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Grow bell peppers in grow bags at your home
Who will dislike the crunchy and delicious vegetable that too with nice aroma while cooking – Bell Pepper? Yes! Bell pepper is one of the favorite vegetables of the people all over the world!. It grows well in grow bags just like in ground. It is the easiest choice for the beginner gardeners. Here is the simple guide for growing bell peppers at home.
What are Bell peppers ? Are Bell Peppers and capsicum same?
Bell peppers are fruit varieties and people consume it as raw or in salads and in other dishes. The most colors of the bell peppers are green at unripe stage , Yellow and orange are the intermediate stage colors and the red is final color at the fill ripe stage. You may have another doubt – are the bell peppers and the capsicums same? – Both are same. In United States, it is called as Bell Peppers and in Indian version English it is called as Capsicum
Health Benefits of Bell Peppers?
Bell peppers are not only delicious but also have more nutritional values. It is fully loaded with lots of vitamins and minerals. By consuming bell peppers, you will get anti oxidants, bone, heart health. It improves the It contains more carbs and fiber also.
Are Bell Pepper hot?
Though it belongs to the chilli species, it does not have the heat or spiciness as chilli. The full ripened red bell pepper is sweet and hence called as sweet peppers.
Grow green, yellow, orange and red bell peppers in grow bag - Simple tips for beginner gardener
Peppers come in different colors like green, yellow, orange, purple and eve in white color! You can grow multiple colors of bell peppers in grow bags. The green is the first coming color at the first stage and it will turn to other colors as they are getting matured. It will turn to yellow , orange and at the fully mature stage it will be in red – as pepper fruits. Growing pepper plant at home is an interesting one and here are the simple tips and steps to follow. You have to produce the pepper seedlings first in a seedling tray and then plant it to the grow bag. Direct planting seeds to the grow bags is not advised. You may get the seeds from stores or from the vegetable you bought for cooking and be sure that you have selected healthy seeds.
How to produce seedlings from seeds to grow bell peppers
First, you get the healthy seeds either from nursery or collected from your kitchen. Sow two or three seeds per cavity in the nursery trays. As the seed germination success rate of pepper plants is comparatively less, you have to put more than one seed per cavity. You have to provide nutrient rich soil to produce healthy seedling and let it grow faster and also avoid the leaf curl problem even in the seedling stage. According the pepper varieties, the seed germination time differs.
Seed Germination Time
Pepper plants will not germinate faster like other plants like tomatoes and it will take longer time to germinate. You should be patience enough in growing vegetables like capsicum. The seeds will germinate in 15-23 days. It is important to spray a little amount of the plant boosters like panchakavya solution or fish emulsion once in two days to get healthier seedlings. You should also avoid overhead watering to the seedling tray. Because the overwatering will will let the seed to rot.
When to Plant bell pepper seedlings into grow bags
It is important to keep in mind the right time when to transplant the seedlings to grow bags. You should wait till the true leaves to grow from the seedlings, it may take nearly 50 days. You should not leave the seedlings for very long time in the nursery trays.
Potting Soil Mix
A regular potting mix with the one part of red soil or garden soil, two parts of cocopeat and vermi compost is enough to grow peppers. You can add some more organic matter like a little amount of neem cake powder, wood ash powder, bone meal, chicken manure to make the potting soil rich. You may add 1 teaspoon of of lime stone powder also to get ride of blossom end rot due to calcium deficiency of the plants.
Grow Bag Size
You can plant one plant in one bag, if you are planting in a regular size grow bags. You can plant two pepper plant per bag , if you have little bit bigger grow bag like 12×15 inches in size. There must be enough gaps between the plants. The grow bag should have proper drainage holes. A good drainage system is also important to keep the plant healthy.
Plant Care for the bell pepper plant
Like other vegetables of your home garden, the bell pepper also need some plant care at all the stages after transplanting it to the grow bags. Here are some gardening tips to follow.
Fertilizing
You may give any organic fertilizers like vermi compost once in a week and also plant growth boosters like banana peel solution, coconut butter milk solutions once in a week to help them to grow healthy and get good yields. This will protect the plants from common problems like leaf curls.
Pest Control
Similar to the regular chilli plant, the bell pepper plant will also have the problems likes spider mites and aphids attacks. To get rid from these problems, you have to spray a mild 3G (Ginger-Garlic-Green Chilli) solution once in a week. You may place the yellow traps to attract the aphids to it and control its attacks to the plants.
Mulching
Mulching is so important for every plant and you should cover the soil with dry leaves to keep the moisture of the soil.
Growing Seasons
You may start growing peppers in July – August months and November -December Months. Avoid starting in summer times.
Growing Temperature
Capsicum plants need a warm temperature to grow well. You have to place the grow bag at the place where it get sunlight 4-5 hours a day. If the weather is so hot, keep it in a shady area.
How to stop flower drops
The flowers of the capsicum looks like the chilli plant flower but bigger in size. Similar to the chilli plant or any other flowering plant, you may face the problem – flower dropping. To stop this, you have to spray coconut butter milk solution or even the butter milk solution to the flower and leaves two times in a week.
Harvesting Time of Bell Peppers
The bell peppers will be ready for harvest after 100-120 days of from the seed germinations. You may get 8-15 bell peppers per plant and it has only one grow cycle.
Hope the above tips will help you!
What are the dimensions of the “regular size” grown bag you mentioned above?
One bell pepper plant will be happy to grow in a 5-gallon bag