Gadenin日本語Get the appEven watering is the whole job
A bell pepper has a shallower, less exploring root system than a tomato, so it feels every swing between wet and dry. Almost every fruit disorder you will meet traces back to water arriving in bursts rather than steadily, and the fix is boring: water before the plant asks, and mulch so the surface does not swing.
Water at the base in the morning, enough to wet the soil six to eight inches (15 to 20 cm) down, then leave it until the top inch is dry again. In cool weather that is every four or five days; in real heat a plant in the ground wants it every other day and one in a container wants it daily, sometimes twice.
| Conditions | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Cool spring weather | Every 4 to 5 days | Half a gallon (2 L) per plant |
| Warm, plant in flower | Every 2 to 3 days | One gallon (4 L) per plant |
| Peak heat, ground | Every other day | One to two gallons (4 to 8 L) |
| Peak heat, container | Daily, sometimes twice | Until it runs from the base |
Midday wilting in strong sun is not automatically thirst. Judge in the early morning: a plant still limp at dawn is genuinely dry, and one that is firm again was only shedding heat.
Blossom end rot is a water problem, not a calcium shortage
A sunken, leathery brown patch on the blossom end of the fruit is the single most searched pepper problem, and almost everyone treats it wrongly. The tissue is short of calcium, but the soil is rarely short of calcium. What has failed is delivery: calcium moves with water, and when the roots dry out even briefly, the fastest growing fruit tissue is the first to be starved of it.
So spraying calcium on the leaves does very little, and dumping extra lime on soil that is already at pH 6.0 to 6.8 does nothing at all. Mulch, water steadily, and stop overfeeding nitrogen, which pushes soft growth that outruns the water supply.
- Pick off the affected fruit It will not recover, and while it hangs there the plant is spending on it. Take it off as soon as you see the patch, and expect the next flush to come clean once the watering is even.
- Mulch two inches deep Straw, grass clippings or compost, two inches (5 cm) thick, kept an inch clear of the stem. This is the single most effective thing you can do, because it stops the top few inches of soil drying and rewetting every day.
- Fix the interval, not the volume Most people water plenty but irregularly. Halve the amount and double the frequency in hot weather rather than soaking once a week.
- Cut back high nitrogen feed If you have been feeding a lawn style or general nitrogen feed, switch to one weighted towards potassium. Excess nitrogen makes big leaves that transpire hard and pull water away from the fruit.
Blossom end rot is worst on the first one or two fruit of the season and on plants in containers. Both are the same cause: a small root system trying to supply a fast growing fruit.
Feed for fruit, not for leaves
Peppers want a modest, steady supply rather than a big one. Overfed plants make a dark green thicket, flower late and drop what flowers they do make. The rule of thumb is to start feeding once the first fruit have set, not before.
| Stage | What to give | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Planting to first flower | Nothing beyond the compost worked in | Not at all |
| First fruit set | Balanced feed, half strength | Once |
| Main cropping | Feed weighted to potassium | Every 10 to 14 days |
| Late season | Same, at half strength | Every 3 weeks until picking stops |
Leaves curling downward and going very dark blue-green means too much nitrogen. Pale, small leaves with thin stems means too little. Read the plant before reaching for the bottle.
Support before the fruit gets heavy
Bell pepper wood is brittle and the branch forks split easily, and a mature plant carrying six or eight full sized fruit can tear itself apart in one gusty afternoon. Get the support in while the plant is small, because pushing a stake in later drives it through the roots.
- Stake at planting Put a three foot (90 cm) cane in four inches (10 cm) away from the stem on the day you plant, before there are roots in the way.
- Tie in a figure of eight Tight around the cane, loose around the stem. The stem thickens a great deal through summer and a tight tie will girdle and snap it.
- Add a second tie at the fork The main fork, where the stem first divides, is where plants split. A tie just below it takes the strain off.
- For a heavy cropper, use a ring Three canes and a loop of twine around the whole plant at knee height holds all the branches at once and is quicker than tying each one.
Heat, shade and cold nights
Bell peppers want full sun but they set fruit within a narrow temperature band. Once daytime temperatures pass about 90F (32C), or nights stay above 75F (24C), the pollen stops working and flowers fall. At the other end, nights below 55F (13C) stall the plant entirely.
In a hot climate, 30 percent shade cloth over the plants through the worst weeks keeps flowers on and stops the fruit scalding. It costs a little growth and saves the whole midsummer set.
Sunken white or papery patches on the side of a fruit facing the afternoon sun are sunscald, not disease. It happens when leaf cover is thin, which is one good reason not to strip leaves off a pepper in summer.
What to write down
Peppers repeat themselves year on year far more predictably than most crops, so a few notes make next season easier. Record the date you planted out and the soil temperature, the date the first flower opened and the date the first fruit was ready, and which position in the bed each plant occupied.
Also note the week blossom end rot or flower drop appeared. Both are weather driven, and once you have two seasons of dates you can see them coming and mulch or shade a fortnight earlier instead of reacting after the damage.