Well, this season seems to be doing everything in its power to prevent us from getting a bumper crop of peppers. Ultra early aphids, countless inches of rain and far too many nights that are getting down into the mid-40’s.
Early this season, we illuminated the topic of F1 varieties and how this often gives highly desirable characteristics to a given plant. For the 5 second recap, an F1 variety is plant hybridization where two different varieties are bred together and F1 represents the first generation of seed from those two parent plants. This hybridization can often give the “best of both worlds” and will frequently spawn characteristics like plant vigor and disease resistance.
When it comes to Jalapeno peppers, we’ve standardized on an F1 variety. It gives our plants practical super powers in this case, the ability to resist cooler temperatures and (in subarctic terms at least) put on heavy fruit. We live and swear by the La Bomba II F1 variety. We were early adopters of La Bomba version 1, and we can tell you, version 2 is an even better hybrid.
We were a little concerned as September’s forecasts were bringing night after night of mid-40’s. This is not an ideal forecast for us to see into August when we’re relying on at least a little bit of heat to eek out our final harvest of Jalapenos and other peppers. While most of our other peppers have given up at this point, our jalapenos look to be on track for a decent final harvest.
If we were describe our most consistent and reliable pepper, this would be it. Through good pepper seasons to all the bad pepper seasons, our jalapenos have consistently pulled through. While in “good years” we can easily get two full harvests of our jalapenos, growing this hybrid seems to practically guarantee that we don’t get skunked.
This season is one of the main reasons our “primary” recommendation for northern peppers is to grow varieties that are considered “mature” when they’re green. There’s never a guarantee that you’ll get good maturation weather and some seasons just outright work against your pepper crop. Aside from trying to grow melons outdoors, peppers can be a very close second for difficulty and challenge in far northern growing.
Those that follow us know we put a lot of time, money and effort into the pursuit of finding ideal northern pepper varieties. Despite the challenges we face, we try to remain optimistic! In those good seasons, it’s really, really good! But then you get a season like this one and we’re even questioning the basics. We think it’d be hard to be a pessimist and a gardener, though. If anything, gardening fosters hope.
We are thrilled that we’ll be picking these in a couple of weeks! We’ve got a considerable number of La Bomba plants, and in case you were curious, this is how we hedge our bets against any given season!
