I recently tried planting seeds from a green pepper, and lo and behold, it worked! I have sproutlings. I will let you know if they produce. :)
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If you put a couple of matchsticks in the hole before you put your pepper plant in, you will be providing the plant with phosphorus, and you will get a more robust plant.
When I first started growing peppers, they were very thin walled, so thin walled that when just picking one, my fingers would break the walls. They were also very bitter.
When we plant green pepper plants, my husband always places 2 or 3 book matches in the bottom of the hole before planting. It must be the sulfur in the match heads, but whatever it is, the difference is amazing.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I think these are green pepper plants, am I too late in the year to get peppers and shouldn't I have yellow flowers first?
Normally green pepper plants have white flowers. The plants are still too young to have flowers. You need to grow them up more and make them stronger.
To make them stronger wait a little bit longer. Then cut off the top of the plant. This entices the plant to give new growth and makes the trunk of the plant stronger.
You need to put these plants in a larger pot. The plant only needs watering when the soil is really dry. During the winter months keep trimming the branches of your plants from time to time. The larger the plant, the healthier it is to produce and support green peppers.
To pollinate your pepper plants they need to be in a windy area. The wind pollinates the plant. If you don't have wind and see the new flowers on the plant, just give the plant a small shaking. This will pollinate the plant to produce peppers. Don't shake it too hard.
I grow a lot of pepper plants in Tahiti in our organic garden. The first year I started to grow peppers I made the mistake of letting the flowers turn to peppers. This was bad for my plants because they were too young and couldn't support the peppers. I ended up cutting the plants down and letting them grow stronger. For the first flowering I removed the flowers and didn't let them produce more pepper. Once my trunk of the plant was larger and stronger I then let the flowers produce pepper.
Hope this helps.
I don't know where you live. I'm in NY and am starting to get my peppers now. You do get a flower first. I fertilize with Miracle-Gro weekly.
You say you "think" these are green pepper plants so maybe someone gave them to you and you may not know the age of the plants.
I believe you should try moving them to a 5 gallon container as your pots look too small for a full grown pepper plant.
That looks like a tomato plant to me. It's getting pretty late in the season for either pepper or tomato plants but if the weather stays nice, you might get some fruit. I would leave it outside as long as possible.
These were not Green Peppers plants, turns out they are Cherry Tomatoes AND they have the pretties little green tomatoes you would want to see. The only trouble is, they are still green, am I to late in the year for them to ripen and get red ??
You can bring them inside and allow them to ripen in your garage or somewhere dark and cool. I have taken my unripe tomatoes and hung the entire plant upside down in my garage. I have also packed them in a cardboard box with newspaper. They have ripened either way. I remember that I still had some tomatoes around Christmastime.
Good luck, they look so pretty and will taste wonderful when ripe.
I just came upon this post, although you must have found out by now that the plant you have there is not s pepper plant but a tomato plant.
My red pepper plants just decided to wilt this week. They have plenty of water, sun, and warmth. I have blight is on nearby tomato plants. Will the baking soda, 2 tablespoons to a quart of water take care of both?
Hardiness Zone: 5a
By lois Velliquette from Port Clinton, OH
Some times cut worms cut the roots of pepper, if so it will die. You can do research online on "how to grow pepper", maybe that will help you, good luck.
Have you fertilized the little darlings? Peppers and tomatoes are both heavy feeders.
Blight on the tomatoes will not go away with a little baking soda, sad to say. It's rampant here too with all the rain we've had. The only thing is to poison the tomato plants. Copper sulphite. It works if it stops raining long enough. Use rubber gloves to trash any infected leaves and throw in the garbage.
All pepper plants need calcium. Where do you get it? Bone meal, about 1 tsp per plant every 2-3 weeks. Also never plant peppers in any starter that has peat. It stunts them for life. Take them indoors for wintering. Peppers can produce all year.
My plants were looking great and still do. I had 2 peppers, but both of them tuned brown and mushy on the bottom. I went ahead and threw them out.
By Janice S
It sounds like blossom end rot. The rot is caused by calcium deficiency in the plant. Over-watering, too much nitrogen or low calcium in the soil can be to blame. I have read adding lime to the soil can help, though I'm not sure when or how much.
I have to agree with blossom end rot. Do NOT water them every day. That is way to much water for a pepper plant. Also add some calcium to your soil. IE: crushed egg shells will do nicely here, and is a cheap solution.
Pepper blossom end rot is caused simply by a calcium deficiency in the pepper plant. Calcium is needed by the plant to help form the cell walls of the pepper fruit. If the plant is lacking calcium or if the pepper fruit grow too fast for the plant to supply enough calcium, the bottom of the pepper begins to rot, because the cell walls are literally collapsing.
The calcium deficiency in the plant that causes pepper blossom end rot is commonly caused by one of the following:
A lack of calcium in the soil
Periods of drought followed by large amounts of water
Over watering
Excess nitrogen
Excess potassium
Excess sodium
Excess ammonium
In the long term, adding eggshells, small amounts of lime, gypsum or bone meal to the soil will help improve the levels of calcium and will help you avoid pepper blossom end rot in the future.
Why are my pepper plant leaves curling up? I always have a veggie garden every year and my bell pepper and hot pepper plant leaves always curl up. I think I over water. They are on a drip system though. It comes on for an hour twice a day, once at 7 am and once at 6 pm. What I've researched online it sounds like I might be over watering, but could I also may be under watering? Help please. I will attach a picture below.
By Juliekaylee from Oroville, CA
There is a guy in your city/county offices that can tell you what is wrong. I think his title is "agricultural" something or other. You could also try a local nursery or someone in your area that has been gardening for a long time. It may be something in the soil that needs to be treated with an additional nutrient. So it may have nothing to do with your watering at all. But whom ever you go to talk to take a picture with you or better yet a piece of leaf.
This sounds like stress. Curling leaves can happen if you set your pepper plants out before it's warm enough. Give them a chance to recover. And make sure the soil is moist enough a couple of knuckles down.
I am starting my first veggie garden. I would like tips on growing green, red, and yellow peppers.
Hardiness Zone: 8b
By cindi
One year I planted sweet corn in a square and planted the bell peppers inside the square and watered and watered. The peppers seemed to like the water and the shade. I would recommend a mulch to hold the moisture, but the peppers do like the water and the heat and the light shade.
My girfriend swears by epsoms salt to grow her peppers nice and big. This year I am going to try it.
I would say start with a small amount like a teaspoon spread around the perimeter of the plant but not on it or too close to it.
Good Luck and hope you have a great pepper crop this year.
One of my bell pepper plants got too much water from all the rain and now it's wilted. Will it come back or what can I do? They are in five gallon buckets and yes they have holes in them.
Hardiness Zone: 9a
By patrick from Pensacola, FL
Sounds like it might be blight, which is a fungal infection that can spread quickly when the weather is wet. Remove the affected leaves from the garden and treat with a fungicide. That might not save them, but it is worth a try.
Container plants get starved for nutrition as well. They cannot reach out to area soil to get what they need. I did container tomatoes and found I had to add iron each week.
I have one very nice bell pepper about 5 inches long, and the very end or tip is turning black. Any idea why?
By Tamara K.
Its probably overwatered
When are bell peppers ready to pick?
By ouida (WEE-DA)
You can pick them when they are green or wait until they turn red. They are supposed to be sweeter when red, but you have to leave them on the vine quite a while for that to happen, which means you will get less peppers unless you pick them when green.
I want to make sure the green peppers have grown as large as they are going to grow, so as soon as I see a patch of red on them, that is when I pick them.
I am looking for the best bell pepper growing tips. Mine just do not want to grow well. I have tried to grow sweet (bell) peppers for years. Most years I get none at all, this year I got about 6, all at once. Is this normal for this plant? I like the red and orange ones. The green ones give me indigestion, so the waiting for them to ripen is very difficult.
By Eileen M. from Elk Grove, CA
They love magnesium. When you plant your peppers, put some Epsom salts in the hole where they are planted. Epsom salts are full of magnesium. Also put a couple of teaspoons in a spray bottle and then fill with water. When the plants begin to bloom, shake the bottle and spray your blooms a few times a week. You should have beautiful big peppers.
My bell pepper plants don't ever seem to grow more than a foot tall and do not give me more than one puny pepper. I water it regularly. What am I doing wrong?
By Marisa
Bell peppers like it very warm day and night. Make sure that it is also getting full sun.
Do peppers like lime and Epsom salts?
Hardiness Zone: 6a
By robert madden from Brunswick, OH
Tomatoes crave magnesium - which is what epson salt is. Peppers - I don't know
Can I grow a single red bell pepper in a pot, or do I need to have twp plants for pollination?
By Ginny from Henderson, TN
Check out these photos.
Bell peppers are surprisingly easy to grow and don't require a lot of space to produce a good harvest. This is a page about how to grow gorgeous bell peppers.
When you are new to gardening it can be confusing knowing just when to harvest your produce. This is a page about, "When are bell peppers ready to pick?".
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
Does any one have a picture of what green bell peppers look like when they are growing? What does the plant look like?
