Let's revisit the most downloaded episode of this podcast the past three season: growing peppers! Peppers are one of those plants that I get asked about all the time; it’s also one of those vegetables that is a mainstay in many people’s kitchens, and they can be expensive at the grocery store, so knowing how to grow your own is high up on the gardening wish list for a lot of people. So, today we talk all about peppers, both sweet and hot, how to get them to germinate, their feeding requirements, planting, spacing, harvesting and all the usual basics. By the end of this episode, I hope you can fill in the gaps of what’s been going on with your peppers to get you some success or give you the confidence to give them a try if you’re new to the capsicum scene. Let's dig in!
References and Resources:
Pharmacological importance of an ethnobotanical plant: Capsicum annuum L - PubMed (nih.gov)
Bell Peppers 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits (healthline.com)
Chili Peppers 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Effects (healthline.com)
6 Ways to Use Epsom Salt in the Garden | Epsom Salt Council
Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers.
Reader’s Digest Illustrated Guide to Gardening, 1978
Damrosch, Barbara; The Garden Primer. Workman Publishing, New York. 1988
Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group
Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon
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00:00:00
This is positively farming media.
00:00:05
Hello my gardening friends and welcome to the final episode of
00:00:08
the Just Grow Something podcast for 2023.
00:00:12
I hope you are all having a fantastic holiday season and
00:00:16
that you are all looking forward to the New year.
00:00:18
With excitement and anticipation, we are finally now
00:00:23
into actual winter here in the Northern hemisphere.
00:00:27
We have passed the winter. Solstice mark so thankfully.
00:00:31
That means that the days will begin to get a little bit longer
00:00:35
every single day from here on out until we finally hit the
00:00:38
spring planting season for my gardening friends in the
00:00:42
Southern hemisphere. You obviously are now just
00:00:44
hitting your actual summer, so I hope you are having a fantastic
00:00:49
gardening season. For this final episode of the
00:00:52
year, we are reviewing the number one most downloaded
00:00:56
episode of this podcast based on you.
00:01:01
You have downloaded this one more than any other one.
00:01:03
This is actually an episode from season 2 and it is all about
00:01:08
growing Peppers. In fact, I will likely come back
00:01:11
and do a follow up episode to this one on this topic because
00:01:16
it is so popular now. Potatoes was a very close
00:01:20
second. But Peppers, considering that it
00:01:22
is from back in in season 2, is consistently the most downloaded
00:01:26
episode. And I have no doubt the reason
00:01:29
is because Peppers can sometimes be a little tricky, especially
00:01:34
bell Peppers. Sometimes it is hard to get them
00:01:36
going. They require a very long, hot
00:01:39
growing season and not all of us have those conditions.
00:01:43
So in this episode we go over all of the things that you need
00:01:46
to know about growing Peppers and like I said coming in season
00:01:50
four, Oh my gosh, yes, we are coming up on season four.
00:01:53
I will likely do a a follow up episode to this one just to give
00:01:58
you some more information and a little bit more about what I
00:02:01
have learned along the way. So I am looking forward to next
00:02:05
season. I hope you are as well and like
00:02:08
I said, I hope you are all having a fantastic holiday
00:02:10
season and looking forward to the new.
00:02:12
Year I will see. You next week.
00:02:15
For a. Start to a new season and a new
00:02:18
year, and until then enjoy this replay of episode 89 growing.
00:02:24
Peppers, let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen and I started
00:02:27
gardening 18 years ago in a small corner of my suburban
00:02:30
backyard when we moved to A5 acre homestead.
00:02:32
I expanded that garden to half an acre and I found such joy and
00:02:36
purpose in feeding my family and friends.
00:02:38
This newfound love for digging in the dirt and providing for
00:02:41
others prompted my husband and I to grow our small homestead into
00:02:44
a 40 acre market farm. When I went back to school to
00:02:47
get my degree in horticulture, I discovered there is so much
00:02:50
power in food and I want to share everything I've learned
00:02:53
with as many people as possible. On this podcast we explore crop
00:02:56
information, soil health, pests and diseases, plant nutrition,
00:03:00
our own nutrition, and so much more in the world of food and
00:03:03
gardening. So grab your garden journal and
00:03:06
a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
00:03:12
Hello my gardening friends, and welcome back to the Just Grow
00:03:14
Something podcast. One of the crops I really
00:03:17
thought would be easy to grow when I first started gardening
00:03:20
that turned out not to be for me was Peppers, specifically bell
00:03:24
Peppers. Turns out, not only do Peppers
00:03:26
really prefer a lot of heat, they also prefer more water than
00:03:30
I typically use in my gardens and in my fields.
00:03:33
And Peppers are one of those plants that I get asked about
00:03:35
all the time in messages and at the farm stand, because once you
00:03:40
get the hang of it, you can grow boatloads.
00:03:42
And we bring lots of beautiful Peppers to market and it gets
00:03:44
people talking. It's also one of those
00:03:47
vegetables that's a mainstay in many people's kitchens, and they
00:03:51
can be expensive at the grocery store.
00:03:53
So knowing how to grow your own is high up there on the
00:03:55
gardening wish list for a lot of people.
00:03:58
So today we'll talk all about Peppers, both sweet and hot, how
00:04:02
to germinate their feeding requirements, planting, spacing,
00:04:05
harvesting, all the usual basics.
00:04:07
By the end of this episode, I hope you can fill in the gaps of
00:04:11
what's been going on with your Peppers to get you some success
00:04:14
or give you the confidence to give them a try if you're new to
00:04:17
the capsicum scene. So let's dig in to growing
00:04:20
Peppers. So what makes Peppers finicky?
00:04:24
For one thing, they really need the heat.
00:04:27
So if you live in an area with a shorter, cooler growing season,
00:04:30
you are going to have a little bit of a struggle right from the
00:04:33
get go. You are likely going to have to
00:04:36
pick fast maturing varieties, start your Peppers even earlier
00:04:40
indoors, pop them up frequently as you go so they don't get root
00:04:44
bound, and warm up that garden soil before you transplant so
00:04:47
you can get them the best start possible.
00:04:50
Even those of us in the middle of the road areas when it comes
00:04:53
to the number of warm growing days can still struggle with
00:04:56
Peppers. And because of their desire for
00:04:59
optimal heat while growing and ripening, and how slow growing
00:05:03
they can be, it can be challenging to get many of your
00:05:06
Peppers to maturity before the 1st frost hits in the fall.
00:05:10
And even if you're in one of the ideal growing climates for
00:05:13
Peppers with long hot summers, water needs can be an issue.
00:05:16
Heat stress, believe it or not, as well as fertility.
00:05:20
It's not that Peppers need higher than usual fertility over
00:05:23
other plants in the same family, but it's a little more
00:05:26
particular about certain things. So as usual, let's start with
00:05:30
the basics. The scientific name for Peppers
00:05:32
is Capsicum annuum. It's in the solanacia family,
00:05:36
which are the nightshades, and that includes eggplant, tomatoes
00:05:39
and potatoes. The plant is a tropical
00:05:42
perennial. Now, even though the species
00:05:44
name annuum means annual, it's really just a tender perennial.
00:05:49
It can't survive a frost and that's why it's usually grown as
00:05:52
an annual vegetable. Now, in the absence of winter
00:05:55
frost, it can survive several seasons and grow into a large
00:05:59
shrubby plant. The plant is native to the
00:06:02
Caribbean and South America, specifically southern Brazil and
00:06:05
Bolivia, as well as the southern parts of North America.
00:06:08
The genus name Capsicum comes from the Greek word copto, which
00:06:13
means to bite. Well, that makes sense.
00:06:16
Most species of this plant contain capsaicin, and that is
00:06:20
the chemical that produces that burning sensation in your mouth
00:06:23
when you eat hot Peppers. The amount of capsaicin and
00:06:27
Peppers varies. It's dependent totally on their
00:06:29
genetics. The capsaicin gene is recessive
00:06:33
in sweet Peppers, which is why there's no heat to our bell
00:06:36
Peppers and our other sweet Peppers.
00:06:38
So let's talk about the cultural significance and ethnobotanical
00:06:41
uses. Remember that ethnobotany is the
00:06:43
study of a regions, plants and their practical uses through the
00:06:47
traditional knowledge of a local culture and its people.
00:06:50
These uses are cited as a historical and anthropological
00:06:53
resource and please never ingest the parts of any plant without
00:06:57
being absolutely positive of its effect upon the human body.
00:07:01
Now, hot Peppers have traditionally been used both as
00:07:04
food and as medicine. Most notably, it's been used as
00:07:08
treatment for gout and stomach problems, diphtheria and scarlet
00:07:12
fever. You know, modern medicine is
00:07:14
investigating capsicum for its range of essential nutrients and
00:07:18
bio active compounds which are known to be antioxidant,
00:07:21
antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anti
00:07:26
cancer. And of course, culinarily sweet
00:07:28
Peppers and hot Peppers are used pretty universally.
00:07:32
Interestingly, in English speaking countries we define a
00:07:36
pepper sort of by its size and flavor.
00:07:39
The larger, blockier, sweeter variants are called capsicums in
00:07:44
Australia and New Zealand, Peppers in the United Kingdom,
00:07:48
and bell Peppers in the US. Now, the smaller, hotter
00:07:52
varieties are usually referred to as chilies or Chili Peppers,
00:07:56
and in some parts of the US we just call them Peppers.
00:07:59
Now some cultivars are grown specifically for their aesthetic
00:08:02
value, and we call them ornamental Peppers.
00:08:04
These tend to have unusually colored fruit and foliage,
00:08:07
black, purple, rainbow, all the different colors, but they're
00:08:11
all edible despite being called ornamental Peppers, which most
00:08:15
people don't know, and most of them are hot.
00:08:18
So keep that in mind if you decide to snack on your
00:08:21
ornamental Peppers. Now, as far as nutrition is
00:08:23
concerned, most nutrition facts focused on bell Peppers or sweet
00:08:27
Peppers, so this is what we'll cover here mainly.
00:08:30
Fresh raw bell Peppers are mainly composed of water.
00:08:34
The rest is carbs and small amounts of protein and fat.
00:08:37
So in 100 grams of raw red bell pepper, you've got 31 calories
00:08:43
and it is 92% water. You've got 1g of protein, 6
00:08:47
grams of carbs, 4.2 grams of sugar, 2.1 grams of fiber, and
00:08:52
.3G of fat. But they are also loaded with
00:08:55
vitamins and minerals like vitamins CB6K1, E and A, along
00:09:01
with potassium and folate. Now you notice I said raw red
00:09:05
bell pepper, and that's because green bell Peppers are
00:09:08
technically immature. The mature Peppers in colors of
00:09:12
red, yellow, and orange contain more nutrients than their
00:09:16
immature counterparts, and they are also much sweeter in flavor.
00:09:20
Now, Chili Peppers are primarily used as a spice and can be
00:09:23
cooked or dried and powdered. In fact, powdered red Chili
00:09:26
Peppers are just known as paprika now.
00:09:29
Capsaicin is the main bio active plant compound in Chili Peppers,
00:09:35
and like I said, that's responsible for their unique
00:09:38
pungent taste, but it's also responsible for many of their
00:09:41
health benefits. But because they're used in much
00:09:44
lesser amounts than sweet Peppers, these health benefits
00:09:48
also tend to be lesser. And This is why hot Peppers are
00:09:52
being studied for their medicinal properties, because
00:09:54
concentrating these compounds into a capsule or another
00:09:58
medication may be a more effective way to get those
00:10:02
benefits. But there are a wide variety of
00:10:04
colors and shapes and sizes, and their heat indexes make them
00:10:08
really fun to grow and use culinarily.
00:10:11
Now let's talk about the cultivation of our Peppers.
00:10:15
Obviously, it's a warm season plant.
00:10:17
They are typically started as transplants, sometimes
00:10:21
overwintered as full size plants to take advantage of their
00:10:24
perennial habit, and then brought back out again.
00:10:26
But in most instances, you're going to start them and treat
00:10:29
them as an annual. You're going to want to start
00:10:32
pepper plants at least eight weeks prior to your last frost
00:10:36
date, mainly because they germinate very slowly and they
00:10:39
grow very slowly. And like I said, if you are an
00:10:42
area that has a very short growing season, you may have to
00:10:45
start a little bit earlier just to be able to get a jump on
00:10:49
things. Now for best seed germination,
00:10:52
you want to maintain the temperature of the potting mix
00:10:55
at 85°F or 29.4 Celsius. Yes, that is very warm, and this
00:11:02
is one of the first stumbling blocks that you might face
00:11:04
trying to grow Peppers. They really do like a very warm
00:11:09
soil in where to germinate, and even at that ideal temperature,
00:11:15
they can still take up to 10 days to pop their little heads
00:11:18
up, and it can take up to three weeks.
00:11:20
If the soil temperature is cooler than that ideal 85
00:11:23
Fahrenheit, they will not germinate in temperatures below
00:11:27
55 Fahrenheit, so be patient, don't drown them and be sure to
00:11:32
mark the date that you started them so you don't inadvertently
00:11:35
toss a whole tray of seedlings because you thought they were
00:11:38
duds. Now once they do sprout, the air
00:11:40
temperature ideally should be between 65 and 75 Fahrenheit
00:11:44
during the day and then drop down to between 60 and 65
00:11:48
Fahrenheit at night. Now I know this can be difficult
00:11:50
to do when your seeds starting in the house and you are likely
00:11:53
starting a bunch of other plants all the same time.
00:11:56
So just do your best with this and try to find a happy medium
00:11:59
for works for all the plants that you're starting.
00:12:02
Don't be in a rush to transplant your Peppers outside.
00:12:05
This is problem #2 that I see. Cold temperatures can weaken the
00:12:11
plants and they may never fully recover.
00:12:14
You want to start hardening your plants off about a week before
00:12:18
you want to set them out into the garden.
00:12:20
You can start by putting them out in a shaded area for
00:12:23
increasing hours the first day or two and then slowly moving
00:12:27
into the sun for a day or two, increasing the hours spent
00:12:30
outside each day. Now ideally the last few days
00:12:35
that you can put them outside when temperatures are around 60
00:12:39
Fahrenheit to 65 Fahrenheit is going to be ideal and at the
00:12:44
same time reduce the amount of water that they get on these
00:12:47
days. That's going to help really
00:12:48
harden the plants off and reduce the transplant shock.
00:12:52
Now here's another catch with Peppers.
00:12:53
You can actually overdo it with the hardening off process with
00:12:57
these guys. Do not start hardening your
00:12:59
plants off 3 weeks before they go into the ground.
00:13:02
That might be OK for other plants, but over hardened pepper
00:13:05
plants actually grow more slowly after transplanting.
00:13:10
Like I said, do not be in a rush to get them outside.
00:13:14
Peppers and eggplant for me are generally the very last of the
00:13:18
warm weather plants to go out into the garden.
00:13:20
The weather should be warm and very well settled before you put
00:13:24
them outside. Your average soil temperature
00:13:27
should be at least 65 Fahrenheit, and your overnight
00:13:30
air temperature should be staying above 55 Fahrenheit
00:13:34
consistently. This is likely going to be about
00:13:37
3 weeks after your average last frost, depending on how your
00:13:42
spring has gone. And here's where you really have
00:13:45
to pay attention to the weather conditions.
00:13:46
I will give you a perfect example of this.
00:13:48
This weekend we'll be having our first big plant sale of the
00:13:51
season and it's the first time that I'll be bringing out many
00:13:54
of our tomato and pepper plants for sale.
00:13:56
I know with it being Mother's Day weekend here, many of these
00:14:00
plants are going to be bought for mom so she can spend her day
00:14:03
in the garden Sunday if she wants to.
00:14:05
And I am going to highly suggest that people don't do this.
00:14:09
Why? Because first of all, no matter
00:14:12
how hard I work to harden off these plants before I bring them
00:14:15
out for sale, the microclimate in my garden is different from
00:14:20
the microclimate in your garden and in each of my customers
00:14:23
gardens. Any plant you buy, whether from
00:14:26
a grower like me at the farmer's market or from the local nursery
00:14:29
or from the big box store, should be given at least a
00:14:33
couple of days to acclimate to your individual growing location
00:14:37
before being planted. If you can spend a week doing
00:14:40
it, then great. Secondly, looking at our local
00:14:44
weather, I see the forecast for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of
00:14:47
next week being in the 80s Fahrenheit.
00:14:51
So even if those plants are hardened off at that perfect
00:14:55
65°F mark, they are not going to fare well if they've just been
00:15:00
transplanted and then the sun blazes on them for the next
00:15:03
three days straight. So I will be putting signs out
00:15:06
at the stand this weekend giving people this information because
00:15:09
I don't want anybody buying plants running home and getting
00:15:13
them planted only to have them die four days later.
00:15:17
These are things that we need to think about as gardeners, even
00:15:20
if they're our own home grown seedlings.
00:15:23
So pay attention to your weather conditions and wait just a
00:15:27
little bit longer to see if you can get those ideal planting
00:15:30
conditions, especially for Peppers.
00:15:33
Now, Peppers prefer a soil pH between 6 point O and 6.8, so
00:15:38
slightly acidic and not much different from most other
00:15:40
veggies. Peppers don't generally demand
00:15:43
anything in particular when it comes to soil nutrients.
00:15:47
Other than really appreciating a good amount of organic matter.
00:15:51
This point actually trips people up a little bit with pepper
00:15:54
production. Yes, Peppers need nitrogen for
00:15:57
nice green growth to begin with, and then they need more in the
00:16:00
way of phosphorus to promote flowering and fruiting.
00:16:04
But this does not have to be complicated.
00:16:07
Let your plants tell you what they need.
00:16:09
Many of the resources that you might find online put the
00:16:13
emphasis on adding nitrogen before planting and then adding
00:16:17
more during planting, and then adding a side dressing of
00:16:20
nitrogen about 6 to 8 weeks after transplanting.
00:16:24
I still see this in a lot of my gardening books.
00:16:26
This is overkill unless your soil is dramatically depleted.
00:16:30
And that's the rub. Many of the standard
00:16:32
recommendations that you find on the Internet are for commercial
00:16:35
production, and they've just been scaled down for the home
00:16:38
gardener. Well, most conventional farming
00:16:41
operations are low in both nitrogen and organic matter, so
00:16:45
those recommendations make sense for them.
00:16:48
The problem with following this in our own gardens is that we
00:16:51
may not be nitrogen depleted. This means those pepper plants
00:16:56
are going to have access to more nitrogen than they need and
00:16:59
they'll be big and lush with dark green foliage and nothing
00:17:04
else. Because it's taken up all that
00:17:06
nitrogen and it's used its focus on foliage and no energy has
00:17:11
gone into flowering and fruiting.
00:17:13
So do a soil test to see if you're depleted of any nutrient,
00:17:16
not just nitrogen, and amend accordingly.
00:17:20
And then just to mend your bed with a good aged compost or
00:17:24
composted manure at planting time and add a little bit more
00:17:27
halfway through the season. You can also feed the pepper
00:17:31
plants a balanced plant food, We're talking a 10/10/10 here at
00:17:35
planting time and for a few weeks thereafter.
00:17:39
And then switch to something that has less nitrogen and more
00:17:42
phosphorus and potassium, like a 5/10/10.
00:17:46
The one thing that I will say has made a difference in my
00:17:49
garden when it comes to Peppers is magnesium.
00:17:53
This is where Epsom salts come in.
00:17:55
And no, it's not for blossom and rot.
00:17:57
That's a total myth. Blossom and rot is caused by a
00:18:01
lack of calcium uptake in the plant, but this can be caused by
00:18:04
drastic moisture fluctuations and excessive nitrogen or
00:18:08
potassium fertilization or incorrect soil pH.
00:18:11
In fact, calcium and magnesium, which is what's in Epsom salts,
00:18:16
compete for uptake by plants, so I have no idea how that idea got
00:18:20
started. Epsom salts are magnesium
00:18:24
sulfate, so when you use it in the garden you're adding both
00:18:27
magnesium and sulfur. Now, magnesium helps the plant
00:18:32
to absorb and transport key nutrients like phosphorus and
00:18:36
iron throughout the plant. It also plays a vital role in
00:18:40
water retention and photosynthesis, and it's also
00:18:43
involved in a lot of different enzyme reactions.
00:18:46
Sulfur also participates in chlorophyll development.
00:18:50
It's active in photosynthesis, and it boosts the plants growth
00:18:54
and its resistance to disease. So if you've had a problem with
00:18:58
slow growth or lacklustre fruiting in your pepper plants
00:19:02
before, try mixing a couple of tablespoons of Epsom salts into
00:19:06
a gallon of water and using it as a foliar spray.
00:19:10
Or mix a tablespoon into a gallon of water and water your
00:19:13
plants with it about six weeks after transplant.
00:19:16
Or you can just sprinkle a cup per 100 square feet of garden
00:19:19
space and work into the soil before planting.
00:19:22
Just like everything else, don't overdo it.
00:19:24
Magnesium and sulfur are secondary nutrients, and just
00:19:27
like any other nutrient, they can interrupt processes if they
00:19:31
are available in large quantities of the plant.
00:19:33
So just do this if you think that your plants are needing a
00:19:36
little boost. Now, make sure that the place
00:19:44
that you plant your pepper plants is fully sunny and you
00:19:47
have had no other members of the nightshade family planted there
00:19:51
for at least three years preferably.
00:19:53
So no eggplant or potatoes or tomatoes.
00:19:57
Now, when it comes to transplanting, pepper plants can
00:20:00
actually be spaced more closely together than you might think.
00:20:05
A lot of plant tags and seed packets may say to plant them
00:20:08
like 18 to 24 inches apart. But in my experience and the
00:20:12
directions that I've gotten from a lot of my growing handbooks,
00:20:15
you can plant them as close as 12 inches apart.
00:20:19
In rows that are 18 inches apart.
00:20:22
You can get a lot of pepper plants in a very small space.
00:20:27
It's OK for pepper plants to be touching each other at maturity.
00:20:30
In fact, they seem to do better that way.
00:20:33
They tend to lean on each other for support and shade each
00:20:36
other's fruit, which avoids some scald.
00:20:38
I had jalapenos in one of my raised beds out front last year,
00:20:42
and I had 15 plants in a bed that's three foot by 7 or 8
00:20:48
feet. We'll say 8 feet.
00:20:50
So that's about a foot and a half between each plant on each
00:20:54
side. And these plants were huge.
00:20:57
They were fully touching each other and the branches were
00:21:00
slightly intertwined at the end there and their production was
00:21:03
amazing. So it might feel like it's
00:21:06
really close together, but they do great at that distance apart.
00:21:10
Now, if you're planting in an in ground space or a raised bed
00:21:14
box, you can use black landscape fabric or row covers to warm the
00:21:18
soil up a little bit before planting to really make your
00:21:22
transplants happy. And if you don't use landscape
00:21:25
fabric, be sure to mulch after the plants are well established
00:21:29
and the soil has warmed up nicely.
00:21:32
And actually, in fact, I recommend adding some sort of
00:21:35
mulch over top of black landscape fabric anyway when
00:21:38
you're planting with Peppers. This is actually to keep the
00:21:41
soil a little cooler under that fabric.
00:21:43
Once you get to Midsummer, anything that causes these
00:21:46
plants to overheat, even at the root zone, can cause them to
00:21:49
drop their blossoms. We'll get to that more in just a
00:21:52
minute. Peppers need even moisture to
00:21:56
produce the best Peppers. This not only prevents that
00:21:59
blossom and rot we talked about, but remember, Peppers are over
00:22:03
90% water. Their fruit development relies
00:22:06
on it. The soil doesn't need to be, nor
00:22:09
should it be sopping wet, but consistent soil moisture is
00:22:13
very, very important. I think if anything impedes
00:22:18
fruit production in Peppers, this is it.
00:22:22
We don't irrigate our fields and so we have to mulch really
00:22:25
really heavily in order to get proper pepper production.
00:22:29
My raised beds out front don't usually get watered except when
00:22:34
I have Peppers out there. It makes that much of a
00:22:36
difference. It doesn't necessarily mean that
00:22:38
you have to be watering every day, but you need to come up
00:22:41
with some way to keep the soil moisture consistent.
00:22:45
Now, I mentioned problems with fruit set.
00:22:48
Peppers can be temperamental, especially when it comes to
00:22:51
setting fruit. If the temperatures are too hot
00:22:54
or too cool, they are way worse than tomatoes in this regard.
00:23:00
Nighttime temperatures below 60 Fahrenheit or above 75
00:23:05
Fahrenheit, it's only a 15° difference can reduce fruit set
00:23:10
in Peppers, and a lot of the time there's nothing you can do
00:23:12
about that. So as much as they are heat
00:23:15
lovers during the day, they really like the cooler temperate
00:23:19
nights. You know, mulching can go a long
00:23:21
way toward keeping the root zone cooler in the Midsummer, the
00:23:25
same way that it can help keep that temperature higher in the
00:23:28
early part of the season, and that can actually make a
00:23:31
difference. Letting the soil get too dry can
00:23:34
also result in flowers dropping off of the plant.
00:23:37
Over watering, like really keeping the soil saturated can
00:23:41
cause flower drop. Find ways for your soil to
00:23:44
retain the moisture rather than needing to water all the time.
00:23:48
Remember, consistent moisture is key, not necessarily consistent.
00:23:52
Watering, excess nitrogen, phosphorus deficiency, and
00:23:56
inconsistent humidity can all 'cause problems with flower drop
00:24:00
in pepper plants, and many times these things are completely out
00:24:04
of your control. So don't feel bad, just do what
00:24:07
you can when you can. And then one more thing.
00:24:11
It is necessary sometimes to stake really tall varieties.
00:24:16
It's going to help with the harvest.
00:24:18
It's going to help keep them from flopping over and possibly
00:24:20
breaking. And a lot of the time it just
00:24:23
makes for a much neater harvest. Now, if you're growing in
00:24:27
containers, Peppers do great. Like I mentioned, they don't
00:24:31
need a huge amount of space, so pots are fine.
00:24:34
You can line pots right up next to each other with pepper plants
00:24:37
and they will reach out and touch one another and hold hands
00:24:40
and be perfectly happy in their pots.
00:24:42
They should be grown in pots or containers that are at least 12
00:24:46
inches wide and 12 inches deep. If you have larger containers
00:24:50
than just space the plants 12 inches apart in those
00:24:53
containers. Use a commercial potting mix or
00:24:56
make your own homemade potting soil to be sure you've got
00:24:59
plenty of organic material for them to grow in.
00:25:02
Choose a container that's got holes in the bottom for easy
00:25:05
drainage. And just like our in ground
00:25:07
Peppers, keep the soil evenly moist.
00:25:10
And also be sure to feed your plants about every two weeks
00:25:13
throughout the growing season. They're going to have a tendency
00:25:16
to use that up much more quickly when they're in containers.
00:25:20
So two questions I always get about growing Peppers.
00:25:24
Should I pinch the first blossoms from the plant and
00:25:28
should I top my plants? Look, much of this is trial and
00:25:33
error and personal preference. If your plants are still small
00:25:37
when you transplant them and they either have already
00:25:40
developed blossoms or they developed them very quickly
00:25:43
after transplant, I recommend pinching them off.
00:25:46
The plant at that point is likely too small to successfully
00:25:50
support that flower to get it all the way to fruiting, and you
00:25:54
want it to focus its energy on root and shoot growth initially.
00:25:58
Now, some folks argue that if the plant can't support it, the
00:26:02
blossom will drop off on its own, but I've seen a forgotten
00:26:06
pepper plant in a little 2 inch pot push out a tiny little bell
00:26:09
pepper the size of a quail egg when it absolutely had no
00:26:12
business growing that fruit. So I make the decision for that
00:26:16
plant and snip off those blossoms.
00:26:18
Now as far as topping plants, this is usually something talked
00:26:22
about specifically with hot Peppers and it's not something
00:26:25
that I've done. And if you could hear that noise
00:26:28
in the background, that is another rainstorm that we're
00:26:30
having right now. It's been a very cool wet
00:26:33
spring. I'll take it.
00:26:34
It's fine. Anyway, pepper plants can get
00:26:37
top heavy as they mature. Many gardeners find that staking
00:26:41
their pepper plants is necessary to keep them from toppling over
00:26:44
in the wind. I am one of those gardeners
00:26:46
depending on the plant. I did a modified Florida weave
00:26:50
on my bulls horns Peppers last year because they needed the
00:26:53
extra support. They were super top heavy but I
00:26:57
did not stake my jalapeno plants.
00:26:59
The idea behind topping your plants is to help them grow in a
00:27:03
more Bush like manner to prevent the top heaviness and not have
00:27:07
to stake them. You get to shape them and they
00:27:10
develop a thicker trunk. Now, contrary to popular belief,
00:27:14
this doesn't necessarily increase the number of flowering
00:27:17
points on the plant and increase the yield.
00:27:20
You likely will have a similar yield whether or not you top the
00:27:24
plant if it's a hot pepper. And you may actually decrease
00:27:28
the yield if it's a bell pepper plant because those fruits take
00:27:31
so much longer to produce and you may delay flowering by
00:27:34
cutting it back. You may have an increased yield
00:27:38
if the plant is healthier simply because it didn't snap in the
00:27:41
winds, but it's unlikely to increase yield based solely on
00:27:45
the pruning. Now, if you decide to try
00:27:48
topping your pepper plants, you usually do this shortly after
00:27:52
transplanting and you continue to do so every three weeks,
00:27:56
shaping the plant as you go. You just cut the main stem off
00:28:00
at the top, just above a leaf node.
00:28:02
This will force the plant to start new growth off to the
00:28:05
sides of where you made the cut, creating a more Bush like habit.
00:28:09
You can do this once, or you can do it multiple times.
00:28:12
Some people swear by it. Some people swear it does
00:28:15
absolutely nothing. All you can do is try it and
00:28:18
judge for yourself. You may decide to do a side by
00:28:21
side comparison. If you plant out 12 hot pepper
00:28:23
plants, try topping six of them and leaving the other six alone
00:28:26
and see if you get a difference in your yield.
00:28:28
Experimenting in the garden is always a good thing, so let's
00:28:31
talk about pepper pests. Aphids, sometimes Flea beetles,
00:28:37
hornworms and other worms, Spider mites, and white fly are
00:28:41
all things that can plague pepper plants.
00:28:44
Now most of these are not going to destroy your plants unless
00:28:47
you have hornworms that are completely stripping the leaves
00:28:50
off of your young plants. But white fly can spread
00:28:53
disease, so pest prevention is always a good idea and
00:28:57
encouraging natural predators is the best way to do that.
00:29:00
But in most instances, if you see some pests out there and it
00:29:04
doesn't seem to be overwhelming, you may not have to do anything
00:29:07
at all. Hopefully the natural predators
00:29:09
will take care of them, and most pepper plants, if they are
00:29:11
healthy, can handle some sort of pest pressure with diseases.
00:29:17
You've got anthrax, nose, bacterial spot, different
00:29:20
blights, powdery mildew, white mold.
00:29:23
These are all possible with Peppers.
00:29:25
If you're in an area that is prone to specific diseases, or
00:29:28
you've seen these diseases in your garden before, look for
00:29:31
varieties that have resistance bred into them.
00:29:35
And then also keeping the insect pests in check a little bit will
00:29:38
also prevent the spread of many of these diseases.
00:29:42
And then of course there's blossom end rot.
00:29:44
It's not a disease, it's a it's a syndrome.
00:29:46
Just keep the moisture level constant, grow in soil that is
00:29:50
high in organic matter and make sure that your plants are
00:29:52
getting the proper nutrients and that should hopefully prevent
00:29:55
the blossom end rot. So after you have gotten this
00:29:58
big beautiful growth of all of these fantastic Peppers, it is
00:30:02
time to finally harvest them. And I actually always consider
00:30:06
Peppers more of a fall crop because it doesn't seem like you
00:30:09
get to really harvest a ton of them until fall.
00:30:14
Sweet Peppers can be harvested at any stage of their growth.
00:30:18
Full size green Peppers left on the plant will eventually turn
00:30:21
red or yellow or orange or purple or whatever color the
00:30:25
seed packet says it is, and that's when they're at their
00:30:28
sweetest. Harvest them whenever you want.
00:30:31
Harvest them as you like or as you need them.
00:30:33
Just don't leave fully ripe bell Peppers or sweet Peppers on the
00:30:38
plant. This will actually signal to the
00:30:41
plant that it's time to stop producing, and it will actually
00:30:45
reduce your overall yield. Now for hot Peppers, leave them
00:30:49
on until they are fully mature and then harvest.
00:30:52
This lets them develop their flavor, so have an idea of what
00:30:55
the pepper is supposed to look like when you plant it so you
00:30:59
know when it's time to harvest. Always When harvesting Peppers,
00:31:03
cut the fruit off the branch, Don't try to snap it or yank it
00:31:07
off. It is very easy to break the
00:31:10
entire branch off by doing this. And this is the voice of
00:31:14
experience speaking. The number of times I've gone
00:31:17
out into the garden to do something and I'm like, oh look,
00:31:20
there's this beautiful pepper, I'm going to snap it off.
00:31:22
No, no, no, no, no, no. So always cut the fruit off the
00:31:27
branch. And since Peppers take so long
00:31:30
to mature, you may find that you come up on your first fall frost
00:31:34
before your Peppers are all ready.
00:31:36
So keep an eye on the weather. Cover with frost cloth when it's
00:31:39
needed, and if a hard freezes around the corner, go ahead and
00:31:42
harvest all of your Peppers off of the plants and bring them in.
00:31:46
You can also try pulling the entire plants and hanging it
00:31:49
upside down in a basement or another cool spot just to let
00:31:52
them finish ripening on the plant for a few more days.
00:31:54
You can harvest immature hot Peppers too, they just won't
00:31:58
have the same flavors as their ripe counterparts.
00:32:01
I often dry these and crush them as powder or into flakes for
00:32:04
cooking, so hopefully that gives you a little more confidence to
00:32:09
tackle growing Peppers, whether it's your first time or your
00:32:12
10th. Like I said, it took me years to
00:32:15
figure out the nuances of Peppers, and I still have years
00:32:18
where my bell Peppers are tiny and my hot Peppers don't produce
00:32:22
anything until just before frost.
00:32:24
But I can say when we get it right, we get it really right.
00:32:30
And there is nothing more satisfying than picking a giant
00:32:33
red bell pepper for your evening meal and knowing that.
00:32:37
You grew that big. Beautiful thing.
00:32:41
Until next time, my gardening friends.
00:32:43
Keep on cultivating that dream garden and I'll talk to you
00:32:45
again soon. You just finished another
00:32:47
episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
00:32:49
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00:32:52
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00:32:55
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00:32:58
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00:33:03
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00:33:06
Until next time, my gardening friends keep learning and keep
00:33:08
growing.