Gypsy Hybrid Sweet Pepper Seeds

Days to Maturity: 60 to 65 from transplant

AAS Winner 1981

If you love sweet peppers as much as we do, Gypsy is going to be your go-to choice after a single bite. This is an elongated, wedge-shaped pepper that matures from green to yellow to red (and can be picked the moment it starts turning yellow). It is crunchy, flavorful, and super-abundant on plants so compact you can grow them in pots on the patio. Who could ask for more?

Gypsy won an All-America Selection award when it was introduced in 1981, and has stood the test of time magnificently. No wonder: it's a great all-purpose pepper, as useful for stuffing into long, curvy "boats" as it is for frying and using in sandwiches, canning and pickling, or slicing into sweet rings for salads.

Expect Gypsy to reach at least 4 inches long, with a curvy shape and blunt end. It is 2½ inches wide at the shoulder, its 3 lobes tapering from there. It finishes in a flash, and these space-saving plants set a big crop: you can expect anywhere from a dozen to 18 Gypsies on every plant.

Resistant to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and tobamo P virus, Gypsy is a very vigorous, trouble-free variety. Start seeds indoors or, in climate with short growing seasons, outdoors at least one week after last frost. If starting indoors, allow 7 to 10 weeks for the seeds to mature into seedlings large enough to transplant safely. Set seedlings (or thin direct sown seedlings) 2 feet apart in full sun. If planting many seedlings, space rows about 3 feet apart. Fertilize when the blooms appear, and water well.