Posted: 2/18/2009 12:33:24 PM EDT
| I'm pretty much an idiot when it comes to gardening compared to my wife. I live in the north east US and would like to know when to plant yellow peppers. I can start them inside, just don't know what steps to take or what materials would work best. |
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Assuming you will be starting indoors from seed ...
Pepper plants are very cold sensitive and take a while to germinate in cool temperatures. I have also found that starting from seeds they are extremely sensitive to soil moisture, light, handling, temperature ... pretty much everything. Yellow bell peppers, green bell peppers, red bell peppers are all the same as far as planting dates go. Check here for a planting calendar, enter the relevant information for your area, and plant according to schedule. While I personally had poor luck with peppers from seed, I did great last year with tomatoes. Here's what I recommend: Get some miracle grow seed starting mix from a big box store or a garden store. Get some 8 or 10 oz cheap disposable plastic party cups from the grocery store. Poke holes in the bottoms of several cups Put some soil in a pail and add water until it is just wet enough to clump together, not dripping water, not crumbling apart. Add enough soil to the cups to get within a half inch of the rim. Plant 2 seeds per cup at the recommended planting depth. Put filled cup inside a second non perforated cup so that when you water, excess water can drain out. Put cups in a warm place and watch for germination. Make sure soil doesn't dry out, but don't keep it sopping wet either. As soon as you see signs of germination you need to have light available about 16 hours a day. I used a 48 inch shop light with normal fluorescent lights set about three inches above the cups. Check soil moisture every couple of days. When plants are about two inches tall trim the smallest one in each cup at the base of the stem with scissors, leaving one plant per cup. Monitor for moisture and adjust the height of the light as needed while plants grow. Harden off when recommended. This is important. A fan blowing on the plants indoors can do some of the work but direct sunlight is so much more intense than the shop light that the plant needs to be gradually introduced to outdoor conditions over the course of a week or so. Transplant to your garden or pots and place outside when recommended for your area. Modify as you see fit. Obviously if your pepper seed packet only has 8 seeds then do not plant 2 per cup. I do not use the seed starting kits that are available because I don't think they offer enough room for the plants to develop good roots. An 8 or 10 oz cup is about quadruple the size of those little containers. Keep them a long ways away from hot peppers or they will cross pollinate and you will have some hot bell peppers and some mild hot peppers. |
| I agree with the above poster about starting peppers from seed. It's a pain in the ass. Unless you have a good greenhouse and good lighting it's more trouble than it's worth. When the time is right, just purchase from your local walmart, home depot, farm co-op, etc. My walmart had red, yellow, green, orange and chocolate bell peppers in the pot ready to plant. As was said above, peppers have to have warm weather to thrive. Don't plant them to early. |