Big Daddy

Big Daddy is a United States Capsicum annuum hybrid sweet pepper sold as Big Daddy Hybrid through Burpee and related Ball Horticultural channels. It was already in public view by 2009, when Cornell’s trial gallery listed Capsicum Big Daddy by W. Atlee Burpee & Co., and gardener records from 2009 also place it in home cultivation by that season. In current trade it is presented as a Burpee-exclusive jumbo yellow Marconi-type sweet pepper rather than as a hot chilli line.

The plant is described as early maturing and vigorous, usually reaching about 45.5 to 61.0 cm tall, with a spread around 30.5 cm. Grower-facing descriptions emphasise that the plants hold their fruit high for easier picking, and regional garden recommendations describe it as very prolific. Its foliage is green, with medium oval leaves noted in current descriptions of the hybrid.

The fruit is the main feature of the variety. Big Daddy produces very large Marconi-type sweet peppers about 20.5 to 25.5 cm long, thick-walled, elongated, and suited to roasting, frying, grilling, stuffing, and fresh kitchen use. The pods begin green and mature to a glossy golden yellow, and that yellow-ripe stage is repeatedly described as sweet and crisp. This oversized yellow Marconi form is the core identity of the Burpee Big Daddy line.

A major naming conflict exists around this pepper. Alongside the United States Burpee hybrid, a separate Capsicum annuum called Big Daddy is also sold in Europe as a Russian sweet bell-type pepper with light purple immature fruit ripening through orange to dark red. That conflicting line has a different origin, colour progression, fruit shape, and overall identity from the yellow Marconi-type Big Daddy hybrid.