Peppers
Jimmy Nardello
Sweet frying pepper.
- Indoors
- 8 wk (mid Mar)
- Outside
- Transplant after frost
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July; steady or blossom end rot
- Harvest
- Aug to Oct, red-ripe
Care
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July and August, about weekly in spring and fall. A long soak at the base until the top few inches are wet, then let it dry before the next. Steady all the way; the long thin-walled pods read swings as blossom end rot.
- Sow
- 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, cut the weaker at the soil line when true leaves show. Set plants 18 inches apart in the bed.
- Start inside
- Mat at 80 to 90F, sprouts in 7 to 8 days. Under the lights the moment they break ground, 14 to 16 hours; off the mat at the first true leaves. Outside after mid May, once nights hold 50F.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting carries the bed most of the season. A medium feeder, so side-dress once at fruit set, then ease off the nitrogen.
- Ready
- Wait for full glossy red, from August; the thin walls make the pods droop long before they are ripe. Cut, do not pull.
- Trouble
- Sunken dark tip on the long pods: blossom end rot from water swings, keep the water even. Pods droop early: normal for thin walls, wait for full red. Aphids clustering on shoots: spray them off with water.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in July and August; bags dry far faster than a bed. 30 to 40 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- One plant per bag.
An Italian heirloom frying pepper that landed in Connecticut in 1887 and is perfectly happy one state over. The pods stay green until August, then redden in strings through October, and fried they are sweeter than any bell.
Growing
Eight weeks indoors from mid March, out to the bed, or a 5 to 7 gallon bag, after frost. The thin walls that make it fry so well also make the pods droop convincingly long before they are ready; wait for full glossy red, which starts here in August. A short stake helps once the plant loads up.
Varieties
It is its own variety, and seed saved from a good plant comes true, since peppers mostly self-pollinate.
In the kitchen
Sliced into rings and fried soft in olive oil until the edges catch, it is the best thing the pepper section produces. Also good charred whole, like a sweeter, calmer padron.