Pepper

Capsicum annuum

You can eat sweet peppers green or leave them to turn red, yellow or orange. They need a long, warm summer. Where summers are cool, they do best in a greenhouse or a sunny, sheltered spot. Tie each plant to a cane, because the stems are brittle and snap under a heavy crop.

Looking after it

Water: Normal watering suits peppers, but keep the soil evenly moist. If it dries out, the flower buds drop. In hot weather a pot can need water every day. Feeding: Peppers need an average amount of food. Once plants in pots flower, give them a liquid tomato feed, which is high in potassium, every week. Rich ground needs less, but feeding still gives a bigger crop.

Harvest and keeping

Pick when the fruit is full size and glossy, either green or once it has coloured. Peppers get sweeter as they colour, but fruit left to ripen slows down new ones. Cut the stalk with secateurs instead of pulling. Peppers keep best at cool room temperature. In the fridge they last 1 to 3 days, if you eat them soon after taking them out.

What can go wrong

Aphids. Small green or black insects gather on shoot tips and under the leaves. The leaves curl and the plant stops growing well. Check often and rub or hose off small groups. Ladybirds and other insects that eat them help.
Blossom end rot. A dark, sunken patch forms at the bottom of the fruit, caused by uneven watering. Water regularly. The rest of the crop is usually fine.
Flowers dropping. Buds and flowers fall without making fruit when the soil dries out, in great heat or on cold nights. Keep the soil evenly moist. On hot days, open up a greenhouse and shade it.

Growing facts: RHS, UC ANR and seed-company sowing guides. Pepper care: RHS. How many to grow: Kansas State and Virginia Tech extension. pH: Virginia Tech extension. Keeping: Kansas State and University of Missouri extension.