cover the little plant by the end of the season! Small plants seem to just
work too hard to produce large peppers. I grew Chinese Giants one year - it wasn't a very good pepper year - they produced like 1 large pepper & 1 misshapen pepper on each plant! Pathetic!
The Yummy Sweets last year - terrible year at the start, anyway - had more peppers than leaves almost! I harvest Thai Hots by cutting the entire plant and taking it home. It is just too tedious to sit out there and pick & pick & pick. (Of course, when they are that small - it takes 10 minutes of picking to fill your shirt pocket
.) Grow some Thai Hots or Thai Dragons for your "heat fanatic," Chickie'sMoma!
Pepperoncinis! I think they should do okay for most anyone
.
Steve
