Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
cjohansen_gw

Serrano experience?

cjohansen
10 years ago

I have three Serrano plants out of a total of 50+ pepper plants. Pretty much all along, they have been among my finest and biggest plants. However, they're taking their sweet time producing peppers.

All three Serranos are tall (> 2 feet), has multiple branches and LOTS of flowers. They're not dropping a lot of flowers, they just seem to take very long to turn flowers into fruit. The fruit also seem to grow slowly.

In comparison, my Hungarian Hot Wax plants will show a shoot one day, then have 5-6" peppers only a few days later.

Are Serranos generally slow producers?

Comments (5)

  • sjetski
    10 years ago

    Yes and no in my experience, There are also different strains of serrano's, one of them ripens-red up to 2 weeks earlier than the others. At worst they can be considered a mid-season pepper, definitely not late though. But anything feels slow compared to hungarian wax or banana peppers.

    Not sure where you are from, but much of North America has had an oddball early season this year, cool night temps, rain etc. Many of us got off to a subdued start. These weather conditions affect different pepper varieties in different ways.

    Another thing to consider is nutrients, serrano's may react to your soil nutrients differently than your Hungarian wax, higher nitrogen = bushing out and later flowers for a lot of pepper types.

    I wish i could remember the name, but consider searching for the earlier serrano's i mentioned (google etc) for next season. They look and taste exactly the same btw.

    This post was edited by sjetski on Mon, Jul 8, 13 at 13:29

  • woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
    10 years ago

    No. Longer than Jalapenos and some other annuums, but generally not long after I get some of my Jalapenos and Anaheims. Just give them a bit more time -- you'll be having them coming out of your ears. Also, if you want a fresh annuum with decent heat and doesn't take forever to turn red, serranos are great.

    How's the air? Any wind? Has it been muggy? Give the plants a shaking.

    Kevin

  • Phildeez
    10 years ago

    They are usually among my first ripe peppers. This year Cayenne and Serrano ripened simultaneously. I did plant them a couple weeks before my other peppers, however. I would say jalapenos are very similar to serranos in time to maturity.

  • cjohansen
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Interesting. I have had several batches of Jalapeños and Hungarian hot wax, and I have had ripe Jalapeños, HHW, Ring of fire and Thai. Serranos have flowered for a while, but like I said, fruit growing very slowly.

    I am in Norway, so my climate is not working to my advantage, especially not this year, where we had a long, cold winter, late spring and wet June. Should be enough wind for pollination, at least there is for the other varieties.

    Christian

  • sjetski
    10 years ago

    At least there's enough branch structure for a larger, later harvest. The red-ripe ones are my favorite, but the green ones are fantastic when pickled, they keep a lot of their crunch and the shape is right for cramming into a jar. Don't let the red ones sit ripe on the vine for weeks, their flavor changes to something less tasty.

    As i alluded to before, when fertilizing make sure the nitrogen ratio is lower compared to the other ingredients. You wouldn't want the plant to abort those flowers and start a green growth cycle again.

Sponsored
MAC Design + Build
Average rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars18 Reviews
Loudon County Full-Service Design/Build Firm & Kitchen Remodeler