Hello all,

I've never in my seven years! of gardening been able to get a bell pepper plant to grow more than 18 inches or so high and produce more than two misshapen fruit. But I have great success with non-bell shaped peppers (I don't know the proper name), both sweet and hot. Any suggestions as to why?

The growing conditions... In ground no till compost amended maybe some organic fertilizer loam soil about 80% full sun. I haven't yet tried them in containers - maybe next year. Generally my container pepper are more productive than in ground (and more expensive) probably because I give them a good amount of different types of organic fertilizer.

I did a lot better with expensive hybrid seeds, compared to open pollinated bells.

I have the same luck. Could never grow bell peppers. I've only ever got 1 pepper after years of trying. Now Jalapeno peppers? I can't use them all. I could never figure out what I was doing wrong. I'll be following this thread with interest,

For years I couldn't grow bell peppers and gave up. Then I read some article that said bells are hard to grow in a lot of parts of the US Southeast due to the heat. It suggested the longer frying type peppers like Gypsy, Marconi etc. By golly, those types grew wonderfully well along with jalapenos! I can say that I've now successfully grown a few bells here and there by growing them in a bed that only gets sun from noon to about 6pm in the summer. However, high temps probably aren't @Salaam 's problem so I don't know what else to say. The frying types still do a lot better.

I see that you are in Ottawa (probably the same zone as me). I'm wondering if you start them early enough? For years, I used to start all my tomato seeds and then think about the peppers and start them afterwards. It took me a few years before I learned that it's really best to start peppers a couple of weeks BEFORE tomatoes so that they won't be so tiny when set out. It really helps .

Linda

I never had luck growing bells, with all the peppers I have grown - the fruits I would get would end up thin fleshed, and generally small, yet Cuban peppers, and similar types, grew fine! They were all prone to pepper maggots, so I stopped growing them, long before I learned how to deal with maggots. I might try some in SIPs, under cover, to see if that will result in better peppers.

it is hit and miss here.
some varieties do better than others. staddons select, and yolo wonder did very well
last year grown in ground. peppers here don't really take off until mid july onward when the weather
finally starts to heat up. i usually have better luck with the frying type peppers, and conical peppers.
the last few years, i have been growing some peppers, and tomatoes in three to five gallon pots in the bed of
my truck. the pots are black. the bed liner is black, and the pots are on cinder blocks that are there for weight
when i use the truck to plow snow in the winter. too lazy to take the blocks in and out of the truck, so there they
stay. the end result is a nice warm environment. i just need to keep up watering, and fertilizing.
i do not have any bell peppers in the truck this year. i just have some hots growing that i want to save seed from.
the plants are all much bigger than the ones growing in the garden. i started these peppers in february, a full month
before the other peppers due to the age of the seeds. they were eight years old, and took two weeks or longer to sprout.
i only use the truck during the winter for plowing, so the plants stay in the truck bed all summer.
if you don't have a spare truck, you could try growing your peppers in pots on cement or black plastic placed on the
ground. if you have a brick house, have the pots near the brick for additional heat if heat is what you need.
try different things or different varieties until you find something that works. somethings gotta.


keith

I think heat is why I can't grow bells - things like California Bells are designed for cooler weather, and it just gets to hot here anymore! My hot peppers, otoh, love it!

Bell Peppers have done well here, at least in late spring and on into early summer. Crusader, Yolo Wonder, Red Knight, have all done well. Eventually, the heat of full mid-summer tamps down production. My Crusader Bell peppers were especially huge, blocky and thick walled. Bell peppers seems to do better if the soil drains well.

In my experience, these particular bell peppers aren’t especially big and tall plants. Bigger than Shishito or Cayenne pepper plants, smaller than Jalapeños, Fresno, Santa Fe Grande,

I'll make a note of Crusaders - thanks @karstopography!

My pepper growing problems were the same until a little research convinced me the main problem was the pepper varieties I tried to grow did not fit my growing area. As soon as I began growing more short and mid-season peppers my harvests began to improve. Most popular pepper varieties are made for long season areas.

The other method that has made an improvement is to start the seeds about a month earlier than what I used to. For me plant out date is the first week of May. Tomatoes get started in March but I start peppers now in February with heat mats under them the entire time.
Not mostly bells but this is today's harvest with many other days just like it.

I blame the soil for my woes.
My cousin had huge bell peppers like you buy in the store,he let me dig them up just before frost hit.
I over- wintered indoors and put them in my garden the next year.
The peppers came out the size of plums.
Even store bought plants this year like the giant marconi didn't do well.
Tomatoes did fine.

One plant is the same size as when I bought it 4 months ago.

Bell peppers are sensitive to sunscald even in a moderate climate.
1. Sunshade in the hot months helps a lot.
2. Also they greatly, and I mean greatly, benefit from pruning. So 2-4 main stems. Let's say 2 branches. You let the initial two ones at the first flower. Everything below away. Then at every flower, when it tries to make two branches you cut one. It matters which you cut, the one going outwards is always a bit stronger, so cut the smaller one.
3. I think this may be overlooked, but you absolutely need to cut the first pepper, and possibly fruit prune also after. So for our example of 2 main branches, you cut the first fruit then you let the next two (one on each branch), then cut the next two, and then let, etc. If you have a long season this will ensure a continuous production of nice thick walled pepper.
4. Have long season. Important if you want to let them ripe, I recommend the cream ones which are picked unripe, you can get a lot more production out of those (different taste and uses though).
5. Good water. They need consistent moist soil, don't let them dry out.

Since this is a lot of work, at least keep at it for the first month after branching, then let them do whatever.

I recommend "Alliance" and "Declaration" hybrids; see my post in the "favorite pepper" thread for details. Peppers do need fertilizer, so be sure you're fertilizing adequately. A balanced fertilizer with somewhat less nitrogen than phosphorus and potassium is a good choice, e.g. 5-10-10. You'll want to fertilize at planting and at least one more time in the season, maybe more depending on what kind of fertilizer you use. You'll see a lot of recommendations for adding Epsom salts but my personal experience with this has been poor and I won't do it again.

Peppers thrive in full sun (not sure what you meant by 80% sun), except in very hot climates where some afternoon shade can help. Also, peppers don't compete well with weeds and can get viral diseases from them, so be sure the area around the pepper plants is weed-free and mulched.

Are your plants sturdy and healthy but they just don't produce peppers, or are they spindly and weak, or do they have any disease symptoms?

I am in the boat with the non-bell growers. I tried a few years, but would get fairly few peppers per plant, maybe 10 for the whole season, and some of them would be bad - soft spots, rotting, anthracnose. I do much better with the frying peppers that don't try to form complex shapes. I have at times, but I generally don't trim them or knock off the first pepper, because they don't do much until mid-late summer. I weave them up in a string row and let them do their thing.

My brother bought some plants this year as I was short of starts. He bought bells, California wonder and another one, same looking thing to me. They were HUGE plants in comparison to my tiny starts. Some already had peppers on, which I told him to pick off, but I don't know if he did. He said he got peppers off of them, nice big bell peppers, looked great, but they don't taste nearly as good as my peppers.

@mama_lor thanks for that info. I should try some of those tips, but I can't imagine the pruning, not the way I grow them now in double rows, at 1 foot per plant. But maybe. I' usually never really LOOK at them as individual plants while they are growing. Just to decide if they are tall enough as a group to weave. I usually do 1 or 2 florida weave, and then what I call a box-diamond. That is a string around the outside of the double rows (box) and then string woven between the plants and looping the box, like a stitch. It gives plenty of support for plant and fruit. After that the only work is not to cut the strings when picking all the peppers.

For sure, I do need to start them earlier, but I am like a slug in February and March. I am worn out that time of year. Reverse hibernation, I call it. A bear sleeps and gets skinny. I sleep and make pizza and quesadillas and get fatter.

Rockoe10 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 am I've only ever got 1 pepper after years of trying. Now Jalapeno peppers? I can't use them all.

Poppers. Poppers. Poppers. And then, after those, more Poppers.

I have a lot of advice on this topic (at least if you live in the North)!

We didn't have trouble with bell peppers when I was a kid (on the same property), but we've had trouble with them for years, until I figured out some things.

1. Use good soil, if you have it. They grow a lot better in some soil than other soil.
2. Use either black plastic or shredded wood mulch (laid on thick; a scanty amount isn't much better than no mulch at all). If the soil dries out too quickly or too much, it can really be a problem for bell peppers. This step makes a world of difference. I prefer black plastic, for peppers, as it seems to be less work, especially for over the first half of the season.
3. Fertilize regularly. It really seems to help.
4. Don't grow them in containers, nor in raised beds that prevent the roots from growing very deep. Well, I'm sure with great soil and care you can get great results, but if you don't have that, I don't recommend containers for bell peppers.
5. Water often.
6. Grow varieties that resist sunscald better. It's no fun if when you finally find a prolific one if they all get sunscald. And on that note, you might consider just not giving them quite as much sun, too (although I haven't tested that with bell peppers in particular, partial shade, or growing on a line between sun and shade can be great).
7. Don't grow purple bell peppers (if your area is like mine). They seem to be a lot more difficult in my area for some reason. Yellow and orange ones seem to be the easiest.

I think the reason we had success with them when I was younger was because we tended to buy the plants, and store-bought plants are often big enough to have a headstart (which is highly beneficial). I start mine later than is ideal for peppers, I think.

It’s funny that you mention bell peppers. I get some but not a lot in zone 6 Mass. Hot peppers on the other hand, no problem. Big plants, lots of peppers.

You might want to think about over wintering some of your pepper plants to get a head start next year. I’ve done this successfully. Just change the soil so you don’t introduce bugs.

Wow, a lot of varied advice. Isn't it interesting how everyone's situation is different! A lot of your suggestions I already do - start with large healthy starts, pinch off early flowers, etc.

Next year, I'll try to be a bit more methodical. I'll try some in fabric pots and some in ground, and I'll try my own seed starts and one or two store bought. Of course local varieties. And maybe I'll try pruning a bit as suggested.