Sweet pepper seeds........

[Snadger]

I had three sweet peppers from some plants I grew last year which were called Jumbo F!!
The seeds were expensive I remember and you only got a few in the packet.
The three peppers were at different stages of growth but were starting to rot so tonight I've taken the seeds from a green,yellow and red pepper.

I'll try sowing them at the weekend and even though the original was an F1, hopefully I will get a few reasonable peppers from them.

I never seem to have much luck with sweet peppers which always ripen too late so hopefully by sowing early I might get more........if any!

[marathon]

I never seem to have much luck with sweet peppers which always ripen too late so hopefully by sowing early I might get more........if any!

That vwill be where your going wrong.

Sweet peppers need to be sown by the third week of Feb. Any later and you may find they don't ripen before the end of the season.

I tend to grow about 30 plants and I've sown mine this week. I do grow my in a polytunnel and I only grow early types. I save my own seed which is easy to do. Isave seed from a plant that is a good cropper and provides me with nice big fruit and most of all from a plant that fruited early.

[bramble]

Marathon, what variety of sweet pepper do you grow. I too have tried growing sweet pepper without much success and would love to try something that is tried and tested.
Any advice welcome.

[Alison]

I never did very well with Sweet Peppers until I started sowing in mid Jan so agree that you need a long season. This year I have Lipstick, Orange Bell and Sunnybrook this year. Not grown the Sunnybrook before but the other two are tried and tested. I've also had good sucess with Gypsy which are more widely available.

[solway cropper]

Blimey, you lot sow early. I'm up in Cumbria at a similar latitiude to Snadger and I sow sweet peppers in early March and get excellent crops from an unheated greenhouse. Still got quite a few in the freezer from last year.

[marathon]

Marathon, what variety of sweet pepper do you grow. I too have tried growing sweet pepper without much success and would love to try something that is tried and tested.
Any advice welcome.

This year I 'm mainly growing lots of Napia,realseeds sell it, long fat peppers, heavy cropper which are very early. I also grow a few lipstick, sunnybrook and orange bell all from realseeds but I don't think they sell lipstick anymore.

I never did very well with Sweet Peppers until I started sowing in mid Jan so agree that you need a long season. This year I have Lipstick, Orange Bell and Sunnybrook this year. Not grown the Sunnybrook before but the other two are tried and tested. I've also had good sucess with Gypsy which are more widely available.

I like sunny brook but found out of 10 plants some plants had small fruit but still lots of early fruit. I saved seed from the plants with the biggest fruit so I'm hoping that this years sunnybrook will be slightly better.Might try crossing them if not.

[Alison]

I like sunny brook but found out of 10 plants some plants had small fruit but still lots of early fruit. I saved seed from the plants with the biggest fruit so I'm hoping that this years sunnybrook will be slightly better.Might try crossing them if not.

They do warn on the site that they are small but productive. May well do the same as you and save from the largest but will have to see how they do first. By the way, you're right about the Lipstick, Real Seeds don't do them for some reason now, they may be available elsewhere but am not sure as I'm saving my own.

[Flummery]

I now use the seeds from the long sweet pointy peppers from the supermarket. Fantastic - and free!

[21again]

I grew peppers for the first time last year, the mini bell sweet peppers from Thompson and Morgan.

I think a lot of people use them as a form of decoration ie restaurants or stuff them with feta cheese etc as they are about double the size if that of a cherry tomato.

I could have got a lot more fruit on the plants but I didn't look after them as well as I should .

They were a packet of mixed ie orange, red and chocolate but I grew a few and managed to grow one plant of each colour and saved seeds of each colour from them.

Not sure if I am going to bother this year.