"Growing peppers
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Growing peppers is ideal in a small space or where space is limited. They are a great family crop and the children will love them! Sweet peppers and hot spicy peppers come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours.
Pepper plants are kind of 'cute' plants! They grow into miniature bushes with glorious coloured fruits sprinkled over them.
If you are buying plants rather than growing peppers from seed, buy the plants from a good supplier and make sure the foliage is deep green and the plants look strong and healthy.
Growing peppers - positioning.
Don't plant your peppers in soil that grew potatoes or tomatoes the previous year. They belong to the same plant family and could pick up diseases in the soil.
To avoid cross-pollination, keep sweet peppers and hot peppers away from each other!
Peppers like the morning sun. Long periods in direct hot sunlight will damage the foliage. They grow well in containers on patios near the house.
Peppers are originally a tropical plant and like to grow in warm soil. The soil should be well drained and your pepper plants should be planted in late spring when the soil has significantly warmed up.
Growing peppers from seed
I've always grown peppers from seed and never found it a chore. Thompson & Morgan have a broad range of peppers available online.
Sweet Peppers:
"Gypsy"
"Jumbo"
"Summer Salad"
Growing peppers in the UK -sweet
Growing peppers in the US -sweet
For deliveries to all other countries, start from their homepage here Thompson & Morgan
Hot Peppers:
"Firecracker"
"Mild"
"Thai Dragon"
Here are the 'hotlinks' to the hot pepper pages:
Growing hot peppers in the UK
Growing hot peppers in the US
Start your peppers off fairly late in the spring. Although it's tempting to get them going early, I've always found the small plants' growth was restricted by cold temperatures and although those plants may well reach full maturity, they don't tend to produce so much fruit. So wait a little while!
Plant seed in shallow trays of seed compost and keep moist. Make sure trays are well-drained. Don't allow the roots of the new pepper plants to sit in water.
When the plants are a few inches and have 3 or 4 true leaves, re-pot them into separate containers ready for planting out later in the garden. Ordinary flower pots or any plastic pots will do, as long as they drain well. There are a number of pots on the market you can buy these days that are planted along with the plant it contains. These pots decompose naturally, and also let you handle the plants without fear of damaging the roots. Your local garden centre will probably have some.
Once you've re-potted your pepper plants, keep warm and watered and wait for the best day to plant outside. Check your local growing guides and regional zones for exact timings, asking other local gardeners will give you a good idea. Mostly use your own instinct. It's your garden, live with nature for a while and you'll soon 'just know' when the time is right!
Lots of gardeners believe you should plant out during the days when the moon starts to wane.
The gravitational downward pull helps to establish a good root structure. Sounds good :-)
Growing peppers - planting out
Prepare your soil and remove all weeds. Plant the pepper plants about 12 inches apart. Check on your seed packet for any special instructions.
Peppers generally grow in tight little bushes and you can dot them around in the garden rather than planting out in lines if you prefer.
Water in well, and keep weed-free and watered during the growing period. Once the little bushes have grown they don't suffer very much with weeds. The foliage protects the soil around them from alien plants.
Slugs like young plants in general and you should keep an eye on possible slug attacks during the early weeks.
Broken eggshells around plants help keep slugs away.
Growing peppers - looking after them
Peppers do not like lengthy periods of extreme heat and you should shade your plants if weather conditions are extreme.
Water well but don't allow soil to become boggy.
Keep weed and slug-free in the early weeks and you will be rewarded with an abundant crop of peppers!
If your soil is 'tired' or lacking in minerals, feed the plants after they've been a couple of weeks in the ground with an organic fertilizer. Try comfrey; spread the leaves around the plants from time to time during the growing season. Or if you like the idea of producing your own FREE organic fertilizer, read about 'The Comfrey Feed' on this page....
Comfrey Feed
Growing peppers - The harvest
It is advisable to wait until your peppers are fully mature on the plant before picking them. However, this means you'll have piles of peppers all at once.
As soon as the peppers are a reasonable size, start eating them. Some varieties may have a slightly softer or even tougher skin during this immature phase, but you will find the ones that suit you.
Twist the tops gently and if the pepper breaks off easily in your hand, it's ripe. If it doesn't but you still want to eat it, use a pair of sharp secateurs to remove it from the plant. You'll do less damage using a sharp tool than twisting and pulling at the fruits.
Chop up into the salad bowl all through the summer months, then collect all the peppers from the plants before the first frosts.
They will store for a couple of weeks in the chilling compartment of the refridgerator, sometimes much longer, but you will probably have to give lots away!!
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Cooking doesn’t have to be a chore and preparing nourishing home cooked meals for the family will certainly keep them away from the goodie shelf. Gardening encourages physical exercise and a good healthy dollop of fresh air. And you can get the kids involved too.
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