Growing Peppers

It's a good idea to grow several pepper types, not only to enjoy the different flavors and colors, but because some mature more quickly than others. An assortment of varieties will lengthen the time that you can harvest.

Peppers are easy to grow in any sunny, well-drained spot, and they are good candidates for roomy containers, too. Peppers have a naturally upright growth habit, so they often benefit from staking, which keeps brittle branches from breaking when they become heavy with fruit. Colorful peppers also make great additions to beds planted with flowers and other edible ornamentals, where they can easily serve as specimen plants. In beds or rows, space plants 18 to 24 inches apart.Peppers grow best in a near-neutral soil with a pH between 6.2 and 7.0, although they can tolerate slightly alkaline conditions near 7.5. Mix a 3- to 5-inch layer of compost into each planting hole, as shown in the step-by-step planting directions. A generous amount of organic matter helps the soil retain moisture, and moist soil is crucial for good pepper production. After planting, mulch each plant to keep the soil cool and moist.

About 6 weeks after planting, soon after peppers begin flowering and setting fruit, it is often helpful to feed plants lightly with an organic or timed-release fertilizer to keep them going strong. Simply pull back the mulch, scatter fertilizer around the base of each plant, and replace the mulch before watering well.

Small wire tomato cages make good supports for large bell pepper plants.

Gardeners in hot climates may need to be patient with big bells and sweet roasting peppers, which often wait until nights become longer and cooler in late summer to load up with fruit. The wait will go by faster if you have less flashy (yet phenomenally productive) banana peppers to combine with tomatoes and basil in cool summer salads while bigger varieties slowly load up with fruits.

After pepper flowers are pollinated, they develop fruit. Bell peppers may pause in hot weather, but they will start again when the weather cools.

Peppers have few serious pest problems, and common pepper diseases can be prevented by growing resistant varieties. Plants that look frail and stringy may be infected with viruses, which are spread by aphids and other small insects. Chronically thirsty peppers may be troubled by root-knot nematodes.One other potential problem is a late cold spell in spring. If planting is delayed while you await better planting conditions, place 2 inches of moist potting soil in 6-inch-wide containers, gently break open the bottoms of the peppers’ pots, and nestle the seedlings into the soil about 1 inch deep. A bit of extra downward growing room will ensure that the plants’ primary taproots have ample space for expansion. Later on, after summer heats up, this taproot becomes a pepper plant’s lifeline.

Hot weather can cause bell peppers to pause, but just keep watering and caring for your plants. They will come back as soon as nights cool.

All peppers start out green and change color as they ripen. When you buy a red, orange, or yellow bell, the peppers will not be that color until they mature.

Use pruning shears or a sharp knife to cut peppers with a short stub of stem attached. Pulling peppers by hand usually causes entire branches to break off. Rinse peppers with water, pat dry, and then store them in your refrigerator. Fruits that are not eaten fresh can be dried, frozen, or pickled.Peppers harvested in cool fall weather that have just begun to change colors will often continue to ripen when kept in a warm room indoors for up to 3 days. Watch for signs of softening, and promptly refrigerate fruits that begin to shrivel.

Most pepper plants hold numerous green fruits when the first freeze kills the plants. Very immature peppers often taste bitter, so it is better to compost them than to serve them for dinner.

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