Mar. 1 Column: Pepper-Growing Tips

For my second garden column of the season, I interviewed none other than my husband, Bill. The topic is his pepper-growing tips and I’ll explain why in a moment. Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Husband shares secrets behind his beautiful peppers. (or you can read my column lower in this post)

A couple of months ago, I told my Facebook followers how I was looking ahead to this year’s writing season and asked if they had any suggestions for topics they’d like to learn more about. Boy did I great a lot of great responses!

However, one of them made me laugh. It said, “How does your husband grow those beautiful peppers?!!” I think I might also have winced a bit because two years ago, I wrote a column complaining about how Bill was trying to take over our veggie season which is really my domain. I mean, sure, I “let” him grow garlic, onions and peppers, but surely that’s enough, right?

Dare I ask Bill for his pepper-growing tips?

And obviously the follower who made the topic suggestion had seen a photo or two of Bill’s wonderful pepper crops. But I was debating whether it was wise to encourage Bill, or even let him know he has fans out there! Joking aside, he is a wonderful husband and a fabulous gardening partner who always has lots of great suggestions and ideas, and he is a wizard when it comes to constructing for the garden. So I hope you’ll enjoy today’s column.

In addition to my column on his pepper-growing tips, I also shot a video which is about how to keep warm-season crops warm. While that might sound odd, it makes all the difference when growing crops like peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, melons, cucumbers, pumpkins and winter squash. And I’ve learned a thing or two about how to keep the plants toasty warm so they’ll produce for us in our zone 5b garden. Having a short growing season (mid-May to mid-September, or thereabouts) forces a gardener to be creative, right? The photo to the left shows peppers growing in the garden with a sheet of red plastic mulch covering the surface of the bed. Note how there are slits cut into the plastic for planting the pepper seedlings. (remember that you can always click on the photos in my blog posts to view larger images)

One last thing before we get to the video, I always get a lot of questions about our little hoop house, so here is the blog post and video showing how we constructed it.

Here is this week’s video:

Garden column about pepper-growing tips

by Susan Mulvihill

I guess I’m going to have to swallow my pride today. In a 2018 column, I wrote about how my husband, Bill, has been trying to take over the vegetable garden. He particularly enjoys growing peppers. And, more notably, has slowly been expanding his allotted growing space whenever my back is turned.

I polled my Facebook followers on gardening topics they would be interested in learning more about this year. You can imagine my surprise — and dismay — when I read this one:

“How does your husband grow those beautiful peppers?”

Let’s not encourage him, folks. But since it’s early enough in the season to implement his growing tips, I asked Bill to share what’s he’s learned about growing peppers.

Bill’s pepper-growing tips

Apparently relishing his brief moment in the spotlight, he told me the following. “Along with onions and garlic, peppers are something I can grow where I’m not competing with you. You have all the glamorous vegetables: tomatoes, corn and green beans. It’s hard to brag about onions and garlic. But I can brag about growing peppers and some gardeners will appreciate that.”

Bill’s success with peppers can be attributed to the detailed notes he keeps. These include how well each variety germinates and the timing for transplanting them out into the garden. And he keeps track of the best performers.

He starts the seeds indoors in early March, “when I can claim a bit of space under the grow lights.” Bill plants three per cell of a seed-starting flat and places it on a seedling heat mat. He later thins the seedlings to the strongest plant.

“Once the seedlings have some true (mature) leaves, I start feeding them about twice a week. I give them diluted nitrogen fertilizer,” he explained.

After a few weeks, the plants are up-potted into 4-inch containers. Bill later moves them to our unheated greenhouse where they can slowly acclimate to the sunlight and temperatures. He transplants peppers in our small hoop house (a plastic-covered greenhouse) around May 1 and additional plants into the garden near the end of May.

Pepper-growing tips: Bed preparation

“When preparing the growing beds, I add compost to the soil surface and a bit of organic tomato fertilizer, since tomato and pepper plants have the same nutritional needs,” Bill said. “Pepper plants prefer warm conditions so they don’t do well if they are planted into cold soil. I cover the bed with a sheet of plastic mulch a week ahead of time to increase the soil temperature, plant the seedlings and give them diluted fish fertilizer weekly until they start producing fruit.”

He usually has a few pests to deal with each year, with slugs being the most challenging.

Pepper-growing tips: insect and pest issues

“I sprinkle some diatomaceous earth around the base of the seedlings as a slug barrier but even then, they can still get to them,” he said. “I always keep a few extra plants in reserve just in case I need to replace one that’s been mortally wounded. Earwigs can also burrow into mature peppers and eat them from the inside.”

Last year, Bill was incensed to find mice had discovered how sweet the Jimmy Nardello peppers were and ate them right off the plants. By placing several mouse traps nearby, the problem was resolved within a week.

Pepper-growing tips: This year’s varieties

This year, he’s growing Marconi Rosso and Early Jalapeno (his two standbys), Highlander, King Crimson, Aconcagua and Jimmy Nardello.

Talking about peppers soon had Bill enthusiastically looking forward to this year’s growing season. “Boy, if I just had four more beds to grow peppers in…,” he mused.

Don’t press your luck, honey.