Bell Pepper Plant Info
The common name: The common names are Bell
Pepper, Sweet Pepper.
The botanical name: The botanical name is Capsicum annuum.
The family: Bell Pepper plants belong to
Solanaceae family.
The plant type: Fruit, annual
The size: The size is about eighteen inches to
three feet tall.
The sun exposure: Bell pepper plants
prefer full sun.
The soil type: Bell pepper plant does well in
fertile loam soil.
The soil pH: Neutral 6.5-7
The blooming time: The blooming time
is summer.
USDA hardiness zones: Nine to eleven.
The native area: Bell pepper is native to
Mexico, Central and South America.
Toxicity: The foliage is toxic to human.
Types of Bell Peppers
There are actually dozens of
varieties available including heirlooms and hybrids. Many have been cultivated
for disease resistance and for fruit size and color. No matter where you live,
you can actually find a bell pepper to grow in your garden.
-
California Wonder bell pepper: Seventy-five
days. The California Wonder bell pepper is actually one of the oldest
heirlooms, deep green to red, thick-walled, medium sized fruits. High yields.
-
Sweet Chocolate Bell pepper: Seventy-five
days. The Sweet Chocolate Bell pepper is a medium size heirloom fruits ripen
from green to brown and develop best flavor when fully ripe.
-
Ozark Giant Bell pepper: Seventy to
eighty-five days. Ozark Giant Bell pepper is a large, heirloom fruits that are
thick walled and sweet. Heavy yields turn from green to red and it require
staking.
-
Gourmet Bell pepper: Fifty-eight
days. The Gourmet Bell pepper bears large orange fruits with thick walls and
crisp, sweet flesh. The Gourmet Bell pepper is a tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)
resistant.
-
Early Sunsation Hybrid Bell pepper: Sixty-nine
days. The Early Sunsation Hybrid is one of the earliest bell peppers with
large, bright yellow fruits.
-
Mini Belle Blend Bell Pepper: Sixty
days. The Mini Belle Blend is a tiny 1 ¼ inch fruits that turn from green to
shades of yellow and red at maturity. The compact plants work well in
containers. The Mini Belle Blend Bell Pepper is a tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)
resistant.
How to plant Bell Peppers
It actually takes about seventy-five
days for a bell pepper to mature to its green stage and another 2 to 3 weeks to
develop fully ripe color of yellow, red, orange and more, depending on the
variety. Due to the time they take to mature, it's best to start the bell
peppers from seed ten to twelve weeks before the last frost date, or purchase
the seedlings for transplanting into the garden.
When to plant Bell Pepper
Grown as a garden vegetable annual,
the bell peppers actually need heat both to germinate and to grow. The bell
peppers seeds germinate best at seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, and the
established plants need daytime temperatures of seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit
and above. In most growing zones, bell peppers are actually planted out in late
April or early May.
Selecting a planting site
Bell peppers require six to eight
hours of sunlight daily. Plant the Bell peppers in well-worked, loamy soil with
good drainage. Make sure you avoid areas where nightshades grew the previous
year and separate the pepper patch from tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants by
planting beans in between. Bell peppers also adapt well to raised beds and
container gardening.
Spacing, Depth, and Support
Place the Bell pepper plants eighteen
inches apart in rows 2 ½ to three feet apart. Dig a hole deep enough so the
upper portion of the Bell pepper sits at the same level as in the pot. It's
okay to pinch off the seed leaves, but avoid stripping and exposing the stem.
Bell peppers don't actually require staking, however plants heavy with mature
fruit will benefit from a single stake for support.
Furthermore, when you start with
strong, healthy transplants and you follow a fairly standard care routine, bell
peppers are not hard to grow. Bell pepper plants are vulnerable to a number of
diseases including bacterial, fungal and viruses. Soil borne disease can be
hard to get rid of and manage so the best course is prevention by employing
good garden practices: crop rotation, removing crop debris, and also improving
the soil quality with compost and cover crops.
Light requirement
The Bell pepper plants need six to
eight hours of direct sun daily. Make sure you avoid planting them next to
taller crops like corn that block the sun.
Soil requirement
Actually a nutrient rich, loamy soil
that drains very well supports disease resistance and a well-developed root
system. Bell peppers thrive in soil with a balanced pH level of 6.5 to 7.
Water requirement
Bell peppers actually require one to
two inches of water per week. Drip irrigation works best and soaker hoses
provide the deep watering needed for the plant. Overhead watering and too much
or too little water can easily lead to fungal and bacterial problems. Make sure
you water early in the day to avoid wet foliage overnight.
Temperature and humidity requirement
Bell pepper plants flourish in
daytime temperatures between seventy and eighty degrees Fahrenheit and
nighttime temperatures between sixty and seventy degrees Fahrenheit. At ninety
degrees Fahrenheit and below sixty degrees Fahrenheit blossoms can be damaged
resulting in blossom drop or small, misshapen fruit. Relative humidity levels
of fifty to seventy percent are sufficient. Higher levels can actually
encourage color development in varieties other than green.
Fertilizer requirement
The plants are heavy feeders, the
bell pepper plants benefit from scheduled applications of fertilizer. Apply one
with a slightly higher NPK ratio of phosphorous such as 5-10-10 at planting
time and again when blossoms set. As the fruits begin to form a balanced NPK of
10-10-10 can support development. Make sure you avoid fertilizers that are high
in nitrogen early in the season which can cause excessive leafy growth instead
of blossoms, buds and fruits.
Pollination
The plant flowers actually have both
male and female parts for self-pollination. You don't need more than one pepper
plant or insect pollinators to get fruits. Cross-pollination can occur when
different varieties are grown together but it won't affect the current crop.
The saved seed, however, won't produce a plant the same as the parent.
How to harvest Bell Peppers
When it comes to picking your Bell
peppers, it is all about color and that first frost date for your growing zone.
Make sure you choose a variety with a "days to maturity" that falls
within your growing season and remember, the seedlings set out too early just
sit, waiting for temperatures to warm up. The number of days to maturity
usually refers to the "green" stage of the fruit. If you are growing
other types, add 2 to 3 weeks for the fruit to reach full color and flavor.
Harvest the Bell peppers when they are uniformly colored and feel slightly
heavy and solid depending on size.
You can use a sharp sterile snipper,
or hand pruner to remove the fruit leaving an inch of stem attached. Bell
peppers can be refrigerated for 1 to 2 weeks or washed, seeded, sliced and
frozen for 8 to 10 months.
Growing Bell Peppers in pots
Due to the plant compact, bushy form,
bell peppers adapt readily to growing in pots. Make sure you choose a pot at
least twelve inches in diameter with plenty of drainage holes. Both plastic and
ceramic pots really work well.
- Fill the pot with an organically
rich potting mix. Make sure you avoid using garden soil.
- Make a hole in the center deep and
wide enough to accommodate the Bell pepper seedling's root system.
- Backfill around the plant roots,
gently pressing down to seat the plant but avoid compacting the soil.
- The quality and nutrient value of
your potting mix will actually determine how often to add fertilizer. You can
easily apply a 5-10-10 when planting and again at first bloom. You can add a
balanced 10-10-10 when the fruit starts to form. Bell peppers that are grown in
pots need to be watered more often than those in the ground.
Pruning Bell pepper
Pruning is not necessary, but you can
remove the branches of the plant that don't produce buds or fruit to direct
energy toward the Bell peppers that is already developing. Use a good sharp,
sterile hand pruner and cut the branches at their base.
How to propagate Bell Peppers
Greenhouse growers may actually offer
a variety of bell pepper seedlings, but starting the plants from purchased seed
greatly extends your options. Seeding is the easiest method and fresh seed
gives the greatest germination rate as pepper seeds are short-lived. Start the
Bell pepper seeds ten to twelve weeks before you plan to set the seedlings out
in the garden. You need a tray with 1 to 2 inch cells or small pots with
drainage holes, and soilless seed starting mix.
- Dampen the seed starter with warm
water. Fill the cell tray or containers with the seed starter.
- Use your index finger to poke a
shallow hole in the center of each container.
- Place a Bell pepper seed in each
hole and then cover with seed starter.
- Cover the tray with a plastic dome
or use plastic bags to cover containers.
- Place the starts in a warm location
with steady temperatures of seventy-five to eighty degrees Fahrenheit. Bottom
heat aids germination.
- Maintain moisture but avoid
overwatering which can easily cause damping off. Watering the plant from the
bottom helps. If the soil surface appears dry, you can add water.
- Once the Bell pepper seedlings
emerge, remove the plastic.
- The bell peppers can be potted up
when the first set of true leaves appears. Waiting until several sets of leaves
are present results in a stronger stem and helps avoid damage during repotting.
- Use three to four inch pots for
repotting and switch to a quality mix or add fertilizer.
- When the daytime temperatures warm
up, begin hardening off your Bell pepper seedlings by placing them outside for
several hours each day.
- Plant the Bell peppers in the
garden when nighttime temperatures are steady at sixty degrees Fahrenheit and
above.
Pests and disease control
The healthy Bell pepper plants are
not actually affected much by insect pests. Most damaging are thrips, aphids,
flea beetles, pepper weevils and hornworms. The pepper weevils ruin the fruits
by laying eggs in the flesh. The larvae tunnel through the inside, causing
damage and rot. Hornworms can defoliate a mature plant and flea beetles can
defoliate the young bell pepper seedlings.
Bell pepper plants are actually
vulnerable to disease and once a fungal or bacterial infection sets in, it can
spread through the patch affecting an entire crop. Bell pepper plants are
particularly susceptible to fungus, the plant also can succumb to bacterial
wilts and cankers. Viruses endemic to bell peppers include cucumber mosaic
virus and tomato spotted wilt virus.
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