Growing Capsicum, also Bell peppers, Sweet peppers

Capsicum annuum : Solanaceae / the nightshade family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
  S S                  
      T T              
      P P              

(Best months for growing Capsicum in USA - Zone 5a regions)

  • S = Plant undercover in seed trays
  • T = Plant out (transplant) seedlings
  • P = Sow seed
  • Grow in seed trays, and plant out in 4-6 weeks. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed. Best planted at soil temperatures between 64°F and 95°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 8 - 20 inches apart
  • Harvest in 10-12 weeks. Cut fruit off with sharp knife.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Egg plant (Aubergine), Nasturtiums, Basil, Parsley, Amaranth

Your comments and tips

06 Sep 17, Frank bouwer (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate)
Hi im bussy putting up tunnels for my peppers where can i buy pepper plants that are ready for transfer planting im looking for aboout 2000 plant . Thank you
25 Jul 17, Kev (Australia - temperate climate)
my capsican plants were looking great and producing heaps of fruit, but did not finish off well. The problem that came up was the fruit started getting dry brown lines through them. I cannot find any information on this problem. Any feed back would be helpful.
07 Aug 17, Jennifer (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Hi Kev, your post got me thinking I had the same problem with my capsicums, looked it up and it says that Thrips cause those brown scars.
10 Jun 17, Lyndal (Australia - temperate climate)
I have heaps of green capsicum in my garden which are long and thin. They don't appear to be growing any bigger or changing colour. I planted sweet mix capsicum and some are probably as long as 20cm but skinny and green. Are they ready to pick or how do I go about making them yellow and red. They have been in my garden for ages.
19 Jun 17, Mike (Australia - temperate climate)
You have (probably) planted a kind of capsicum the grows long and thin - mixed sweet caps. You have not planted the normal caps - round caps. Google how to grow caps or peppers and read about the different varieties. The guide on this website will tell you how long they should take until ready to pick and eat - something like 10-12 weeks.
11 Jun 17, Darren (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi Lyndal, It's probably too late for your capsicums now. The only thing I would suggest is pick one or two that feel like they are almost ready, and leave them in a window sill to ripen. I did that with the last few capsicums from our crop this year, before pulling them up.
22 May 17, Maureen (Australia - temperate climate)
I have been harvesting my capsicum since early summer. They still have fruit and flowers. Should I pull up when I have picked the capsicums that are nearly ready. I want to start my winter garden and am not sure whether they just keep on being generous in their supply.
22 May 17, Giovanni (Australia - temperate climate)
As the winter sets in capsicum yield will diminish and a good frost will kill the plants. Capsicums are a short-lived perennial but you would be best to harvest what you can and then pull the plants out giving you room to plant your winter garden. Fresh plants in a new spot next spring would be best.
21 May 17, Ezekiel Godwin Etim (South Africa - Dry summer sub-tropical climate)
Good morning sir. place questions are . can I used one type of soils to plan this pepper. like green pepper. rad pepper and yellow pepper. am from Nigeria.
22 May 17, John (Australia - temperate climate)
All peppers need the same soil. well manured soil and an even supply of water will give you a good crop. If you leave the green ones on the plant they will go red and the yellow ones will go orange.
Showing 121 - 130 of 521 comments

Hi Jen, This is a bit late because you are maybe 2 months into your work but I planted a similar garden in raised beds at the start of Sep/16, my first time with most of these plants. Put the strawberries in their own patch because they have different requirements to everything else and will try to invade the surroundings via their runners (stolons). Try to keep stolon production to a minimum unless you want baby plants, in which case let the runners root in separate peat cups and then cut+transplant when they look big and healthy, but not too big because they will punch through the peat and start rooting in the bed where they sit (you can use plastic instead of peat, but the peat ones go straight into the ground when you transplant). I had mediocre fruit production when the strawbs were planted last year but mega crops this year (27 plants). Don't keep them too wet, be on regular lookout for slugs, tear away old leaves which promote rotting and fruit turning, fortnightly seaweed with a splash of fertiliser for the leaves. Rosemary becomes a full-grown bush - put it where you would want a hedge and cut it back twice a year, esp after flowering, to encourage a nice full shape (it will shoot rather vertically otherwise). Rosemary doesn't need much water or fertiliser, I use some slow-release and let rain do the rest except for prolonged dry spells. Zuccs and cukes get quite large, so make sure you allow at least a foot between plants because they come on really quickly from seedling. I got fruit in about 2 months and they are still going now, don't let the fruit sit too long or they can get quite huge quite quickly, tending towards being woody. Zuccs I find can start to yellow when the flower falls off, so keep an eye on that. Also give the cukes some support to climb, otherwise they will just spread like a kind of moppy mess over the garden bed. Basil I did from seeds, they are annuals so just get a packet and put some down about a foot in front of your tomatoes, they do well as companions. The basil can get to about 1-2 feet high if really happy. Capsicums I managed 6 in two rows of 1.2 m, they are quite slender plants and don't need heaps of space like tomatoes or zuccs. These are nearby the tomatoes as they have similar requirements. I also chucked in two chilis that look very happy, consider this as you get capsicum + basil + chili + tomato in one go = a meal waiting. Lastly toms - IMO the most difficult to keep happy. They need more water and fertiliser than the other guys and get wilty more quickly in hot weather. My main tips in my second year with cherry toms is to limit the number of branches you allow, because they will get tall and thick really quickly. I planted mine 1 ft apart but they are a little too close, I'd try 2 ft next time around. You need staking or cages obviously, but in 3 months my toms have gone from 20 cm to about 4 ft, so be prepared for them to outstrip your initial heigh expectations if they are happy. If they are intermediates, they will try to off-shoot at every junction (you can see the baby shoots at the V-intersection between two existing main shoots), so pluck those away everywhere except at the top. You'll also want to thin the tom leaves out because they will get thick and happy and green, but at the expense of fruit. Also remove the lower tom leaves as they can get a bit soggy and disease prone. Buy yourself some garden twine because you'll be at it every week or two to keep the toms supported. I find the toms are quite temperamental, they are prone to yellowing and disease. Keep an eye out for caterpillars, around spring they can come without warning and start putting holes all through your leaves and fruit. I was out daily for about a week in October crushing hundreds of tiny little green caterpillars before they could decimate the plants. Also after excessive water some toms can split, so take those off the vine and refrigerate - eat quickly before they spoil. Any green toms that fall off you can put them next to bananas in the fruit bowl and they'll ripen up nicely. I find my collected unsplit toms last 1-2 weeks in the fruit bowl. Taste is beyond anything in the supermarket! That's my experience, hope it helps. Oh last thing - use good soil to start up, I was filling raised beds so I bought new soil. Next year I will rake in my first year of compost when re-doing the used beds. If you have good soil and it drains, you don't need to do anything else like sand. I used raised beds because I am sitting on clay-type soils with lots of shale under the surface = no good for veggies.

- Tom

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