Sweet pepper

Origin & history

The sweet pepper comes from Central and South America and reached Spain with Columbus in 1493; it carried the name “pepper” from the start because it was traded as a substitute for costly black pepper. The mild, thick-walled vegetable peppers, by contrast, are a European breeding achievement, above all from Hungary and the Balkans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Botanically the sweet pepper is the same species as most chillies — the difference lies purely in the breeding.

Varieties

Blocky peppers, the thick four-lobed supermarket type, need the most heat and the longest season and often disappoint outdoors. Pointed and snack peppers with smaller, thinner-walled fruit finish considerably earlier and are the safe choice outside; look for “early” or a short growing period on the packet. Which final colour a variety actually reaches is stated in its description — green is only a stage on the way. If you save your own seed, keep it away from flowering chillies: insects cross the two, and the offspring can turn out hot.

Care

Peppers want warmth and shelter: a south-facing wall, a greenhouse, or a pot of ten litres or more that you can move when it turns cold. Side-shooting them like tomatoes is wrong here — peppers carry their crop precisely on the side shoots; only the shoots below the first fork come off. Do not forget a cane, as the branches snap easily under the weight of the fruit. Water evenly and feed regularly from the first fruit set.

What can go wrong

When flowers drop one after another without setting fruit it is nearly always temperature: cold nights below about 12 °C, or midday heat above 35 °C in a greenhouse. Fleece on cool nights, shading and ventilation on hot days fix it — feeding does not. In dry greenhouse or indoor air, spider mites and aphids sit on the undersides of the leaves; turn the leaves over weekly, do not let the air get bone dry, and keep newly bought plants apart at first. A sunken black patch at the tip of a fruit is blossom end rot and the result of uneven watering, not a pathogen.

Harvest, storage & kitchen

Cut the fruit off with a piece of stalk rather than pulling it — otherwise the whole shoot comes away with it. Clear the plants before the first frost: fruit that has already begun to change colour will finish doing so at room temperature, deep green fruit stays green. Store at 8 to 10 °C and no colder; in the fridge peppers develop soft, sunken spots. Cut into strips they freeze well raw, and fully coloured fruit can be roasted in the oven and skinned.

Frequently asked questions

When should sweet peppers be sown?

Between 15 February and the end of March, roughly nine weeks before planting out. The plant only goes outside from 20 May, and by 10 June at the latest — before that the ground is simply too cold for it.

When is sweet pepper harvest time?

From around 20 July well into October, outdoors up to the first frosty night. The first fruits are taken green; if you are waiting for red or yellow, add another three to four weeks once they have reached full size.

Can sweet peppers be picked while still green?

Yes — green is simply the unripe stage of the same variety, perfectly usable, just grassier and less sweet. The very first, lowest fruit is worth taking green and early: the plant then puts its energy into new flowers instead of ripening one single pod.

Is the sweet pepper plant winter hardy?

No, it is frost tender and grown as an annual here — the first frosty night finishes it. A potted plant can be carried through winter somewhere bright and frost-free; one lifted from the bed loses so many roots that the effort rarely pays off.