Growing Peppers

Bell peppers are one of my favorites but I have had very little consistant success with them. The photo above shows a pepper I was able to grow last year (2010) but I did not grow the plant from seed and was actually given the plant from a friend. This year, I am going to try to grow them from seed like I do with everything else. The tricky part is being patient with the seed as it takes twice as long to germinate and needs to be covered by a quarter inch of soil.
I am using Burpee Carnival Mix seed as, like with the carrots, I love unusual colored vegetables and this mix will yield red, yellow, purple, white and orange peppers. Rather than using the Jiffy pots as I did with my tomatoes, I am planting five seed into three four inch pots of soil mix. I would use Jiffys but I am currently all out. After planting the seed, I carefully watered the pots and placed a plastic sandwich bag over the top of each pot to hold in the moisture and create a mini greenhouse. Now, I just need to be patient and not bother them too much.

Like tomatoes, peppers need heat to grow, flower, and set fruit. I have never grown hot peppers but I have read that they require long hot summers to make their fruits produce the heat that they are known for. I like hot peppers but would rather try to master the mild and sweet bell peppers before I go in that direction. I would also need to purchase the equipment neccessary to make cold Western Washington summers similar to hot Mexican summers.



Next post: Tomato update.