Peppers for the garden

As you plan your spring gardens this year, consider growing one of the most fun garden crops to grow: peppers. Along with their counterparts, tomatoes and potatoes, peppers are members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Despite the great differences in growth patterns and fruiting habits, all garden peppers belong to the same genus and species, Capsicum annuum. The tabasco pepper, from which the famous sauce is made, belongs to a different species, C. frutescens. 

There are literally hundreds of pepper varieties available, those that suit every taste, from sweet, near-fruity bells to flaming hot pods. The fruits come in a wide spectrum of color, from dark, almost chocolate, to shiny green to bright red, yellow, and orange. The pepper plant does not take up a lot of space, and the attractive, compact plants with their shiny green leaves and colorful fruits are welcomed in the flower garden as well as the vegetable garden. 

There is another reason to grow peppers — a nutritional one. Peppers contain five to ten times as much vitamin C by weight as tomatoes. As peppers ripen, their vitamin C content increases, which helps to give the sweet varieties that sweet, fruity flavor. A mature pepper can have up to 70 times as much vitamin C as an immature fruit, prompting some people to wait to pick the fruits until they are mature. 

Ever wonder why some peppers are hot, and some are not? Tabasco, habanero, chili, jalapenos, and some bell peppers are peppery because of a group of related chemicals called capsaicinoids. These chemicals are located in the placenta, the fleshy tissue inside the fruits that supports and nourishes the seeds as they develop. Even the sweetest bell pepper contains some capsaicinoids, and as you may have guessed, the degree of hotness is determined by the amount of capsaicinoids present in the pepper.

How to grow peppers? Peppers should be treated pretty much like tomatoes (and everybody grows tomatoes). Pepper plants have a fibrous root system. If the topsoil is deep and friable, its roots can reach as far down as two feet and outward from the main stem as far as three feet or so. Peppers prefer a fairly high level of nitrogen, growing best in good, rich soil. 

Like tomatoes, peppers grow roots all along the buried portion of the stem, so it is good to plant them deeply, at least up to the first set of leaves. It is generally recommended that they be spaced 18 to 24 inches apart. 

One thing that helps increase plant form and pepper fruit production is pinching. This involves removing approximately one inch of the tip of the plant. This will, as with most plants, encourage branching and plant fullness and, thus, more peppers in the long run. If you have been frustrated with your peppers failing to yield as much as you think they 

should try pinching them back and see if this helps. Do this after the plants have become well-established in the soil.

Pepper roots are somewhat temperature sensitive, as soil temps of around 85 degrees and above and 50 degrees and below will stunt the roots and, therefore, plant growth. A mulch laid around your peppers as soon as the soil warms up would greatly benefit them. This acts as a buffer zone, keeping the soil temps around their roots at a comfortable level. If you set out your peppers early when the soil is cool, a layer of black plastic will serve to warm the soil.

Peppers are beset by many of the same problems as their tomato kin, including blossom end rot, tobacco mosaic virus, sunscald, cutworms, and wilts (including the infamous tomato-spotted wilt). Stay tuned for recommendations on how to corral these and other pepper pests in future articles. Meanwhile, good luck with your peppers!

Tim Lewis is a Georgia Green Industry Association Certified Plant Professional, gardening writer, former Perry High School horticulture instructor, and former horticulturalist at Henderson Village and Houston Springs. He and his wife, Susan, own and operate Lewis Farms Nursery, located on Hwy 26, two miles east of Elko, where he was born and raised. He can be reached at (478)954-1507 or timlewis1@windstream.net.

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