Trial: Annual
Years Trialed: 2006
Good Qualities
Nice clusters of fruit, slow to color, very uniform height; Tall plants, interesting fruit shape; This would seem to have so much potential but…; Customers loved them mixed in bouquets; Multiple peppers in clusters, nice size/shape of peppers; For me this pepper had dark foliage and the pepper started out black before turning red, the round shape was interesting; Nice addition to bouquets and arrangements; We picked when the pepper was black, our season wasn’t long enough to get the red, but we loved the black - We were thrilled with this pepper, lots of stems fairly long stems for our conditions; Same as the bronze but this one was even better, great for fall, it would sure be nice if these would defoliate themselves!; Attractive black round fruits when immature, dull red when mature - Fruits borne at end of branches to produce moderately long stems, slightly earlier than ‘Round Bronze’.Problems
Too short (2); I did not pinch as directed, consequently the fruits are all in the foliage and difficult to see, slow to color, relative to ‘Black Pearl’; These did not reach maturity before frost (Oct. 10) - the peppers were still black - The plant continued to grow past the first flowering, so fruit was set half way down the stem, a second flowering did not mature into fruit; Many - things like wind, trampling deer, moisture - too much & too little, essentially we had crop failure – not due to any inherent problems with the plant genetics (I think), but due to “outside pressures”; Our season is too short (Zone 5) for this pepper to turn red, used before turning red in bouquets, removing leaves is time consuming; seedlings grew very slowly, plants never fruited (Zone 3); Uneven and poor germination; None; Many were more black than red in color; The red shriveled before the top layer of peppers was ready to harvest; Main stems shorter than basal branches, not useful if long stems are desired, mature ripe fruits not attractive: wrinkled, scarred; Unable to grow/sell.Similar Cultivars
‘Black Pearl’Postharvest
Placed in Floralife; More than 2 weeks in water, keeping in water initially keeps fruits from wrinkling. Note: Check out the separate postharvest article in this issue for more information on postharvest vase life and treatments.Trial Data
| Plants flowering (%) | Plants dead at end of summer (%) | Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating¹ | Repeat Again Rating¹ | Ease of Cultivation Rating¹ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale | Retail | Consumer | |||||||
| Average | 4.7 | 17.2 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 138.3 | 11.3 |
| Range of Responses | 1-10 | 14-23 | 3-4 | 3-4 | 3-5 | 1-5 | 2-4 | 81-216 | 7-14 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
For us the fruits were slightly elongated ovals; Would like to try these again next year; Added interest to late season bouquets; Unseasonably cool and wet weather all summer made all my warm weather / greenhouse crops languish; Peppers were glossy black instead of red; People at the farmers market loved this one- they were surprised to find out it was a pepper, it was beautiful paired with zinnias in the lat summer; Needs support net in hoop house; I had one customer ask for two full buckets of these every week for all of October; Topping of plants at 6 or 8 main stem nodes might be useful.