A warm-season fruiting crop that rewards patient gardeners with thick-walled, sweet peppers in green, yellow, orange, or red depending on how long you leave them on the plant.
Capsicum annuum · also called sweet pepper, capsicum
Windows are counted from the average date of your last spring frost.
Home-grown bell peppers ripened fully to red or yellow on the plant are measurably sweeter than supermarket fruit picked green for shipping. A single plant in a 5-gallon pot can produce a useful harvest on a sunny patio.
A little history. Native to central Mexico and northern Central America, where it has been cultivated for at least 6,000 years according to archaeological evidence. Bell peppers are the non-pungent form of Capsicum annuum; the gene controlling pungency is recessive, so cross-pollination with hot peppers nearby rarely affects the current season's fruit flavor.
Cover seeds with ¼ inch of fine mix; keep the surface evenly moist and use a heat mat — germination stalls below 65 °F (18 °C) and drops sharply below 60 °F (16 °C). Seedlings emerge in 7–21 days in warm soil.
Either works well — needs at least 12 inches of soil depth and benefits from dark containers that absorb heat in cool climates. In containers: 5-gallon pot minimum; 7–10 gallon preferred for full yield. Space plants 18 inches (45 cm) apart.
Water deeply every 2–3 days in warm weather; more often in containers, which dry out faster than beds. Water when the top inch of soil feels dry to the touch — do not let the plant wilt, as water stress during flowering causes blossom drop. Aim for about 1–1.5 inches per week including rain.
Side-dress (scatter fertilizer along the row and water in) at transplanting, again at first flower, then every 3–4 weeks through harvest. What to use: low-nitrogen balanced fertilizer (e.g. 5–10-10 organic) once flowering begins — excess nitrogen promotes leafy growth at the expense of fruit set.
Pinch out the first flower bud that appears before the plant has branched — this redirects energy into building a stronger framework. Once the plant has 4–6 main branches, remove any shoots growing inward to improve airflow.
It's ready when green bell peppers are ready when they reach full size (3–4 inches across) and feel firm. For red, yellow, or orange color, leave on the plant an additional 2–4 weeks until the skin fully changes color. Cut the stem with clean scissors or pruners, leaving a short stub attached to the fruit — pulling by hand can snap branches. Harvest regularly to keep the plant producing.
Store unwashed at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the refrigerator crisper drawer for up to 2 weeks. Fully ripe colored peppers freeze well: slice, spread on a tray to freeze, then bag.
Bell peppers have a long season and do not benefit from succession sowing — start one batch indoors and focus on extending harvest by leaving fruit to ripen to full color.
Basil
The strong-smelling leaves can help hide young pepper plants from aphids and thrips that locate hosts by scent. Results are modest and hold best under low pest pressure, so treat it as a bonus rather than a control measure.
Carrot
Carrots send a single deep taproot straight down while peppers feed mostly in the top foot of soil, so the two often share a bed without fighting over water. Sow carrots at least 8 inches out from the pepper stem so digging them does not tear pepper roots.
Parsley
Let a few parsley plants run up to their flat flower heads in their second year and they feed hoverflies, lacewings, and tiny parasitic wasps whose larvae eat aphids on nearby peppers. The low leafy clumps also shade bare soil.
Spinach
Spinach sown between newly set peppers covers open soil, holds moisture, and crowds out weeds while the peppers are still small. It finishes before the peppers need the room, so there is little competition.
French Marigold
French marigold roots release substances shown to reduce root-knot nematodes, but only when the flowers are grown thickly across the whole bed or turned into the soil at season's end. A few plants at the edge will not do it, and marigolds do not deter beetles.
Fennel
Fennel roots release substances that stunt most garden vegetables, peppers included, so keep it out of the bed entirely. Grown in its own corner well away from crops, its flat flower heads still earn a place by feeding hoverflies and tiny parasitic wasps.
Kohlrabi
Old companion charts have long kept kohlrabi away from the tomato family, peppers among them, though no mechanism has been demonstrated. If you separate them, do it for the practical reason: kohlrabi wants cool soil and steady moisture that peppers do not.
Strawberry
Peppers carry the same verticillium wilt fungus as strawberries, and the soil stays infested for years. Give peppers their own bed and respect a three-year gap before planting strawberries on that ground.
Jerusalem Artichoke
Peppers are susceptible to the same verticillium wilt this crop can host, and wilt in one bed tends to show up in the other. Keep peppers in ground that has not grown sunchokes, tomatoes, or potatoes recently.
Goji Berry
Peppers share goji's family and its susceptibility to the same root and stem diseases. A permanent shrub cannot be rotated away from an infected spot, so give peppers their own bed well clear of the goji's root zone.
Pistachio
Peppers carry the same wilt fungus as tomatoes and leave it behind in the soil, where it can infect a young pistachio through its roots. Choose ground with no pepper history, and keep pepper beds well outside the drip line.
Give the tomato family 3 years away from this spot before any of its relatives return.
The pea and bean family, the onion family or the carrot family thrive in this ground next season.
Peppers are heavy feeders and leave the bed short on nitrogen with little residue behind. Keep the tomato family out of this ground for 3 years, then follow with legumes such as beans or peas to rebuild nitrogen, or with onions or carrots and their relatives.
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