Sweet pepper problems!

[Snadger]

The last couple of years I've grown sweet peppers but never had a decent crop.
I was only getting 2 or 3 peppers per plant and they wern't very big.

In an effort to improve things this year I have bought some sweet pepper seeds today that should give huge peppers judging by the piccie on the front.

They are called Capsicum F1 Jumbo and I got them in a sale at Dobbies today for half price!

Has anyone grown them with any success?

[SarzWix]

What/where were you growing them Snadger? They generally grow and crop according to the space available to them - if grown in a medium pot, you will get earlier fruit, but not so much of it. If planted into a border with loads of space, the plant will grow much bigger, so supporting a bigger crop, but they will be later. If you remove the first few flowers from a potted plant, you might stimulate it to produce a flush of flowers, but the watering & feeding will have to go up too

[BarleySugar]

I am giving up on peppers this year. I've not got anything of note, even from seed sown mid-Jan. The plants grew well, potted in 18 inch pots, but did not set many fruit. The ones that did pollinate, some moth or weevil thing laid eggs around the stalk and the grub burrowed into the fruit. It was't apparent until picking time, when the peppers were a mass of frass inside. Disgusting.
I haven't tried Jumbo, mine were early varieties, as I was hoping if the fruit set early it would have time to grow to a decent size.

[Snadger]

What/where were you growing them Snadger? They generally grow and crop according to the space available to them - if grown in a medium pot, you will get earlier fruit, but not so much of it. If planted into a border with loads of space, the plant will grow much bigger, so supporting a bigger crop, but they will be later. If you remove the first few flowers from a potted plant, you might stimulate it to produce a flush of flowers, but the watering & feeding will have to go up too

They were grown in the same medium as the tomatoes and in the same Morrisons buckets.

Jalapenos grew great as did the toms but the sweet peppers were rubbish!

[kernowyon]

i grew Jumbos last year, only had one plant but the fruits were mahoosive, really does what it says on the tin. I managed to grow it in the greenhouse border, and apart from damping down just left them get on with it, no extra feeds etc. worked for me - I don't feed peppers at all, as they don't really respond to it anyway, treat 'em mean.

[crazy_red]

Morning Kernowyon,

I'm trying peppers this year for the first time. Keep em' keen then...

Red x

[Snadger]

i grew Jumbos last year, only had one plant but the fruits were mahoosive, really does what it says on the tin. I managed to grow it in the greenhouse border, and apart from damping down just left them get on with it, no extra feeds etc. worked for me - I don't feed peppers at all, as they don't really respond to it anyway, treat 'em mean.

Thanks kernowyon! Am a bit dismayed to see there are only 5 seeds in the packet though................

[kernowyon]

Am a bit dismayed to see there are only 5 seeds in the packet though................

now you know why I only grew one plant

[smallblueplanet]

Have you tried a sweet pepper like topeppo rosso? It's a 'blocky' style sweet pepper, but smaller, we grow it and get a good harvest from it.

Here's the RHS trials they recommend some sweet peppers (its a pdf).

http://www.rhs.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A...BulletinLO.pdf

[pigletwillie]

Snadger, pm me your address and I will send you some Evington Specials. Originally derived from a Tescos finest sweet pointy pepper three years ago, they grow exceptionally well as shown in the link below and are true to type.

Evington Hilltop Adventures: The freezers are full and still it comes!

On average, I get about 10 peppers per plant.

[Farmer_Gyles]

snadger, i've had similar luck to you for the last 2 years
i've had all sorts of advice on here, still no luck
this year i'll be growing jumbo sweet from T&M - pack of 10 seeds cost 50p in the wyevale clearout a few months back
i'll grow normal peppers too - some in the greenhouse in large pots, some outdoors, see what happens and how much luck i have
the more peppers i can grow, the better - they can be sliced and frozen

[pigletwillie]

the more peppers i can grow, the better - they can be sliced and frozen

I so totally agree, we put them in pasta sauces, sweet chilli sauces and in lots of frozen stuff, like onions, you can never have too many.

[BrideXIII]

Like our renowned mod here, i grow a lot of chillies and peppers from saved supermarket seeds, gets some really good varieties too sometimes.

due to lack of space and serious vine generosity, we will be trying to minimise the amount we grow this year to maybe 1 of each variety i have seeds for, instead of the usual 3 dozen of each cos i cant bear to throw a seedling away.

my peppers averaged 1 to 3 fruits per plant last year, but.............. that was one plant per 3 inch half full forgotten to water pot

gonna try buckets this year. might get a tree sized one

[Snadger]

Snadger, pm me your address and I will send you some Evington Specials. Originally derived from a Tescos finest sweet pointy pepper three years ago, they grow exceptionally well as shown in the link below and are true to type.

Evington Hilltop Adventures: The freezers are full and still it comes!

On average, I get about 10 peppers per plant.

Will do piglet, and thanks very much.

If I may be so bold, would it be possible to put SBP's RHS sweet pepper link into the growing techniques section?

[kernowyon]

I wish I didn't read the RHS link, found another variety to try out, erm, anyone got any sweet spot seeds??