How to Grow Peppers (Organically)

[Music] thank you hey you all farmer Jesse here in continuation of our crop breakdowns I I figured we have to cover Peppers peppers are my favorite fruit to grow what you're not selling the vegetation therefore they're not a vegetable Ergo fruit which is short for fruitable you're not a word I love growing peppers and I thought I would bring the market Gardener perspective to this video and also as always enhance it with research that I can find on pepper production so let's do it maybe out of the sunlight first if you're not subscribed to this channel make sure to hit the Subscribe button and if you are subscribed you're awesome if you enjoy these videos you can always support our work uh by picking up a copy of the living soil handbook from notill growers.com or a hat or other merch there or become a patron at patreon.com no-till Growers seriously we are able to make these videos and do the podcasts and everything else we do because of your support for real and we appreciate it thanks all right let's talk pepper production and specifically I'm going to focus on sweet peppers but hot peppers are largely the same procedure here really the biggest difference between hot pepper production and sweet pepper production is mostly just Speed hot peppers are generally faster getting into production but slower to harvest because they are smaller so you have to harvest more of them so as we go know that you can largely employ the same information to either one of them or decorative Peppers or chilies or whatever except for peppercorns the pepper that you crack over your cereal is not the same species as hot or sweet peppers and peppercorns only grow in very tropical regions like Zone 10 or above cheeriosi Pepe something in your face tells me that's maybe not a thing for a little context I'm in zone 6B Kentucky peppers grow exceedingly well here in the field or in a tunnel but peppers can be grown all over the U.S from the drier regions out west famous for things like the new Mexican chili for instance all the way up into Canada though having originated in Central America into South America Peppers do tend to appreciate a slightly warmer often more tropical environment so the colder you are the more likely you will want to grow peppers in some sort of covered space like a high tunnel with sweet peppers there are two main kinds uh bull horns and bells I almost said Bell horns that wouldn't be a thing right bull horns and bells bull horns are the long tapered peppers and bell peppers are the more Squat and rounded one I don't think I need to tell you that but maybe that's not obvious bull horns can be a little harder to sell in my experience because one they resemble what people maybe typically associate with like a hot pepper just that shape I guess I'm making based on the number of times customers have asked me if they are hot and two they don't look like what most people at least in the U.S think of when they think of a pepper and three they're maybe not as easy to stuff which seems to be a common preparation here I love me a good stuffed pepper I'm not judging for my money though I've personally never found a bell pepper that comes anywhere near the flavor of a raw Bowl horn so before I touch on hot and mildly hot peppers the varieties of the bullhorn sweet peppers that I like are carbon and stocky red roaster which produces kind of the skinnier fruit of the two for bells I like King of the North and Sprinter I also like Ollie that's been a good one I also really like those little tiny lunchbox peppers for flavor and they can be fun and Market though again marketing them is going to come with the challenge of customers assuming they are potentially hot peppers because they are so small I also really love shishito Peppers one in 10 of which are spicy like the Russian Roulette of peppers but we've largely stopped growing them because I can't sell them very well and it's ashamed because a red shishito is arguably the most underrated of all fruitables poblanos like uh Baron and spicy banana peppers like lightning are also worth exploring but again your market for these should already be obvious um because they will produce a lot of peppers per plant that people are not used to paying very much for and they will also require a lot of picking um thus labor so if you're selling them those are some important considerations don't grow a ton of hot peppers or even mildly hot pepper plants before you've identified how you are going to move them let's start small and work your way into that market next in line are your basic hot peppers like jalapenos cayennes and Serranos I don't have a lot of recommendations on varieties here um I like the jalapenos that are just called early yep they do really well here and they make nice fat fruit for cayennes I like red rocket and I've never disliked any Serranos that we've grown I don't even remember them all now for super Hots like Habaneros and such I'm breeding one that's a slightly sweet habanero but my experience with growing super Hots is that even more so than the medium hot peppers they are really difficult to for us to justifies price wise if you know a hot sauce maker or make your own hot sauce or have some other Outlet or idea for them then there may be some ways to justify it otherwise I don't really bother with hot peppers commercially Beyond growing a couple plants just for my home use because to be perfectly honest tomato sandwiches are just not the same without some cursing and crying caused by an ambitious application of hot peppers those are just facts of course as always make sure to let us know your favorite varieties and or any growing tips or things I miss in the comments section all right so we always start our peppers from seed about two to three weeks before our tomatoes because Peppers tend to take significantly longer to grow and start producing if you are going to buy plants buy them from an organic farmer and make sure the leaves do not have any brown spots or aphids or yellowing it's better to get a smaller green plant than a taller sickly one for us we start them in two inch soil blocks and then pot them up to soil balls or four inch blocks there is nothing special needed for the soil balls literally just a ball of soil around a smaller transplant shout out to our amazing employee Greg Ward for these uniform gyms here but just be thorough when watering them uh what bottom watering is often better it's just more accurate in fact bottom watering in general is a good idea for most plants as it will keep water off the leaves and you know reduce your disease potential using a good soil mix here is important because the peppers will be in the blocks for a fairly long time if you see yellowing you may want to add some fertilizer like fish hydrolyzate just to keep them growing I'm not obliged to explain my costume changes to you or why it's several days later and much much colder and in case you're wondering although technically yes it's possible to grow peppers from directly seeding them into the soil and some commercial Growers do in fact do that they are really slow to germinate and then grow and so unless you're in a generally warm climate with almost no weeds you will lose significant yield because your season will be shrunk down tremendously by directly seeding them generally Peppers take like 7 to 14 days to germinate depending on the pepper depending on the time of year depending on the heat uh give or take okay anyway so once you have a large enough plant and once the last chance of frost has passed for the spring the peppers can go out in the field or if you're growing in an unheated heated that was very very pronounced or if you're growing in an unheated tunnel uh three to five weeks before the last frost is fine that's when we usually plant our last frost date here in Kentucky Zone 6B is May 10th and I usually transplant peppers in the tunnel around April 1st give or take a week in the field like all the old timers around here we transplant around the Kentucky Derby uh that's the first week of May if I have enough row cover and the forecast looks reasonable I will go in a week earlier than that like literally every other crop peppers require fertile well-drained soil I genuinely don't know why they even say that in the Seed Catalog like show me a crop that doesn't love well-drained soil that'd be super helpful because I've actually got some work for it very similar to tomatoes you do not want to over fertilize Peppers you'll just get a bunch of Granary it's pretty not very helpful so long as the soil is in decent shape I like to add a handful of balanced nutritional compost to each hole and then lightly fertilize the plants throughout the season as deficiencies arise addressing plant deficiencies in this way is kind of beyond the scope of this particular video but generally you can find resources online for what each deficiency looks like in the leaves and in the fruit and then find an organic foliar application to apply um like blossom end rot for instance you'll see that a lot in peppers and often it's an indication of low calcium so you can find that stuff online and it's super easy there's plenty of resources also a chunky compost like a compost mulch can be a nice way to mulch it because it's relatively slow to release its nutrients over the course of the season and it blocks out weeds really well a lot of people really like growing peppers in plastic or landscape fabric as well because they are such a long season crop that weeds are nearly inevitable um I'll let you make that call for yourself on the plastic uh now let's talk a little bit about spacing options you actually have quite a few and some Growers will plant a single row down the middle of the bed and use the outside space to grow a quick crop like lettuce or onions or beets or something um peppers are slow to get into production this allows for something to be produced in that time frame we've also experimented with just planting something like basil that you harvest for a very long window and that works okay um I don't think that's my preference I'd rather get the interplant in and then take it out and then let the peppers take over the bed for us we plant the row two rows of peppers on the sides of the bed and green onions or something in the middle of it that works pretty well for us now I'm able to get away with that also because my beds are four foot wide or 122 centimeters though you can plant two rows on a 30 inch beds we've never really done that personally um and it also eliminates any chance for enter planting which may not be a big deal you can sell a lot of peppers you can grow a lot of peppers on a 30 inch bed with two rows so one or two rows depending on your goals and your bed width the closer those rows the further apart I recommend you plant the peppers though within the row if you are dry farming your peppers like if you don't have irrigation you will want to space them closer to two or even three feet apart and mulch them if you can if you have the ability to irrigate them at all you can plant peppers as close as one foot apart that can be a little tricky with disease in our humid climate at least outside as well as fertility those things can be complicated so I usually stick to about 18 inches apart in the row with rows 24 or inches apart on a 48 inch bed so that's two rows on a 48 inch bed 18 inches between the plants and then we just make sure those are super well watered in to get started and then usually peppers can put Roots down enough to find water in the tunnel I plant a little bit closer I like a single row of peppers at 14 to 18 inches apart and trellis from above like I do with the tomatoes I've not been growing peppers in the tunnel actually for several years it's honestly just because the market hasn't Justified it but recently we've been selling more Peppers so I'm moving production back into our tunnel that space is just super valuable for us so it must be used absolutely as well as possible worth noting that multiple studies I can find in the scientific literature seem to suggest for best production a grid of 30 by 50 centimeters which would be roughly a foot by 20 inches that is to say rows that are 20 inches apart with plants in the row at 12 inches apart I don't know why I use my hands I don't feel like that's helpful at all but I'm I can't help it spatial in that situation it may just require slightly more fertilization through maybe like a fertigation system and pruning to ensure good air flow again feel free to add your approach as well I'm always curious to hear there's no one right way to do any of these things one interesting tidbit I also came across in the research was planting depths the thing I've always assumed with peppers is that I should only bury them to the top of the soil block and not deep on the stem like their sister crop Tomatoes is often planted to be clear I've never planted Peppers to the cotyledon or first true leaves I've always planted just the soil Ball but there are a couple studies I found from the 90s that indicate some better performance from planting to the cotyledon and first true leaves it is not clear if the sounds of MC Hammer drifting through the air we're having any effect on the plants but they indicated some better performance from planting to the cotyledon and first true leaves to Legit To Rule it out just saying I will actually try all this a little bit this year and get back to you on planting depths I am saying depths right it sounds like depths I've never had any issues planting just the above the root ball and keep in mind that the deeper you plant the colder the soil will actually be against the roots so anyway it may slow down production otherwise in planting just be mindful to fill in whatever the hole is completely around the plant so that the roots can feel free to just Boogie on in there next trellising for Peppers is critical but unlike like tomatoes that need to fully be propped up peppers can kind of hold themselves up they just need a little extra support just so so a floor to weave after the plants are in that 14 to 18 inches tall range plus another string with every eight inches of growth or so should be fine Tomatoes I use the Florida weave at a much more intense intervals to ensure they stay up and generally we only floor to weave are field Tomatoes I guess you could kind of think of peppers like your Tipsy pal who just had one too many drinks and needs an arm to hold on to tomatoes are more like your friend who has to be carried out of every single bar and yes I am talking about you when it comes to trellising peppers in other words do not need nearly the attention just a little something to hold them up there is a forthcoming video about trellising so be on the lookout And subscribe but typically like I said a Florida weave will work like depicted in this sketch by my wife that appears in the living soil handbook you can also tell us them from above with a fixed string which is typical in tunnel production they will generally not grow into the roof like tomatoes will so you don't have to lean them you can they grow that long that'd be great so a lean and lower trellis system is not always necessary for Peppers I'm not going to get into pruning here in this video I'll do a Market Garden minute or something about it later on when I'm actually pruning in the middle of the season but it will be important if you want to do a double leader system for instance where you maintain two main branches off of each plant which I generally recommend all that's important to understand here is that a single leader system is when a single stem guides the plant up the trellis and a double leader is when two stems from the same plant guide the plant up at trellis and most field peppers are not pruned at all which is fine as long as you give them enough space to breathe and they're not the leaves aren't really really cuddled together cuddled the right word there and we don't prune our field Peppers but will prune our tunnel Peppers to help with airflow and to guide them up the trellis um we have this Rimmel Greenhouse ridge vent which also makes a huge difference as it lets the air out of the top we do sell a decent amount of green bell peppers but fewer of the green bull horns so we usually start selling the green bell peppers as soon as they have sort of filled out and then allow the bull horns to ripen um all the way to being red we let them ripen as much on the vine as possible and then pick them last on harvest day leave them out of the cooler overnight and then take them to Market we're not picking them twice a week like we are tomatoes we're just picking them letting them ripen overnight and then taking them that overnight period will simply just a blow for them to get a little bit riper a little bit redder and they look really nice at Market that way we usually sell two peppers for three dollars or four peppers for five dollars if that makes sense some people definitely charge more in higher end markets but that's been a solid price point for us with our customers it works out to three dollars or four dollars per pound or something like that for smaller peppers like lunchbox and hot peppers that require more picking we go more closer to that like six to eight dollars per pound adjust that based on your market and yield and labor for longer term storage place peppers in containers or bags for several weeks in the cooler if the containers are airtight make sure to open the bag or lid and air them out occasionally you're not going to get like all winter worth of peppers but you can get several weeks extension after your Harvest like at the end of the year we will often Harvest everything that's on the vine even if it's under ripe and we'll just put that in the cooler and then we can sell those for several weeks after even if the flavor is not as great as mid-summer it's still nice to have some peppers in the fall because they go great with sweet potatoes definitely anyway that hits it for my quota for number of words I will say this week so let me know your thoughts and approaches to Pepper production like this video If you like this video make sure you are subscribed to the channel uh thanks for watching we'll see you later bye I mean you saying My Heart Will Go On like four times in a row it wasn't a karaoke bar oh

Channel: No-Till Growers

Views: 158,701

Keywords: peppers, hot peppers, sweet peppers, organic, no till, no tillage, regenerative, no spray

Id: ih2w43nTI9Q

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2023