Growing Bell Peppers

[singingdolphin81]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the group, and well, new to Google groups. I'm having a lot of fun, finding that these groups are very imformative and easy to use.

I am starting a Bell Pepper patch for this year's garden. I've started the seeds indoors (Karma - Red, Golden Summer - Yellow, Valencia (Orange) and Peppper Parks Whopper), but I don't have much expereince in caring for the plants once they get planted outside. Can anyone point me to a good website with some good 'growing' and 'care for' instructions? I'm mostly looking for watering, fertilizing, and staking tips and just over all 'caring for the plant' tips.

Also, is anyone famillar with the Karma Red Bell Pepper? I live in the mid-west... What kind of a yield can I expect to see from one plant and is this the best kind of Red bell to grow or is there a better kind? I've listed the four varieties that I'm growing (Red, Yellow, Orange and Green). It's not too late for me to start different kinds -- are the the best varieties of bells to grow?

Thanks!!

[Bill]

This is not a Google Group. It is a Usenet Newsgroup. You are only accessing it though Google's urine poor web interface.

Googling will produce others.

Bill

-- Gmail and Google Groups. This century's answer to AOL and WebTV.

[DigitalVinyl]

A key point to be careful of is the hardening processing... getting indoor seedlings acclimated to outside wind, temps and sun. Too much too soon and it really stunts the plant.

Yeilds can really vary. Some of mine were prolific little buggers..

18-20 bell peppers in a square foot container. Also depends upon if you're gonna wait for them to turn red. None of the varieties I've done reliably turned red. A few would start to color, but they sometimes had rot and damage on them. The ones that ripened to red for me usually were at the very end of the season(Sept-Oct).

For me, any good strong stake to let the main stem gro around worked. The weight of a full 2-3 foot tall pepper plant runs in pounds and summer storms can bend a heavy plant over.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

[Jim Carlock]

Do you mean one plant produced 18 to 20 at one time? Or do mean several plants produced 18 to 20 throughout a whole year? I got perhaps 18 to 20 serrano peppers off of one plant this year, but I pulled maybe a dozen at one time then waited a couple weeks to pull the other dozen. And it's got another dozen on the way. A cherry tomato plant seems to have worked wonders on it / for it, planted within an inch of each other.

Unfortunately each of my belle peppers produce a two or three peppers every 3 months. I'm tempted to put a tomato plant in with them to see what kind of effect that might have. I've planted green manure plants in with them (peas), and then some basil in with another. The basil grew really well so it appears that the belle peppers make a great companion plant for the lemon basil plant, but it's hard to say that works the other way.

Jim Carlock Post replies to the group.

[DigitalVinyl]

I went back to my records from 2003 I was wrong , it was the ground plant that produced that many

I had four bell pepper plants(same seeds) within 20 feet, all the same sun exposure.

Each bell pepper plant produced for the entire season as follows

... in a 30"x8" windowbox 4 peppers,last harvest sept 13 ... in a 12"x12"x12" square planter 10 peppers, last harvest sept 23 ... in a 36"x24" ground plot, against a wall with overhangs It was the only plant there 13 peppers, last harvest nov 3 ... in a 60"x36" ground plot, with many other plants around it I reserved an 18" square for the plant 25 peppers, last harvest nov 3

The largest of my plants was the last to give me it's first pepper Sept 3rd I got my first bell from my big plant. My smaller ones gave up a couple of peppers in mid-late august. Typically I would harvest them one at a time for the meal I was preparing. Late in the season I ended up grabbing multiple.

Smaller peppers were more prolific. Jalapenos could be harvested daily once a few plants get going. Cayenne/chili pepper plants produced more than I could use. My first year anaheims did poorly, but the next year I had a reasonable amount.

My biggest pepper was next to a 4th of July tomato. Last year none of my peppers did well but I was using a new planting area also. We also had an early heatwave that roasted some plants in spring, and my watering attention wasn't what it should have been.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,