The delicious Sweet Piquanté peppers or more commonly known as the Peppadew. Was first discovered in 1993 right here in South Africa. Its origins are slightly questionable and its story is a little intriguing and somewhat controversial. You can read the full story here. The description "Peppadew" is actually a registered trademarked and because the name is registered as a trademark, you won’t be able to call it a Peppadew. What we call them are sweet Piquante peppers and they are delicious and so easy to grow.
As to where the plant is native to is still open to debate but it is thought to originate from Central America. It is suspected that it came to South Africa via a botanist who had travelled quite extensively in Central America, and planted it in his garden here in the Eastern Cape.
Sweet piquanté peppers are a variety of chilli pepper (Capsicum baccatam) and they have a pleasantly sharp and appetising flavour; sweet and fruity, spicy, a bit peppery and can be a little hot, but they are not too hot, nothing like a chilli, especially if you remove some or all of the seeds.
GROWING PIQUANTÉ PEPPERS
They have a long growing season, which they start ripening in late summer right through to autumn. We official in winter as I write this post and we are still harvesting. During the harvest season we like to give the plants potassium and nitrogen weekly.
Sweet Piquanté peppers are considered a perennial in warmer regions, which will continue flowering if temperatures remain above 13˚C. We still like to pull ours out so we can make room to grow more winter crops and will replant in the spring. Some will say that the second crop is more substandard. You get so many seeds from them, its better to just replant.
These peppers can reach a height of around 2m, and are somewhat bushy. Branches can get heavy when fruit is on them and they should be supported or they will collapse and not turn red or the fruit can rot. We just staked ours with a pole and tied a few branches to the pole to help support it up.
Pests & water
According to the professionals, sweet piquanté peppers have a few diseases and pests, with bollworm and fruit fly being the main ones. A fungicide programme is good to use.
Watch out for calcium shortages, this can lead to blackspot, but foliar spray can prevent this problem.
Sweet piquanté peppers require a rotation with crops such as maize. Vegetables or tomato-type plants are not ideal as they attract the same pests that sweet piquanté peppers are susceptible to. Which is great to note when planting out winter crops.
* Don't forget to save your seeds so you can plant again in Spring. Saving the seeds are easy. Take out the seeds from the pepper, I suggest using gloves. Try remove as much debris as you can. Spread seeds out on a piece of paper. Try to spread them out so they not all touching and allow to air dry in a bright sunny room until they are dry, they usually take 3 or 4 days. Label and store in a air tight container or bag.
I have managed to get only a few bottles canned this season because we keep eating them fresh, and giving them away, with only a few harvests left until we pull them out.... As you can see I labeled them as pepperdews and not Peppadews to avoid the copyright haha. ;)
Another great thing about these pepper is that the pepper is considered to be a healthy food with high amounts of Vitamin C, beta-carotene and dietary fibre and is considered to be a low-calorie fruit which is free of cholesterol.
Fantastic for pickling, delicious when roasted, they are perfect for stir-fry's, stuffing with cheeses, savoury rice, pizza topping, and so much more, even if you have a sensitive pallet. These peppers are delicious!
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