Not a single green pepper this year!

[lighthawk]

Seems the weather this spring (a cold snap amid high temps) shut down all my bell pepper plants. I never saw a single blossom. Talking to the owner of a local farm stand and a couple of the neighbors we were all affected. Go down the road ten miles and they had no problem. Wierdest thing is the same thing happened with the local cucumber crop last year. Went to the grocer to buy some and they wanted $4.00 for three peppers!!!
Farm market up the road 10 miles ... 6 for $1.00
The local farm stand had 1,000 plants and never harvested a single pepper.
Funny thing is I am still getting hot hungarians and cayanne peppers it didn't affect them at all.
Jalepenios... None.
Go figure.

 

[Carol Dee]

A bad pepper year here, too. All the bell peppers did poorly and just when it looked like we might get some , the horn worm moved from the tomaotes to the peppers! We did actually get some jalepenios ( we bought well established plants late in the season.)

 

[hoodat]

I had a nice crop of bells this year. In fact there are still some on the plants. Last year I had very few and the ones I did get were thin walled. Every year is different.

 

[digitS']

I would guess that melons, cucumbers and peppers are the most cold-sensitive plants in my garden :/. Melons may die during cool, cloudy spring weeks but the other 2 can turn out stunted.

Cucumbers might come back to produce 1 or 2 on a vine but the peppers often surprise me that they can be stunted, small plants but still produce fairly well.

Bells seem to put all their eggs in 1 basket. I have tried some varieties, like Chinese Giant, where I'm lucky to have 2 fruits on 1 plant. The larger fruit varieties seem to be the most prone to this.

We did have warm weather in August & September after a very cool start but you can see my post on Yummy peppers. I think the plants were supposed to be 24" or taller and they never got close to that. However, there were almost more peppers than leaves when I picked them Friday!

A sweet pepper is a sweet pepper. There are flavor differences and differences in how they grow and what they look like. I do not think that I must have giant bells to enjoy them from my garden. None of the Yummies are over 3", the Fushimi Sweets that I grow might be longer than 3" but they are only about 1/2" wide! (There's a tiny bit of heat to them, too .) The Italian sweets may be the way to go. I have never had what I thought was a bad year with Marconi, but - they aren't bells.

Oh and Lighthawk, maybe you'd like to go with a banana pepper for a sweet. They are said to be wax peppers and if your hot Hungarian wax has done real well . . . . maybe a cool wax would be a cinch in a weird year .

Steve

 

[fireweed]

Just pulled the last few peppers yesterday. Nice crisp green peppers.
The funny part is we had a cold damp lousy summer with only one hot spell during August.
And we're up in the Pacific Northwest.
It has been a weird weather year for everyone I think.

 

[seedcorn]

I had a horrible pepper year. It was so hot and dry that it was all I could do was to keep some of them alive. Some died even with watering them at evenings. Sand............

I'm getting a few bells late, few sweet banana's, and few gypsy's. No, zero, nata on chili's. Few habaneros.

I feel your pain.

 

[lesa]

I have 24 pounds of frozen peppers in the freezer- marconi's and bells... Still have a few peppers on the plants in the garden! Now, don't ask me about tomatoes!!

 

[thistlebloom]

I had an exceptional pepper year too. Even the Hungarian wax that were started much later than the others did very well. I had planned on canning salsa with all of my peppers, tomatoes and onions, but the tomatoes were uncooperative and so I have loads of peppers to do something with by themselves.

Actually, my tomatoes are loaded with fruit, but I've had very few ripen. Enough for a sandwich or salad, but not enough to can. Currently I have a garden wagon full of green ones in the garage. I'm hoping some will ripen. :/

 

[lesa]

thistle, you might try laying the tomatoes out on a table and covering them with newspaper. For reasons I don't understand, it works great for ripening....I am looking for lots of recipes to use green pepper too!

 

[lighthawk]

Oh and Lighthawk, maybe you'd like to go with a banana pepper for a sweet. They are said to be wax peppers and if your hot Hungarian wax has done real well . . . . maybe a cool wax would be a cinch in a weird year .

Funny you should say that. I honestly thought I was planting sweet hungarians until I sliced a few and put them on a peanut butter sandwich. Imagine my surprise after that first bite.