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Selecting high-yielding pepper varieties for the new garden season is not an easy task. What to choose, a time-tested variety or a newly bred hybrid widely advertised by agricultural companies? There is no information about new varieties yet, but there are people who like to experiment and try something new. They will buy new varieties of pepper. More cautious people will prefer varieties that have already been tested by time. Varietal pepper seeds produced over several years have one undoubted advantage: information and reviews about them can be found. Information about new varieties of pepper has not yet accumulated, except for branded advertising. A small list of such varieties is given below.
High-yielding varieties of sweet peppers
Variety Swallow
A high-yielding variety of pepper with a growing season of 4 months. Semi-standard bushes up to 60 cm high. Productivity up to 5 kg per square meter. m.
The fruits are medium-sized, cone-shaped. Weight can reach up to 100 g, pericarp 7 mm thick. Ripe red peppers.
Pepper variety It has a dense skin that helps protect the peppers during transportation and has good shelf life during long-term storage. The harvest of this pepper ripens quickly and can be harvested at one time.
The “Swallow” variety is suitable for fresh consumption, cooking and winter preparations.
The “Swallow” variety is especially loved for its high adaptability to Russian natural vagaries.
Variety Belozerka
Time-tested productive pepper variety mid-early ripening. Some producers may list it as early maturing.
Description of breeders
The bushes are medium-sized, up to 70 cm. Densely leafy. Medium-sized cone-shaped peppers up to 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. Pepper weight up to 90 g, pericarp 6 mm. Ripe fruits are red, with excellent taste, juicy. Suitable for preservation. Can be stored fresh for a long time.
The “Swallow” pepper variety is intended for growing in open beds.
Gardeners' opinion
Summer residents confirm the ability of pepper to be stored and transported for a long time. The Belozerka variety is noted for its resistance to adverse weather conditions and high yield even in rainy or dry summers.
Due to the popularity of the variety, unscrupulous sellers under the guise of Belozerka may sell a re-variety.
Belozerka is grown for commercial purposes. If agricultural practices are followed and fertilizers are applied, it shows excellent productivity.
Variety Fat Baron
It has good yield, up to 7 kg per square meter. m. With a small bush height (usually 50 cm), it bears very large fruits weighing up to 300 g. The thickness of the pericarp of this pepper reaches 1 cm. Up to 9 peppers can grow on one bush.The advantage of the variety is the high content of vitamin C in the fruits.
The growing season of the variety is 95 days. It is planted in a permanent place in early June. To achieve the greatest productivity, you should not thicken the plantings and plant more than 5 bushes per m². The optimal number of pepper bushes per unit area: 3-4 plants.
Variety California miracle
The pepper variety is systematically included in the list of the best in many respects, but it is better to buy it depending on the intended growing location, since companies produce pepper seeds adapted to “their” region.
California miracle not a hybrid variety, which means its seeds can be left for planting next year. This variety has a nuance: under the same name there are fruits not only red, but also yellow and orange. However, other than color, there are no other differences between them.
The pepper variety is mid-season and requires four months to harvest. Bushes up to 40 cm high, compact. The fruits are not very large, weighing from 80 to 130 g, cuboid in shape. Pericarp thickness 7 cm.
Characteristics due to which this variety constantly finds itself at the top of the list of the best pepper varieties:
- high yield, up to 12 fruits per bush;
- excellent taste;
- increased content of ascorbic acid in fruits;
- resistance to cucumber mosaic.
The variety is universal, suitable for fresh consumption and canning. Due to its unusual properties of non-hybrid pepper varieties: resistance to pepper diseases, high yield and stress resistance, it is of interest to farms growing peppers for sale.
Features of growing the variety
This is especially true for homegrown seeds that were left for sowing from the previous harvest.
Sowing seeds, growing seedlings and transplanting them occurs according to the standard scheme. Bushes of this variety should be planted at a distance of 40 cm from each other. The planting depth of the young plant is the same as it was in the planting container.
Being a high-yielding variety, this variety requires more water than other peppers. You need to water it with warm water. If watering is done in open ground at the dacha, it is better to do it in the evening from a barrel, when the water there is heated by the sun.
This ability increases the value of the variety, but it is not worth testing in practice.
California Miracle peppers need to be fertilized three times during the growing season. The first time is half a month after planting, the second time during flowering and the third time during the period of fruit ripening. Any fertilizer is suitable for the variety, including an organic solution.
Variety Bogatyr
A variety that is easy to get confused about, as different companies describe it differently. Some agricultural firms produce cone-shaped fruits of this variety, of medium size: length 11 cm, weight up to 130 g. The bush is from 50 to 70 cm high.
Other companies describe medium-sized cube-shaped peppers and the height of the bush does not exceed 40 cm. Still others position the variety as large-fruited: fruits weigh up to 180 g and are 18 cm long and cone-shaped.
There are more commonalities in the descriptions of the variety from different manufacturers than there are differences.
The pepper variety is mid-season, with stable fruiting even under unfavorable weather conditions. Pericarp 7 mm thick. High taste qualities of peppers. The ripe fruit is red.
A high-yielding variety suitable for commercial cultivation in closed or open ground. Universal purpose: suitable for fresh consumption and winter storage.
The variety is resistant to the most common diseases and daily temperature fluctuations.
When choosing a variety, it is better to buy seeds from a company that produces them for your region.
General agricultural techniques for this pepper are the same as for other varieties. For seedlings it will be necessary to use phytolamps.
When planting peppers on the south side of the site, you need to take care of shelter from the midday sun.
Gardeners who have tried to grow this variety of pepper confirm that with proper agricultural technology and the application of all necessary fertilizers, peppers grow large, tasty and juicy. At the same time, the yield of one bush is up to 2.5 kg.
In a greenhouse, a plant can ignore the description on the package and grow up to 0.9 m. Such a tall bush needs staking, so you need to take care of supports in advance. It's better not to come in handy.
On almost any bag of pepper seeds you can read “high-yielding” and “disease resistant.” But for reality to live up to advertising, you need to follow the rules for growing sweet peppers and be able to protect them from diseases.As a rule, branded varietal and hybrid peppers are resistant only to the most common diseases and are not at all resistant to pests, of which peppers also have a lot.
Agricultural technology for growing bell peppers
Selecting a location and preparing the bed
For pepper bushes, choose a sunny area protected from the winds, making sure that nightshades did not grow in the same place last year, since they have common viral and fungal diseases.
Pepper likes soil that is light, breathable, but at the same time has good moisture-holding capacity. To achieve such properties, rotted sawdust and rotted manure are added to the loam at the rate of 1 bucket per 1 square meter. m. Plus peat in the amount of 2 buckets. If the soil is clayey, then additionally pour a bucket of unripe sawdust and coarse sand.
But the sawdust should not be completely rotted, in which case they will lose the ability to drain the soil.
Peat, rotted manure and clay are added to the sandy soil in 2 buckets each, plus a bucket of sawdust.
In addition, per 1 sq. m add a glass of ash, superphosphate and potassium sulfate 1 tbsp each and 1 tsp. urea. The resulting mixture is thoroughly dug to a depth of at least 25 cm and formed into beds 0.3 m high and 1 m wide. The surface of the bed is leveled and spilled with a hot solution of fertilizer suitable for peppers. Types of fertilizers can be different: from mullein to special fertilizer sold in the store for growing peppers.
Planting seedlings in open ground
When planting, it is better to follow the pattern indicated on the package, but if the pepper seeds were bought from hand at the market “in a bag,” then you can plant them according to the most common pattern of 0.6 x 0.6 m. It is better to plant in the evening so as not to expose the freshly planted pepper to stress in the form of midday sun rays.
If the bush requires staking as it grows, it is better to take this into account immediately and, right when planting the seedlings, stick pegs into the ground for tying, since the roots, leaves and shoots of pepper bushes are very fragile and it is better not to disturb them again.
After planting, young plants are covered with film on the arches to protect them from the night cold. The film is removed in mid-June after the air temperature is high. You don’t have to remove it at all, sometimes ventilating the plantings.
It should be noted that the first couple of weeks, while the root system takes root, peppers grow slowly. At this time, it is necessary to carefully loosen the soil, providing the roots with air flow. It is better not to overdo it with watering, but also not to let the soil dry out.
Watering and fertilizing
Water the pepper bushes once a week with warm water (25°C) from a watering can, spending 12 liters per square meter. m. In case of hot weather, the frequency of watering must be doubled.
Pepper bushes are fed at least three times during the growing season: 14 days after planting in a permanent place, during the formation of ovaries and flowering, and when the fruits ripen. If feeding is carried out more often, they are done with a break of 2 weeks. When giving fertilizers, the bushes are watered at the root.
The fertilizer itself may vary.From folk varieties like “pickled greens” (the stench is rare) or manure solution to special ones purchased specifically for peppers.
If it is necessary to form a bush, its top is pinched when the plant reaches a height of 25 cm. Of the emerging stepsons, only the top 5 are left on the bush, the rest are removed. No more than 25 ovaries are left on the bush.
You should not neglect stepsoning in the event of a rainy summer. Excessive thickening of foliage on bushes with high air humidity leads to fungal diseases of pepper. At the same time, in dry summers it is better, on the contrary, to leave the lower shoots, since their foliage will protect the soil under the bushes from drying out.
From varietal peppers you can get seeds for next year. To do this, take a fully ripened fruit and carefully cut out the seed pod, which is dried for 4 days at a temperature of 25-30°C. Afterwards, separate the seeds, collect them in a paper bag and place them in a dry place. Seed shelf life is 5 years.
Pests
In addition to the notorious Colorado potato beetle, pepper has many other enemies, from which selection and the development of new varieties cannot save it.
Wireworm
Wireworm - This is a beetle larva. It has very tough outer coverings, which is why it got its name, as it feels like a piece of orange-brown wire. It feeds on plant roots. It loves sweets, so it is especially dangerous for carrots and potatoes, but it also does not disdain pepper roots. It can survive in soil for up to 5 years.
As a measure to combat it, the soil is dug up in the fall. In the spring, two weeks before planting, bait (a piece of carrot or potato) strung on a stick is buried in the ground to a depth of 6 cm.Every three days the bait is removed, inspected and destroyed along with the wireworm.
You can place bunches of grass and hay between the rows. The insects collected in them are destroyed. They also use the option of burying a glass jar at the ground level in which the bait is placed. The wireworm cannot get out of the jar.
There are chemical methods to control this pest, but they are expensive. In addition, many are afraid that the plants will absorb the poison from the soil.
Whitefly
The signs of its appearance on pepper are no different from the signs of its appearance on other plants. In other words, touch a leaf on a bush, and from under it will be a swarm of small white insects. Plus, insect excrement on the lower leaves.
Insecticidal preparations are used to combat this moth.
Slugs
By damaging the fruits, the mollusks cause them to rot. To combat them, grooves are made around the pepper bushes, which are sprayed with a solution of lime, making sure that water does not get on the bushes themselves. In hot weather, the soil is loosened to a depth of 5 cm and sprinkled with hot pepper or mustard powder. But it’s easier and more effective to use special poisonous drugs that kill not only slugs, but also snails, which also don’t mind eating the harvest.
Spider mite
Attacks plants when the air is too dry. As a preventive measure, you can spray the pepper bushes, but this cannot be done if you visit the dacha intermittently. The insect is microscopic, so its appearance is usually noticed in the early stages by the web entwined around the leaves and stems.
If you don't take action, the mite can cover the entire plant.
The tick feeds on plant sap and is capable of destroying the entire bush. To combat it, insecticides are used according to the instructions.
melon aphid
The aphid feeds on the juice that it sucks from the pepper leaves, causing the foliage to wilt. It also harms pepper because the flowers dry out and the already set fruits grow ugly.
Aphids have enough natural enemies to control their numbers. For prevention, you need to control the amount weed on the site, aphids also settle on them. If the aphid has multiplied and its natural enemies cannot cope with it, insecticides are used.
