Gordon Johnson, Extension Vegetable & Fruit Specialist; gcjohn@udel.edu
In 2015 the University of Delaware conducted a pepper trial with types that are used for processing but also that could be used as fresh market specialty peppers. Included were sweet and hot banana types; hot and no-heat jalapenos; Italian and pimento peppers; and hot and sweet cherry peppers.
For the long Italian group, Crest Red, Crest Yellow, Carmen and Mama Mia Giallo were the highest yielding. Both Crest Yellow and Mama Mia Giallo are yellow types that compare to banana peppers and merit evaluation for processing, yielding over 20 tons per acre. Crest Red and Carmen are green-ripening-red Italian types. In the pimento group Tennessee Cheese and Pimento L. were the highest yielding at around 18 tons per acre.
For the Jalapeno group, the top yielding varieties were Bilbao, Much Nacho, Rayo, Grande, El Jefe, Campeon, Felicity (non-hot type), Barajas, Compadre, Major League, and New Park. Barajas, Compadre, Campeon, and New Park had the least fruit cracking when green mature. Yields of the top Jalapenos ranged from 28 – 34 tons per acre.
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In the Banana and Hungarian pepper group, Ethem, Budapest, Inferno, Sweet Savannah, Pageant, Sweet Arrow, Bounty, Superette Sweet, Boris, and Sopron were highest yielding ranging from 18-25 tons per acre. Ethem was particularly impressive for a sweet type and Budapest was the highest yielding hot type in the trial.
