Peppers
Varieties
Peppers are a garden staple for most backyard gardens. They range from sweet to spicy (and extremely spicy) They grow and a beautiful range of colors and have a lot of uses in our kitchens. Bell peppers are the sweet peppers we are all used to seeing in our fajitas and cheesesteak sandwiches. Those spicy peppers are for the brave when it comes to cooking, but are a staple for salsa and hot sauce.
In our 2023 garden we will have:
Bell (Sweet)
Banana (Sweet)
Jalapeno (Mild)
Vampire (Hot)
Devils Tongue (Hot)
Ghost (Hot)
Tabasco (Hot)
Paprika (Mild)
Cayenne (Hot)
Chinese 5 color (Hot)
And any other pepper varieties I come across and cannot resist!
Soil Type
Peppers prefer Loamy Soil. That is an equal part mixture of sand, silt and clay. But don't stress about creating the perfect soil for them. They are generally happy with compost tilled into their soil or a healthy potting mix in pots on the patio.
Companions
Peppers favorite companions are more peppers. The plants are self pollinating, however do well near eachother, sweet and hot peppers can be together. Marigolds love to grow among the peppers and do a wonderful job luring potential pests away from the fruits. Dill, fennel, cilantro and carrots are happy roommates as well. Peppers do not play well with members of the brassica family: kale, broccoli, cauliflower , cabbage, etc.
Sowing
Your peppers can be sown directly into your garden if you live in a region with a long growing season. If you live in the northern zones you'll want to get them started indoors early in the spring and transferred outside when they are fairly mature. Peppers planted in pots can have an extended growing season when moved indoors or to the greenhouse in the fall. Overwinter peppers with a high top tunnel and heated soil cable to keep the roots from freezing.
Feeding
Feeding your peppers can start a couple weeks after the first sprouts. They are heavy feeders. Feed with either liquid or solid 5-10-10 fertilzer every other week.
Harvest
Bell peppers will start out green and ripen to different colors: yellow, orange and eventually red the longer you leave it on the plant. All colors of bell peppers are the same, just different levels of ripeness! Hot peppers will continue producing as long as you are harvesting ripe peppers consistently.
Collecting Seeds
Peppers are some of the easiest seeds to harvest. When you are preparing your peppers for cooking, remove the seeds from inside the fruit, set on a paper towel to dry. When they are dry, store them in a paper envelope or a jar.
Canning/Preserving/Storing
Peppers can be canned with a pressure canner only. The only way to safely waterbath can pepeprs is by pickling, making salsa/hot sauce or pepper jelly. Waterbath canning requires a pH of 4.6 or lower. If you want to can your peppers alone, pressure canning is the proper method.
Freezing is a great way to prep and save your peppers for recipies like fajitas or stir fry. You don't even have to blanch them first! Lay them out on a sheet to freeze, then freeze in bags. We like to vaccum seal portions for meals ready to go.
Our favorite way to save the hot peppers is to dry them. String them with a needle and thread, or simply lay out until dried and save in a jar. They are easy to reconstitute for cooking purposes, or crush to add flavor to any recipe.
Click on the picture below to get the PDF printable version for your garden journal
