Sweet peppers, tasty and versatile bring a blaze of bright color to the home garden. Those gardeners who wish to start their own peppers from seed indoors should probably start right now to enjoy a late summer rainbow.
Sweet peppers come in two varieties, the familiar blocky bell pepper, often used as the main ingredient in stuffed peppers and the elongated or cubanel forms. All other peppers possess some degrees of heat due to the amount of capsaicin which they contain. Some, like the ghost pepper or Carolina reaper are literally too hot to handle.
Sweet peppers however become quite literally sweet as they ripen and some of the brightly colored bells are almost candy like when fully mature. The color is actually a good indicator, some peppers mature from green to red to bright yellow and a bright yellow bell is very sweet indeed. The color changes are triggered by the chlorophyll in the pepper breaking down over time.
But peppers come in all shades of the rainbow, green, white, yellow, violet, black, brown, and orange. There does not seem to be a true blue pepper at this time but just give the growers a chance; they will get there.
To start peppers place a quality potting soil into large peat or standard pots and insert 3 to 4 seeds per pot to guarantee germination. Plant the seeds ½” deep, and firm the soil lightly. Keep the soil moist but not drenched and make certain that the room temperature remains at 70 f or better, peppers require warmth to germinate. Germination can take 15 to 21 days.
Transplant any time the plants have several sets of leaves and danger of frost is well past.
Pepper plants are quite fragile and yet can grow to heights of 5 to 6 feet. Staking is an excellent idea as is support of stems bearing more than one pepper, as these may snap under the weight of the fruit.
Weed, water and mulch regularly and the garden and kitchen counter may become a showcase of brilliantly covered vegetables before you know it. But, unless you wish to buy established plants at the garden shop it is time to start those seeds.
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