One of the great things about having a larger garden this year was that we were able to try a few additional varieties of some vegetables. One example of this would be the sweet peppers. We planted 2 varieties of sweet peppers this year – 4 plants of each. They looked exactly alike on the day they were purchased and we treated them exactly the same. They were planted on the same day, in the same row, and always watered at the same time. There really shouldn’t be any difference between the two, right?

Two Varieties Of Sweet Peppers

So, what seems to be the difference? Turns out the larger plants are “Lady Bells”. Lady Bells are a F1 Hybrid Variety. The smaller plants are “California Wonder”. They are a heirloom variety from the 1920s. Both varieties should grow to 24″ in height and produce roughly the same amount of peppers, but I guess this is a good example of how the right variety for a given garden can really make a difference.