Sweet Peppers: 4 Tips for a Great Harvest
Sweet peppers can make attractive, colorful additions to your garden and are generally less vulnerable to pests and diseases than many other common garden vegetables. Here are four tips to help you get the most out of your pepper plants:
Thin early fruits. This encourages pepper plants to grow larger and produce more foliage before taking on the heavy task of producing fruit. Many sweet pepper varieties, especially sweet hybrid bell pepper types, can have a heavy fruit load. Consider staking your plants to provide additional support.
Prevent sunburn damage to pepper fruits. Sunburn damage is more common if plants lack sufficient foliage to protect pepper fruits and is more common with sweet pepper fruits than with hot pepper fruits. Provide shade cloth if temperatures reach into the mid-nineties. Temperatures above 95°F cause pepper flowers to abort and drop.
Do not over-water. Despite high summer temperatures, allow sufficient soil dry-down between irrigations. More than any other crop, peppers thrive when the soil has a chance to dry-down between waterings. Be aware that if new pepper leaves show signs of curling or appear wrinkled, it most likely an indication of a lack of calcium and not a lack of water.
Weed with care. Peppers are shallow-rooted: cultivate around peppers with care. Keep area well-weeded to avoid competition.
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