Growing Peppers
Oh, the joy of picking your own peppers from your own plants! With so many varieties to choose from it's difficult to choose just a few. Peppers can be challenging to grow here in our northern climate though. They like our soils but don't care for the cool nights. When a pepper experiences cool night time temperatures, they drop their blossoms without setting fruit. The kind of night time temperatures peppers don't care for are the same ones that make humans want to reach for a sweater! But take heart because there are ways to fool peppers into thinking that they are living somewhere tropical.
One trick is to plant them on the south side of a building. The building wall absorbs heat in the daytime, moderating the night time temperatures and stopping cold north winds. Raising the soil level helps as well because the higher, better drained soil warms up more quickly for the peppers roots. Tilthy, fluffy soil with a good organic content drains faster as well as having a better level of nutrition for the peppers.
In our area many people have success by planting peppers in a tractor tire. Easy to do, just fill the large tire with soil, to make a raised bed. The black tire absorbs heat in the daytime and gives it back at night. The raised soil level warms up more quickly for the roots. Some put a wind barrier on the north side of the tire to stop cold winds.
If planting peppers in a traditional garden remember to plant them on the south side of tall plants like corn to moderate cool night breezes or grow peppers under environment moderating tunnels. Peppers are easily grown in 5 gallon pails or nursery pots and grow well on a warm patio, or in a greenhouse. A lean-to greenhouse on the south side of an outbuilding can produce loads of peppers in a season. Peppers keep on producing as long as the temperatures suit them, so the amount of peppers out of a greenhouse far outstrips those grown outside in our climate. A temporary plastic lean-to greenhouse or a purchased kit greenhouse doesn't need to be very large and is easily constructed for the summer. You don't want the greenhouse airtight, it's just for moderating the environment in the summer time, not keeping plants winter safe! Best to leave at least one side of the greenhouse open so plants don't over-heat when the sun shines.
Even with all these tips and tricks we still grow varieties that are short season as this gives the best success in our cool climate to have mature red peppers.
Chameleon Peppers! Pepper fruit change colour as they mature. Fruit may begin life as dark green and end up bright red. Some start out lime green or yellow-green and mature into something completely different. Quite the chameleons! So when you see multiple colours listed for a pepper, it is the peppers colour sequence as they mature. So when looking for a red pepper variety, usually expect the fruit to be some shade of green first. The amount of days it takes a peppers to grow and mature are only a rough estimate. The time it takes to grow a pepper is dependent on the warmth of the summer. A cool stretch of weather slows peppers down and a heat wave matures peppers more quickly.Sweet Peppers:
California Wonder - Green/Red A sweet bell pepper that matures in 70- 75 days. Available in 6 packs and 1 gallon pots.
Golden California Wonder - Green/Yellow A sweet yellow bell pepper that matures in 65-70 days.Available in 6 packs and 1 gallon pots.
Sweet Banana - Yellow/Orange Red Matures in 70- 75 days. Available in 6 packs and one gallon pots
Pimento - Green/Dark Red A thick walled flat pepper that is very tasty. Excellent for stuffing to make individual servings . Matures in 70 - 75 days. Available in 4 " pots and 1 gallon pots. Hot Peppers:
Jalapeno - Scoville Rating: 6,000 units Dark Green colour. Available in packs of 6 and 1 gallon pots. Matures in 75 -80 days.
Hot Hungarian Wax - Scoville Rating: 4,000 units Lime Green/Yellow colour. Available in six packs and 1 gallon pots. Matures in 60-65 days.
Habanero - Scoville Rating: 200,000 units Green/Red Matures in 100 days. For those who like to live dangerously! Available in 6 packs and one gallon pots.
Bhut Jolokia- 1,000,000 scoville units Also known as a ghost pepper.
Carolina Reaper- 1,500,000 scoville units
Hot Portugal - Scoville Rating 5,000 units Green/Bright Red Available in 6 packs and 1 gallon pots.Matures in 65 days.