Bell Peppers

[hdan]

Looks like my bell peppers are done growing. I have 25-30 bell peppers on each plant. The majority of the pepper's are 2-1/2" in diameter X 2-1/2" long. They are starting to turn orange it looks like. Their not getting any bigger cause so many I guess.
Maybe I should cut all but 12 off each plant and maybe the 12 will grow bigger.
It's 75-85 days to harvest.
Planted seed 2/19/24.
Transplanted outside 5/23/24 a week after last average frost date.
Should have been maturing at time of transplant 5/23/24 but was still cutting flowers off. Stoped cutting flowers off after transplant.
They were transplanted 94th day from seed. As of now been in ground 145 days.

 

[flowerbug]

harvest when they are of the desired size (and density as the walls are thick enough) and they will send out new shoots and flowers for another crop. we sometimes get three pickings from ours... the last picking may not be as good as the first two, but still edible for chilis, etc.

 

[flowerbug]

how did they turn out for your first picking?

we picked most of ours Saturday morning and had a decent crop. some of the plants were blown over by a storm several weeks ago but i didn't know it right away so by the time i did see them i just left them alone as standing them back up probably would have shocked them even more. none of the peppers were damaged. we spent most of Saturday making stuffed peppers.

 

[hdan]

how did they turn out for your first picking?

we picked most of ours Saturday morning and had a decent crop. some of the plants were blown over by a storm several weeks ago but i didn't know it right away so by the time i did see them i just left them alone as standing them back up probably would have shocked them even more. none of the peppers were damaged. we spent most of Saturday making stuffed peppers.

I think the peppers did ok, but I think could have been better.
There was a lot of bell peppers on the plants, 25 to 30, but small like 2-1/2 to 3" . Not sure why so small, other than maybe to many bell peppers to support large ones.
I did have enough to make stuffed bell peppers dinner 2 times, and will have enough for two more times again. Very good but small.
I let them turn all red the ripiest.
Leave your thoughts and comments.

 

[digitS']

We had stuffed bell peppers for lunch. I only had to gather ingredients and a DW had a big baking dish full and out of the oven before 9AM. There were enough bells to encompass the Italian peppers chopped small. So that worked out except , she claimed that she couldn't taste the ground beef because there were so many peppers in the mix. It was just right for me .

They weren't quite as dense as on your plants, HDan. The plants in the greenhouse bed are just starting with good production and they should have lots as we move on through the season.

Steve

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Stuffed bell peppers and Philadelphia steak sandwich are my two best dishes with bell peppers.

 

[flowerbug]

I think the peppers did ok, but I think could have been better.
There was a lot of bell peppers on the plants, 25 to 30, but small like 2-1/2 to 3" . Not sure why so small, other than maybe to many bell peppers to support large ones.
I did have enough to make stuffed bell peppers dinner 2 times, and will have enough for two more times again. Very good but small.
I let them turn all red the ripiest.
Leave your thoughts and comments.

it could have been the variety. i do very little thinning (just when planting i remove the first buds because i don't want it to get too heavy before the roots have had some chance to develope) of the ones we normally grow (California Wonder). there will be a mix of sizes that show up but the smaller ones are still edible for other purposes than stuffing. most however are big enough to be used as they were intended.

that they turned red also means to me that they probably were not really a green pepper variety (the green peppers i grow will usually turn purple or brown if left to go too long). red peppers i do like too, and we've grown those in the past and again the variety is important if you want larger peppers with a decent thickness to the wall of the pepper when it is ripe and ready.

as a note the range in size of the green peppers we harvested this season were from three and a half inches (7cm ish) (just a few) to about eight inches (15cm ish) (a few at that extreme), but most were more halfway between. those that were pointed weren't very suitable for stuffing but we used some of them anyways and some were quite taller than others and Mom wasn't too happy with that either. i think the greenhouse either had a poor seed supplier this year or the person planting didn't really pay attention to what they were doing - the plants were quite varied in how they grew and the peppers they produced. all were edible but a few were certainly not CW bell peppers.

 

[ducks4you]

Bell peppers aren't easy to grow. I have 4-5 stunted downstairs on a heat mat. Started late, but they NEVER take off like tomatoes do, or even hot peppers do.
MINE will go outside in pots this weekend to get some sun, then I will overwinter them--done it before--and start the 2025 bell peppers probably in late January.
If you have something of a harvest, pat yourself on the back and toot a horn!!

 

[hdan]

Bell peppers aren't easy to grow. I have 4-5 stunted downstairs on a heat mat. Started late, but they NEVER take off like tomatoes do, or even hot peppers do.
MINE will go outside in pots this weekend to get some sun, then I will overwinter them--done it before--and start the 2025 bell peppers probably in late January.
If you have something of a harvest, pat yourself on the back and toot a horn!!

Lol,
My pepper seeds was a mixed variety of all colors that produced 25-30 bell peppers per plant @ 3" wide and long. Have made lots of stuffed bell peppers.

 

[heirloomgal]

Lol,
My pepper seeds was a mixed variety of all colors that produced 25-30 bell peppers per plant @ 3" wide and long. Have made lots of stuffed bell peppers.

Your harvest looks amazing @hdan. That's a highly impressive volume of peppers & they aren't the easiest veggie to coax into high level production. It's seldom I get bell peppers to be super huge, like grocery store varieties. When I do, there usually aren't many on the plants. A couple pepper varieties you might want to try if you really want the big bells - Big Bertha is one, Chinese Giant another.