Ring My Bell

One of our two bell pepper plants

It's amazing that we haven't talked about one of my favorite plants: Bell Peppers. Little known fact. Bell peppers and chili peppers are actually the same plant, Capsicum annuum. Nature will never cease to amaze me.

Capsicum annuum is a perennial plant belonging to the Nightshade family. This family of flowering plants includes commonly known crops such as tomatoes, peppers, tobacco, eggplant and potatoes. The pepper plant requires high temperatures and grows to around 1.5 feet which makes it ideal for container gardening in Puerto Rico. Peppers do not tolerate frost which is why most US and British literature list them as an annual. The plants are able to adapt to a wide array of soil conditions with the requirement that the soil must drain well. Provide full sun (6+ hours) and keep the soil moist to keep the plants happy. Too little sunlight will cause stunted growth and little flower production while dry soil will cause the leaves to wither and the fruit to get bitter. According to the bible (The Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckeys) peppers need a few microelements, calcium, magnesium and sulfur, which can be found in common household items. Calcium can be found in eggshells, magnesium in Epsom salt, and sulfur in matches. It is recommended that when transplanting peppers you put a few matches and dried eggshells at the bottom of the planting hole. Epsom salt can be mixed with water and applied when blossoms develop.

Growing from seed is fairly easy in the tropics since the seeds require high temperatures to germinate. At typical tropical soil temperatures (75-85 degrees) the seeds will sprout with a very high yield in 3-4 days. We've planted 3 pepper seeds, 2 bells and 1 Cubanelle or "Pimiento de Cocinar" (which is also the same plant C. annuum), and we got 3 plants. Flowers are small, white, and self pollinating and usually emerge about 2 months after germination. Fruits follow after a few days although not all flowers set fruit. Between 4 and 5 full bell peppers is the most we've been able to have at a time per plant. However, other pepper varieties are able to produce more peppers per plant.

Peppers, as most flowering plants, require a higher percentage of phosphorus than nitrogen for optimum fruit production. Using a fertilizer with a high nitrogen ratio will produce lots of beautiful leaves but few flowers. Our recommendation is to use a fertilizer with a 1:2:1 ratio (Editor's note: If you need a refresher on what the fertilizer numbers mean see our fertilizer post: The F Word). Leaves are usually a deep green but if they start yellowing switch to a balanced fertilizer or supplement your soil with nitrogen. Most bell peppers start green and, as they ripen, they turn red, yellow or orange depending on the variety cultivated. When harvesting peppers it is best to cut rather than pull the fruit since you may damage the plant. Also, we recommend securing the plant with a stake since they can get top heavy when bearing fruit which may cause them to tilt, fall over or get uprooted during strong winds (Editor's note: Obviously we recommend this because our plants already got uprooted during strong winds. Again, please learn from our mistakes.).

Bell peppers are susceptible to pests and diseases such as aphids, whiteflies, powdery mildew, tobacco hornworms, flea beetles, blossom-end rot, TMV, and others. Ours have suffered from whiteflies and powdery mildew. As always take the proper precautions and actions to control or eliminate each problem.

Have you grown bell peppers in your garden? If so, please share your experiences with us in the comments section.