The 5 Major Pepper Species - Grow Interesting Pepper Varieties - Pepper Geek

hey there welcome back to pepper geek in today's video i'd like to cover the five major domesticated species of peppers so the goal of this video is to bring awareness to the vast world of peppers in my opinion if you're gonna grow peppers why not grow something that you can't find at the supermarket there are just so many varieties out there and you can get seeds pretty easily no matter where you live in the world so i'm just gonna go alphabetically through the five major species i'll go through the name of the species what it means the backstory and the origin of the pepper species a range of the heat level of the peppers within the species the plant size and growing conditions and of course some of the popular varieties that are within each species and then of course i'll go through some varieties that are not so common in each species and maybe give you some ideas on what you can grow and at the very end i'll cover some seed suppliers and before we get started please subscribe to pepper geek this channel is all about growing peppers and helping you get better harvests and healthier plants so thanks for subscribing first up is the capsicum annum species and this is actually by far the most common species in the world so the name means annual which is a misnomer because these plants are actually perennial plants but they were grown as annual plants in europe hence why the name annum was born the origin of the species is south america and you're going to hear that a lot the origin of most pepper species is thought to be south america and central america heat levels of the anum species ranges anywhere from zero no heat at all all the way up to fifty thousand sixty thousand scoville units the plant sizes are relatively small sometimes medium anywhere from two feet to about four feet in height depending on the variety you've heard of most of these the bell pepper the jalapeno the serrano pepper the fresno pepper the poblano pepper the cayenne pepper and the banana pepper all are within the annual species there's a reason it's so appealing these peppers are crunchy and they can be spicy they can be purely sweet like the red bell pepper they're just very versatile peppers and it's no wonder that they dominate supermarket shelves the jalapeno was born in mexico and it is very suitable for hot and dry climates so if you live in texas if you live in new mexico the jalapeno and other similar varieties are very suitable for those climates there are also several uncommon varieties that are within the anum species these include the fish pepper which has this beautiful variegated foliage with white and green leaves and the variegation transfers to the peppers as well they ripen from a whitish green all the way through to a deep red color they're very productive relatively small plants great for a patio or a potted pepper plant another is the lessia pepper which we grew for the first time last year it's this beautiful deep red bell-like pepper but it has this teardrop shape to it almost like a heart and the flavor is incredibly sweet just like a red bell but even a little sweeter i would say who would have thought these huge peppers existed because you'd never see them in the supermarket another is the and i'm going to butcher this name i promise the paradise fructiger pepper it's definitely a german name for the pepper but we grew it last year and they look almost like heirloom tomatoes from italy and again very crunchy thick walls and sweet peppers very easy to grow just like a bell pepper but much different looking this is just scratching the surface of the anum species there are hundreds of varieties so i encourage you to explore them yourself okay moving on to species number two capsicum baccatum species comes from south and central america and the name means berry-like owing to the fact that many of the peppers that come from the species kind of look like little berries heat levels in this species range from pretty hot to very hot anywhere from 10 000 scovilles all the way up to 75 plus thousand scoville units and the plants are very large and they take a long time to produce ripe pods so that's definitely something to keep in mind if you're planning on growing a bakatam variety you might want to plant a few weeks early they're also known as ahi peppers and they're very common in south america to this day one of the common varieties is the ahi limon or aji lemon pepper they're known to be crunchy fruity flavorful delicious and a little bit spicy and the plants are also very prolific so if you can grow them i highly recommend them because you'll get a lot of peppers two other common varieties are the sugar rush varieties which are relatively new there's the sugar rush peach sugar rush red and then the bishop's crown which has a very strange shape to it you can see where it got its name some less common varieties are the brazilian starfish they're prolific and delicious and they look very interesting one other bakuton variety that is a product of crossbreeding is the sugar rust striped pepper which is relatively new to the market very interesting looking pepper with stripes of orange and red if you're lucky you can find seeds on the internet we were lucky enough to find some and we'll be growing them for the first time this year and apparently very tasty and very hot too okay moving on to our third species the capsicum chenin species the name actually means from china although this again is a misnomer the pepper species was named by someone who discovered the pepper while he was traveling in the caribbean but for some reason he was led to believe that they were from china however the species definitely does have origins in south america it's commonly thought that they have origins in the amazon basin and many land varieties still grow wild in south america and the caribbean now capsicum chennai's is notorious for having some of the hottest peppers in the world actually the hottest peppers in the world hands down and heat levels can range anywhere from zero scoville units all the way up to 2 million scoville heat units plus so these are brutally hot peppers but they also have amazing interesting flavors which makes the chenin species one of the most appealing to pepper enthusiasts the plants are also large you might think a plant that grows these super hot peppers and smaller peppers might be smaller but the plants can actually grow to be five six feet tall in a single season some of the most common varieties that you've probably heard of are the habanero pepper which you can find at supermarkets also the scotch bonnet pepper which comes from the caribbean and the notorious ghost pepper which once held the title of the hottest pepper in the world some less common varieties include the cgn 21500 actually i have a plant right here this is our bonsai plant this is a cgn 21500 the leaves can have some dark coloration to them and they ripen from a green color to a peachy color and they're just beautiful little pods extremely productive and relatively big plant another worth mentioning is the pimenta denied pepper which was discovered in south america the plants have pretty much jet black foliage and peppers and the nine pepper has been used to cross pollinate with other chenin's varieties creating some of the most amazing peppers out there if you're interested one of those varieties is called the black panther pepper we recently wrote an article about that on pepper geek you can see pictures of the pepper there and learn more about it now if you don't like spicy food but you still want to try the amazing flavors of chenin's species peppers i'd recommend checking out the habanada pepper that's a very commonly available seed that you can find on the internet or the numex suave orange is another variety we're growing for the first time this year i'm excited to see what comes of that plant because it claims to have only 800 scoville heat units which is just about what a poblano has but the flavor profile of the habanero pepper or chenin species and that was developed by the chili pepper institute at new mexico state university you can buy lots of cool peppers from them and i'll leave links down below okay moving on to our fourth pepper species the capsicum fructasin species the name means shrub like and they are from again south and central america heat levels range anywhere from 20 000 to 50 000 scoville units so relatively hot peppers and the plant sizes are small anywhere from about a foot and a half to three feet tall and they tend to be very prolific now within the capsicum frutescent species there are really only two varieties that are extremely common one is the african bird's eye chili also known as the peri-peri pepper it's used in africa to make the very popular peri-peri sauce and the other is the tabasco pepper which you will likely recognize as the main ingredient in tobasco brand hot sauce those peppers are still grown widely throughout louisiana to produce that hot sauce but apart from those two varieties there really aren't many others to speak of for this reason the capsicum frutescent species is still considered to be mostly a wild species many of the varieties out there actually still drop their fruits when they are ripe and that's just a common characteristic of wild pepper species one uncommon variety i did discover when i was researching capsicum frutescens was the and i will butcher this too kabai barong oogi it's a malaysian pepper variety with amazingly beautiful flowers that have yellow and purple accents to them and the pods ripen from purple to orange to a deep red color very interesting and i have really high hopes for what the future brings in the frutescen species and last but definitely not least is the capsicum pubescent species the name means short-haired or pubescent and it's with good reason these plants actually have very small hairs on the leaves they're also known as trichomes the origin of the pubescent species is likely peru or bolivia and they're still very popular throughout south and central and even parts of north america heat levels range anywhere from twenty thousand all the way up to a hundred thousand scovilles so these are relatively spicy peppers and the plant size can be very large anywhere from four feet all the way up to eight feet and the plants tend to have a vining characteristic that is different from any of the other species common varieties are the rocoto or the locoto pepper depending on where you are in the world they're also called the manzano pepper in parts of mexico owing to their fruit-like shape they almost look like an apple or a pear now the pubescent species is really often its own world here they can't cross-pollinate with any of the other species that we've talked about and they have some very unique characteristics for example the flowers of these plants are completely purple as you can see here this is the mini ricotta brown that we grew last year producing flowers they're just gorgeous and the seeds from all these pepper varieties are black but they also take a very long time to germinate capsicum pubescence is actually one of the only species that is known to do best in cooler climates owing to their mountainous origins so if you live in a cooler climate or you have a shorter growing season you can start these seeds indoors very early and you can feel safe knowing that your plants won't be too stressed out by temperatures in the 60s where other varieties might start losing flowers or stressing out in other ways okay so those are the five main species but there are dozens of other species within the capsicum genus and i'll cover just one of them for you today because we're actually growing this variety for the first time this year and that's the capsicum galapagos species there's just one pepper variety within this species and it is endemic to the galapagos islands like many amazing varieties of plants and animals one interesting fact is that the plant has lots of trichomes just like the pubescent species lots of hairs on the leaves and apparently when the leaves are brushed it releases a fragrance a nice aroma into the air so we'll definitely be covering that species we're growing it this season like i said so we'll share that with you this year now i'd like to share two seed suppliers i don't really like to share seed suppliers or specific products because some of the websites we buy seeds from are run by just one person and things can change but i will share some that you can look at today because they're just so awesome one is white hot peppers and they are located in the united states they specialize in the capsicum chenin species they have lots of cool cross varieties and really hot peppers but they also have bakatam species and annual peppers so i encourage you to check them out if you're located in north america another is fatallyseeds.net they are not located in the united states so if you do live in the u.s you will have to worry about the federal order that was implemented recently this requires international seed sellers to ship their pepper seeds with a phyto-sanitary certificate and a lot of seed suppliers simply can't afford to do this process but fatally seeds is still very cool and worth checking out they have lots of cool capsicum bakatam varieties that's actually where we got our sugar rush striped seeds one of the varieties we're most excited to grow this year so check them out in the links below and that's it for this video i hope you enjoyed and i hope you learned something and are maybe considering growing something other than bell peppers or jalapeno peppers although they are very tasty i have to admit but perhaps you'll grow something out of the ordinary this year or next if you have any questions leave them in the comments below and we'd love to try to help you out thanks for watching pepper geek and i'll see you next time

Channel: Pepper Geek

Views: 253,573

Keywords: pepper varieties, pepper species, capsicum species, capsicum chinense, capsicum annuum, capsicums

Id: BtsiuA7ETd8

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 15 2021