Sweet pepper 'Sofia'

Try to plant in a location that enjoys full sun and remember to water often. Keep in mind when planting that Sofia is thought of as tender, so remember to wait until your soil is warm and the night time temperature is well above freezing before moving outside.

Soil temperature should be kept higher than 17°C / 63°F to ensure good germination.

As Sofia is tender, ensure temperatures are mild enough to plant out (around 17°C / 63°F as a guideline) - wait until after your last frost date to be on the safe side.

Sofia is, from my limited knowledge, both Bulgarian and Macedonian. It’s a hybrid with one Bulgarian pepper parent and one Macedonian pepper parent. Keep in mind, Bulgaria is within the Macedonian region.
As far as I can determine, Sofia was created in Bulgaria by researchers at l’Université de Sofia, Bulgaria 15 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd. This is the oldest university in Bulgaria, situated in a very large city named Sofia.

Probably this pepper hybrid was a response to a widespread Bulgarian verticilium wilt epidemic that was threatening to wipe out all of Bulgaria’s delicious peppers, including their famous paprika crops. So, we should expect Sofia pepper to be verticilium wilt resistant, if it’s the real deal and not some other pepper posing as Sofia.

Legend has it that Sofia was made by crossing a delicious, Bulgarian paprika type pepper with some other pepper that was from Macedonia but not from Bulgaria. The famous flavor of Sofia is said to be mostly due to its Bulgarian parentage. The Macedonian pepper likely was used to improve the yield and/or the disease resistance of the resulting hybrid.

Sophia