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Oak Grove, Mn

Since green peppers does not have its own board. I thought I would make a post for those that are trying green peppers this year. The other gardening discussion board does not get much traffic so this post should remain visible for quite awhile. I think it would be valuable for a central place to share thoughts, question and observations on growing an achievable world record.

I have an indoor giant bell pepper growing now. Really feel like a rookie but need to start somewhere. I will probably have a few plants outside next summer with number one goal..to build a seed bank for the giant genetics.

I know weird wint has said he is going to try the giant bell peppers next summer. Anyone else trying?

2/8/2018 5:56:22 AM

stoughton WI

Omnilytics sells a product for bacterial spot for tomatoes and peppers. It is a biological and sells for $32 a quart. Just a heads up. I use it on my pumpkins.

2/8/2018 8:23:22 AM

Central NY

We’re gonna plant some of pumpkin shepherds seeds this year...we tried our first year and got a couple to twice the size of a beer can or so..didn’t prune or anything but you could tell they were a variety that gets bigger than normal.....can’t wait to try Johns seeds...wonder if it’s the same as the other veggies...one pepper per plant?...go for gold?...

2/8/2018 8:48:22 AM

Oak Grove, Mn

What I have growing indoors is John Nieuwenhoff 599 gram from 2016 that was grown from the 591 Daho. Last summer John graciously sent me a few seeds from his 550 2015, 492 from 2016, 514 from 2016 and a 530 from 2014. Next summer, I would like to plant all of these. They may be in pots out on my deck, but what better condition to test for suitability for small area growers. My first goal will be to collect seeds from all of these plants. I do not know much of the genetic history of them...but feel that should try to start with the widest gene pool I can find.
It appears to me that for indoors...bell peppers are so much easier than tomatoes. My plant is growing in a 15 gallon soil pot. I have done very little with other watering. The same environment, same care..the tomato plant would look very sick. John gave me a few hints about growing peppers. One thing he said is he cuts off all the rest of the peppers after choosing the one he wants. Outdoors..keeping it to one pepper is going to take much attention. The plant tosses blossoms everywhere..way harder to keep trimmed than a tomato. I still haven't figured out what I think is the best pruning method for the the vines. For now, I have just let them keep growing.

Thanks rick for the suggestion. Might have to determine if i have bacterial spot or not. Good input everyone..maybe pepper growing will keep growing.

2/8/2018 9:14:39 AM

Newcastle, CA

time to shove a jalapeno in this thread's tailpipe.

here is a little article on pruning.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/pepper/pruning-bell-peppers.htm

2/8/2018 7:09:25 PM

Georgetown, Ontario

Hey bnot, any of the pepper seeds from me all originate back to a variety called "Colossal" that Dutch Brad bought off a seed rack, divided up and put in the GVGO seed pack one year. The 599g is the seed that grew my 695g WR this past year so it should be a good one. As for growing, I usually just let them grow on their own until I see a nice pepper set and its bigger than a pea but smaller than a marble. I then pinch off the growing tips to try and keep the plant the same size. Then every few days I go through the plants and prune off any new growth, pinch off any blossoms or peppers that have popped up. I haven't had any disease or insect problems but I have lost a lot to slugs that like to tunnel a hole into the fruit. I fertilize them the same as my tomatoes ... and if you were on TEAM#4 in the Tomato competition I could tell you more. LOL ... I'm so glad to see the peppers take off in popularity and it looks like there will be a lot of them grown this year. Good Luck everyone, there's a record out there for the taking and I think 900g+ is very possible with the right combination of a long, fat fruit with thick walls. My record was very short and blocky, if it had been long as well it would have been even heavier.

2/8/2018 7:24:30 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

i made the subject line wrong....oooops...i should have said giant bell pepper or sweet pepper. Well..maybe a jalapeno at the right time would be a the shot this thread needs to wake up. Guess I have to go with it.

2/8/2018 7:24:32 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

wow...i was going to look up what you grew your world record from..the seed i chose to start this winter...was the seed I had the most of. So much for me growing not knowing what I had :). I picked the blossom that was lowest right in the center of a split. I haven't let another blossom set. It seems I am always about 3 days behind in picking newly formed blossoms...i am just lazy. If I can get any seeds from this indoor 599...i am more than willing to share with the growers that might be interested. By my calculation...it will be turning ripe about the end of march. Hope those dimples dont turn into bacterial spot. Thanks again. John...I am thinking this might get bigger.

2/8/2018 7:32:15 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

Austin...I glanced at the link you gave. Unfortunately...10 seconds looking at it, my instinct was nope...In the world of giant growing..what is normal in everyday growing can be wrong in giant growing. Just like the sites that said...85 degrees is too hot to set a blossom. As far as pruning..i have mixed feelings...if you compare with tomatoes...MacCoy goes for the extreme pruning method, Porkchop goes for nipple high, Sutherland lets things grow. 3 of the 4 eight pound tomatoes have been grown from different pruning methods....which one is correct. In this first pepper..i think I will let it go. I don't want another pepper to set..but more leaves and foliage..I don't know. Maybe I will transplant it outside in another 3 months. My first goal...seeds. With seeds I can experiment.

2/8/2018 8:46:52 PM

Ely Mn

Looking forward to growing some of John's
WR seeds this year!
This will be my first time growing them.

2/8/2018 9:04:43 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

i am months ahead of you dan....any idea what the minnesota state record is. I might be the first one to set it

2/8/2018 9:27:19 PM

Lebanon, Oregon

I will be trying them year. I have seeds from the 695g Nieuwenhoff world record. I seem to do pretty well growing bell peppers as long as I can keep the deer away. I used WOW starter packs last year on the peppers. Was short a couple. The bells that didn't get them were half the size and smaller fruit. Instead of 1 pack I will put 2 at each bell pepper.

2/8/2018 9:49:38 PM

Newcastle, CA

No early pruning for you!

Should be fun.

2/8/2018 10:11:59 PM

Wixom MI.

Ya i will try them again next year! Along with gaint cucumbers. Shouls be a lot of fun.

2/8/2018 11:05:33 PM

valparaiso, in

I will plant a few pepper plants this year. Last year was a learning curve with them. The heaviest I grew was 333 grams. I am 1/3 of the way there.

2/9/2018 1:16:06 AM

Oak Grove, Mn

John, I am wondering what year dutch brad put the colossal into the gvgo seed pack. Did a little research. If I am reading things right it looks like it was originally a hybrid. What I am wondering is if it started as a hybrid what F number are the current seeds at.

2/9/2018 3:43:52 AM

Netherlands

The initial seeds were bought in 2010. They were called 'Colossal' F1. They grew a 468g (1.03lb) pepper and I think it were those seeds I sent to the GVGO, so that would be F2.

This year I hope to grow John's 695g, a Polish 650g, my own 602g and a new variety which is grown commercially in my neighbourhood and gets so big that they are actually having to grow an extra stem just to keep the size below 500g. They currently grow them on 4 stems without removing any peppers and are still growing them above 560g.

2/9/2018 4:18:48 AM

Bethlehem CT

Bnot, Peppers respond very well to a hard prune. You can prune your plant back drastically in the spring and then plant it out in the garden. You will have peppers before anyone and the plant will recover and grow huge.

2/9/2018 8:55:48 AM

Georgetown, Ontario

bno, going by what Brad is saying the 599g Nieuwenhoff is F7, and the 695 is F8. The first year or two that I grew them (so F2-F3) I had a few plants that ripened yellow but it seems to be pretty stable now and they ripen to a real deep red.

2/9/2018 9:18:56 AM

Ely Mn

I have no idea Bob...keep it going and make sure to share any ideas :)

2/9/2018 11:37:15 AM

Oak Grove, Mn

john thank you, F7 and F8 should be very stable seed to seed. Wonder where we can find some breeding stock. I would love to see surgeon Wixom try his skill at these blossom. Looks way harder to me than tomatoes.

Dan,Should I share my ideas before I do them...usually my ideas result in the demise of the plant.

2/9/2018 4:00:50 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

big moon..i am wonder what you mean by drastically prune before transplant outside. Actually I would like to hear ideas from a few people about pruning choices.

With the one plant I have going now...my first goal is to get seeds. Size is not a great consideration. Bigger would be nice but it is much easier to get a new pb from low number. I would like to transplant this one later.

I think if I was to go for big..I might try to stop as much growth as I can and pump more to the growing pepper. Because plant health is important I am thinking that i should not stress it in such a way. So far, it is not stopping putting out blossoms..I probably could have set 20 peppers on it so far. I almost think that when it is transplant time that i could transplant it still in blossom mode. It could become a very big plant. Reading about the colossal seeds..one site I read said plant height 2 feet. I am already at 2 feet and it is still getting bigger. Another 3 months could be very big. In this situation...looking for suggestions on how other growers would prune it.

2/9/2018 4:09:57 PM

Wixom MI.

Lol a was thinking of cross pollinating some of these peppers. But it may be be another year before i would know with verieties would be best to cross. My colossal peppers had thiner walls on them than i liked. I had another smaller veriety smaller but thicker walled peper i got about 12 oz. Out of both of them. But i had 3-5 peppers on a plant ??? My colossal plants topped buy rabbits early in season and the still got waist high about 3' feet. I needed to stake them.hope to do better this year and keep the rabbits away.fun to grow.

2/9/2018 7:07:16 PM

Wixom MI.

I suggest planting these peppers far away from other pepper in the gargen.i grow maybe 4 kinds of peppers near each other and. Two years ago i saved seeds from each veriety to save money and found that almost all of them cross pollinated and i had all kinds of odd peppers the following year !!! So to keep them pure keep them far away from other vereties.

2/9/2018 7:25:15 PM

Central NY

What's far enough?....guys across the street grows peppers

2/9/2018 7:38:53 PM

Wixom MI.

Ya not really sure because bees cross mine all the time ? I always buy new seed for that reason. So maybe cover them when flowers are about to open with a netting or someting like that. Peppers will self pollinate like tomatoes so you can pollinate them just like the tomatoes. But i just seem to get more cross pollinating with them ?

2/9/2018 7:52:51 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

dutch brad...4 500+ peppers at the same....wow...do you know what variety that would be?

2/9/2018 8:58:02 PM

Lebanon, Oregon

Oh snap! My peter peppers were next to my serrano's last year. I gave some of the peter seeds away. Not as exciting as a tomato cross I guess.

2/9/2018 11:32:22 PM

Netherlands

Actually, they are growing upwards of 20x 500g on the same plant at the same time. The variety is Frazier, a new Dutch variety from about 2015. It's a big, thin walled pepper. The pepper grows fast but colours slow, which is ideal for planning. Commercially it is grown as a green pepper. The seeds I got came from a 563g pepper the pickers had forgotten and they found later when it turned red.

2/10/2018 4:12:57 AM

Oak Grove, Mn

thanks Brad. I found this link. I can see how where a Frazier might be worth considering.

http://www.hortidaily.com/article/19250/It-is-just-a-really-beautiful-pepper

2/10/2018 5:37:05 AM

Bethlehem CT

Bnot I am thinking a hard prune back to like 12-16".
Check out this video on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0rv24Eoiw4&t=114s

2/10/2018 9:40:28 AM

Oak Grove, Mn

That is a good video. It almost sounded to me that he pruned before wintering..not before transplanting. The video gave me a new idea. I get enough sweet bell peppers..turn them into pepper spray..spraying my garden with sweet bell pepper, I am sure will keep the errant raccoons at bay.

2/10/2018 10:33:57 AM

Central NY

Got that one wixom?...

2/10/2018 11:03:45 AM

Newcastle, CA

hows the pepper?

3/13/2018 7:57:09 PM

Newcastle, CA

bnot

3/13/2018 7:57:22 PM

Wixom MI.

Sweet bell pepper spray that will attract the racoons not repell them. Lol....you need hsbinaro

3/13/2018 11:10:40 PM

Wixom MI.

You need habinaro pepper spray to repel any kind of critters.

3/13/2018 11:12:07 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

My indoor bell pepper is still growing. It has a somewhat short stocky fruit. Seems to be a really easy plant to grow indoors. Good thing I don't have insect pollinators right now..the plant has blossoms all over it. They form in groups of about 8-10 blossoms per group and then open a few per group at a time. Even without insects, I am picking off a few small sets every few days. I will get a picture of the plant in my diary soon.

3/14/2018 4:56:58 AM

Peru

I bury the stems on mine and prun all stems but a few left on top, it makes a bush. Double the yields. Ive never grown for size just to eat

3/14/2018 7:46:44 AM

Oak Grove, Mn

I posted pictures of my current indoor bell pepper plant.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=286804

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=286805

I don't think I will have to worry about yield. Thinking it might be about time for me to start some more seeds for the outside. Wixom, you already started some right?

3/14/2018 6:25:01 PM

Newcastle, CA

Wow 11.5" around. good job!

3/15/2018 4:23:40 PM