Sweet bell peppers are a tender, warm-season crop and a relative of the tomato. Here’s how to plant and grow bell peppers in your garden!
Peppers resist most garden pests and offer something for everyone: spicy, sweet, or hot; and a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. On this page, we focus on growing sweet bell peppers.
Unlike their spicy brethren, bell peppers do not contain capsaicin, which is the compound that gives hot peppers such as jalapeño peppers their pungency and heat.
Common Bell Pepper Questions
Do different-colored peppers come from different plants?
Surprisingly enough, the green and red bell peppers that we commonly see in supermarkets are actually the same pepper; the red bell peppers have just been allowed to mature on the plant longer, which changes their color and lets them develop a higher Vitamin C content. More mature peppers also tend to be sweeter than their greener counterparts.
However, there are quite a few varieties of bell peppers out there, including purple, yellow, orange, white, and brown ones.
Are there male and female peppers?
There is a popular myth which states that pepper fruits can be either male or female—the difference between them being that male peppers have 3 bumps on the bottom and are better for cooking, while female peppers have 4 bumps, have more seeds, are sweeter, and are better for eating raw. This is not true! Pepper fruits do not have a gender and any obvious difference between fruits is simply the result of growing conditions or variety.
Reader Comments
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Bringing pepper plants indoors for the winter
I live in zone 6b and have very acidic soil, so I grew my tomato and pepper plants in self-wicking containers this year. I have heard that bell pepper plants in containers can be brought indoors to overwinter. What steps should be followed to do this successfully?
peppers indoors
Your peppers are annuals, so under the best conditions, they are going to cease to thrive before too long. They are, essentially, outdoor plants, so if you bring them indoors and expect to keep them going even a while, or start new ones, you need to replicate ourdoor conditions. That would mean light, heat, and whatever nutrients. You can learn more about lighting here https://www.almanac.com/content/best-grow-lights-growing-vegetables and about hydroponics (although it is not exactly your system) here: https://www.almanac.com/what-hydroponics-basics-hydroponics
Red bell peppers
Some of my red bell peppers have a couple of scars on the bottom. The scars do not cause a hole.
May I know why there are some
May I know why there are some yellow between leave vein? Is it a pepper disease?
1st time gardener
i bought 2 peppers 3 months ago to make stuffed peppers with,for the hell of it, i saved the seeds....i had an empty 2 foot high square planter....1 bag of Miracle Grow, 1 bag of playground sand....and about 100 seeds.....i planted about 25 seeds in 4 holes in the planter....then i forgot about it for 3-4 days....when i went to check on it, all 4 holes had sprouts coming up....UPDATE to today.....the green peppers are comin thru on the plants, i have found 4 of them about the size of a silver dollar on 3 out of the 4 plants.....the plants are 2 feet high in the planter....not bad for a 1st timer(im 55 y.o.).....i think ill buy another planter and soil and sand.....maybe this time.....tomatoes
growing peppers
i like the video, it is very informative. my favorite type is scotch bonnet pepper and sweet pepper. i lived in jamaica where the climate is hot all year long is this agood climate for growing peppers?
Pepper growing? Is it too cold?
I live in New Hampshire and I used to help out with a garden that had both hot peppers, bell peppers, and banana peppers. However I am now starting a garden of my own. I do not know what peppers I should avoid and which I can grow. I am hesitant to grow any of the peppers that I have some experience with because they say they need warmer climates and the climate here is usually between 20 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Could you shed some light on this. I am also wondering about protecting peppers during the winter if I grow them in a raised garden or garden box.
peppers in NH?
You should be able to grow a number of pepper varieties in most parts of New Hampshire during the summer growing season, which is any time now until around Labor Day or possibly September 24, potentially the date of the first fall frost, for a growing season of about 127 days. Check you plants for the growing days to maturity. 20°F is not a summer temp anywhere outdoors in the state that we know of. Peppers would not likely survive in winter as you describe in a raised bed or box.
green peppers
Store in paper bags not plastic. Not only are they more environmentally friendly but the peppers will not go bad for much longer than they do in the plastic. True story.
Sweet Peppers
How do you protect your sweet pepper plants from the extreme heat during the summer months in NW Kansas?
I used to live in NW Kansas
The 2 things I remember about living there is the lack of rain during July and August and the very hot winds. The hot winds in my opinion are the biggest problem. Growing in the country was a bigger challenge than in the city. There are many wind blocks in the city. Also you can find shade. These two items can be at a premium in the country. I would first mulch the soil well to help keep the soil moist and cool. Second I would look for a partially shaded site. What you want is a good SE facing spot for the peppers. Measure the sunlight to be sure you are getting 4-6 hrs of sunlight. The SE sun is much gentler on the plants than the SW sun. Hopefully you also have a good wind break out in the country so those plants can survive the dry, hot winds that as I remember were averaging 20-30 mi/hr. Our winds came mostly from the SW to W direction. So finding a way to break the wind on that side would be very helpful. Buildings and cedar fences are great for this.
Mixed up pepper plants
I planted one green, one red, and Longfellow bell pepper. Apparently the markers in the plants I purchased were wrong as I have one plant producing long sweet peppers of some sort, and now I'm unsure what the other two plants are. I don't k,ow if one is red and we are picking them too soon thinking they are green bells? I read in another comment here that they are the same plant and you just leave the green ones on longer to get red? Is that correct? So these peppers can be picked green if you want green peppers, and if you want red you just leave them on the vine longer? I guess I thought I needed one of each to get the different colors/flavors
Typo
This should read one red, one green, and one yellow....not Longfellow
planting calendar
Will I get this information for all vegetables or only peppers?
Thank you.
Skinny bell peppers
This is my first time growing bell peppers and all of mine are long and skinny. I started with plants and have each one in a 15 inch diameter pot. I also live in west central Indiana. I did not know about the match sticks. Can this be the problem?
skinny peppers
This is a tough one. Match sticks may not exactly be the problem but it may be a hint: we are thinking that something about the soil is inadequate, is not providing the nutrients the plant needs or allowing it to absorb them. Did you check the pH of the soil? Do you fertilize? Something with not too much nitrogen (the first number in the set of three, e.g. 5-10-5)? Is the plant getting enough water? Containers famously dry out before/quicker than the ground. Is the pot outdoors in the sun?
Still and all, it might be the soil. Don’t want to snow you with info but here’s a list of the “invisible” but so-important nutrients plants need and are often evaluated in soil tests: http://hortipm.tamu.edu/ipmguide/nutrient/diagnosi.html “Fruit” is not mentioned but once, but as the ultimate product, it could be affected.
Weird growth
My peppers are growing pointing up instead of down. It is strange and they are growing large and strong. Does anyone know the reason for this? Just have never seen it before.
Peppers
What kind of peppers are they? Thai chilie peppers grow upward and Serreno peppers look like Thai chilies but are round at the bottom and grow down. Usually bigger.
Why can't my peepers plants
Why can't my peepers plants grow,dang it
They flower and start but don't grow,
I'm just north of Toronto 73-86f average
This will be the second year they didn't do well, but three years ago did very well
bell peppers
after a couple weeks in the ground I trimmed my peppers back to four leaves .the stalks quadroupled in size and tons of new foliage.Plants are about 18 inch now ,,flowers forming at top.Should I be pinching them off for bigger crop later?
pinch the peppers?
That’s the theory, Chuck: that pinching off the early flowers (and small fruit) encourages more fruit production.
match sticks
instead of match sticks at the bottom of plants, I bought chemical grade flower of sulfur, which seems to float and not mix with water. will this work just the same? thanks
flower of sulphur
We have no experience with this product so can not comment but a little searching (of .edu’s) turn up this page that may or may not be helpful to you: https://web.extension.illinois.edu/cfiv/homeowners/080818.html
Huge leaves?
My pepper plants have very large leaves on them mainly the bottom leaves. Will these large leaves take away any energy from the fruit? Heard of trimming them, Just don't really know? Any suggestions? Thanks!
Large Leaves
No, large leaves won’t take away from the fruit. Provided the plant is adequately fed and watered, the large leaves should be beneficial (more surface area for photosynthesis = more energy).
Once the plant is established in the ground, it’s important not to use a fertilizer with too much nitrogen, which promotes foliage growth rather than flower and fruit production.
1st timer w/Bell Peppers
So i grew out some bell peppers which I transplanted in to 1 gallon pots.
Situation is this: I live in an apt, & I only had a couple gallons so I transplanted the best 16 plants into 4 pots of a gallon thinking I could transplant when they got bigger BUT the started to bloom flowers now.
I never thought they would get so tall & have such big leaves (sorry 1st timer on this). So the thing is they started blooming flowers but the flowers are drying up after 2 days or so.
They are getting at least 4hrs of direct sunlight, they are watered & well drained, also I helped with pollination process since they are kept inside, so I have no idea whats going on. could it that they are crowded? , Could you shed some light?
early blossoms
Early flowering in peppers sometimes happens. Some gardeners leave the flowers alone, but others prefer to pinch the early blossoms so that the plant can focus on developing a good root system before focusing on fruit production. Blossoms may drop if the plant is stressed, such as too hot (above 85F or 90F day) or cold (below 60F night), or not enough or too little water. Peppers are particularly sensitive to temperature, and like daytime temps of around 70 to 80F. Transplanting may also stress the plant for a little while, but they should recover. Petals of a successfully pollinated flower will drop after a few days–look just near the area of the petals to see if a little fruit is forming. Hope this helps!
Aliminum foil
Is using strips of aliminul foil as a ground cover under pepper plants really beneficial to the plant? Does it really help in any way?
Leaves on pepper plant shrivel and die
What to do?
pepper problems
There are so many reasons why a pepper plant’s leaves shrivel up. Is it getting enough water? The topsoil should be moist a few inches deep (use your finger to reach down). Are you overwatering? Soil should never be soggy. Is it too hot? Peppers like heat but if it’s consistently super hot, you may need to give them shade cloth at the peak of the day. Finally, there are pests and diseases. Aphids and thrips are especially bothersome. You need to spray soapy water in the morning or Neem oil or speak to your local garden center about another solution.
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