Kelly Jackson
Christian County Extension Office
A Variety of Peppers in the Garden
Both spicy hot and sweet mild peppers add exceptional flavor to food. With new varieties of red, yellow, orange, and purple peppers foods can also become a riot of color. You can have your own supply of colorful and delicious peppers by growing them in your garden.
Like it on the warm side? The hot and spicy taste of cayenne pepper is primarily due to an ingredient known as capsaicin. Although it tastes hot, capsaicin actually stimulates a region of the brain that lowers body temperature. In fact, many people in subtropical and tropical climates consume cayenne pepper regularly because it helps them tolerate the heat.
Hot peppers include jalapeño, cayenne, chili, and habanero. Their hotness level varies among pepper types and even cultivars of the same type. Jalapeño peppers have cylindrical fruits, 2 to 3 inches long. Their green fruits turn red when fully mature. Both the green and red fruits can be eaten. Cayenne and chili peppers have small, cone to long narrow-shaped fruit. Depending on the cultivar, the peppers are 2 to 5 inches long. After the fruit turns mature red, these peppers are popular for drying and making decorations such as strings of peppers. An extremely hot pepper is habanero. This pepper is lantern-shaped and 1 to 2 inches long. Fully mature fruits turn from green to orange-red.
For the palate preferring sweet flavor, consider the many cultivars of bell peppers. Bell peppers have blocky shaped fruit. These peppers make the perfect edible containers for stuffing after seeds are removed. Fruit size ranges from 3.5 to 4.5 inches wide and 4.5 to 7.5 inches long, depending on cultivar. Adding color to food dishes is another popular use for bell peppers. Red is still the most common color of mature fruit. Other mature fruit colors are yellow, orange and brown, depending on the cultivar. Some cultivars are harvested before ripening and include the white, light yellow, lilac and purple bell peppers. King Arthur, X3R Red Knight, and X3R Aristotle are bacterial spot resistant bell pepper cultivars tested at the University of Kentucky and recommended based on yields and quality fruit. Fajita Bell is one bell pepper cultivar that adds a kick of heat to the sweetness.
Banana pepper is a sweet, non-bell type of pepper. The banana-shaped fruit range in width at the top from 1.5 to 2.5 inches and 6 to 9 inches long. Banana peppers mature from green to yellow to an orange-red, depending on the cultivar.
Many gardeners have also discovered ornamental peppers grow vigorously in the landscape and produce an eye-catching display of small, bright red and orange fruit from August until frost. They also work great in containers. The fruit is edible but extremely hot. Wear gloves or wash your hands after handling these plants and fruits to reduce skin or eye irritation. Cultivars of ornamental peppers with small, tapered-shaped fruit are Medusa, Candlelight, Fips, and Fiesta. Holiday Cheer and Black Pearl are cultivars with round fruit.
