Peppers
Bell pepper
Sweeter left to fully color.
- Indoors
- 8 to 10 wk (mid Mar)
- Outside
- Transplant after frost
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July; swings mean blossom end rot
- Harvest
- Jul to Oct, green or colored
Care
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July and August, about weekly in spring and fall. A long soak at the base until the top few inches are wet, then let it dry before the next. Bells read every swing as blossom end rot, so keep it even.
- Sow
- 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, cut the weaker at the soil line when true leaves show. Set plants 18 inches apart in the bed.
- Start inside
- Mat at 80 to 90F, sprouts in 7 to 8 days. Under the lights the moment they break ground, 14 to 16 hours; off the mat at the first true leaves. Outside after mid May, once nights hold 50F.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting carries the bed most of the season. A medium feeder, so side-dress once at fruit set, then ease off the nitrogen.
- Ready
- Full size with firm walls is good picked green; leave 2 to 3 more weeks on the plant for full color and more sweetness. Cut, do not pull, the branches snap.
- Trouble
- Sunken brown patch at the blossom end: blossom end rot from uneven water, soak deeply and evenly and ease off nitrogen. Flowers drop after a flood: let it dry back and it resets. Loaded branches snap in a storm: stake the plant early.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in July and August; bags dry far faster than a bed. 30 to 40 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- One plant per bag.
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 the bed, or one plant to a 5 to 7 gallon bag. 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.