bell peppers – Hydrangeas Blue

I would love to say that this is a photo of my bell pepper plants, but sadly my peppers never grown well. It’s a quest I’ve had for many years now – to grown a decent bunch of peppers.

I’ve read about growing them. I’ve tried to pay attention and fertilize them as needed, with not much luck. I might get one or two funny looking peppers a season but that is it! Now I live in a different climate, where it’s much warmer, which I think peppers like. Maybe my pepper growing luck will change.

I’ve read that the nutrients peppers need are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. For that I can use a 20-20-20 fertilizer. Once the flowers show, add additional nitrogen. For that I can use Ammonium sulfate or 21-0-0 blend.

Bone meal is something I have used in the past when planting my flowers and vegetables. The calcium in bone meal is especially good for developing a strong root system, which is why I usually mix it into the hole when planting almost everything. The “Maximum Yield” site has a very good article about Bone Meal Basics, which I found very enlightening.
Green peppers have their own special flavor and I use them in salads, sandwiches and omelets. Red Bell Peppers are sweeter, and are delicious when mixed into chicken salad or sliced to eat raw with a healthy dip. From what I understand, green peppers will eventually turn red if they are not picked.
Eating a variety of brightly colored fruit and vegetables gives us optimum health, and picking it from the yard is as fresh as you can get. One day I WILL eat my own yummy peppers… maybe this season.

(Image credits: Find all these wonderful photos at Pixabay.com)

growing green peppers in florida — Fresh Green Garden Peppers

The title of this post leads you to believe that I will share my knowledge about how to grow green peppers in Florida. It’s not really the case, as I am really asking the question. I do hope to answer it one day.

My recent move from New Hampshire to Florida has left me garden-less. It’s horrible. My summer has been filled with moving furniture and boxes and searching for a new home. However, I can’t go for long without watching something green grow, so I bought 2 green (bell) pepper plants at Lowe’s to see if I could coax a pepper or two out of them.

Pepper plants like it warm, I know that much. I could never get them to give me a harvest in the north, so I figured they might do better where it’s warmer. So far I am not having luck. One plant has one deformed looking pepper beginning to grow. All the other flowers have fallen off. They are in pots and not in the ground, which I think is detrimental to their overall well-being. I can’t help it, I don’t have a permanent home.

So I am searching for advice about growing peppers. My pathetic garden consists of a pot with parsley, basil and one pepper-less pepper plant.
At the Wizzley writing site where I have a number of articles published, I asked a kindly writer named Frank who gardens on an allotment in Great Britain, about growing peppers. Now, granted, his climate is nothing like a central Florida climate, but I did get some useful info from reading his page about Growing Bell Peppers. And he wrote it to help me out, which I appreciate. Adding a fertilizer high in potassium helps the fruit set, and I plan to try that next time I plant.

When I first brought my pepper and herb plants home, I put them out back under an old screen door (I live in a rental for the time being). I thought the screen might help block the sun, but I ended up moving everything over under an oak tree. The summer sun is just too incredibly hot. I don’t think people garden in summer here.

Soon I will be moving into my new house. Then we must build some raised beds and fill them with good dirt. I’m not in New England any longer. Good dirt comes from a store here. It will be another adventure in learning. Growing delicious fresh vegetables in Florida is my goal.

Yes, I lived in Florida before and I lived here for a long time. But I spent my time raising my four kids and never had much time to grow vegetables. I can grow flowers and shrubs like mad, but vegetables here? That will be something new for me.