Peppers
Anaheim / Hatch
Mild green chile; the fall crop is for roasting.
- Indoors
- 6 to 8 wk (Jan, again May)
- Outside
- Mid Mar to mid Apr, again Jul 1-25
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Deep weekly soak; even water through the heat
- Harvest
- Jun green; Oct to Nov roast-size
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, in the early morning, kept even like every pepper; water swings show up as blossom end rot on the long pods, and a mulched bed holds the schedule through June's heat.
- Sow
- 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, cut the weaker at the soil line when true leaves show. Spring bench in January; a second bench in May for the fall bed.
- Start inside
- Heat mat at 80 to 90F, sprouts in a week to two; do not skip the mat on a January sowing. Under the lights 14 to 16 hours. Out mid-March to mid-April in 65F soil; fall transplants go out July 1 to 25.
- Feed
- Compost worked in at planting, one side-dress at fruit set, then off the nitrogen. No feeding in the July-August heat; the fall bed gets a light feed when set resumes.
- Ready
- Big green pods off the June plants roast well already. The fall crop is the roasting crop: pods size up through October and hold until the mid-November frost. Roast, peel, and freeze in flat bags. Cut with shears.
- Trouble
- Flowers drop through the gap: normal, they set again with September's cool nights. Sunken dark tip on the pods: blossom end rot from uneven water. Aphids on new growth: a hard water spray knocks them back.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily all summer, twice a day in a heat wave, water until it drains from the holes; give the bag afternoon shade or 30 to 50 percent shade cloth in the gap.
- Feed
- Dilute liquid feed on the watering calendar, leached weekly with plain water; alkaline tap water builds salts fast. Hold the feed when days top 90F.
- Sow
- One plant per 5 gallon bag at the minimum, staked; the fall bag is the roasting crop.
The Southwest's mild green chile, on the Texas pepper schedule here: the spring crop goes on the grill in June, and the fall crop is for roasting.
Growing
New Mexico's extension is the authority for this pod type, but the schedule is the Texas pepper sheet's: January bench on the heat mat, transplants out mid-March to mid-April in 65F soil, loaded before the mid-June gap. Big green pods come off the spring plants in June. The May bench transplants July 1 to 25, and the fall crop is the one to plant for: pods size up through October, roast-basket big, ahead of the mid-November frost. Stake the plants early; a full basket loads the branches.
Varieties
New Mexico is the extension authority here: NMSU names New Mexico 6-4 and NuMex Big Jim as the garden varieties of the mild New Mexican pod type, sold as Anaheim outside the Southwest, and files the pod with the mild canning-salsa chiles.
In the kitchen
Roasting is the point: blister the pods over a flame or under the broiler, steam them in a covered bowl, peel, and bag them flat for the freezer. All winter the bags become green chile for enchilada sauce, eggs, and breakfast burritos, and the mild flesh dices into a canning salsa for anyone the jalapeno outruns.