Dirty Dozen (written Sunday, posted Monday)
This is my part of the weekend where I sit around in my comfy stretchy pants and polarfleece and cruise my favorite blogs. Gotta see what is shakin in the rest of the world. Over at Calendula and Concrete, Christa is making room for growing bell peppers. Her up close and personal photo of a sliced open red pepper with seeds makes me think of some kind of gruesome grin. She wants to grow her own because of the amount of pesticides used in growing them commercial and because the cost of organic peppers is quite high. Wonderful link to the Dirty Dozen, a list of 43 fruits and vegetables and the amount of pesticides detected on them. Gives you pause for thought.
I have always, always failed miserably at growing bell peppers. They are slow, fail to set more than 1 fruit per plant, and then sun scald to boot. Then, I go to the fair, they have a 25 foot row of them, all laden with peppers, looking smooth and delish, and I can’t figure it out. Will have to do some research on this. I have had fairly good luck with the new ornamental peppers in my big containers and with long skinny hot peppers. It’s the big fleshy bells that be-trouble me. Help!
I had the exact same problem with bell peppers last year. Couldn’t get them to do anything - although all my hot peppers came up and thrived. I grew all of them from seed, so I don’t know what the deal was with the bells. Oh, well, there’s always this year to try again…
Hello!
I’ve never had much success with them either. I don’t think we have a long enough summer for them.
Good thing the farmer’s market is nearby!
Andrea