Anyone here grow bell peppers?

I cook with bell peppers quite often, so I would like to be able to grow them in my garden. Do any of you here in the PNW grow them with success? Can you recommend a variety?

I do! I do! Oh wait, you said successfully, nevermiind!

I try growing a half dozen every year from the local nursery's transplants. My plants rarely get big enough to need support, and rarely get more than 2 peppers per plant. Others in our area seem to do better with warm season veggies than I do, so I look forward to seeing what their tricks are.

My Safeway had them on sale last week for 49¢. I've never eaten so many stuffed peppers!

boffer wrote: I do! I do! Oh wait, you said successfully, nevermiind!!

Boffer beat me to it! I was going to say the same thing. I got one, very tiny, bell pepper, on a regular bell pepper sized plant last year... I just wanted to comment so I can be in on what successful people have to say!

ModernDayBetty wrote:

boffer wrote: I do! I do! Oh wait, you said successfully, nevermiind!!

Boffer beat me to it! I was going to say the same thing. I got one, very tiny, bell pepper, on a regular bell pepper sized plant last year... I just wanted to comment so I can be in on what successful people have to say!

Is the key word greenhouse?

I'm going to try this year, germinating seeds this weekend for bell peppers and some other types, in an effort to give them a head start.

heheheheehe Peppers, you say! In the PNW!

I'm determined to have peppers myself this year. I'm growing the little ones, though, and here's the plan.
Lipstick, Sweet Banana, Sweet Red Pimento, Sweet Cherry are all shorter season peppers, and I'm starting them from seed, hopefully. I'll pot them up a couple of times in black pots in the mini-greenhouse to let them get to a decent size, waiting for the beds outside to get warm. I'm planning on having 2 of each pepper, and pinching one back heavily and only slightly pinching the other.
When they're ready to go in the ground, I'll leave them covered for a week or more. But the big trick is this one: pinch off all the flowers until the plant gets to be at least 15" tall. The idea is to get the plant to a mature size with a good root structure before letting it put energy toward fruiting. Make sure to give it support.
I got this trick from someone who does amazingly well with peppers, and I'm on board.

camprn wrote:...Is the key word greenhouse?

I think you're right, camp.


This quote is from the How To Grow Stuff site:

How to Plant Peppers:
1. Many gardeners plant transplant their seedlings too early. Wait until the soil is between 70-85 degrees. If the weather is still too cold, wait until it warms up. Cold weather can lead to the plant slowing down or becoming stunted.

My average high air temperatures didn't get to 70° until July last year!

I found this publication at Oregon State University for "recommended" Home Garden varieties. There are some varieties that show do well here.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/node/1088

A Greenhouse might help for starters. They need lots of heat (warm temps) and adequate light. We basically have neither in the PNW that is dependable (a short season). So a greenhouse for the extra higher temps (maybe some bottom heat with a heat mat) and a growers lighting system (spendy) would help if you want to get an early start with them.

After that, it's all about the cultural methods like janezee described (pinching the flowers off to delay fruit development). And like camp described for having adequate air and soil temps (they don't like cold feet) when you set them out in the beds. As you get towards fall, you might need to put hoops over them to help continue providing higher soil temps to extend the season too.

It's doable but takes a lot of extra work. But if you like peppers, it's all worth it, right?

---Dave

Here's another publication from the Univ. of Arkansas. There is a very good question/answer discussion included which address cultural problems. Specifically it verifies the removal of the first set of blossoms (like janezee said). Apparently if not done the plant will be stunted. And other potential problems and how to address them are included too. Seems to be very informative.

http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/PDF/FSA-6015.pdf

dsfin wrote:Here's another publication from the Univ. of Arkansas.
http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/PDF/FSA-6015.pdf

Very good article Dave...thanks for sharing.

Dave

Hi there
I live in central british columbia and I had a huge bumper crop of red bell peppers.
Raised beds, the mix I used was quite similar to Mels Mix, (I will adjust this year) I ended up with far more peppers than I could deal with.
I started them indoors and coddled them along until May and then they were slow to get going, but once they did they just took off.

I read somewhere halfway through the year about pruning the bushes and I believe that helped a lot.
In the end I did not know what to do with them all, so I black roasted them and then took the skins off and froze them, and I have bags of them.

The other thing I did, was.... when the first frost came I took all the plants and cut the off at the base and put them in "Vases" in my basement ( actually large paint containers) and they ripened over the next 2 months, a couple of peppers a day.

GWN wrote: The other thing I did, was.... when the first frost came I took all the plants and cut the off at the base and put them in "Vases" in my basement ( actually large paint containers) and they ripened over the next 2 months, a couple of peppers a day.

Whoohoo, I love that! Thanks so much for the encouragement!

jane

GWN wrote:
The other thing I did, was.... when the first frost came I took all the plants and cut the off at the base and put them in "Vases" in my basement ( actually large paint containers) and they ripened over the next 2 months, a couple of peppers a day.

That is a really good trick. I like that .

GWN, didn't you say that you get real cold in winter and real hot in summer? Help us out here, I need consolation!

Last year's Regional Host for Canada was from Prince George; that's pretty central; are you anywhere close?

Well, well, well. What to do. I take the kids to the Home and Garden Idea fair at the Clark County Expo center every year because it's free and they have lots of stuff for the kids to do. A couple of years ago they got to plant green bell pepper seedlings into a peat pot and take them home. One of them survived long enough to be planted in a pot outside, where it was fairly neglected and left on the east side of the house where it only got morning sun. It actually grew two peppers, but they both had blossom end rot (I've since learned).

Maybe I'll see if the local Master Gardeners office can recommend a variety. Couldn't I make a cloche out of a 2 litre soda bottle for the baby plant to keep it warmer in the spring?

GWN wrote:The other thing I did, was.... when the first frost came I took all the plants and cut the off at the base and put them in "Vases" in my basement ( actually large paint containers) and they ripened over the next 2 months, a couple of peppers a day.

Nifty idea! I assume you kept water in the vases, right?

no water in the vases
All the peppers ripened at their own rate and so we had fresh peppers for about 2 months after the first frost.
Sure miss them now

that's fascinating to me that they ripened without water! Does they need to be kept in a cool area, like a basement, a cool, dark area? What's the criteria? And do you know what other veggies might handle this treatment?

I have done it for 2 years now, neither my hubby nor I can eat green peppers, so the HAVE to ripen.
I keep then in a variety of rooms of different temperatures, that way they will ripen at different speeds, thus I will always have peppers to eat.
They were cut off at the base of the plant when the peppers were still green
I will include a couple of photos

WOW!! is all I can say!!

Ha-v-v wrote:WOW!! is all I can say!!

+1 Lot's of nice lookin peppers

GWN, what a great way to finally get ripe peppers here in the PNW, cause we don't have enough heat for them to ripen well outdoors. (though I had quite a few that managed to survive, even when due to health reasons I did not go near them for two months)

Thanks for sharing this tip.

GWN, That is AWEsome!

And here I was thinking of planting them all in pots so I could bring them inside. This is way better.

Thanks!
j

nKedrOoStEr wrote:

Ha-v-v wrote:WOW!! is all I can say!!

+1 Lot's of nice lookin peppers

+2 .....now to get them to blossom

I want to grow more peppers this year.