Neapolitan Pepper
Price: $4.25
SKU: 3310281
65 days — 'Neapolitan' is a very early, sweet and mild pepper with three lobed fruit, measuring four inches by two inches that grow upright on the sturdy, compact plants. It makes a beautiful show of changing colors. Starting with a light yellowish-green hue it changes to a darker lime green then to burnt-orange and finishing in a brilliant red. Very beautiful with all the different shades and colors on the plant at the same time.
Plants are strong, vigorous and continue to bear until frost. Production is very heavy with a single plant providing up to thirty to forty mature fruit at a time. This is a Dunton family favorite that we use as a frying pepper, fresh, frozen, pickled and jellied.
The 'Neapolitan' pepper was introduced by William Henry Maule in 1904 after they noticed, ". . . a few Italian [market] gardeners were sending peppers by the carload to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and even Chicago, one to three weeks earlier than any other pepper could be shipped."[1] After searching for the source, they found that the pepper originated from a small settlement of Italians located a few miles from Maule's Panmure Farm in South Jersey.[1,2] In their 1904 seed catalog, Maule stated that, "With considerable difficulty I secured a small quantity of the seed at an extravagant price."[1]
'Neapolitan' was unique and desirable enough that by 1907, Maule, Johnson & Stokes, Dreer, Bolgiano, Vaughan, Henderson, Olds and T. W. Woods had introduced it to their customers as well. Our original seed sample was sent to us by David Pendergrass of Middle Tennessee whose source was USDA GRIN Accession Number NSL 20165. It was reportedly submitted to the USDA's seed storage facility back in 1962 by the short-lived and now long gone, SRS Seed Company.[2] Each packet contains 10 seeds.
- "The Maule Seed Book for 1904," William Henry Maule.
- Garden and Farm Manual," Johnson and Stokes, 1905.
- SRS Seed Company (Seed Research Specialists Seed) was founded in 1958 with the merger of five smaller, family-owned, California based seed companies. It was subsequently sold in 1965 with the new owners changing the name to Niagara Seeds.
Customer Reviews:
By Ashley (New York Zone 6a) on August 27, 2022
Easy to grow and prolific. They are not as sweet nor thick walled as I hope but I blame it on the dry summer. Good for cooking or pickling but not for salad. It grows up to three feet tall so need some trellising otherwise the plant topple over due to the weight of the fruits.
By Tyler Storey on July 8, 2020
An almost-perfect sweet pepper in our desert garden. We got them in a bit late, but they continued to set fruit through the hottest late-June weather, and the harvest is prolific. So far we've eaten them fried, raw in salads, sliced on burgers and sandwiches, and we're about to sun-dry some, while still having plenty to give away. Excellent flavor at every stage. The only - and very minor - drawback is that the fruits are carried upright and so have a slight tendency towards sun-scald on the end, but far less than larger sweet peppers.
By Katie Bruce on February 3, 2018
What a productive little pepper! While this plant is not a huge bushy thing, it is loaded when in peak production. It is vigorous from the outset - great seedlings that grow strong and steady even in less-than-ideal conditions. Enough foliage to prevent sunburn. Yellow, immature fruits are very mild, with the orange and red fruits gaining a very pleasing, sweet, classic Italian flavor. They are thin-walled and have very compact seed areas, making them easy to clean. They would be great for stuffing. They are a bit tough-skinned, which makes them excellent for grilling and helps them hold up in soups and sauces, but isn't as nice for fresh eating (although we did a lot of that, too!). Definitely for you if you want to stuff, bbq, or fire-roast an early sweet pepper.
By Michael Nicosia on August 24, 2016
This is a really fantastic pepper! We are trialing nine plants this season and we are certainly going to continue growing it in the future. Sturdy plants, superb fruit set and the earliest to color up of all the sweet pepper varieties this year. Love the flavor. I'm Sicilian-American and it has the true old-country taste I'm looking for to enhance our cooking.
By Amber Schooley on August 16, 2015
These peppers remind me of 'Gypsy' pepper, in taste, color, and size. They are extremely sweet, even when green. The rainbow of colors is beautiful. I love them raw, but also use them in any recipe that calls for bell peppers. Just use two 'Neapolitan' peppers for every one bell pepper in the recipe.
The plant is a prolific producer -- the single Neapolitan plant I have produces almost as many peppers as the other three plants combined. They do seem to be a little more prone to sunburn than the other varieties I have, but other than that, they are perfect!
By rosemary kelley on January 3, 2014
I started these seeds indoors and germination was great. I put out about 6 of these plants in 2013 and picked peppers continually. These plants produced beautiful peppers and looked lovely because of all the different colors on the plant. I harvested some of the light green ones for pickling whole and the rest I let turn various shades of orange and red. I chopped these up and froze to use all winter and am very please with the results. I just grab a bag and toss in my cooking. These were heavy producers all season and will grow again.
By Jeff Mills on November 18, 2013
I Planted sowed about 30 seeds and culled out all but 14 and transplanted them into the garden. Once they started to come in, we were deep in them very vigorous strong and prolific plants. These peppers are my favorite raw eating pepper, mild and very sweet. Every time I went to the garden the first thing I would do is pick one and eat it. They start out green, turn yellow, then orange and finally red. Good at any stage but best when red, fantastic in salads and cooking. I guess I would call these baby sweet peppers. Although my wife calls them jumbo banana peppers. She canned a large amount of them so she can call them whatever she likes, I'll just smile and enjoy them this winter :) Thanks Victory - Highly Recommended! Neapolitan Pepper is now a mainstay in my garden.
