Sweet pepper: varieties and species

Sweet pepper, in fact, grass. The herb is delicious and useful - it is a wonderful antioxidant, a storehouse of a huge amount of vitamin C, A and E. Scientists, depending on the variety, have in pepper up to 30 kinds of vitamins.

No matter how much one would like, the modern sweet pepper, to which we are accustomed, is a hybrid. His ancestor, brought in the 15th century from America by the sailors of Columbus, was from Mexico, it was bitter and sharp. And for 300 years the breeders made it sweet.

Today there are more than 250 varieties and hybrids of sweet pepper, although there are only four kinds of pepper: Mexican - which is cultivated in Europe and the CIS, Peruvian, Colombian and pubescent. Virtually all types of peppers are used as an acute seasoning - the exception is made with varieties of sweet (vegetable) pepper.

Among those who grow sweet pepper, whose varieties grow in the open ground in the central part of Russia, the ultra-ripened variety "Health" is popular, which fruits in 78-87 days. The bush of this variety is tall, with a height of more than 1 m and semi-spreading. When ripe, the fruits have a drooping prismatic shape and a slightly wavy surface. The length of the fruit in technical ripeness is 10-12 cm, has a light green color and a small mass - no more than 70 g. The Health grade value consists in resistance to apical rot of fruits, stably high yields, a high percentage of tieability even in poor lighting conditions. On the average on one bush it is possible simultaneous loading of 12-15 fruits.

One of the popular early-ripening varieties in Russia is sweet pepper "Atlant". This is one of the most unpretentious varieties, adapted to the conditions of the CIS. Fruits have an elongated-cuboidal form of red color in the biological stage of ripeness, and green coloring - in the technical stage. The length of the pepper fruit reaches 20 cm with a diameter of up to 15 cm. The variety is not afraid of the Y potato virus, it is resistant to the tobacco mosaic virus.

The variety is distinguished by the equality of fruits, high ability to fruit formation, and high yield.

Not less popular is the early-ripening variety "Star of the East" - sweet pepper with abundant fruiting. The variety is suitable for growing not only in hothouse shelters or on the open ground, it is grown in winter greenhouses. Fruits "Stars of the East" are large - up to 300 grams, dense, very sweet and juicy. The variety is popular in that it is ideal for all kinds of culinary processing.

Pepper sweet variety also has medium-ripened varieties, which give a yield in 110-130 days from shoots. Among these varieties, the "Alligator" variety stands out. This is a high-yielding and large-fruited variety, which is used only for protected soil. The pepper bush is tall - no more than 90 cm high, has a long and abundant fruiting. Almost simultaneously on a bush are formed and develop 8-12 fruits of an elongated-prismoid form of dark green color. The mature fruit reaches a mass of 300 g at a length of 20-25 cm, they are quite sweet and juicy. The variety is characterized by high yield and large fruits even under adverse conditions.

One of the most popular medium-ripening varieties is the "Bogatyr" variety, whose fruits can be obtained on 115-130 days. "Bogatyr" feels great on the open ground and when growing in film shelters. The plant is medium-sized (up to 70 cm tall) and sprawling. Fruits slightly ribbed and cone-shaped, light green in technical ripeness. The weight of the fruit is not more than 120 g. Breeders have brought out a good variety - it is resistant to the pearly top rot of fruit widespread and to verticillium fading at a stable high yield. The fruits of the variety have excellent transportability.

Despite the fact that on the open ground sweet pepper, which cultivars are grown as an annual plant, in a winter greenhouse the plant can be grown up to 3 years, and the bush will bear fruit twice a year.