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eaglesgarden

Sweet peppers in zone 6 - PA

eaglesgarden
13 years ago

I have had very good success with growing jalapenos for years. These guys just produce and produce, especially in the fall. But, I have not had any significant success with bells. I want to grow bells, because I love stuffed peppers and most of the other sweets don't have nearly the size or the thickness of flesh to allow for that.

Anyway, I need some help. What do sweet peppers need that is significantly different from my jalepenos? They get the exact same soil, sun, water, etc. Do the sweets need some matter of shade at parts of the day? Do they require an open ended hoop house to trap heat at night? What can I do to increase my bell output, if my jalepeno's are doing great.

Comments (7)

  • farmerdilla
    13 years ago

    Bells in general are more susceptible to diseases. You can look for modern bells with lots of disease tolerance or you try tghe sweet non bells. These seem to be more reliable than bells.
    {{gwi:43535}} {{gwi:112903}} {{gwi:19308}}

  • eaglesgarden
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    farmerdilla,

    What are those? They look a little thin for using as stuffed peppers, but the ones in the top picture certainly look like they are worth a try...

  • farmerdilla
    13 years ago

    If you rest the cursor on the photo, the variety name pops up. The first one is Italia (a hybrid version of Horn of the Bull), Second is La Rouge, third is Melrose an excellent old time Italian frying pepper. Carmen is also a popular hybrid Horn of the Bull type. Giant Marconi is another popular pepper slightly larger than La Rouge Royale. Sweet Spot (8 x 2 in) is a new hybrid with highly touted disease resistance, but I have not tried it yet.
    {{gwi:43468}} {{gwi:19295}} {{gwi:33348}}

  • eaglesgarden
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I'm usually an heirloom guy, but if this year's plans don't work out, I'm going hybrids! This year's plan is to try King of the North. If that fails, I will try hybrids and if that fails, then I will just get a reserved seat at the produce store!

  • Bruce_in_ct
    13 years ago

    I agree that sweet peppers are more difficult than chiles, but that horn-type sweet peppers are easier to grow than bells. Corno di Toro is the classic horn of the bull pepper for those wanting to stick with "heirloom" varieties. There are other red varieties too, plus yellow ones, and Seeds from Italy has a great selection. The prices might seem a little high, but the packs have a lot of seeds and properly stored pepper seeds are good for at least four years.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds from Italy - sweet peppers

  • eaglesgarden
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks to both of you!

    Great site... The prices are actually quite reasonable for that many seeds, but since I am looking at growing no more than a half a dozen of any variety, I don't have a need for that quantity. I figure I can just grow from a smaller number and if they do well, save some seeds from my plants that do the best.

    I will be using Marconi Red, this year. I considered the Corno di Toro, but I think that the Marconi's might be better for my purposes. I am still going to try King of the North as well, maybe I can have success with bells! This actually has me thinking that if I can grow these other peppers that I might be able to actually make my own pickled peppers to can! That would be awesome! Stuffed peppers might have to be something that I just modify significantly to accommodate new peppers. The Marconi's actually look great! They would probably be great in stir fry as well.

  • Blueupgreendown
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Im a new gardener, 2nd summer. i took an ogranic pepper from the store i had forgotten about and divided the slightly going bad flesh and seeds into 4 pots. Covered with potting soil. i must have gotten 200 sprouts. i thinned them to 4 thickest and least leggy sprouts per large pot. each plant gave me 6-8 medium size bell peppers. and i havent really learned about fertilizing yet. so those nutrients mostly came from the plant decomposing. i added bone meal at transplant and fertilized 1x week of planting with miracle grow extra diluted for new plants. dont have to water sprouts much since decomposition kept things damp. maybe 1/month till planting. planted them right next to onions that had aged manure dug into soil. if i knew much about fertilizing theyd have been bigger, but theyre nice and numerous.

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