Next to my own ripe homegrown tomatoes, sweet peppers are my very favorite vegetable to plant. I love the yellow, the green, the red, even the purple. I like bell, but I love banana peppers.
I grow sweet peppers and have been since childhood because I enjoy eating them and using their flavor in cooking. I guess I continued my mother’s list of “must-haves” for my own veggie patch!
Peppers are so easy to grow, and it is fun to pick your own. I have a number of reasons for growing these in a home garden :
- Free from pesticides and chemicals,
- Fresh, with more nutrition
- Choosing my own varieties
- Good companions for tomatoes and don’t take much growing space.
- Easy and located steps from my kitchen.
I admit to usually getting started plants from my local greenhouse, but they are similar to tomatoes to start from seed. You will have more choices of variety when starting your own, plus more plants for less money.
‘Hungarian Sweet Wax’, or “banana” peppers, as my first choice. This year, though, I helped my grandson start a variety called ‘Gypsy Hybrid’.
How Do You Like Your Peppers?
Besides the difference in heat, I mean. When growing sweet types that are mild in flavor, do you like them crispy and green, mildly ripened and mellow yellow, or sweet rich red with just a hint of tang? I enjoy them all ways and the only difference is how long they stay on the plant.
When red they make the best roasted pepper dishes, and add a sparkle of color to salads. I like yellow banana peppers sliced on sandwiches or tossed in my famous Hungarian Paprikash. However you like to eat them, they are simplicity itself to grow, harvest, and use.
Nitty Gritty Growing Directions
- Full Sun
- Well drained, neutral soil:Â pH of 5.5 to 6.8
- Regular, average moisture
If starting from seed:
- 8-10 weeks before last spring frost in your area, put the seeds into small pots or plant cells with growing medium. (¼ to ½ inch deep)
- Keep warm, maybe using a heat mat, since they need 70° for good germination.
- Ten days before planting, begin the hardening off process.
- Transplant into the garden at the same time as tomato plants (warm soils). Water gently. I like to protect the new plants – you can use paper toilet rolls, cut off plastic bottles or clay drainage pipes, just to protect from winds, etc.
- Fertilize after fruits begin to set.
Transplanting Starts
- Cultivate a fertile, sun filled garden spot.
- Add some fertilizer to the soil a couple weeks before planting.
- When at least 4 to 6 inches tall, remove plants from pots and plant at soil line, maybe slightly deeper.
- They don’t take much space, and grow uprightly. Space approximately 18″ apart, I like the plant them in squares, one in each corner, not far from my tomatoes.
- Keep weeded and fertilize. Beware of excess nitrogen. A blossom producing, tomato or flower fertilizer is best.
As I said, I like to buy transplants. Varieties?
Sweet Banana Pepper is an elongated type (shown in the picture at the top of the post) of fruit. It has a mild piquant flavor and is great for eating fresh or added to salads or stews. Turns yellow when ripe.
Mini Bell Blend are small sized, but a tasty variety in a bell type of shape.
Giant Szegedi is one I personally want to try, but haven’t grown yet.
California Wonder is the old standby that I usually plant.
About Those Pepper Plants
Plants grow to about 2 feet tall. The fruits mature in 60 to 95 days.
Tender perennials, they will produce until frost, and then the plant dies.
Smart Tips And Info
Winds or high temps can cause blossoms to drop, this is the most prevalent reason for peppers not to set fruit.
Loving loamy soil, add humus from compost or leaf mold for high quality production.
These plants benefit from raised beds.
5-10-10 fertilizer formulation is a guide for good fruit and blossom set.
They love manure and compost teas. Careful about the nitrogen content though.
Organic mulches can be helpful, though not necessary.
Capsicum stops producing when night temperatures are 70°F or higher. When nighttime temperatures drop below that, they will again bloom and fruit.
Why do I plant peppers next to my tomatoes?
Glad you asked that…
Similar water and fertilizer needs, and the tall tomato plants provide some needed shading during the height of my Midwestern summers.
If you need sources for seeds or plants try these:
Burpee’s has delicious “Thunderbolt” exclusively, with exceptional flavor.
You might like plant supports for your abundant harvest.
Let me know what varieties you are planning to grow and how your harvests turn out ( if you can’t comment here, be sure to visit my Facebook page and leave pictures and your garden reports on there.
