Peppers

Chillis and peppers like a long hot summer. You are probably trying to grow them in a climate that is too cold and/or has a growing season too short. For the warmest four months of the year what is the typical minimum night time and day time temperature?

David

Most likely, David is right. You may want to look into making row covers, or cold frames for them.

I haven't got a clue what Zone 5 is but I would have thought that the geographic location you give means that you either wouldn't get enough summer heat to grow bell peppers aka capsicum, or your growing season is too short for them to mature. But really, I haven't a clue - will read responses with interest.

If I read it correctly winter temperature drops down to around -25C (-15F). This doesn't tell you directly what summer is likely to be but it isn't promising.

London Ontario here. Zone 5. Someone tried to convince me that we'd become zone 5b or even 6 but it's really zone 5 most years.

We start peppers indoors in March or early April and keep them under cover in the fall.

Try growing a different shaped sweet pepper -- like "Gypsy", or one of the Italian frying peppers. I've never had good luck with bell peppers or pimentos.

I think peppers get confused by the extremely long days during the summer if you get too far from the tropics. My hot peppers always come on strong in the early fall when the days start getting noticeably shorter, even if the plants were big and blooming already during the summer months. Of course, by the time they put on a big flush of growth and blooms, there's not much time left before the first frost.

I usually have good crops of hot peppers, but last year I had a total crop failure because the unseasonable weather all summer long (cold when it should have been hot, hot when it should have been cold, rain at the wrong times.) Fixin' to start my seeds to try it again this year.

Bob zone 4, Minnesota