No matter how many varieties I try, or how I grow them, I cannot get a bell pepper bigger than a tennis ball. And I only seem to get 2 or 3 peppers per plant. I don't understand this because I can grow hot peppers like crazy.
What is the secret to large, stuffing size bell peppers? Any help will be thankfully accepted.
John
-- Scared? Worried? Not any more!!!
In our last fun filled episode, Tue, 23 Sep 2003 06:32:14 GMT, pascarj proclaimed:
Hot peppers do seem to be hardier than bells, don't they? Where I used to live, the tress were slowly encroaching on my gardening space. Sunlight was becoming marginal for most vegetables, but I noticed that the hot peppers were much more forgiving of the shade than the bells. They also seem more resistant to common diseases like bacterial spot, and less prone to blossom end rot. Generally, mind you, not always or absolutely.
I think, but I won't swear to it, that all bell peppers are _C. annuum_. The more I grow peppers, the more it appears to me that _C. annuum_ is the least hardy of the pepper species. This could be a perspective problem, of course, _C. annuum_ has by far the most varieties of peppers; and it could be that the ones I select are among the least hardy.
First off, what is your general location/zone? Next what varieties have you tried? What's your garden like, as in, how do you prepare the soil? What, if any, fertilizers do you use?
Give us something to work with, and I bet someone here will have some solid suggestions.
Pam
I just 'till in some composted cow manure as soon as the ground thaws in the spring. Put the plants in when it's time and let 'em go. Always had good luck with bells. How's your soil? My garden also gets sun most of the day.
I'm not into fertilizing much other than the manure but old timers will tell you (if you are) not to fertilize bells before they have flowered. I don't know they why's and wherefores but that's what they maintain...
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