The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener's Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking

Was so excited to get this book! I sat down to peruse and next thing you know a few hours had elapsed. I do own another pepper book, which is mainly a cookbook. But this, is on an entire new level. Currently, my garden has about 10 types of peppers, and I'm looking to expand. This book has helped me identify problems and illnesses that ail pepper plants, as well as provides recipes, techniques for preparing and storing peppers and dried spices. It gives a great description of over 100 peppers. The pictures are close up and beautiful. If I had to say something negative about this book, it would be that only some descriptions give Scoville ratings, others do not. My other book that has a handy graph that I use to look up Scoville ratings, which helps me decide if I want to purchase that type of pepper plant. There are so many types of peppers, and only a fraction of them are listed in either of my books, so if you want a tome that covers varieties exhaustively, this is not the book.

I never write reviews but I feel obligated to tip my hat off to these authors and to let any potential buyer that this book is so worth the money!! There is not a better book on peppers out there! It is truly comprehensive and I like the fact that they touch upon the origins if known on many of the common peppers you will see in catalogs.Why don't you get heavy yield on a ghost pepper plant? Because it is a cross species hybrid and that means it starts out with lots of flowers but then always drops a bunch - not something you can avoid - it is not your ability to grow a healthy plant.Think you should fertilize your established pepper plants like everything else in your garden??? DON'T!!! It will promote vegetative growth only and drop flowers and immature pods.If you are serious about growing hot peppers you must have this book!

The major regret I have is that I didn't buy this book BEFORE buying my chile pepper seeds. It is so jam packed with information about chile peppers that it even helps you decide on a more informed basis which peppers to choose for your garden. I am still happy with the peppers I have chosen to grow, but I will be buying other varieties now because of what I learned so far. For example, I'm thinking of planting a couple of ornamental peppers to beauty up the place and give the birds something to nibble on and leave my other peppers alone.I have done some extensive researching about chile peppers on the internet before buying this book and found some contradictory information here and there which kind of left me confused. Having one reliable source like this book around is really great, as it addresses a myriad of topics relating to chile peppers. However, I did find that the majority of the information I already knew about the subject from searching the net, was exactly the same as in the book, plus there are some websites that the book refers to that offer more advice and tips regarding specific areas.The author seems to have a very close association with The Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico, which is considered like the MIT of chile pepper research. Having ordered my seeds from that same institute, I noticed that one of the authors was talking about each and every type of chile peppers that they offer (plus a couple that they don't), which is an advantage if you plan on growing your own peppers since you can directly look it up in the book, which gives more details about each type of pepper than the website. However, I do agree with other reviews, that they have not included many other types of chile peppers and that does prove a bit disappointing considering it is "the complete" guide.If you have the slightest interest in chile peppers or are curious about growing them, then this book will take you to the next level. However, for the average gardener, like myself, the book can get a bit too technical, especially in the beginning where it discusses cultivation, but ultimately, it doesn't hurt to go through it and gain some knowledge. The book also contains some recipes and uses for chile peppers, which I have not gotten to yet, in addition to an entire section on diseases that affect chile peppers and how to treat or avoid each type.The one topic that the book address ineffectively was under the preservation of chile peppers where it describes how to make wreaths, but is not illustrated which makes it almost impossible to do it yourself! That was one of the major disappointments for in this book. I also hoped that the book would shed some light on using liquid tomato food at half concentration to feed the chile plants, as suggested by several websites, but unfortunately it does not.So far the book has been a real attention grabber for me and I have been hardly been able to put it down and I really look forward to reading it from cover to cover, probably, over and over again. Overall, it is a valuable reference book that every chilehead must have handy!

Really good books that covers almost all the basics of chile pepper growing. I have been growing peppers for a couple years before I got this book and still learned a ton. This books covers the different chile families, different methods of growing, different planting arrangements, common issues and how to fix them, and also includes some recipes for all the chiles you will be growing.I have already pulled this book off the shelf multiple times to diagnose issues and to make sure I am doing everything right to maximize my harvests. So far my pepper garden is absolutely exploding with peppers and I think some of that has to do with this book.I would highly recommend this books to anyone growing chiles whether just a couple plants or a whole green house full of them.

Complete...well that's a relative term & I'm not sure if it's possible to have a "complete" book in just one volume, unless it was a massive tome! Nonetheless, this IS a very good book containing much information on the subjects described; even though there are only 5 genera of chiles, there are so many species it's hard to cover them all - but DeWitt & Bosland do a remarkable job covering what they set out to do. It's very informative, helpful & has some tasteful recipes included! I would definitely recommend this highly educational and entertaining book to anyone with a "burning interest" in chiles!

May be too early to write a review, but I am really enjoying this book. DeWitt knows his stuff, and provides the reader with both depth of science behind different species, as well as practical understanding of different peppers. Looking forward to trying many of the recipes provided in the later portion.

Gave this as a gift to my Dad for Christmas. He has enjoyed the recipes and is looking forward to planting some new varieties of peppers this spring and summer and creating his own sauces. The book made a great companion to a hot sauce of the month club subscription.