Growing Colored Bell Peppers

Bell peppers are available in a variety of colors including red, yellow, orange, purple, ivory and even chocolate. Many consumers prefer the taste of a ripe bell pepper. Missouri growers often find it challenging to produce colored bell peppers during the summer heat. Intense temperatures and sunlight during the summer months often induce sunscald on bell peppers before they attain full color. To successfully produce colored bell peppers, several production practices can be followed.

Choose a high-yielding, disease tolerant cultivar. For red bell peppers, I prefer, ‘Paladin,’ ‘Red Knight,’ ‘King Arthur’ or ‘Vivaldi.’ ‘Lafayette’ and ‘Aladdin’ are excellent yellow bell peppers. Transplant 5-week-old transplants approximately two weeks after the first planting of tomatoes. Peppers require more heat than tomatoes and thus will not establish readily in cooler soils. Row covers can be used to protect the crop from frost or cool weather. Peppers are planted in a double-staggered row on plastic mulch with 18" between rows and 12-18" between plants in the row. Drip irrigation or a soaker hose is placed under the plastic for irrigation. Other types of mulches can be used including compost and straw.

The twin row provides an excellent shaded canopy for fruit maturation. To develop full color, many colored bells require an additional two weeks of maturation beyond the mature green stage. This additional time makes them very susceptible to sunscald. Sunscald develops on mature green peppers that are exposed to high temperature and light intensity. Thus, any factor that reduces leaf or canopy area will trigger sunscald. Too little nitrogen, water, wind lodging or disease development can affect fruit quality by reducing canopy size.

Bell peppers should be staked to create a more upright canopy and reduce the risk of wind lodging. Bell peppers can be staked using a string weave system similar to what is used for tomatoes. A stake (wood or metal) can be driven every three to four plants per row, or one stake can be used for both rows on a twin row bed. Some gardeners have caged peppers with success.

Lewis Jett, Assistant Professor & State Vegetable Crops Specialist, UMC (573) 884-3287