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Post by daylilydude on Dec 28, 2013 18:24:55 GMT -5
Every year I plant bell peppers and all I ever get is maybe 2 or 3 peppers on a plant, now banana peppers go crazy for me, it's just the bell peppers. Now I was wanting to know from some of you bell pepper experts is the following: 1. Is there a particular one that you plant because of it's crazy production? 2. Is there a particular fertilizer you use whether organic or not?
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Post by ladymarmalade on Dec 28, 2013 22:00:06 GMT -5
King Of The North and Ace both do really well for me here in the north as far as bell peppers go. They often have time to turn red on the plant as well, which makes for an even tastier pepper.
As for fertilizer, peppers love dead fish. The best fertilizer I ever used was the waste water from my fish tank. The years I had the fish tanks up and running were my best gardening years hands down. I'm sure fish emulsion works similarly.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 28, 2013 22:50:29 GMT -5
Do you have a nematode problem there? I can't get bell peppers to do squat for me in the ground, no matter how I feed them, and I am pretty sure it's due to the nematodes. Bells are just not as tough as the hot peppers or even the smaller mild peppers. Most of the hots I have grown will yield fairly well even if they are under some stress, but bells need all conditions favorable to produce a good crop. I grow all of my peppers in Earthboxes now. They do quite well, and I get several big, fat, juicy bell peppers per plant. (I'd get a bunch more if I could keep the anthracnose under better control during the hottest months.) Maybe you should experiment with a couple of plants in containers (and take precautions to be absolutely sure that the containers are kept free of nematodes) and compare them to your in-ground plants? If your container peppers do better, and you only need a few bell pepper plants per year, growing them in containers may be the easiest solution. As to variety, I have grown Baron (red, formerly known as Red Beauty), Early Sunsation (yellow), Flavorburst (yellow), and King Arthur (red) from seed in Earthboxes. They are all pretty good. However, much as I prefer to grow my own plants from seed, I found that the Bonnie Red and Bonnie Yellow bell peppers from transplants - yeah from the big box stores - were just as good, maybe even a little better. I also grew California Wonder (red) years ago and I wasn't impressed, but I haven't tried it in an Earthbox yet so I can't judge it fairly. One of these years I am going to remember to bag flowers on the Bonnie peppers and try saving seed.
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swamper
Pro Member
Posts: 208
Joined: March 2011
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Post by swamper on Dec 29, 2013 13:46:12 GMT -5
pH too high can correlate with low fruiting, 6 is a good target. Also too much nitrogen can reduce flowering and fruiting. In my part of the world there is no such thing as too much sun for peppers, but close plant spacing can be a good thing to prevent sunscald here. That said, ask successful regional & local sources what varieties work for them. Stocky Red Roaster is getting good reviews from a noted Alabama grower.
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desertrat
Pro Member
Posts: 143
Joined: October 2011
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Post by desertrat on Jan 31, 2014 14:46:18 GMT -5
I've never had good luck with bell peppers but I do grow some sweet peppers that I really like and for me at least are much more productive. My favorites are Red Marconi, very good flavor. The first fruits are quite large but get smaller but they are so productive I don't care. They also produced all summer in spite of 115+ deg. heat during the hottest summer on record, I cover them with shade cloth to prevent sunscald. Another one I like that does produce consistently larger fruit is Large Sweet Antigua, a great tasting sweet with nice thick walls and they also survived the summer and right now one plant is loaded up with at least 25 fruit in various stages of ripening (I prefer the taste of fully ripe but can be used green). The plants have to be supported or they'll fall over it's so heavy with fruit. Another good productive sweet pepper is Melrose. Looks like a green chili but not hot, I also like Tequils Sunrise, a jalapeno sized sweet yellow pepper which is a smaller plant that would do well in a large pot. I do have a couple orange bells started to try this year as I've heard good things about them, if it doesn't produce well I'll probably give up on bells altogether.
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