Just call me Peter

If Peter Piper planted 4 packs of pepper plants, how many pecks of pickled peppers will Peter Piper pick?


Picture of Tequila Purple Peppers from 2009

I don’t know about pickled peppers, but we hope to pick many pecks of fresh peppers this summer. Sunday we planted 130 bell pepper plants, thanks to Dad’s tilling, Jay’s instructing, and Anthony’s watering. That may seem like a lot of plants and, well, I guess to most people, it is. But bell pepper plants don’t produce as much fruit per plant as, say, a cherry tomato plant or jalapeno plant will. In its lifetime, a bell pepper plant will produce 6-10 peppers each.


Also, if you know anything about our garden, you should realize by now that we like colorful vegetables. Our bell peppers are no different, so they certainly aren’t all green bell peppers. This year, we have green, red, yellow, purple, chocolate, orange, and white pepper plants.

Why do colored bell peppers cost so much? Well most all colored bells start off green. Once they are full sized and green then they turn Orange, Red, Yellow or Chocolate. This can take 2 -3 more weeks. During this time soft spots, bug damage or other damage can occur to these peppers that make them unsellable. We don't waste these at our house. Those peppers are my snack when I am working outside. A fully ripe, homegrown colored bell pepper is awesome. Now, not all peppers do this color changing. My purple and white peppers start of these colors then turn red or yellow. That is what makes them interesting to me.

As far as varieties, I will do my best to remember them all but will probably need Jay’s assistance. (He’s back at work today, so no more sitting at home with his foot up, updating a blog.)

• Lantern: a sweet red bell pepper, not to be confused with the habanero pepper by the same name
• Revolution: the ol’ standby, a solid green bell pepper, that turns red
  
• Ace: a glossy red pepper, at maturity
• Red Knight: a red variety with a compact plant and great disease resistance
• Lafayette: a yellow bell pepper known for its firmness at maturity, great for salads
• Bianca: a shockingly-white pepper
• Purple Beauty: when you sell produce near K-State, a purple pepper is a must!
• Chocolate Beauty: a Chocolate brown pepper that we use in our Hot Chocolate Habanero jelly
• Orange Sun: a beautiful bright orange bell pepper
• Satsuma: a new one this year, this is also a deep orange color
• Tequila: this variety yields a lighter purple pepper, described as “amethyst” by the seed company (see picture above)
  

(FYI we will plant hot peppers, too, but that’s for another day.)


Pepper plants transplant the same way a tomato seedling does…with lots of care to protect the roots. We try to baby these plants as we move them from their individual containers to the ground outside. But, to prevent shock in the plants, we “harden” them before transplanting day. From the cushy growing room in our basement, they move to the smallest of the high tunnels for a day or two, and then are moved into the big high tunnels where they will be planted.


Peaking in on the plants late last night, it looks like they all “took” and are doing well. Losing a plant or two when we are planting so many is to be expected; to get 100 percent transplant success would be a banner day.

Just call me Peter