imafan26
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How to grow bell peppers

Hot peppers are easy to grow. Bell peppers are another story. I have had some successes but not longevity. I am lucky if my bell peppers get a foot tall and produce 3-8 good sized peppers before they become infested with broad mites and disease. The peppers I had the best luck with have been Chinese Giant, Emerald Giant, and Kaala (it actually grows well, but it is a mini pepper). I have now specifically chosen bell peppers for their disease resistance and so far Right Stuff, and Aristotle have lasted the longest but they are still small plants with small peppers. How do you get bell peppers to produce healthy large plants and keep producing peppers over a season?
What fertilizer do you use? How do you apply the fertilizer?
Pots or in the ground? Mine are mostly in pots.
Temperature ranges for the best production?

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Dissily Mordentroge
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One thing I know for sure about ‘bell peppers’ (We call them capsicum in Australia) is they need a longer summer period than some regions can provide. I grew them very successfully in hotter climates than the one I now live in. Even starting them off in early spring in a hothouse doesn’t make much difference here in Tasmania My suspicion is any summer period of less than four full months isn’t going to produce large, ripe ‘peppers’ Time to invest in a hothouse?

imafan26
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I have a long summer, but short days. Does day length matter? My peppers do change color. The plants just are small and don't really get tall. The first set of peppers are usually a good size, but the ones after that are a lot smaller. Bell peppers will not produce well in 90 degree heat. They are a lot like tomatoes, they will stop setting in the heat.

Nyan
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The best Green Peppers if ever grew had about 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket of hog manure buried about 8 inches down from the surface and the plants put in above it. This was a sandy/loam mix that dried quickly so I didn't have the disease problems that most soils have.
The plants grew to be about 7 feet tall, were VERY sturdy, and between the three plants I harvested almost 240 peppers that year. It would have been more, but one of the plants got just a little too much nitrogen from the manure and produced dozens of "bent over" peppers about the size of walnuts for the first half of the season.
It was a usual southern Illinois summer weather-wise, so a lot of heat and moderate to low rainfall. My brother dug one of the plants up in late October and kept it alive in a fairly bright garage, then replanted it the next year.
I may have to try that again this year with a smaller amount of chicken manure...

imafan26
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I can try more manure in the ground plantings. I have problems using manure in pots. It kills everything. If I can figure out how much Chicken manure I can add to a potting mix it would help. Chicken manure has a lot of calcium in it. I can also try adding more lime or bone meal. I rarely add lime to a potting mix, and I never use bone meal. It won't really change pH in the short term, but maybe I need more calcium? What do you think?

imafan26
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I have a few varieties of sweet peppers growing. Chinese Giant has been one of my better producers. It is not resistant to disease so I rarely get more than 5-8 peppers from one plant. This time I moved the peppers up to a 2 gallon pot instead of keeping them in 1 gallon pots. The plants are bigger than usual, and a couple of them have small peppers on them.

I found a packet of Burpee experimental #5 seeds in my seed bag. It was foil packed but very old. I decided to try them out anyway and they germinated very well. I was surprised since I don't even know how old these seeds are.

I grow most of the peppers in containers. Only a few have known nematode resistance and some hot peppers like Hawaiian, Superchili, and Thai peppers can get very big and live for many years. Superchili is fine in the ground, and I keep a lot of peppers in 1 gallon pots. The larger hot pepper plants get moved up to larger pots.

The Right Stuff has so far been my longest lived bell pepper, but it is looking sadder and sadder every day. I did get a couple of mini peppers from it.
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Gary350
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imafan26 wrote:
Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:08 pm
Hot peppers are easy to grow. Bell peppers are another story. I have had some successes but not longevity. I am lucky if my bell peppers get a foot tall and produce 3-8 good sized peppers before they become infested with broad mites and disease. The peppers I had the best luck with have been Chinese Giant, Emerald Giant, and Kaala (it actually grows well, but it is a mini pepper). I have now specifically chosen bell peppers for their disease resistance and so far Right Stuff, and Aristotle have lasted the longest but they are still small plants with small peppers. How do you get bell peppers to produce healthy large plants and keep producing peppers over a season?
What fertilizer do you use? How do you apply the fertilizer?
Pots or in the ground? Mine are mostly in pots.
Temperature ranges for the best production?
I use to grow 6 new sweet bell pepper varieties every year looking for something that grows better. Big Bertha is the best sweet bell I have found so far. Peppers are about 3½" diameter and 5" to 6" long. Years ago I tried growing peppers in 5 gallon buckets. If you want big sweet bell peppers you need to grow variety that will get big. My peppers do best when weather is 70° to 85°. I have very good luck planting peppers so they get full sun all morning cool part of the day then shade from a big tree about 1pm hottest part of the day until dark. Peppers need calcium for BER. Peppers are slow to grow below 70° and when temperatures get above 90° plants don't like that either if they are in full sun all day that is why shade works so well after 1 pm. Peppers seem to be heavy feeders I give them equal amounts of NPK while plants grow to 5 ft tall this takes about 3 months. I like to dissolve 2 cups of 15-15-15 fertilizer + calcium in 5 gallons of water then water plants every day as plants grow larger give them more water each day. It takes a month to get a plant 1 ft tall. It takes another month for plants to get 3 ft tall. It takes another month for plants to get 5 ft tall. Once plants get 5 ft tall give them extra amount of potassium this promotes blossoms. More blossoms become more peppers. 40 peppers on 1 plant gets heavy limbs need to be tied up so limbs don't break off. I grow peppers in tomato cages but I will also need several 6 ft tall stakes & rope to tie up each limbs so they don't break off. When peppers are full size it takes a whole month longer for peppers to turn Red color on the plants but when I harvest peppers they turn Red in the kitchen in about 2 weeks. We slice peppers an freeze them in 1 gallon freezer bags they are very good year round in stir fry. So far my plants are getting close to 12 inches tall. I have a small levy around each plant they get a pint of fertilizer water very day. When plants are 3 ft tall they get a quart of fertilizer water every day. When plants are 5 ft tall they get 2 quarts of fertilizer water every day. First picture show shade tree making shade on 4 pepper plants and 12 tomato plants 1 pm to dark. Our solar 12 noon is 12:55 pm by the clock. Click the pictures they get bigger. Lowe's sells 15 gallon plastic pots about $10 each. If you have trouble with aphids blast them off your plants with a water hose. Lean several sticks up against pots so ants can climb up and eat the aphids. Sprayer bottle is to show how big pepper plants are. Pictures were taken about 4:30 pm clock time, sun set is about 7:45 pm clock time. The shade tree keeps pepper & tomato plants about 25° cooler when air temperatures are 98° every day. 32" row spacing is very crowded Sept 1 when plants are 6 ft tall.
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imafan26
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Thanks for the tips. I am growing big varieties Emerald Giant and Chinese Giant. I tried them in the front yard east facing but I had them near the house. They were not happy. They might do better on the side with my other ornamentals.

The bullhorn types like the Anaheim, Joe Parker, Carmen and Corno d'toro are better producers and are more heat tolerant. I haven't tried Big Bertha but I have heard of it. I'll keep it on my list for the next time I order seeds.

Except for The Right Stuff pepper, which has been around since September of last year, most of the peppers never make it past the second flowering. Usually because of mites and disease.

The mites attacked the superchili but they are gone now and they never made it to the back yard. The Chinese Giant has problems with bacterial spot, so I have been pulling the plants with severe disease.

Everything has taken a leap in growing in the last couple of weeks so I am scurrying to find them some bigger pots. I am going to put the 1 and 2 gallon peppers in 5 gallon buckets.

The hot peppers will make it through the summer but so far this is the longest I have had bell peppers stay alive. I haven't had a bell pepper live through even one summer yet. I have so many seedlings that I can try them in different parts of the yard and see how they will do. I don't have a lot of trees, but my neighbor's weed tree is throwing a lot of shade on the main garden. I do have a lot of pepper seedlings so I can put them in different sites and try to find the best one. Most of them will be in containers so it will make it easier to move them around especially if it looks like it is in a bad spot. It is about 84 degrees for the past few days but it is expected to hit 90 by the weekend. I will be a couple of degrees cooler because of my elevation but it will be humid and muggy since the trades will be turned off.
Most of the vegetables are planted west and south facing, but I may be able to put some peppers between the taller plants to get them more afternoon shade.

aushiedog
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I did not have good luck with my peppers last year. I am now overwintering the same few plants and hope to have a better season. My peppers never were hard before they ripened. They were wrinkled and soft without any sweet taste. Use a drip system here in Arizona and try to beat the extreme heat. Was it too much water? Foliage was great and size of plants were what they should have been. Need help.

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Gary350
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aushiedog wrote:
Wed Dec 21, 2022 4:51 pm
I did not have good luck with my peppers last year. I am now overwintering the same few plants and hope to have a better season. My peppers never were hard before they ripened. They were wrinkled and soft without any sweet taste. Use a drip system here in Arizona and try to beat the extreme heat. Was it too much water? Foliage was great and size of plants were what they should have been. Need help.
What town do you live in? I lived in west Phoenix area = Avondale AZ 8 years ago. Peppers are easy to grow in AZ yard soil Oct 1st to Feb 15. I used the lawn irrigation system to water my plants 12 minutes every night at 9 pm. Irrigation had a 2 liter per hour sprayer. Fertilizer was 15-15-15. Peppers don't grow in 114° summer temperatures.
Last edited by Gary350 on Wed Dec 21, 2022 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

imafan26
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I am getting some small bell peppers. I might have to prune them when they are younger to encourage more vegetative growth earlier on, so hopefully, I get can get bigger peppers. They are flowering very short. I heard that if the peppers start to flower before they grow, they don't catch up. I am growing peppers in the fall here. The disease resistant ones do o.k. The ones that are not disease resistant get too much bacterial spot to grow them in the rainy season. I have ordered some other varieties with better resistance to bacterial spot and phythophthora and I will be trying out a few of those. I need to make more space. I would like to start more hot peppers but now it is too cold to reliably start them, so I will wait until March to start the hot pepper seeds. The night temperatures are below 68 and the day temperatures are below 80, so I know from past experience it will be hard to germinate peppers especially hot peppers at these temperatures. Once the cold front passes, the temperatures may warm up to the mid to high 70's in the daytime and 64-66 degrees at night so I might be able to start the bell peppers, but they will be slower to grow at the colder temps.

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Gary350
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I learned something new about sweet bell peppers this year. Plants like full sun the coolest time of the day, then shade the hottest time of the day after 1 pm. Our summers are hot 98°f for 3 months with not much rain. Plants also like soft soil, I tilled a lot of organic material into part of 1 row soft soil grew larger 6' tall plants & larger peppers. I'm not sure if soft soil makes it easier for roots to grow or if soft soil allows water to soak in when I water plants 1 hour before dark. I also noticed if plants get too hot the leaves hang down like they are wilted. If leaves look wilted and I spray plants with cool water leaves come back to life in 30 minutes. If I don't spray leaves with cool water they don't come back to life until about 12 midnight. Plants that I spray with water produce more larger peppers than other plants. Sweet bell pepper plants are sensitive to being shaded by tall plants in the next row on the east side & south side of pepper plants.

Hot pepper plants have no problem with our hot blistering sun all day and they have no problem with our hot dry soil. If I water 1 plant and not the other plants the plant, the plants gets water is 1 foot taller and produces more peppers. I still get a good harvest from plants that I don't water.

imafan26
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For me hot peppers don't mind the heat, but bell peppers germinate best when the temperature is about 70 degrees, but they really balk in temperatures above 85. The bull horn types of sweet peppers do fare better in the heat, but they need protection in Spring and Summer from the hordes of pests and disease.

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Gary350
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imafan26 wrote:
Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:21 pm
For me hot peppers don't mind the heat, but bell peppers germinate best when the temperature is about 70 degrees, but they really balk in temperatures above 85. The bull horn types of sweet peppers do fare better in the heat, but they need protection in Spring and Summer from the hordes of pests and disease.
Last summer I learned Carman bull horn sweet peppers do good in our hot summer weather. I had 4 Carman pepper plants under a shade tree, they got full sun in the morning then shade the rest of the day. This summer I will try to learn how much sun & heat Carman peppers can take. The 1 Carman plant on the south end of the row had sun burn peppers so they can get too much sun. So far I have seen no bugs that eat pepper plants. I have always spaced pepper plants 18" apart, I will try 24" spacing this year. I'm not growing anymore sweet bell peppers 4 months of 100°f is too hot & dry for them. Mulching the pepper plants will hold moisture that might be helpful in our desert summer weather. Sweet Carman bull horn peppers will replace our sweet bell peppers.

imafan26
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I have grown Carmen they do well. In the rainy season the peppers that are not tolerant to bacterial spot and mildews get wiped out. I have grown Great Stuff, Red Knight, Revolution, and Majestic Red. Those fared the best against disease.
Chinese and Emerald Giant produced the largest peppers in the cooler months, but they had problems with disease especially, when like now we are getting rain for days at a time, then one or two nice days and more rain after that. The humidity is higher and the disease and snails come out in force.

I have gotten Revolution and Majestic Red to produce longer, but the fruit gets smaller as it gets hotter. I do grow them in containers so maybe my container is not big enough or I am not fertilizing them enough. I start pepper in 4 inch pots then go up to 1 gallon then to 2 gallon, then they die. Do I need to up pot them sooner or fertilize them more? They are northern varieties, so that may also be a problem. I got a Carolina pepper that should do better in the south, but it is not resistant to bacterial spot.

From now on daytime temperatures will be 80-85 on the sunny days but around 72-78 on the rainy days depending on which way the wind blows. Those hot and cold cycles step up the fungal and bacterial diseases. Powdery mildew is showing up on the cucurbits now and I have culled pepper seedlings that showed bacterial spot. I did get seeds of other varieties of peppers that are more resistant to bacterial spot. I hasn't been consistently warm or dry enough to start them.

In summer, I can get pepper weevils. I don't get it every time. I have to move the plants to a different spot and plant something else to keep them at bay. Since my peppers are in pots, I might take your advice and maybe put them in different parts of the yard that get different amounts of sun and see if there is a sweet spot somewhere.



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