Red Bell Pepper
Red Bell Pepper
Planted Mar 2022
From grocery red pepper.
Journal 2022
- March
- 3: Planted by Olivia, Harrison, and Ryan from grocery's red pepper seeds that were left dry for several days.
- 16: First sprout appears! 1 cm stem, a pair of 0.6 mm leaves.
- 20: Thriving. Thinned to 4 per hole.
- 22: Thinned to 2 per hole.
- 23: Thinned to 20 seedlings (2 + 6 + 12)
- 23: Thinned to 9 seedlings. Average height 4 cm.
- 25: Watered thoroughly in preparation of 10 days holiday.
- April
- 3: Back from holiday, seedlings look very good and thriving.
- May
- 19: January Basil (2) is transferred to the pot.
- 21: Rearranged to be tidier.
- June
- 7: Flower buds appearing again. It has appeared before when it was too young (10-15 cm) and they were all removed. Not the buds will be allowed to develop.
Care
- Water: regular watering, keep soil slightly moist, should never dried out completely. Do not overwater though. Avoid wetting foliage: promoting fungal disease.
- Temperature: Ideal growth: 21-32 °C. Tolerate: 10-35 °C.
- Consider mulching
- Fertilizer: Heavy feeder like tomato. Feed biweekly. Remember too much N will promote foliage instead of fruit. CHeck out tomato fertilizer.
- Pinch when young to make it bushier.
- Deadhead flower is flowering too early. This is important. Also later on when it has fruit already, can deadhead flowers if it is wanted to channed the energy to existing fruit formations.
- Pollination: self-fertile, don't need help in pollination. But to improve it, we can gently shake the plant when it is in bloom.
- Might need support. Cage or tie it to stick.
- Pest to watch out: aphids and spider mites (hot and dry weather)