Starting peppers

There are a few things that are essential in our garden, with tomatoes coming first and cucumbers second. Slicers are most important and then dill pickle-size. We also grow sweet peppers and onions with both being important.

We grow a boat load of sweet peppers, with most of them being bell peppers. We grow orange, yellow, red and green peppers in that order. I enjoy the orange peppers best of all. Peppers like a pH of 6 to 7 according to most publications, with tomatoes being the same. In my opinion, a pH favorable for tomatoes will grow peppers. So if you can grow one or the other in your soil, you are good to go. Peppers do seem to do better in the fall than during the summer. It's like the shorter days seem to get them producing.

I like to start my peppers in a single plant container that's about a 2-inch-by-2-inch-by-2-inch pot. I usually plant two seeds in each pot in case one doesn't germinate, so I pull the extra little pepper and discard, or at other times I will attempt to transplant. Sometimes it works, and at other times it doesn't. Once the seed is planted, peppers take 10 to 14 days to germinate. I find that too hot a temperature will hamper germination.

Peppers have a problem with blossom end rot, as do tomatoes. One person put a Tums in every hole to provide calcium, which is worth a try. I'd put one down at the bottom of the hole and another up by the soil surface. I usually water my plants with calcium nitrate, being careful not to get too much nitrogen on the plants. Some save their egg shells and crush them to put around their tomatoes and peppers.

When the pepper plant is 8 to 10 inches tall, you can transplant it as long as there is no danger of frost. Peppers will frost fairly easy, so wait. As long as it's cool or cold in the spring, peppers don't seem to grow and thrive. They need some warm temps to grow and flower out. I fertilize the ground with 12-12-12 or a similar fertilizer. I believe pepper plants do better if they are mulched to prevent weeds and to conserve moisture. We put down a paper barrier, such as newspaper or a paint barrier that painters use. It comes in a roll that's 36 inches by 130 feet or so. You can saw it shorter. It works. Plant the pepper plant at the same level as it has grown from a seed.

We like to support our pepper plants in some way. Those three-legged tomato cages work, or we like to put a T-post every 5 or 6 peppers and a small metal electric post in between. We then string baling string from T-post to T-post, weaving around the electric posts and the peppers. Most peppers need some support.

Pick the variety of pepper that you enjoy eating. We like to eat raw peppers, but we also like frozen peppers to use in scrambled eggs or meatloaf or green beans. I like to grow a few hot peppers, but we usually end up throwing them away. I do like a few poblano peppers. I like chili releino. We grow one red spice pepper, I think it's a pimento pepper, and also an Alma Paprika pepper. I enjoy both of these raw.

Once the peppers produce more than we can eat, Marge will cut them up in quart or half-gallon bags and freeze them. Then we use these peppers all winter until the next summer's plants start producing. Marge has a little trouble eating peppers, but I like peppers in scrambled eggs, meat loaf, green beans or about any way you can dream up.

Most of our peppers are open-pollinated, so we save seed from year to year. My seed is labeled like "Big Orange Pepper, 3- to 4-lobed, 3-inch-by-3-inch or 4-inch-by-4-inch". Orange seems to be the hardest to get to germinate, with green peppers being the least picky.

Man, I love a good thick-walled orange pepper!

Phillips began life as a cowboy, then husband and father, carpenter, a minister, gardener and writer. He may be reached at phillipsrb@hotmail.com.