🌱 Origin & Story
Ace was developed by Takii Seed, the Japanese breeding company with roots going back to the 1830s. Takii has a long history of producing early-maturing, cold-tolerant vegetable varieties — and Ace is one of their standout achievements in the bell pepper world.
The breeding goal was straightforward: get a sweet bell to harvest faster, in cooler conditions, without sacrificing flavor. They nailed it. Ace matures to green in roughly 50 days from transplant, which is absurdly fast for a bell pepper. Most bells need 70–80 days just to reach green stage.
What makes Ace particularly useful in Oklahoma is its documented tolerance to blossom drop. Where other bell peppers shed flowers during temperature swings in spring and fall, Ace holds on and sets fruit. That cold-weather adaptability means you get early production and late-season production — the two windows most bell peppers miss entirely.
🍴 Flavor & Fruit
Medium-sized bells, approximately 2 oz (55–60g), with 3–4 lobes and smooth, glossy skin. They ripen from green to red, and they're sweet at both stages — though the red stage concentrates the sugars noticeably.
The walls are medium-thick, crisp, and juicy. Not the massive thick-walled bells you'd get from a 90-day variety, but the flavor-to-wait ratio is unbeatable. You'll be eating fresh sweet peppers while your neighbors' bell plants are still flowering.
Perfect for stuffing (they're a great single-serving size), slicing into salads, or eating straight off the plant while you water.
🌿 From Our Garden
We added Ace because we were tired of waiting until August for bell peppers. The first year we grew it, we had green bells in early June and thought we'd miscounted the days. We hadn't. It's now our anchor bell — the one that guarantees we'll have sweet peppers on the table all season long, not just at the end of it.
📅 Your Oklahoma Season
Plant after mid-April, or May 1 for extra caution. Tulsa's average last frost is early April, and Ace's cold tolerance gives it a real edge during those unpredictable spring weeks.
With 50 days to green harvest, expect your first peppers by early to mid-June from a mid-April transplant. Red fruit follows 2–3 weeks after green stage. Ace produces steadily through summer and often rallies again in September and October as temperatures ease back down.
Peppers can drop blossoms during Tulsa's worst heat — sustained temperatures above 95°F with warm nights will slow any pepper down. Ace handles this better than most bells, but expect a brief lull in the peak of July before production picks back up.
💧 Care for Optimal Health
Water deeply twice a week at the base, never overhead. Mulch 2–3 inches to keep moisture consistent and soil temperatures stable. Peppers are less forgiving than tomatoes when it comes to erratic watering — inconsistent moisture leads to blossom end rot and dropped flowers.
Feed balanced through early growth, then shift to phosphorus/potassium-forward once flowering begins.
DIY mix: 2 tbsp fish emulsion + ½ tsp kelp per gallon, every 2–3 weeks.
Go easy on nitrogen once the plant is established. Too much pushes leafy growth at the expense of fruit set — a common mistake with peppers.
☀️ Oklahoma Heat
Ace handles heat respectably for a bell pepper. The compact plant structure provides decent self-shading of fruit, which helps prevent sunscald. During the hardest heat weeks, 30–40% shade cloth in the afternoon makes a noticeable difference in fruit quality and blossom retention.
Deep morning watering before the heat builds is your single most effective tool.
🛡️ What to Watch For
Ace carries TMV (Tobacco Mosaic Virus) resistance — a meaningful advantage, since TMV is incurable once a plant is infected.
Stay ahead of these:
• Aphids — 2 tbsp neem oil + 2 tsp dish soap per gallon. Check leaf undersides regularly.
• Sunscald — fruit exposed to direct afternoon sun during peak heat will develop pale, papery patches. Maintain leaf canopy and consider shade cloth.
• Blossom end rot — calcium and consistent watering. Add gypsum or crushed eggshells at planting.
• Hornworms and fruitworms — hand-pick or apply Bt (1 tsp/gallon, evening spray).
• Copper fungicide for fungal issues after wet stretches — follow your product label for exact rates.
🍽️ In the Kitchen
Fresh: Crisp, sweet, and perfect raw — sliced into rings for salads, cut into strips for snacking, or diced into salsas.
Stuffed: The single-serving size is ideal. Fill with rice, cheese, and herbs, then bake until tender.
Roasted: Char them whole under the broiler, peel, and toss with olive oil and garlic. That smoky sweetness is hard to beat.
Sauteed: Quick-fire in a hot skillet with onions for fajitas. The thin-to-medium walls cook fast without going mushy.
🪴 Why Our Starts?
Six weeks of professional growing before they reach you — proper lighting, careful watering, hardening off. Peppers are notoriously slow starters from seed, and Ace's biggest advantage is speed. A weak transplant costs you the very thing this variety was bred for: being first. These go in the ground ready to produce.
