Plant Library

Other Names:  Sweet Banana, Banana Chili

Group/Class:  Sweet Tapered

Description:

A wonderful early maturing heirloom variety; produces high yields of 8" long tapered, mildly flavored peppers; emerging light green, transforming to yellow and finally bright scarlet; excellent for preserves, pickling, frying and adding to pizzas

Edible Qualities

Hungarian Yellow Wax Sweet Pepper is an annual vegetable plant that is commonly grown for its edible qualities, although it does have ornamental merits as well. It produces light green long peppers (which are technically 'berries') with yellow overtones which are usually ready for picking from early summer to early fall. The fruit will often fade to red over time. The peppers have a mild taste and a crunchy texture.

The peppers are most often used in the following ways:

• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking
• Preserves
• Pickling
• Canning

Planting & Growing

Hungarian Yellow Wax Sweet Pepper will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 18 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 24 inches apart. This vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.

This plant is quite ornamental as well as edible, and is as much at home in a landscape or flower garden as it is in a designated vegetable garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It may require supplemental watering during periods of drought or extended heat. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America, and it is considered by many to be an heirloom variety.

Hungarian Yellow Wax Sweet Pepper is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.