The Aji Mango has been very prolific and is currently still turning orange for me in London. We've also enjoyed our cayenne plant - made my Indian mother-in-law very happy as she's used it for a variety of dishes.
My top producers this year were Serrano, Fatali, and Fresno. I harvested the Fresno seeds from store-bought chilis and they took off. The Fatali is a beautiful plant with lovely yellow chilis-very hearty and prolific, even in Wisconsin weather.
I got some seeds from a Guy on Facebook, they were called Aji Orange. I have grown them now every year (4 Years now) they produce like crazy and Taste Flowery and Fruity.. they have become my favorite pepper!
I had an abundance of podwer and frozen peppers from last year, so I mostly grew sweet peppers. I did grow Time Bomb peppers from seeds n such that were perfect. Super strong plants, a ton of fruits and very flavorful. They're a little less spicy than a Jalapeno so they worked amazingly for Pepper Poppers. Took your advice and grew Carmen and Jimmy Nardello peppers, both were very prolific and very sweet. Will definitely be growing both again. The Carmen were a great bell pepper replacement, easy to stuff or throw in stir fry. The Nardellos were great for snacking and lighter grilling.
The key to Aji Cristall is to ferment it into a hot sauce right when it changes color from green to light yellow. In my hot sause range I have one sauce with only this pepper. Good video. Best Regards Hot Monkey business in Norway
Y'all inspired me to give peppers a try so this year I grew 8 varieties on my balcony. I went with jalapeno, habanero, cayenne and serrano because they are classics, a sweet banana pepper, a cherry bomb, a piquillo and a biquihno. I'm trying to overwinter my jalapeno, hab, banana and the cherry bomb, those were my favorites. I also liked the biquihno but I limited myself to half so I can try 4 new varieties next year; haven't decided on which ones to go for yet. I'm in zone 7a and all of them grew really well. Especially since I grew on a south facing top balcony so they got a ton of exposure to sun and wind. I started them in late february and only put them outside in may tho which probably helped
My top pepper of the year was Aji Charapita Large Peach, massive surprise as I got it as a free throw in. Probably the best smelling peppers I have ever cut up, they are about 100,000 scoville so quite the kick, but the fruity flavour was just amazing. I plan on doing a whole bunch of different Aji varieties next year for sure.
I did the mammoth Jalapeños along with regular jalapeños and it definitely kicked up volume! Mixed with some of my more exotics this was a good year of hot sauces for me!
My most successful peppers, this year, were the Kalugeritsa (hungarian cherry peppers) from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They were so tasty, with a little heat (jalapeno level). They produced so many pods that I had to give huge batches of them away to friends and coworkers. I would highly recommend that you give them a try. I used many of mine to make a cherry pepper relish that I enjoy on subs from Jimmy John's.
Terrific video! The plant around 6:20 reminds me of an old school Christmas tree. My grandmother had these strings of positively ancient tree lights, which had bulbs almost identical in size to the peppers on your bush. And the mix of colours is also cheerful!
Have you guys grown the 'Rainforest Chilies' from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds? I've been growing them for a few years and they are SO great! Beautiful, bushy plants with tons for peppers, and they have a very special flavor and manageable heat. ^^
I'm in Connecticut as well and I have been growing some Rocoto peppers. One thing that has helped is growing a mini variety, they tend to ripen faster, additionally I overwinter them and use my greenhouse to get them a bit longer season. They really are worth the extra effort!
I grew Johnny Seed Red Fresnos, too, which I used in the Aloha hot sauce I sent you. Love the color and the flavor of Fresnos. The plants kept making fruits well into October, too. I also grew disease-resistant Jalapenos, and a Lemon Drop, which produced gorgeous yellow fruits, but they took *forever* to ripen, and I didn't think the sauce I made from them was all that great. I grew several Habaneros plants, most in bags, and one in our raised-bed plot. The bagged ones were quite successful, and I'm still making hot sauce from the peppers. I grew a Red Habanero in a bag from a seedling I found at our local garden shop. It produced a lot of fruits, but they didn't get very big. Interestingly, my buddy Mike has an in-ground garden and he grew Red Habs from the same plant store, and they got bigger, like the normal size of a Hab. The one Habanero I grew in the raised bed took weeks to take off from its replanted size, but once it got going it grew big and very deep green and healthy, and made nearly 100 peppers! But only a single one ripened on the vine! I'm guessing because it got a late start and the cool weather arrived and basically shut it down. I did make some green hot sauce (called Green Monster, ala Fenway) with the green fruits and a jar of Matador Green Hatch roasted chiles from FreshChile Company in Hatch, NM. Finally, I grew some Big Jim Hatch peppers. I ended up with only a single plant, but the peppers were good. Big Jims are not very hot, but they're big and crunchy and make really good Peppers and Eggs. Next year, I'm thinking Red Fresno, Habanero, Jalapeno and Hatch again, and some Cayenne. Any recommendations on seed sources for Cayenne?
My favorites this year were definitely Grenada Seasoning and Trinidad Perfume. Both were prolific and the Trinidad Perfume added a lot of complimentary flavor to my hot sauces and jams this year. Happy growing from a fellow CT gardener!
I grew Hurtberry this season on the downeast coast of Maine which is not really a pepper farming hotspot. It should definitely be in my garden next year because there was a significant harvest. It is the most prolific superhot pepper ever in my garden. Got my seeds in hand just waiting for next spring.
My best producer this year was my Burpee Hot Lemon pepper. My favorites, though, were the Bolivian Rainbow; something was wrong with the seed and it grew half rainbow (facing up) and half long narrow chiles (super hot, facing down). Might be a one time thing so I treasured it.
I recommend the Aji Panca. It is a brown pepper about the size of your hand and is very sweet. A sharp sweet with little heat. Makes a very tall plant, so it will need support. Heavy producer. Very interesting flavor.
I love Flaming Flare pepper. I have grown it every year since a friend gave me a start. Sugar Rush Peach and Lemon Drop are my two favorties this year. I also got a bunch of cayennes over a foot long, some a foot and a half
Aji cristal is the one you have to use for pebre if you want to make it right, you can also use hot pepper sauce. This pepper is mostly used for its freshness. You slice it and put it in the table where everyone can get a piece and add it on top of your food and salad for a spicy crunch. It's closer to a sweet pepper so it's used mostly like that unlike other hot peppers that are used mostly as seasoning.
Your advice brought us the Sugar Rush Stripey and we learned it will overwinter itself outside in Zone 9B - always a fave! This year's new favorites for me? Aji Charapita, Aji Amarillo, Orange Spice Jalapeno, and Datil Peppers! I made Datil Pepper jam with honey and served it up with crackers, soft cheese, and prosciutto with amazing results!
My fav was the Aji Amarillo. And that pepper plant that started to develop bark at the base-- hope you keep that one growing through until next year. Peppers will last multiple years and get very sturdy like a bush. Also i think I've seen when one is trained to grow up against a wall and it's branches are organized.
I grew the Ai peach Charapita and chiltapin They both are great. I also grew the Ai lemon drop its great. For sweet peppers, I did Jimmy Nardello and mini bell peppers. Both are wonderful.
My best was the yellow Piemento de Padron. Very tasty, like a very good sweet pepper, with mild heat +/- 1500 SHU. Good producer and early producer. Very tasty.
my new favorite for this year is Ajvarski pepper which is prolific, very large, very thick walled, and just great tasting. Got seeds from baker creek and would highly recommend. One tip is cage them or give them some kind of support, the peppers are quite heavy.
Oranos is my new favorite pepper I grew this year. Aji Limo, basque, Aleppo. I even made a fermented hot sauce from some Carolina Reapers that’s so good!
Aji Amarillo is my all time favorite pepper, if you've never had Lomo Saltado, I highly recommend making it. Aji Guyana is an incredible baccatum as well if you want a step up in heat
I really enjoy your videos and have learned a lot from you! I grow a lot of different chilies, jalapenos especially, and two new peppers I tried in 2024 were NuMex Pinata jalapeno, and NuMex Sandia Select chili pepper. Both were very healthy and prolific, and both very beautiful. Pinata starts off light great, then changes to yellow, orange, and finally red, and the fruit is good at any stage but the colors make for beautiful jalapeno jelly. The Sandia Select is hotter than you might expect and worked well in sauces.
Hi Pepper Geeks, I added the Jimmy Nardello variety to the varieties that I grow here in the UK on a recommendation from yourselves. Cheers for that, they are now one of my favorites. Now I have a few more to try next season. Have fun, Mark : )
After watching your initial video on it, I ordered the Barbaras Antipodes online to grow next season. Really looking forward to it. I also ordered, from the same supplier, some Biquinho peppers (Pepper Drops) that I'm super excited about. I'm in 8A, so we'll see how they do. As far as my best pepper plant from this year, the Padron pepper plant we grew was fantastic. Great flavor, more heat than we expected, very productive plant, and very versatile. You can just sautee them in olive oil, salt and pepper. We would also dehydrate them, then use a mortar and pestle to grind them down with some garlic powder and sea salt to make a great hot seasoning for a variety of foods
Aji ah-ma-ri-yo. For future reference. great video. We grew our own Aji Amarillos something like total 9-10 lbs worth and man they are exceptionally sweet and medium spicy. Just wonderful.
To preface all my seeds this year came from Super Hot Chilies. Also I'm in zone 6b so I believe the same as you. I loved my Aji Margariteno peppers. They have thin walls but good heat and flavor. They also did very very well. I also grew Thunder Mountain Longhorns from the same supplier which were super interesting. They are thin but very long (12-18") pods. They did much better in my fabric pot than my garden bed. Szegedi 179 Paprika produced a ton and had really good heat, good sized pods as well. Finally Maldivian Lemons were super super cool and grew really well later into the season. They were a bit too hot for my general uses so I probably won't grow them again. Lemon Starrburst were freaking awesome but similar problem to the Maldivian Lemon peppers. I will still grow these again though but maybe just 1 plant next year. My sugar rush stripey were the biggest heart break all year. The plant was producing so many pods but they started rotting as they were ripening. I had similar end rot issues with other plants so I think it might have been more my fault or a bug issue than the plant itself. The few good pods I got had incredible flavor Edit: I can't believe I forgot but potentially saved the best for last. Trinidad Perfume. Small yellow pods with little to no heat but absolutely delicious flavor and one of the most prolific producers this year
I grew Aji Amarillo in 2023, and this year went with Aji Cristal - both were pretty late in ripening here in northern NY, so I got limited harvests of each. Interestingly, I preferred the flavor of the Aji Cristal over the Amarillo, maybe it was just a feature of different soils and climate conditions. I had 150 pepper plants this year, and great crops of jalapeno (maybe 25 lbs), serrano, ajvarski, sweet banana and fresno. And my poblano harvest was fantastic. The sugar rush peach were incredibly prolific, but I wasn't overly enamored with the flavor, guess my expectations were too high. We make candied jalapeno and serrano, pickled sweet pepper, some salsa - and a lot of fermented hot sauce. I'll start searching now for new varieties for next year.
This was my first season growing peppers without any experience. I got 34 plants and all besides one (two) produced peppers. My favorites to eat raw are the Bhut Jolokia White, Naga Twister Multicolor, Sugar Rush Stripey, Scarlett Variegated Orange/Pumpkin and the Habanero Manzano. Ata Big and those Peach Habaneros for Pizza. Most other peppers I don't really enjoyed
Aji Amarillo is probably the only Aji variety that I like. Haha that propagation holder (the little green on the edge of the jar) looked cool! And I too can't grow rocoto to save my life... I probably have the wrong climate too. But that won't stop me from trying! I so want to taste a rocoto hehe.
Johnny's has some really good hybrid peppers. I grew a Jedi Jalapeno from them that was really good and HUGE. Will be sharing a jalapeno video soon. :) I plan to grow goliath and mammoth jalapenos next year.
We've grown ~20 rocoto varieties over the years and have always found the Montufar Rocoto to be the most consistent and the earliest producer. Generally it is our earliest rocoto to ripen and the plants are healthy enough to give us a second flush.
Weird year for me. Two Hungarian hot wax plants gave about 30 peppers each, but heat was much lower than last year, half as hot as a banana pepper. Still tasty though!
I saved seed from a couple orange Scotch bonnet pods from my plant in 2023. I started 12 seeds and planted those in my community garden plot. In August, one of the "Scotch bonnet" plants had a pod that was 6 inches long and was red. I thought I maybe mislabeled the plant when I potted up. When I sampled that red pod, it was amazingly sweet and fruity and extremely hot. I also sent some of those Scotch bonnet seeds to my brother in law in North Carolina. He said he has a plant that has longer red pods. He said the pod was very tasty and really really hot. I did have 3 Jimmy nardello peppers planted right next to the Scotch bonnet in 2023. I think I have an accidental cross between Jimmy nardello pollen and a Scotch bonnet flower. I saved seed from this year's long red pods. I'm excited to see what I get from these seeds next year. How many generations of seed do I need to iterate through before it can be considered stable?
Great video! I enjoy watching your work. I planted seeds saved last year from some peppers a family member gave me. I always plant my regular assortment, but the "Lemon Drop / Aji` Limo`n was new for me. I have been stunned by the productivity for the last 4 months! The bushes are constantly covered with these wonderfully flavored spicey beauties. The lemon heat goes great with seafood and chicken, especially. I have already dried them and made lemon drop hot sauce. I highly recommend these for something a bit out of the ordinary.
Carmen sweet pepper, Kristian Yellow Thai and Maule's red hot (my new replacement for cayenne) are my favorites out of about 20 new varieties I grew this year. I plan to grow these three every year from now on.
Aji lemon is one of my favorites. It's also called lemon drop. I adore the flavor of it. Sugar Rush Peach is another favorite. Aji charapita but this year and last year it failed to produce a single pepper but the year prior it was a shining star. Not sure what went wrong. Peppers I don't like and won't grow again would have to be Pippins golden honey, Melrose and burna mulata. Chocolate habaneros have never worked for me but the other colors do wonderfully.
This year my most prolific peppers were an afterthought Jalapeno planting. I was also surprised that they were as hot as they were. Most of the people I gifted them to said that they were really hot. I had thought that it was just me until several friends made their statements of spiciness. I grow Habaneros and am use to getting some real heat, but these Jalapenos really hit with the heat.
You should definitely try the MADD Hatter pepper. Late blooming, but I have harvested (from 6 small plants) over 400 peppers so far. Late Oct in mid TN, have probably another 200 to be harvested in the next couple of weeks! 🌶️Mild, not hot!
First time seeing your video. Why no habenaros--too hot? I choke just from the vapors--but they will make great hot sauce or condiments! I tried multiples (4 each of 9 varieties), freeze dried, frozen, and fermented with vinegar, salt brine, or honey (favorite for hot peppers). All varieties stalled for about 3 weeks during our drought (hand watered religiously) and 90° to >100°F, organic, Eden/mulched, and zero pests. Luckily, all aged enough to fully change their colors except the bell peppers. Still, I had a huge harvest, except for all of the bell peppers. All are Heritage, so I can save seeds, but I will try new varieties every year, and choose how many of each plant by the production/use goals. Thank you for the reviews of your crops and the viewers' comments for ideas for new peppers to try!
I did rocoto and manzano this season. Definitely wouldn't ripen in time. Plants went out in early June and I mostly harvested green peppers in October just before our first freeze. A couple plants I put on a table in the garage which faces south and open up the door during the day for light, for season extension, and I'm getting ripe rocotos off that here and there now. I love the plants but they may not be a good fit for here (Maine).
Ive read a lot of good things about the Aji mango and I wanna try growing it in the future too. Maybe its something for you as well. Also the zebrange looks interesting but idk much about it.
Air drying is great if you live in a desert climate, but for us we have to use a food dehydrator. We've got a video about it here: th-cam.com/video/Z-QQdOEfbAY/w-d-xo.html
Great video! I love the pepper year recaps. My best peppers this year were Buena Mulata, Yucatán White Habanero, Aji Limón, and Aji Dulce. They will be a regular part of my garden if I can fit them in among all the other seeds I got for next year 😂
My habanero peppers did amazing this year. As for my jalapenos, I got pepper gated. Ended up with wax peppers. Bummer. Good thing my gardening friends got jalapenos!
Have you tried Peruviano Arancio? It looks different, but otherwise very similar to Aji Amarillo. Aroma, crunchiness, thick walls etc. And it ripens much earlier.
You have the same luck with Rocotos as I do! 😢😢 My Numex Piñata jalapeños were also disappointing. Successes were Aji Fantasy, what a bountiful variety they are, plus Fatalii, Poblano, Padron and Bright Star F1 sweet pepper. Was a difficult season here in Scotland for everything though.
Need tips on Jalapeno's and honestly, doing bell peppers. This year we had TONS AND TONS of fruit starting on our bell peppers, but as soon as they hit about 'golf ball' size they stopped getting larger and went from green to orange, and never actually got large. We tried them anyway, and they had that 'unripe' flavor. We have NO CLUE what that was all about. As for Jalapeno's? We got one crop, and it was about 1 pound off of 4 plants. This is the 3rd year for poor yields. Now then, our Mild and Hot Banana Peppers? HOLY WAH! We got POUNDS of each. I canned up over 30 pints of those bad boys. Matter of fact, we have more than we will use over the year so we aren't planting them next year.
I grew Aji Crystal last year -- compared to other c. baccatum varieties it was fairly hot, not very productive, and not a special taste. I have not managed to get an aji amarillo to germinate yet -- what source of seeds did you use? Right now my favorite c. baccatums are sugar rush stripey and sugar drop orange when I want heat and nice taste; and aji delight and aji fantasy for good taste without the heat. This year my sugar rush peach (which was in the full sun allotment) was very productive (still going) but more sour than sweet for some reason. The sourness is likely all vitamin c, but not what I expected; while the sugar rush stripey was grown in part shade, just as productive (also still going), and a nice balance between sweet, heat, and tany fruitiness. I got a few ripe rocotos last year but was unimpressed -- take even longer than c. baccatum to ripen, and more heat than taste. I have plenty of easier-to-grow peppers at that heat level and with more taste.
I grew 2 aji amarillo here in zone 9a northern california they grew huge but didn't flower until a week ago. So no peppers this year hopefully over winter them and get some next year. I grew them cause my girl libed in peru for 4 years and lives them.
They’re okay - in our tries at growing, they tend to take a lonnng time to ripen so I’d say they’re ideal in warmer climates. Good flavor for flakes or fermented sauces though!
@@PepperGeek cool. I grew one of these this year here in Iowa. Got 2 yields before it got cold here. Going to overwinter the guy in the basement. Though not sure if it'll go dormant since it's staying around 65° so far. And with the east window giving him sunlight .
Bolivian Rainbow is awfully pretty, but flavor is really dull. My favorite this season is called Red Demon, they are perfect to use dried in cooking, and to bring the spiciness up in hot sauce. As the plants I have are relatively small they're easy to cover up or move around when frost hits. For me, in Scandinavia, they've been producing since June and are still producing in October.
Rocotos (we call them Manzanos) are my dream to grow. I hope you figure out some cheats to growing them successfully in weather they don't especially like.
I had one unlabeled pepper that was amazing. Of course it was unlabeled. Upon further research (which was cemented with this video, actually, so thank you!) it had to have been a Fresno.
The Peter Pepper was a bit of a disappointment for me this year. Plenty of heat, but barely any of them ripened before we got a frost a couple of weeks ago.
I grew yellow Aji peppers, I think they're called Aji Lemon or Aji Pineapple, but they're so spicy that I can barely use them for anything , and I tried to bit into a raw one today, my mouth was burning up
I love how the mic picks up the 'crunch' when you both take a bite!
These end of season “top” picks are my favorite. I look forward to watching every year.
Thanks! We love making them too ☺️
I’m a simple guy. I see a Pepper Geek post, I like it. Enjoyed the video!
😁
Simply Spicy, dig it 🎉🎉
Dammmm Perfectly Peppered was right there too 😂😂😂
The Aji Mango has been very prolific and is currently still turning orange for me in London. We've also enjoyed our cayenne plant - made my Indian mother-in-law very happy as she's used it for a variety of dishes.
My top producers this year were Serrano, Fatali, and Fresno. I harvested the Fresno seeds from store-bought chilis and they took off. The Fatali is a beautiful plant with lovely yellow chilis-very hearty and prolific, even in Wisconsin weather.
@Wermode Ours were too! Picking twice a day in MN weather. We had 85+pepper plants,all great producers
i love the fatalii, made sure i had plenty this year!
I got some seeds from a Guy on Facebook, they were called Aji Orange. I have grown them now every year (4 Years now) they produce like crazy and Taste Flowery and Fruity.. they have become my favorite pepper!
If you got some extra seeds available let me know!
I had an abundance of podwer and frozen peppers from last year, so I mostly grew sweet peppers. I did grow Time Bomb peppers from seeds n such that were perfect. Super strong plants, a ton of fruits and very flavorful. They're a little less spicy than a Jalapeno so they worked amazingly for Pepper Poppers.
Took your advice and grew Carmen and Jimmy Nardello peppers, both were very prolific and very sweet. Will definitely be growing both again. The Carmen were a great bell pepper replacement, easy to stuff or throw in stir fry. The Nardellos were great for snacking and lighter grilling.
Time Bomb are amazing. Super productive all season and delicious! Just did final harvest before frost and will be processing them all week.
We grew Shishito peppers,poblano, lemon drop, aji yellow fantasy,aji mango,aji white,fresno,Anaheim, Carolina reaper, scorpion, ghost,tiger ghost,death spiral, Serrano, habanero, cayenne, jalapeño, yellow scotch bonnet, yellow fatalli, Khangstar red and yellow, cajun bell...all our plants were prolific,very lucky in MN. Aji mango was like a crazy enchanted producer!As was the hot Lemon Drop. Lucky growing season. Also,Tabasco and Sugar Rush peach peppers!Great growers!
wow great job !
What DIDNT. You grow?
You are very lucky.. waltz got TRUMPED!!
every year I always come back to Scotch Bonnets. So much so that I just started propagating new plants from the parent plant.
One of my favorites. Makes good hotsauce and works dried. Cooking with fresh and making salsa. Very hard to beat them.
The key to Aji Cristall is to ferment it into a hot sauce right when it changes color from green to light yellow. In my hot sause range I have one sauce with only this pepper. Good video. Best Regards Hot Monkey business in Norway
You guys just chomping into these peppers will never cease to amaze me.
Growing the Barbaras Antipodes, looking forward to harvest. Thank you Pepper Geek for featuring it here.
Great growing season wrap up video. I would love to see a video about how you make cayenne pepper powder at home. Great channel.
Y'all inspired me to give peppers a try so this year I grew 8 varieties on my balcony. I went with jalapeno, habanero, cayenne and serrano because they are classics, a sweet banana pepper, a cherry bomb, a piquillo and a biquihno. I'm trying to overwinter my jalapeno, hab, banana and the cherry bomb, those were my favorites. I also liked the biquihno but I limited myself to half so I can try 4 new varieties next year; haven't decided on which ones to go for yet.
I'm in zone 7a and all of them grew really well. Especially since I grew on a south facing top balcony so they got a ton of exposure to sun and wind. I started them in late february and only put them outside in may tho which probably helped
My top pepper of the year was Aji Charapita Large Peach, massive surprise as I got it as a free throw in. Probably the best smelling peppers I have ever cut up, they are about 100,000 scoville so quite the kick, but the fruity flavour was just amazing. I plan on doing a whole bunch of different Aji varieties next year for sure.
What company did you get your charapita seeds from?
@@jamiepudims9860 Atlantic Pepper Seeds
I did the mammoth Jalapeños along with regular jalapeños and it definitely kicked up volume! Mixed with some of my more exotics this was a good year of hot sauces for me!
My most successful peppers, this year, were the Kalugeritsa (hungarian cherry peppers) from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They were so tasty, with a little heat (jalapeno level). They produced so many pods that I had to give huge batches of them away to friends and coworkers. I would highly recommend that you give them a try. I used many of mine to make a cherry pepper relish that I enjoy on subs from Jimmy John's.
I have been waiting for this video all year! Awesome as always
Terrific video! The plant around 6:20 reminds me of an old school Christmas tree. My grandmother had these strings of positively ancient tree lights, which had bulbs almost identical in size to the peppers on your bush. And the mix of colours is also cheerful!
Have you guys grown the 'Rainforest Chilies' from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds? I've been growing them for a few years and they are SO great! Beautiful, bushy plants with tons for peppers, and they have a very special flavor and manageable heat. ^^
I grew mdm Jeanette peppers inside from a plant I kept cut back over the winter, had decent yeald. Always very flavorful and aromatic.
I'm in Connecticut as well and I have been growing some Rocoto peppers. One thing that has helped is growing a mini variety, they tend to ripen faster, additionally I overwinter them and use my greenhouse to get them a bit longer season. They really are worth the extra effort!
I grew Johnny Seed Red Fresnos, too, which I used in the Aloha hot sauce I sent you. Love the color and the flavor of Fresnos. The plants kept making fruits well into October, too.
I also grew disease-resistant Jalapenos, and a Lemon Drop, which produced gorgeous yellow fruits, but they took *forever* to ripen, and I didn't think the sauce I made from them was all that great.
I grew several Habaneros plants, most in bags, and one in our raised-bed plot. The bagged ones were quite successful, and I'm still making hot sauce from the peppers. I grew a Red Habanero in a bag from a seedling I found at our local garden shop. It produced a lot of fruits, but they didn't get very big. Interestingly, my buddy Mike has an in-ground garden and he grew Red Habs from the same plant store, and they got bigger, like the normal size of a Hab.
The one Habanero I grew in the raised bed took weeks to take off from its replanted size, but once it got going it grew big and very deep green and healthy, and made nearly 100 peppers! But only a single one ripened on the vine! I'm guessing because it got a late start and the cool weather arrived and basically shut it down. I did make some green hot sauce (called Green Monster, ala Fenway) with the green fruits and a jar of Matador Green Hatch roasted chiles from FreshChile Company in Hatch, NM.
Finally, I grew some Big Jim Hatch peppers. I ended up with only a single plant, but the peppers were good. Big Jims are not very hot, but they're big and crunchy and make really good Peppers and Eggs.
Next year, I'm thinking Red Fresno, Habanero, Jalapeno and Hatch again, and some Cayenne. Any recommendations on seed sources for Cayenne?
I think I got my cayenne seeds from migardener. Very prolific
@@shawnamoen5026 Thanks!
My favorites this year were definitely Grenada Seasoning and Trinidad Perfume. Both were prolific and the Trinidad Perfume added a lot of complimentary flavor to my hot sauces and jams this year. Happy growing from a fellow CT gardener!
Thanks for sharing!! Love the non-spicy c. Chinense options
I grew Hurtberry this season on the downeast coast of Maine which is not really a pepper farming hotspot. It should definitely be in my garden next year because there was a significant harvest. It is the most prolific superhot pepper ever in my garden. Got my seeds in hand just waiting for next spring.
Also had a banger year with the Flaming Flare Fresno & Red Flame Cayenne. Johnny’s never disappoints.
My best producer this year was my Burpee Hot Lemon pepper. My favorites, though, were the Bolivian Rainbow; something was wrong with the seed and it grew half rainbow (facing up) and half long narrow chiles (super hot, facing down). Might be a one time thing so I treasured it.
Wow that sounds amazing. Love when weird stuff happens 😄
I recommend the Aji Panca. It is a brown pepper about the size of your hand and is very sweet. A sharp sweet with little heat. Makes a very tall plant, so it will need support. Heavy producer. Very interesting flavor.
I love Flaming Flare pepper. I have grown it every year since a friend gave me a start.
Sugar Rush Peach and Lemon Drop are my two favorties this year.
I also got a bunch of cayennes over a foot long, some a foot and a half
Aji cristal is the one you have to use for pebre if you want to make it right, you can also use hot pepper sauce. This pepper is mostly used for its freshness. You slice it and put it in the table where everyone can get a piece and add it on top of your food and salad for a spicy crunch. It's closer to a sweet pepper so it's used mostly like that unlike other hot peppers that are used mostly as seasoning.
Your advice brought us the Sugar Rush Stripey and we learned it will overwinter itself outside in Zone 9B - always a fave! This year's new favorites for me? Aji Charapita, Aji Amarillo, Orange Spice Jalapeno, and Datil Peppers! I made Datil Pepper jam with honey and served it up with crackers, soft cheese, and prosciutto with amazing results!
My fav was the Aji Amarillo.
And that pepper plant that started to develop bark at the base-- hope you keep that one growing through until next year. Peppers will last multiple years and get very sturdy like a bush. Also i think I've seen when one is trained to grow up against a wall and it's branches are organized.
I grew the Ai peach Charapita and chiltapin They both are great. I also grew the Ai lemon drop its great. For sweet peppers, I did Jimmy Nardello and mini bell peppers. Both are wonderful.
My best was the yellow Piemento de Padron. Very tasty, like a very good sweet pepper, with mild heat +/- 1500 SHU. Good producer and early producer. Very tasty.
my new favorite for this year is Ajvarski pepper which is prolific, very large, very thick walled, and just great tasting. Got seeds from baker creek and would highly recommend. One tip is cage them or give them some kind of support, the peppers are quite heavy.
Oranos is my new favorite pepper I grew this year. Aji Limo, basque, Aleppo. I even made a fermented hot sauce from some Carolina Reapers that’s so good!
Aji Amarillo is my all time favorite pepper, if you've never had Lomo Saltado, I highly recommend making it. Aji Guyana is an incredible baccatum as well if you want a step up in heat
I really enjoy your videos and have learned a lot from you! I grow a lot of different chilies, jalapenos especially, and two new peppers I tried in 2024 were NuMex Pinata jalapeno, and NuMex Sandia Select chili pepper. Both were very healthy and prolific, and both very beautiful. Pinata starts off light great, then changes to yellow, orange, and finally red, and the fruit is good at any stage but the colors make for beautiful jalapeno jelly. The Sandia Select is hotter than you might expect and worked well in sauces.
Hi Pepper Geeks, I added the Jimmy Nardello variety to the varieties that I grow here in the UK on a recommendation from yourselves. Cheers for that, they are now one of my favorites. Now I have a few more to try next season. Have fun, Mark : )
I used to cook in a Peruvian fine dining restaurant and fell in love with the aji amarillo pepper
Datil peppers are the way tongo. I live in the Midwest and they still thrived. Best tasting spicy pepper I've ever had
After watching your initial video on it, I ordered the Barbaras Antipodes online to grow next season. Really looking forward to it. I also ordered, from the same supplier, some Biquinho peppers (Pepper Drops) that I'm super excited about. I'm in 8A, so we'll see how they do.
As far as my best pepper plant from this year, the Padron pepper plant we grew was fantastic. Great flavor, more heat than we expected, very productive plant, and very versatile. You can just sautee them in olive oil, salt and pepper. We would also dehydrate them, then use a mortar and pestle to grind them down with some garlic powder and sea salt to make a great hot seasoning for a variety of foods
Did the same with the barbaras. Looking forward to it.
Aji ah-ma-ri-yo. For future reference. great video. We grew our own Aji Amarillos something like total 9-10 lbs worth and man they are exceptionally sweet and medium spicy. Just wonderful.
To preface all my seeds this year came from Super Hot Chilies. Also I'm in zone 6b so I believe the same as you.
I loved my Aji Margariteno peppers. They have thin walls but good heat and flavor. They also did very very well.
I also grew Thunder Mountain Longhorns from the same supplier which were super interesting. They are thin but very long (12-18") pods. They did much better in my fabric pot than my garden bed.
Szegedi 179 Paprika produced a ton and had really good heat, good sized pods as well.
Finally Maldivian Lemons were super super cool and grew really well later into the season. They were a bit too hot for my general uses so I probably won't grow them again.
Lemon Starrburst were freaking awesome but similar problem to the Maldivian Lemon peppers. I will still grow these again though but maybe just 1 plant next year.
My sugar rush stripey were the biggest heart break all year. The plant was producing so many pods but they started rotting as they were ripening. I had similar end rot issues with other plants so I think it might have been more my fault or a bug issue than the plant itself. The few good pods I got had incredible flavor
Edit: I can't believe I forgot but potentially saved the best for last. Trinidad Perfume. Small yellow pods with little to no heat but absolutely delicious flavor and one of the most prolific producers this year
The Cobanero pepper seems like it'd be pretty good for hybridization as it looks so productive, vigorous and healthy
I grew Aji Amarillo in 2023, and this year went with Aji Cristal - both were pretty late in ripening here in northern NY, so I got limited harvests of each. Interestingly, I preferred the flavor of the Aji Cristal over the Amarillo, maybe it was just a feature of different soils and climate conditions. I had 150 pepper plants this year, and great crops of jalapeno (maybe 25 lbs), serrano, ajvarski, sweet banana and fresno. And my poblano harvest was fantastic. The sugar rush peach were incredibly prolific, but I wasn't overly enamored with the flavor, guess my expectations were too high. We make candied jalapeno and serrano, pickled sweet pepper, some salsa - and a lot of fermented hot sauce. I'll start searching now for new varieties for next year.
This was my first season growing peppers without any experience.
I got 34 plants and all besides one (two) produced peppers. My favorites to eat raw are the Bhut Jolokia White, Naga Twister Multicolor, Sugar Rush Stripey, Scarlett Variegated Orange/Pumpkin and the Habanero Manzano. Ata Big and those Peach Habaneros for Pizza. Most other peppers I don't really enjoyed
The Malawian Piquante was the star of my garden this year. I got the seeds from Chili Chump.
I was impressed with the Aji Fantasy plants. Great flavour, big plants. The The only thing I would change is to start them a bit sooner.
Literally came on here looking for a Pepper Geek update
Also mulling over which peppers to grow and I CAN’T seem to narrow down my list 😅
Aji Amarillo is probably the only Aji variety that I like. Haha that propagation holder (the little green on the edge of the jar) looked cool! And I too can't grow rocoto to save my life... I probably have the wrong climate too. But that won't stop me from trying! I so want to taste a rocoto hehe.
Johnny's has some really good hybrid peppers. I grew a Jedi Jalapeno from them that was really good and HUGE. Will be sharing a jalapeno video soon. :) I plan to grow goliath and mammoth jalapenos next year.
We've grown ~20 rocoto varieties over the years and have always found the Montufar Rocoto to be the most consistent and the earliest producer. Generally it is our earliest rocoto to ripen and the plants are healthy enough to give us a second flush.
Weird year for me. Two Hungarian hot wax plants gave about 30 peppers each, but heat was much lower than last year, half as hot as a banana pepper.
Still tasty though!
Nice assortment of peppers!
I saved seed from a couple orange Scotch bonnet pods from my plant in 2023. I started 12 seeds and planted those in my community garden plot. In August, one of the "Scotch bonnet" plants had a pod that was 6 inches long and was red. I thought I maybe mislabeled the plant when I potted up. When I sampled that red pod, it was amazingly sweet and fruity and extremely hot. I also sent some of those Scotch bonnet seeds to my brother in law in North Carolina. He said he has a plant that has longer red pods. He said the pod was very tasty and really really hot. I did have 3 Jimmy nardello peppers planted right next to the Scotch bonnet in 2023. I think I have an accidental cross between Jimmy nardello pollen and a Scotch bonnet flower. I saved seed from this year's long red pods. I'm excited to see what I get from these seeds next year. How many generations of seed do I need to iterate through before it can be considered stable?
Great video! I enjoy watching your work. I planted seeds saved last year from some peppers a family member gave me. I always plant my regular assortment, but the "Lemon Drop / Aji` Limo`n was new for me. I have been stunned by the productivity for the last 4 months! The bushes are constantly covered with these wonderfully flavored spicey beauties. The lemon heat goes great with seafood and chicken, especially. I have already dried them and made lemon drop hot sauce. I highly recommend these for something a bit out of the ordinary.
You're #1 on the list is awesome (Flaming Flair). I grew them this year and they are great.
Carmen sweet pepper, Kristian Yellow Thai and Maule's red hot (my new replacement for cayenne) are my favorites out of about 20 new varieties I grew this year. I plan to grow these three every year from now on.
I always enjoy this recap: Favorites of the year
Aji lemon is one of my favorites. It's also called lemon drop. I adore the flavor of it. Sugar Rush Peach is another favorite. Aji charapita but this year and last year it failed to produce a single pepper but the year prior it was a shining star. Not sure what went wrong. Peppers I don't like and won't grow again would have to be Pippins golden honey, Melrose and burna mulata. Chocolate habaneros have never worked for me but the other colors do wonderfully.
Love this!!!
This year my most prolific peppers were an afterthought Jalapeno planting. I was also surprised that they were as hot as they were. Most of the people I gifted them to said that they were really hot. I had thought that it was just me until several friends made their statements of spiciness. I grow Habaneros and am use to getting some real heat, but these Jalapenos really hit with the heat.
You should definitely try the MADD Hatter pepper. Late blooming, but I have harvested (from 6 small plants) over 400 peppers so far. Late Oct in mid TN, have probably another 200 to be harvested in the next couple of weeks! 🌶️Mild, not hot!
I haven't grown the the flame cayenne but the red rocket from Johnny's is so good! It is fruity and hot, and makes awesome chili flakes!
Haven’t tried that yet! Thanks for sharing
First time seeing your video. Why no habenaros--too hot? I choke just from the vapors--but they will make great hot sauce or condiments! I tried multiples (4 each of 9 varieties), freeze dried, frozen, and fermented with vinegar, salt brine, or honey (favorite for hot peppers). All varieties stalled for about 3 weeks during our drought (hand watered religiously) and 90° to >100°F, organic, Eden/mulched, and zero pests. Luckily, all aged enough to fully change their colors except the bell peppers. Still, I had a huge harvest, except for all of the bell peppers. All are Heritage, so I can save seeds, but I will try new varieties every year, and choose how many of each plant by the production/use goals. Thank you for the reviews of your crops and the viewers' comments for ideas for new peppers to try!
I did rocoto and manzano this season. Definitely wouldn't ripen in time. Plants went out in early June and I mostly harvested green peppers in October just before our first freeze. A couple plants I put on a table in the garage which faces south and open up the door during the day for light, for season extension, and I'm getting ripe rocotos off that here and there now. I love the plants but they may not be a good fit for here (Maine).
Ive read a lot of good things about the Aji mango and I wanna try growing it in the future too. Maybe its something for you as well. Also the zebrange looks interesting but idk much about it.
How do you dry your cayenne peppers? I air dried mine and ended up with a lot of mold in most of the peppers.
Air drying is great if you live in a desert climate, but for us we have to use a food dehydrator. We've got a video about it here: th-cam.com/video/Z-QQdOEfbAY/w-d-xo.html
Great video! I love the pepper year recaps. My best peppers this year were Buena Mulata, Yucatán White Habanero, Aji Limón, and Aji Dulce. They will be a regular part of my garden if I can fit them in among all the other seeds I got for next year 😂
My habanero peppers did amazing this year. As for my jalapenos, I got pepper gated. Ended up with wax peppers. Bummer. Good thing my gardening friends got jalapenos!
I'd love to know your top sweet peppers. Our family is wimpy about spice and so I only grow sweet peppers and jalapenos
Favorite was Giant marconi pepper
We have purchased a freeze drier for next year. What difference would there be in dehydrating peppers for powder vs. freeze drying?
Have you tried Peruviano Arancio? It looks different, but otherwise very similar to Aji Amarillo. Aroma, crunchiness, thick walls etc. And it ripens much earlier.
You have the same luck with Rocotos as I do! 😢😢 My Numex Piñata jalapeños were also disappointing. Successes were Aji Fantasy, what a bountiful variety they are, plus Fatalii, Poblano, Padron and Bright Star F1 sweet pepper. Was a difficult season here in Scotland for everything though.
No such thing as a 'bad' chili - unless you are growing them. I luv em all! 🌋
Need tips on Jalapeno's and honestly, doing bell peppers. This year we had TONS AND TONS of fruit starting on our bell peppers, but as soon as they hit about 'golf ball' size they stopped getting larger and went from green to orange, and never actually got large. We tried them anyway, and they had that 'unripe' flavor. We have NO CLUE what that was all about. As for Jalapeno's? We got one crop, and it was about 1 pound off of 4 plants. This is the 3rd year for poor yields. Now then, our Mild and Hot Banana Peppers? HOLY WAH! We got POUNDS of each. I canned up over 30 pints of those bad boys. Matter of fact, we have more than we will use over the year so we aren't planting them next year.
I did jalapeno, sugar rush stripey, trinidad scorpion butch t, carolina reaper, primotallii, chocolate primotallii, and big black mama.
Cool.
I grew Aji Crystal last year -- compared to other c. baccatum varieties it was fairly hot, not very productive, and not a special taste. I have not managed to get an aji amarillo to germinate yet -- what source of seeds did you use? Right now my favorite c. baccatums are sugar rush stripey and sugar drop orange when I want heat and nice taste; and aji delight and aji fantasy for good taste without the heat. This year my sugar rush peach (which was in the full sun allotment) was very productive (still going) but more sour than sweet for some reason. The sourness is likely all vitamin c, but not what I expected; while the sugar rush stripey was grown in part shade, just as productive (also still going), and a nice balance between sweet, heat, and tany fruitiness.
I got a few ripe rocotos last year but was unimpressed -- take even longer than c. baccatum to ripen, and more heat than taste. I have plenty of easier-to-grow peppers at that heat level and with more taste.
Hi…Dear…I saw full video and I think it is very important and thanks to video , your valuable TH-cam channel,Thank you so much ……!!!
I grew 2 aji amarillo here in zone 9a northern california they grew huge but didn't flower until a week ago. So no peppers this year hopefully over winter them and get some next year.
I grew them cause my girl libed in peru for 4 years and lives them.
My best producers (Washington State) were Thai, and padron peppers and of course jalapeños.
What's your thoughts on Tabasco peppers??
They’re okay - in our tries at growing, they tend to take a lonnng time to ripen so I’d say they’re ideal in warmer climates. Good flavor for flakes or fermented sauces though!
@@PepperGeek cool. I grew one of these this year here in Iowa. Got 2 yields before it got cold here. Going to overwinter the guy in the basement. Though not sure if it'll go dormant since it's staying around 65° so far. And with the east window giving him sunlight .
The best pepper, sound like your doing a beauty contest
Flaming Flare Fresno
Cayenne Red Flame
Barbaras Antipodes
Aji Amarillo
Cobanero
Bolivian Rainbow is awfully pretty, but flavor is really dull.
My favorite this season is called Red Demon, they are perfect to use dried in cooking, and to bring the spiciness up in hot sauce. As the plants I have are relatively small they're easy to cover up or move around when frost hits. For me, in Scandinavia, they've been producing since June and are still producing in October.
Rocotos (we call them Manzanos) are my dream to grow. I hope you figure out some cheats to growing them successfully in weather they don't especially like.
I tried to grow the Giant Jalapeno but it just did not grow very large. I got about 8 rather small peppers.
I grow my Rocoto in the shade? They don't like direct sunlight.
I ordered seeds and they got me the wrong ones, but glad it was aji anarillo. A nice pepper
try having the ricoto pepper indoors in a sunny window :)
I had one unlabeled pepper that was amazing. Of course it was unlabeled. Upon further research (which was cemented with this video, actually, so thank you!) it had to have been a Fresno.
Have you tried surajmuki pepper
What was the name of the habanero variety, which had the same aroma and flavor, but was not as spicy?
Habanada
@PepperGeek Thanks friend, I'll look for it in seeds la palma.
The Peter Pepper was a bit of a disappointment for me this year. Plenty of heat, but barely any of them ripened before we got a frost a couple of weeks ago.
I actually really prefer aji crystal, they taste much better if you eat them a little under ripe, orange instead of red
Aji Cristal tastes best (and has better texture) before it turns red! I prefer them at dandelion yellow.
I grew yellow Aji peppers, I think they're called Aji Lemon or Aji Pineapple, but they're so spicy that I can barely use them for anything , and I tried to bit into a raw one today, my mouth was burning up