When to Harvest Peppers • Mild peppers and hot peppers can be harvested when they reach full size and are fully colored, or they can be harvested as soon as they reach a usable size. Peppers can be eaten at just about any stage of development. • Mild peppers commonly get sweeter as they mature….
Chili Peppers
Pepper Growing Quick Tips
Sowing and Transplanting: Transplant pepper seedlings to the garden 2-3 weeks after the last frost. Sow seed indoors 8-10 weeks before transplanting to the garden. Sow seed directly in the garden only in long-summer regions Start seed indoors in a warm, well-lighted location—in a bright window or under grow lights. Sow 1-2 seeds ¼” (6…
Peppers, Melons, Eggplants—Hate the Cold
Cool days and nights can be a problem for tender warm-season crops such peppers, melons, and eggplants. Temperatures in the 40sF won’t kill these plants but their growth will be stunted. Wait to plant out very tender crops until the lowest temperatures do not fall below 50°F/10°C—55 or 60 degrees is even better. If you…
Fertilizer for Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplants
Summer fruiting crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants will benefit from a side-dressing of fertilizer when they first set fruit and every 4 to 6 weeks thereafter. Feed fruiting crops that have flowered and set fruit with liquid balanced fertilizers such as compost tea, comfrey tea or solid organic fertilizers in powder, pellet, or…
How to Choose a Chili Pepper for Heat, or Not
The potent spicy heat you experience eating chili peppers is caused by capsaicin, a colorless, odorless, waxy compound found in the white pith of the pepper’s inner wall where the seeds are attached. Capsaicin is an irritant to most mammals—including humans; the sensation it leaves when it comes in contact with mucus membranes of most…
Peppers Planting: Easy Steps to a Bumper Crops
To get a bumper crop from your pepper plants, you must dedicate yourself to helping the plants thrive. Pepper plants are more temperamental than tomatoes—they demand warm temperatures, even soil moisture, feeding, and support—literally. Here are 10 steps that will all but guarantee sweet and hot pepper growing success. (But don’t turn your back peppers…
Epsom Salt, Tomato, and Pepper Growing
Epsom salt used as a foliar spray or soil additive will help tomato and pepper plants grow and produce larger, tastier yields. Late in the season use an Epsom salt spray to increase tomato and pepper yield and keep plants green and bushy; early in the season add Epsom salt to the soil to aid…
Mid-Season Pepper Problem Cures
Peppers are tropical plants and can be temperamental–especially the further they grow away from the tropics. They demand warm temperatures—not too cool and not too hot, organically rich soil, and even soil moisture—not too little and not too much. Give peppers these optimal conditions and they will produce until the first frost in autumn. …
How to Grow Salsa
Tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, and cilantro, basil, or parsley: the basic ingredients of salsa crudas, fresh salsa. Here’s how to make fresh salsa: Core and cut two medium ripe tomatoes, add one clove of garlic minced, add half a white or red onion diced, add a jalapeno, Serrano, or green or red bell pepper chopped…
Hot Peppers for the Vegetable Garden
Slice open a hot pepper and you will see tiny blisterlike sacs on the inner wall of the pepper. These sacs contain capsaicinoids or organic chemicals. Capsaicinoids make peppers hot. The more sacs you see on the inside of a pepper the hotter the pepper will be. When a pepper is cut or handled roughly…