Szeged Paprika Pepper

Thick walled red peppers, perfect for hanging to dry and then grinding into a fine powder to create the traditional "red" color in dishes like goulash (a beef stew). The plant is a wonderful producer, compact, and fruit is uniformly about 3" in length. They go from a dark green to a nice dark red when ready for harvest and hanging.

Ally Schonfeld of Novick Urban Farm grew this pepper for our catalog, and she is growing the story as well:

"The Szeged region is where the best sweet paprika peppers (including this one) come from in Hungary. This variety came from my great aunt, who is incredibly proud to pass her traditions in honor of her sister, my grandmother, who left Hungary in a hurry during the communist regime, traveling through Canada to settle in Queens, NYC. She died from ovarian cancer relatively young, so being able to grow these peppers makes me feel closer to a woman I didn't get to spend a lot of time with, but who I cherish the time I did have with her in her kitchen. My daughter is named for her and she's living up to the strength I was told my grandmother embodied."

Days to maturity: 75-85

Seeds per pack: 20-25

Germination rate: 72.5% on 03/14/2024

Planting / harvesting notes

Start seeds indoors 8-10 weeks before the last frost and transplant into garden well after the danger of frost. Keep seedlings moist but do not overwater. Transplants should be initially watered in well, and plants will be most productive with regular irrigation and full sun.

Seed keeping notes

Peppers are generally self-pollinating, though we isolate different varieties of the same species by at least 50 feet, in hopes that flying insects will not cross pollinate them unexpectedly. There are several important species of peppers, so check your scientific names! Pepper seeds are ripe when the fruits have turned their final fiery color - in this case, sunset-orange. Cut the fruit, scrape out seeds, and lay them out to dry on a labeled screen or paper product in a ventilated place away from direct sunlight for a week or two. Drying the peppers before seed extraction can slightly lower your germination rates, but works fine for home seed saving as long as the peppers do not rot.