Little Unusual Fish, Bilinga, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Index
Growing Vegetables in a Dry Spot Using Old Milk Cartons
Organic Gardening Tips and Books for the Novices and even Experts
Advice Especially for the Sub-Tropical Organic Gardener
Serrano: a "10" for those who like it hot.
Colourful Carrots From Around the World
Seed Suppliers Page (Australia)
Seed Savers' Network Byron Bay
Tomatoes (Including diseases and fruitfly in tomatoes)
Green Paddocks Publishing and Producing Australia
The Chai Wallah Picture Publishing Project
Farming with Bev and Peter Brock in Nutfield
Zen Cleaning Robot Book of Quotes
On California Wonders and other types of Capsicum and Peppers and Chillies
It's a common story amongst popular vegetables that they originate from South America. Peppers are not an exception and they join some of the greats of the vegetable kingdom originating from the region such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, maize, beans, pumpkins, zucchini. Not to mention avocados, jabotica, acerola cherries... lets just say there's a lot to than that continent for. As for peppers (also called capsicums) they have probably been growing in places like Mexico for over 2,000 years. They, meaning the Mexicans not the capsicums or peppers, have been known to have a fondness for the more fiery types of chilies like Serrano, Habanero and Tabasco. But the chilli also seems to be an inseparable part of the Indian, and other Southeast Asian, cuisine and culture though I haven't read of any types actually originating from this region so I can only assume that they have adopted them. From the best information that I have it seems they didn't arrive to these areas until about AD 1500, though I find it hard to believe that India, or indeed Pakistan or Thailand could ever have lived without the Capsicum Annum. It'd be like Australia without kangaroos or France without olive oil and wine.
Hot Spike
Eden Seeds catalogue recommends growing peppers in near neutral pH which means that you can grow them quite successfully near beans. Most peppers grow pretty slow, compared to say tomatoes, which tends to shoot up and start fruiting. They like a bit of heat, but you can begin to grow them when the air temperature is around 20 to 25 C, but for most of their growth they'll want it up around 26 to 30. Be sure to add plenty of pelletted manure, lucerne hay and other organic matter ideally a couple of weeks before planting, then mulch around with either sugar cane mulch, lucerne hay, or finely chopped pea straw and add a handful of garden lime to raise the pH (or lower it, I always get mixed up, anyway, after manuring the lime helps). You also might want to grow some sort of pea in the place you wish to plant your peppers as they'll probably be finished by the time you ready to go. With that I'm talking a more sub-tropical or temperate climate where you can grow peas in winter. In cold climates it's best to try them, capsicums and not peas, in some sort of greenhouse, though some types of chillies are known to survive a little better in the cold than bell peppers.
That's all I have to say about peppers and chillies. For seed you can always just scoop out the middles of ones you buy at market and plant them, or you can grow California Wonders, Lipsticks, Golden Bell (yellow) or whatever you feel like. Go to my seed company page, which has a link at the bottom of the page and look at all the many wonderful ones you can get. I will say one thing more though, if you are in the sub-tropics, which is sort of north of Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay in Australia, you'll find them pretty easy to grow and delicious. So you should plant them. Right now. Turn off your computer and just go and do it. Especially if it's spring. See below for a few pictures.
Californian Wonder: Whether this little beauty is from California or indeed a "wonder" is highly debatable; what can be said is it is delicious, fairly easy to grow for the home gardener, and it can very well claim to be the first type of bell pepper in cultivation.
© J.R. Atwood 2008
email: greenpadocks@gmail.com