Conventionally, there are two stages of maturity in growing pepper:
- Technical.
- Biological.
At both stages, the fruits can be picked and eaten. However, the main difference is that when they reach technical maturity, the pods are still green. They have a normal size, juicy skin. In most regions, the fruits reach the stage of technical maturity by mid-summer.
Biological maturity always occurs several weeks later than technical maturity, usually after 21-28 days. With it, the fruit is painted in a color that corresponds to the planted variety. Peppers come in bright colors: yellow, burgundy, red, brown.
Reasons why peppers don't turn red
There are not many reasons why pepper does not reach the stage of biological maturity. Most often this is explained:
- Inattention of the gardener himself (incorrectly selected variety).
- Incorrect information provided by the manufacturer on the seed package (incorrect ripening period).
- Errors in care.
You can try to correct the situation only if there were errors in care. In other cases, most likely the crop will remain green.
Variety
Due to the wide variety of crop varieties, out of ignorance and lack of experience, novice gardeners can purchase a variety that remains green, regardless of the stage of ripening. These include the varieties Atlantic, Titan, Green Miracle, Gift of Altai, Zephyr, Viking.
The most common varieties of red and yellow peppers are Agapovsky, Belladonna, Bogatyr, Star of the East, Isabella, Lastochka.
Before you buy a bag of seeds, be sure to read the description of the variety and pay attention to the final color of the pepper. The manufacturer always indicates this information.
Incorrect expiration date indicated on the package
If it is mid-August, and there is not even a hint of redness on the peppers, then the manufacturer could have made a mistake. Unfortunately, this happens, but it doesn't happen that often. Seed procurement occurs on a production scale. The human factor and incorrect operation of equipment sometimes have dire consequences - by mistake, the information on the packaging turns out to be completely different from what it should be. The situation cannot be improved in any way; we will have to be content with a green harvest.
To avoid getting into such unpleasant situations, you need to buy seeds from trusted companies and in specialized stores. Not recommended to purchase planting material in unfamiliar places. You should be especially wary if the packaging has already been opened or torn, has an untidy appearance or unreadable inscriptions on the labels.
Important! When purchasing seeds, you should not choose the product with the lowest price; it may be of very low quality. You need to buy seeds from the middle price range.
Incorrect growing conditions
In bad weather conditions, peppers grow very poorly. The culture is very heat-loving; for the fruit to ripen, the ambient temperature must be at least 22 degrees Celsius. At lower temperatures, especially during winter frosts, the fruits simply do not have enough heat to fully ripen. You can install a heater or heat fan in the greenhouse to raise the temperature slightly. Under no circumstances should heating devices be left unattended or the temperature raised above 25 degrees.
At street growing If the temperature drops below 15 degrees Celsius, the peppers are covered with film or wrapped in windproof material overnight.
Sunlight is important for culture, but not in this way large quantities, as everyone thinks. It is mistakenly believed that the more sun a vegetable receives, the faster its ripening will be. This is wrong.
The normal length of daylight for pepper is 8-10 hours. This time is enough for him to keep up. If the fruits are constantly under scorching heat sun rays, then their development is inhibited, and the quality itself only worsens.
The reason for the weak color of the peppers may be poor mineral composition in the soil. Lack of potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus affects the ripening of the crop. Fertilizing can be used starting from the moment when the fruits have already reached a large size and are no longer growing. Dilute in 10 liters of water:
- tbsp potassium sulfate;
- tbsp superphosphate.
The mixture is mixed well and watered each plant for 2-3 weeks every 5-7 days. If other conditions for agricultural cultivation are carried out correctly and regularly, the results from fertilizing will be immediate. Already from the second time of applying fertilizer, color will begin to appear on the fruits.
Attention! Peppers need to be fed only in the morning.
What to do to make the pepper turn red
If you pick green fruits, but varieties of red or yellow peppers, they will turn red at home in just a couple of weeks. Peppers are placed in warm room, but not on sunny side, leave the fruits to ripen, turning them over periodically. Soon the color begins to gain intensity, and the pepper finally becomes biologically mature. If you add one red fruit or a ripe apple to the peppers, they will turn red faster.
If desired, you can help the peppers ripen directly on the bushes. To do this, lay out under the bushes of plants banana peel. It is a valuable source of potassium, which helps initiate the ripening process. Potassium penetrates through the soil to the roots of the plant, as a result of which the fruits turn red. However, banana peels are very attractive to insects and pests. This method can turn out to be very dangerous, because as the peppers mature, insects begin to attack them.
There is one radical, but very effective way which is used experienced summer residents. It consists in stopping the growth of the bush, due to this the peppers have enough strength to ripen. They retreat 3-4 centimeters from the base of the stem and make it in through hole. A wood chip is inserted into the hole and as a result the stem no longer grows. The fruits turn red in just a few days, and then the bush dies.
Peppers will definitely reach maturity if selected the right variety for planting, and the technology of agricultural cultivation is followed. Do not worry about the green harvest - it will turn red in any case, you need to give it a little time to ripen.
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Vitamins P, C, B, B1, B9, potassium, magnesium, iodine, iron, chromium, calcium and many other microelements make pepper indispensable in the fight for a healthy heart and blood vessels. Unfortunately, in pursuit of a large harvest, industrial vegetables are saturated with pesticides. Therefore, it is better if you grow bell peppers yourself.
Pepper varieties
Sweet pepper is not very demanding, so it can be grown throughout Russia. Somewhere you will need to give it more heat, somewhere - nutrients, but, one way or another, growing it will not be a problem for you.
There are different varieties of plants, and their choice depends on what kind of harvest you ultimately want to harvest. If you need the fruits of bell peppers for preparing all kinds of dishes and eating in their natural form, then you should opt for varieties such as “Gladiator” or “Ermak”. But “Medal”, “Black Cardinal” and “Victoria” are suitable for you if the purpose of growing the plant is pickling. These best varieties of peppers for greenhouses have small size, which fits conveniently into jars.
Greenhouse conditions, thanks to which the plant receives the necessary temperature for ripening, are not the only requirement for gardeners. The bell pepper harvest ripens well when the plant develops in soil specially prepared for it. However, this is not at all difficult to do. The main thing is to create a new fertile layer. It is advisable if you bring into the greenhouse a layer of soil that was previously used for growing pumpkins, onions, carrots or cabbage. Adding compost or manure is also encouraged. In addition, when planting seedlings, it will not hurt to use industrial mineral fertilizers. But you need to watch for the presence of fungus and rot. Then you can harvest a rich pepper harvest.
Growing seedlings and moving them to the greenhouse
Bell pepper is a heat-loving and leisurely plant. Proper cultivation of peppers in a greenhouse also depends on the placement of seedlings in the garden bed. Place it in necessary conditions better before planting in the garden in February. The seeds of the plant are placed in boxes, and after a month they are transplanted into peat pots. This should be done when the bell pepper has several leaves. They are planted in pots in pairs. Seedlings already at home require special care. For example, you need to loosen the soil daily. But it is necessary to water moderately.
The ceremony of planting seedlings in a greenhouse should be done when the soil has already warmed up - around the end of April, if the plant has a sufficient number of leaves. And remove as they ripen.
Growing
The process of planting sweet pepper seedlings must be observed not only in accordance with calendar dates, but also with temperature conditions. So, the plant should be planted in soil heated to at least +18 degrees. By the way, if you are the proud owner of a heated greenhouse, then it makes sense to plant the seeds directly into the greenhouse.
Growing peppers in a greenhouse can be done with two in different ways: in the garden or in special polyethylene bags.Growing sweet peppers requires creating competent beds that will allow them to grow unhindered and make it easier for you to care for them. How many beds you will have and what their size is, you determine yourself in accordance with the design of the greenhouse. It could also be a greenhouse. However, you shouldn’t make them too high - it’s enough to raise the soil up to 20 cm. The shape of the raised layer can be preserved with the help of sides, on the borders of which you put wooden slats, their height should coincide with the bed.
The length of the bell pepper bed can be from the beginning to the end of the greenhouse, but it is better to make the width such that two bushes fit on it.This way access to each bush will be optimal. The distance between plants should ideally be 30 cm, which will ensure freedom of ripening.
The method of planting sweet peppers in plastic containers creates individual, comfortable conditions. In this case, you will not need beds, and there will be a constant temperature inside the bag. This will have a positive effect on the harvest, since the seedlings will not experience daily temperature changes. This method of growing bell peppers is relevant if you do fertile soil throughout the greenhouse fails for some reason.
Summer residents should remember that sweet pepper Although unpretentious, it tolerates transplants with difficulty. Therefore, its seedlings must be placed in greenhouse conditions directly in peat pots. This landing system is ideal, since you will not disturb root system plants and create additional fertilizer when the peat begins to decompose.
If it turns out that your pepper is not growing in special pots, it should be planted together with a lump of earth that forms around its roots. In this case, you must first pour 1.5 liters of water into the hole. Then the hole needs to be covered with dry soil. Ideally, sprinkle mulch on top.
Pepper outside the greenhouse
There is only one care for peppers in the greenhouse, but open ground another. If climatic conditions are such that you can afford to grow a rich harvest under open air, then a greenhouse is not required. In any case, even in open ground, some gardeners cover seedlings non-woven material, which they pull onto the arcs. If it is less than +15 degrees outside, it makes sense to cover the improvised greenhouse with film so that condensation does not fall on the plants.
Only those plants that have reached the age of 60 days can be kept in open ground. It should be planted at a distance of 40-50 cm. Otherwise, the bushes will be crowded.
Greenhouse care
Proper cultivation of bell peppers in film greenhouses will allow you to consistently harvest good harvest from every bush of any variety. What needs to be done for this? Water on time, loosen the soil, tie up on time, remove weeds, fertilize and plant.
The excellent quality of bell pepper is that it is not moisture-loving. It does not need to be watered frequently, which makes caring for seedlings easier. However, too dry conditions in film greenhouses can destroy the plant. When it doesn’t get water, the flowers fall off, which ultimately has an extremely negative effect on the harvest. If you do not have the opportunity to water bell peppers in portions on time, create conditions to retain moisture. Mulching, aka a mound of grass placed on the beds, will help in this regard. Mulching also creates heat and humus. If you use mulch, the plant can be watered only three times a week.
You can easily determine the time for gartering the plant by the ripening of the crop. When the fruits begin to fill, they begin to bend the seedlings to the ground. It is at this time that you need to install a support for each bush and tie it with a rag ribbon.
Pinching is also an important and necessary process for bell peppers to produce an excellent harvest.It involves breaking off the branches on the plant stem from below. Otherwise it is called removal of stepchildren. This must be done in order to nutrients were spent not on the growth of additional stems, but on the ripening of fruits. It is not worth tearing off the stepsons in the heat, since in such weather they, on the contrary, help the stem to cool.
Caring for peppers in a greenhouse also involves high-quality removal of weeds that can oppress seedlings, depriving them of nutrition and light. Not only weeding, but also mulching will help solve the problem. In the shade of chopped grass, harmful plants practically do not grow.
As for fertilizers, in this case you will have to work hard, because sweet pepper varieties love versatile feeding. The soil in film greenhouses should be fertilized in small quantities weekly. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that during the growing season the plant especially needs nitrogen-containing substances. As they ripen, you need to add fertilizers with phosphorus. If aphids appear, fertilize with substances containing potassium.
When to harvest?
There are no specific rules that indicate that it is definitely time to remove peppers from the greenhouse. But a summer resident can easily recognize ripe peppers by appearance. It must be collected in film greenhouses along with the stalk. Take scissors and carefully cut the fruit. If your harvest is large, then it makes sense to sort it. You need to remove and put clean peppers in one pile, the damaged ones will be used for preparations - we put them aside in the second. And we put the unripe one in the third. The timing of harvesting peppers should be in the fall before the onset of frost. It should be kept in mind that different varieties and ripen differently. So, early ripening varieties need to be harvested starting from the 90th day of their life. Mid-ripening ones ripen at 110–130 days. And late-ripening peppers, accordingly, need to be harvested after 130 days.
A little advice for those who want to harvest the harvest quickly: unripe fruits will ripen faster when you cut off the top of the bush. It is then that the pepper itself will do everything to make the fruits ripen faster. Although you can easily remove the still unripe vegetable. After some time it will ripen.
Harvest problems
Caring for peppers in a greenhouse is not only about timely watering, but also about dealing with problems. During the ripening process, peppers may experience various difficulties, get sick and suffer from pests. But if you take care of it in time, identify the cause of the problems and provide competent care, you can defeat any disease and rot.
So, yellow leaves will tell you that the air is too dry, even if the ground is moist. If the plant does not grow or flowering has stopped, the reason may lie in the cold. If you notice that the trunk and shoots seem to be made of wood, this is due to unsuitable climatic conditions - temperatures below +15 or above +30 degrees.
As for insect pests, the enemies of pepper are aphids, thrips or Colorado beetle. They must be destroyed with special chemicals.
If you want to remove blossom end rot, you should feed the plant with calcium fertilizer. This disease is considered a real pepper scourge.
By the way, rot will inevitably occur if there is high humidity and constant heat. But if the plant rots under normal conditions, then the virus is to blame. Preventive measures in this case are spraying healthy bushes chemicals, but infected plants are also removed from the soil. Next, the ground needs to be covered with ash and loosened. However, you cannot water it until it begins to crack.
Growing pepper crops is quite simple if you choose the right soil for it and apply appropriate care. Pepper does not need complex and multi-step care, but it is important to know its weak and strengths. It is then that the harvest of this crop will give you moral satisfaction from the quantity grown, and its high quality will supply you with vitamins for the whole year.
You can enjoy the taste of sweet bell peppers in summer and winter, and whenever you want. If, of course, it is first grown and then preserved. Growing it doesn’t seem to be a problem, but there are questions about how to store bell peppers at home. And there would be one problem, but there are two at once. First you need to decide how to preserve ripe fruits, and if there are unripe fruits left on the bushes, they first need to be somehow brought to maturity and then stored. How to do all this?
There is no storage without preparation
You can argue about this, but then the ripe fruits picked will last no more than 2-3 weeks in any storage facility. And that's the best case scenario. The green ones will either never become fully edible or will rot.
If you want it to be as it was said at the very beginning, you need to meet some requirements.
1. Late varieties are grown for long-term storage.
2. During harvesting, the fruits are cut off with the stalks, and the cut site must be dry.
3. If this happens and the weather is damp, the peppers are dried, but not washed.
At the end of preparation, all unripe specimens are put aside; they will be stored according to their own rules. Mature ones are put aside in the other direction, for them their own storage places. The spoiled ones are processed and used for food. Next about ripening.
Storing unripe bell peppers
Someone may ask why waste time, worry about green fruits, wait, worry and hope that they might turn red. But there can be no worry if you know how to store peppers so that they turn red, and where to store them. But before you plant the crop in its winter storage areas, you need to know what is required for full ripening. According to climatic and other conditions, these are:
- temperature as close as possible to plus 10º C;
- humidity 95%, this is ideal;
- lack of light.
There are several options for storing unripe sweet peppers. But more on that a little further, but first let’s talk about what’s not allowed. It is unacceptable to use a refrigerator as storage for ripening. At low temperature nothing will ever ripen. Rot – yes, and that’s the whole result. For “greenery” something else is suitable.
Cellar. Versatile place for aging harvested. Why excerpts? Because the collected fruits are placed to ripen, and not stored. At this time, it is warm enough outside and the microclimate in the cellar is just right for “transforming” a green vegetable into a red ripe one. Classic version containers for fruits – wooden box. The peppers are placed in it either as is, or each pepper is wrapped in paper. Either way, the vegetable will ripen, but there is a nuance. Without “packaging”, ripening occurs faster, which means that the shelf life is reduced. You will have to wait longer for the fruits to turn red in the package, but you will also be able to eat them longer. But if you need to get a full-fledged pepper as quickly as possible, several ripe apples are placed in a box, the process of “transforming” green into red is accelerated. In the case when a vegetable is simultaneously ripened in the cellar and stored further, its storage time in total can reach up to six months.
House or apartment. Few people have any idea how to store bell peppers at home so that they ripen and do not spoil. There is a question, and so is the answer. To ripen in an apartment, the fruits are placed in a pantry or on a balcony, preferably not glazed, in a house on a veranda or in a pantry. The best place is considered to be where the temperature meets the requirements. The installation is done as in the cellar. The vegetable, with or without paper, is placed in a box, only the box is covered with rags so that light does not penetrate inside. Instead of a box, you can use another container, the main thing is that it is ventilated. The shelf life of green peppers in autumn on the veranda or balcony is about 2 months.
On a bush. This does not mean in the garden, but in the cellar or at home. The storage method is non-standard, but effective. When the weather deteriorates thoroughly, the bush is pulled out with all the fruits and hung in the cellar or in a cool room. If the place is cool but bright, the bushes are tied with thick fabric. The shelf life of green vegetables at home or in the cellar is up to 2 months.
Storing ripe bell peppers
The problem is simpler than the previous one, since the question of how to store peppers so that they turn red has already been resolved. It remains to save the entire harvest until spring. What should you consider regarding storage location? The storage can be installed in any place where the air temperature either exists or can be “created” within plus 2º C.
Cellar. Of all the previously considered options, this is the first choice; it will be cold in the winter. On long-term storage The fruits are also placed in a box, but in dry sawdust, in the absence of dry sand, or wrapped in paper. The vegetable is stored in the cellar for about 4-5 months.
Balcony. The second best storage place. The container on the balcony or loggia is the same - a box of sawdust. The option is not the worst, but even in sawdust and in a box wrapped in rags, the fruits are stored until the outside air temperature drops to minus 10º C, then the “storage” is brought into the room.
Fridge. A small but reliable place for peppers for the winter. True, it’s loudly said for the winter, the shelf life in such a “room” is about 3 months, and there’s not much space. But the microclimate in the refrigerator never changes, and the risk of vegetable spoilage is minimal. For packaging, paper is used to wrap each pepper, or a plastic bag with small holes for ventilation. To ensure that the fruits are stored for as long as possible, experienced housewives lubricate them sunflower oil. One more thing, if we talk about storage for more than 3 months, you can’t ignore the freezer. You don’t need to cook anything in it; you can even peel the peppers, arrange them as you wish, and calmly consume the product for six months, or even longer.
In conclusion, about the “non-standard” method of preserving vegetables - drying. Although this is probably not storage, but more of preparation, since we are talking about processing the product. But be that as it may, in addition to the others, this method also has a right to exist. And whoever prefers fresh, juicy peppers can store them using traditional storage facilities.
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Even when technically ripe, sweet peppers have an excellent taste, are suitable for preparations, and even contain more vitamins than ripe ones. But every housewife wants to decorate the table with bright, colorful vegetables, and peppers sometimes hang on the bushes for weeks and still never ripen. What is the reason? How to deal with this problem?
Why don't peppers turn red?
This question is often asked by gardeners who have sown peppers with seeds from fruits purchased in the supermarket. Usually these are productive, large-fruited, thick-walled hybrids. They were brought from the south of the Russian Federation, from Turkey, China or other countries with a warm climate and long summers. In terms of ripening time, they usually belong to late varieties.
Supermarkets usually sell the most productive peppers, but we don’t know their variety and ripening period
In most of Russia weather conditions are not suitable for ripening such peppers. They simply lack warm sunny days. This situation alone conceals several reasons for the unripening of peppers on the bushes. And if you analyze the situation in different gardens, there may be even more of them:
- You may have seeds of a green-fruited variety or hybrid. Peppers also come in yellow, white, orange, purple, chocolate color, so they shouldn’t blush.
- There is not enough heat. Favorable temperature for growth is +22… +25 °C, at night +15 °C, at +12 °C peppers stop growing altogether, and at +6 °C their leaves die off.
- The ripening period has not arrived. Moreover, even if the seeds are bought in a store, the bag says a specific period before the start of harvesting, in fact the peppers can grow longer. This happens due to various stresses: trauma during transplantation, cold weather, heat, rain, drought, lack of nutrition, diseases, pests. Because of each such reason, plants stop developing for a week or longer.
- The packages with seeds indicate the period of technical ripeness, when the fruits are filled, and not biological, when they are completely colored. The gap between these two stages can last about a month. And this is under favorable weather conditions!
- Incorrect feeding. If the soil contains a lot of nitrogen during ripening, the bush grows leaves to the detriment of yield.
- High soil moisture, as well as excess nitrogen, activates the growth of tops rather than ripening.
Video: growing peppers from sowing to harvesting
How to speed up the ripening of peppers in a greenhouse and open ground
Wherever your pepper grows, it needs to be given the conditions to ripen:
- If temperatures drop below optimal temperatures for peppers, cover them. Keep doors and windows in the greenhouse closed at night. You can additionally cover the bushes inside the greenhouse with agrofibre. Place heat accumulators on the ground: large stones, bricks, water bottles. They will bask in the sun and give off heat at night.
- Always keep the soil moist, but not flooded. In open ground, protect peppers from heavy rains using film and arches.
- Avoid fertilizers containing nitrogen. During the fruiting period, it is enough to feed the peppers with wood ash - 1–2 tbsp. l. under a bush, or mineral phosphorus-potassium fertilizer according to the instructions.
But the main thing is to choose the seeds correctly. In most Russian regions, only early or ultra-early ripening peppers ripen on bushes, and mid-ripening ones in greenhouses. Carefully read the description of the variety, what period is indicated there: until technical or biological maturity.
In cool and damp conditions, while you wait for the fruits to turn red, they may rot. Therefore, collect peppers at technical ripeness, ripen them at home, or use them green. And on next year take into account your mistakes and use your existing, albeit negative, experience for growing red peppers on bushes.
The main reasons why bell peppers do not ripen on the bushes are: they do not have enough heat or the timing is not right. And you can fight this by buying varieties with early dates maturation and creating for them optimal modes temperature and humidity.
First of all, it is worth checking what type of pepper you have chosen. Perhaps ripe fruits should not be red at all, but green or lilac. Therefore, if the peppers have acquired not a red, but a yellow, orange or dark green hue, do not be surprised; perhaps this is a natural stage of development.
To get an early harvest, you need to choose the right variety. Residents middle zone and northern latitudes, it is necessary to choose only early and very early varieties hot and sweet peppers, and for those who live in milder climates, mid-season varieties are suitable. Hybrids produce the best harvest: they are resistant to frost and disease, and have excellent taste. There are a huge number of varieties of both red hot and sweet peppers on the market, so it will not be difficult to choose the most suitable one, and growing peppers in a greenhouse will give excellent results.
Features of maturation
It must be said that there are two stages of pepper maturity - technical and biological. At the technical stage of ripeness, the fruits are still green and firm, but have stopped growing, and the seeds inside are fully ripe. Biological maturity occurs later, sometimes 20-30 days after technical maturity. By this time, the peppers have already acquired their final color and taste. Therefore, if the bell pepper has grown but does not change color, you just need to wait a little and it will reach the desired state.
Sweet peppers are harvested only at the stage of technical maturity, since fully ripened fruits are poorly stored and easily wrinkle. But unripe vegetables can be stored for a month, and they will not lose their useful properties. Everything is exactly the opposite with hot peppers: you can cut them from the bush only when they become completely red and hot. Thin pods hot pepper They dry out quickly and can easily lie on the shelf with seasonings for several months.
Pepper is very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, and if something is wrong, it can completely shed its flowers and ovaries, refusing to bear fruit. Factors affecting pepper ripening:
- Soil acidity. The soil should not be acidic, the optimal balance is 6.0 -7.0. Pepper will feel bad clay soils, and where there is a lot of nitrogen in the soil;
- Temperature. The air during the day should be warmed up to 25-30 degrees, and at night the thermometer should not fall below 15 degrees, otherwise the flowers will begin to fall off. Overheating is also dangerous - when the temperature in the greenhouse is above 40 degrees, the plant withers. The plant will not appreciate drafts either, so you can only open the windows to ventilate the greenhouse on one side;
- Humidity. It is very important to maintain a balance here, because the vegetable does not tolerate drought and overwatering. The water should be warm and settled. It is advisable that water does not fall on the leaves when watering. Fruiting peppers are watered once every 2 weeks, and to prevent the moisture from drying out, the soil is loosened or mulched;
- Light. Paradoxically, too much light will even harm the plant. Pepper is a short-day crop and better harvests displays when daylight hours last no more than 12 hours. But, at the same time, a sufficient amount of ultraviolet radiation must reach the leaves and fruits so that they form and ripen normally. If a vegetable grows in the shade and stretches out without releasing flowers, gardeners recommend installing reflective screens that will provide more light, or ultraviolet lamps;
- Fertilizers. Peppers really need potassium, so wood ash will help them grow and develop properly. This mineral will be useful for pepper at any stage of development, regardless of whether the pepper is growing in a greenhouse or in open ground.
But what to do if all the conditions are met, the cultivation complies with all the norms and rules, but the fruits do not want to ripen and turn red?
Experienced gardeners do not recommend keeping bell pepper fruits on the bush until fully ripe. Once they have become heavy, smooth and shiny, they can be removed from the bush. To guarantee, you can wait until the color begins to appear, but waiting any longer is both pointless and harmful: the sweet pepper has already accumulated all the necessary nutrients and vitamins. As a rule, after the first harvest, the pepper gains color again, turns red and begins to bear fruit.
If you want the fruits of sweet peppers to ripen on a bush, in a greenhouse or open ground, the following is often recommended folk recipe: Place banana peels under the bushes. This advice has both negative and positive consequences, since on the one hand the sweet smell attracts insects, including harmful ones, and on the other hand, bananas contain a huge amount of potassium, so the pepper receives an additional portion of this useful substance.
In addition, growing peppers in a greenhouse involves cultivating the plant, that is, forming a bush, trimming leaves and side shoots, and removing flowers.Pinching the top and removing the first four flowers does not harm the plant, but quite the opposite - the first fruits ripen for a long time and draw all the juices from the mother plant.
It often happens that the fruits of sweet peppers grown in open ground begin to darken instead of ripening. This happens if the air temperature drops below 15-18 degrees. To preserve the harvest, you need to cover the plants with film or covering material and increase the temperature inside. It’s easier to regulate the temperature in a greenhouse; just leave a few bottles of water overnight. hot water or heated stones that will give off heat, saving plants from frost.
At home, sweet pepper fruits turn yellow or red in a matter of days. It is enough to put them in a box with apples, red tomatoes or already ripened peppers of another type. The fact is that when vegetables ripen, ethylene is released, which also affects other vegetables, starting a chain reaction. The main thing is that the box is tightly closed, because very little gas is released. In addition, apples have a strong effect on all fruits, and if you put a bell pepper that is not yet red in the same box as an apple, you will notice that it turns red in a matter of days.
You can try to use the same mechanism to speed up the ripening of peppers in open ground - put an apple under a covering material. For bell peppers This method is not suitable in a greenhouse - the greenhouse area is too large, and each plant will have to be covered with a second layer of fabric or film.
Hot peppers should be left on the bush for a long time so that the peppers have time to turn red and accumulate maximum quantity burning substances. If the fruits do not turn red before frost, then they are wrapped and covered, and if the temperature in the greenhouse is extremely low, then the bush is transplanted into a pot and brought into the house. If the fruits are already half red and frost hits, it’s okay, the plant can be dug up, dried and planted upside down. Peppers stored this way will ripen sooner and be hotter than those picked from the bush before maturity.
So, what can you do if the peppers in the greenhouse do not turn red:
- Just in case, check the variety of peppers;
- Check the conditions of the plants;
- Feed with potassium;
- Add sun;
- Remove excess ovaries and flowers, allowing those that are there to ripen;
- Pick them and let them turn red at home.
In addition, many summer residents believe that it is best to use slightly unripe peppers in the preparation of salads and preparations, which are not yet bright red, since fully ripe ones become soft, do not crunch and lose their taste qualities. This plant is very demanding, but the many sweet or spicy fruits that appear on the bushes in the fall pay off all the time and labor costs a hundredfold. And the huge amount of vitamins this vegetable contains makes it an indispensable product of the diet. All these reasons make growing peppers in a greenhouse a necessary activity, and right choice variety allows you to get maximum yield at minimal cost.
