How to Grow Green Bell Peppers

Cultivating Green Pepper Seeds

Purchase green pepper seeds from the grocery store or farmer’s market. Visit your local grocery, farmer’s market or plant nursery and buy a package of green bell pepper seeds. Peppers come in many different varieties, and some options might not be available at all times of the year. Shop around until you find a place that sells healthy, organic green bell pepper seeds. If you have a large garden, make the most of your planting space and look into other types of peppers that can be grown alongside green peppers. You can also save and reuse seeds from the previous year's harvest if you've grown green peppers in the past.

Calculate the last frost date for your area. The Old Farmer’s Almanac can help you calculate the last frost date for where you live to determine what week you should plant your seeds. Pepper seeds should be planted 8-10 weeks before the last frost date. You will transfer your seeds outside just after the last frost date.

Plant three seeds per container ¼ in (1/2 cm) deep. Use any pot or vessel the size of a yogurt cup or larger with a hole in the bottom to plant your seeds. Use a fine-textured seed-starting mix that allows a lot of drainage. Water your seeds to the point of dampness but not saturation. Never allow your seeds’ soil to dry out completely. Young plants that grow slowly and produce droopy, shriveled fruit or foliage may be receiving too much or too little water.

Keep your seeds in a room at least 70 degrees F (21 degrees C). Pepper seeds require warmth to germinate. Find a room in your house that gets good sun and maintains a temperature of at least 70 degrees F (21 degrees C). You can use a wall thermometer to determine the temperature if your thermostat is unreliable.

Remove the weakest seedling. Pepper plants thrive best in pairs, as the two plants can shade each other from excess sun. A few weeks into the seedlings growth, remove the one that is thriving least so the other two can flourish.

Keep growing plants exposed to sunlight. Take the seedlings you planted in shallow planters and set them on a south-facing windowsill to soak up light and warmth during the day. It’s important for green peppers to have ample light in order to grow. After seeding them inside, you should gradually begin to expose your green pepper plants to outdoor conditions. Leaving the window open to allow direct sunlight and air flow is a good way to start. Green peppers should get at least 5-6 hours of sunlight per day. If you don’t have a window with lots of light, consider an artificial grow light.

Transplanting Green Peppers to the Garden

Wait until the right time in the season. Transplanting should be done immediately following the last frost date when the weather begins to warm. In hotter climates, this will usually be around March or April. If you live in a location that experiences lasting winter temperatures, you might have to wait until closer to summer to plant viable young peppers. Green peppers can be grown basically year-round in arid regions where the environment is hot and temperate. Just make sure your plants get enough water if you're growing them in a place that's hot with dry conditions. Most people should plan on starting their seedlings indoors around late January or early February and transplanting them after around 10 weeks. Keep row covers on your green pepper plants at night after they’ve been transplanted outside to help them retain heat.

Find an open, sunny space in your garden. Set aside a corner of your garden with plenty of room to continue growing the green peppers. The site you choose should have soil that is well-drained, rich and dark. Try to choose a location that receives direct sunlight, and make sure you plant the peppers far enough away from other hearty fruits and vegetables to avoid competition for nutrients. Green peppers do best if they’re grown in places with temperatures around 70 degrees or hotter. Don’t plant harvesting vegetables like green peppers near leafy plants that may be eaten by rabbits and other foraging animals.

Dig holes large enough to accommodate growing pepper plants. Use a shovel or hand trowel to dig holes roughly 6-8 inches deep and 10-12 inches wide. Aerate the soil around the holes thoroughly. Plant the green pepper seedlings in the holes and refill them loosely. Green peppers should be planted approximately 18-24 in (46-60 cm) apart to have room to grow without overtaking one another.

Add a little fertilizer to the soil. Work a little organic fertilizer, such as blood meal or organic compost, into the soil to keep the pepper plants fed. Don’t use too much: about a teaspoon worth will do the trick. Green peppers take most of their sustenance from the soil they grow in, so overfertilizing can actually leach nutrients from the plants and in severe cases may even kill them. Some gardeners recommend placing a few matchsticks heads-down in the soil around a pepper plant to give them the little bit of sulfur they require.

Cover the plants with row covers when it’s cold. In order to keep your green peppers growing healthy and robust, you need to keep them warm. Shield the plants with insulated row covers on particularly cold nights or whenever a frost is expected. The row covers trap the heat that the peppers need while also providing a barrier from precipitation, runoff and grazing scavengers. It’s okay to leave row covers on heat-loving plants like green peppers in milder climates. Always wait until early spring to plant peppers. Chill weather can kill them or severely hinder their growth.

Growing Healthy Green Peppers

Water green pepper plants regularly. Give your green pepper plants a healthy drink every 1-2 days, depending on what the weather is like. You can water less frequently as your plants mature and develop stronger roots. Peppers grown in hotter climates will likely need more water. An inch or two of water per week is best for most green pepper plants of average size in moderate growing conditions. Avoid overwatering, as this can kill the plant or make it susceptible to disease. Make sure plot you pick out is well-drained so that water doesn’t pool around the plants and turn the soil soggy.

Mix organic matter into the soil around the plants. Break up the soil around the plants every few weeks and add a shovelful of mulch or compost. Your green peppers will grow more efficiently if they can feed off the organic matter. Some pepper plants don’t even need a separate fertilizer if a little compost is added to the soil at intervals. Organic materials like mulch also help the soil retain moisture, which is useful for making sure green pepper plants get enough water in hot weather. Since calcium deficiency can cause the bottom end to rot on peppers, you can increase the amount of calcium in your soil by grinding eggshells and mixing it in with your soil (alternatively, use lime). If you use a fertilizer, make sure it has lower nitrogen content and it is not ammonia-based. Excess nitrogen and ammonium can be a cause of calcium deficiency.

Support the plants with garden stakes once they’re large enough. As your peppers grow, the fruit can become heavy, putting strain on the stalk. Correct this by tying the pepper stalks to wooden garden stakes, which will help the plant support its own weight. Stakes can be bought cheap at most gardening centers. Secure the plant’s stalks to the stakes using pantyhose or rubber bands rather than ordinary plastic ties. The added flexibility will ensure that the tie doesn’t constrict the plant’s growth or cause stress or breakage to the stalk.

Harvest green peppers when they’re fully grown. Green peppers are ready to be harvested by the time they’ve reached the desired size, typically 3-4 inches in length. Most of the time, however, knowing whether a pepper is ripe is determined by its color. Mature peppers will exhibit a deep green hue that is darker than the stalk and stem of the plant. Remove ripe peppers from their stems using a sharp knife or gardening shears. Rinse and dry peppers before cooking with them, or store them in the refrigerator until they’re ready to be used. Most varieties of green bell peppers will be ready to harvest between 60-90 days after they're transplanted outdoors. Green peppers will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.