Peppers
Bell pepper
5–7 galSweeter left to fully color.
- Indoors
- 8 to 10 wk (mid Mar)
- Outside
- Transplant after frost
- Where
- Grow bag or raised bed
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dead even; swings mean blossom end rot
- Harvest
- Jul to Oct, green or colored
Sweet bells hold their spot by doing what store peppers do not: ripening to full color on the plant. Started in mid March with the rest of the pepper bench, they give green fruit from July and real color from late August.
Growing
Give bells the full 8 to 10 weeks indoors from mid March; small sturdy transplants catch up, leggy ones never do. Out after frost into a 5 to 7 gallon bag or the bed, one plant each. Steady, even water is most of the job, since bells show every drought as blossom end rot and every flood as dropped flowers. A short stake saves loaded branches, which snap at the crotch in an August storm. Full color costs two to three more weeks on the plant than green, so grow enough plants to afford picking some early.
Varieties
King of the North was bred for exactly this length of season; Ace ripens red reliably even in a cool summer; Flavorburst goes gold instead.
In the kitchen
Green ones go to the grill and get stuffed; the red and gold ones rarely make it into the house whole. A late-season glut chars, peels, and freezes flat for winter.