PICK A PECK OF PERFECT PEPPERS

Whether you’re growing sweet peppers for the first time or are a seasoned devotee, avid grower Tony Flanagan has some top tips for you

- Tony Flanagan

One of the joys of summer into autumn is to see a burgeoning crop of fulsome sweet peppers in the polytunnel or greenhouse. If you have grown different varieties, you will feast your eyes on a spangled array of greens, yellows, oranges, and reds (even purple perhaps?) of different shapes and sizes. These might be smaller snack peppers or larger, even cuboid ones. But even if you have only grown one plant, you won’t be disappointed.

With their origins in South America, the sweet pepper (or bell pepper) Capsicum annuum likes it warm, so tends to be grown undercover. You can grow them outside too, of course, if you have a warm, sheltered spot in the garden which gets plenty of suns, but success will be somewhat dependent on the weather which, as we know in the UK, can vary greatly.

For this reason, I grow mine in a polytunnel but if you’re just starting out, mini-greenhouses with plastic coverings are relatively inexpensive and will serve you well.

A warm porch or sheltered balcony which gets plenty of light or a conservatory if you have one are good places too.

SOWING

If you want peppers by mid-summer, you need to sow early: February-March. You can sow in April too but May is leaving it a little late as developing plants will not get the best of summer light and sun, and cropping will be quite late and unlikely to be as productive as you would find starting earlier. Most of the work with growing peppers come in the early stages, getting good germination and then the aftercare required with seedlings and young plants.