Gardening 101: How to grow peppers
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) – When giving advice to future gardeners in North Texas, I first give them the three-growing-seasons overview. There is an advantage to a 255-day growing season even if there is a (usually) brutal and dry hot spell right in the middle of it.
Peppers are one of the few crops that can span all three seasons. Start them early enough and you can squeeze out a small crop before the hottest days of summer show up. Water them enough and they'll get through the heat and start flowering again in the late summer/early fall. The reward comes in fall when your crop will be bountiful. It is during the fall months my wife and I make our yearly supply of pepper relish.
Many compare growing peppers to growing tomatoes since many stop blooming at 95°F days. Some tomato varieties can limp through the summer and provide massive crops in fall. Personally, I have MUCH more success with peppers doing this. Also, some of the hotter varieties of peppers will actually fruit across the summer.
You can start peppers as early as the last freeze (on average around March 12 inside Metroplex) and as late as early August (giving you a good 8-10 week window get a crop, longer if you protect them from early freezes).
The variety of peppers to plant is near staggering as there seem to be new breeds and crossbreeds coming out every year. This year I learned about the Lemon Spice jalapeno. I plan to start some transplants mid-summer and get a fall crop of them.
You can plant the standard bell, poblano, banana, serrano and cayenne pepper varieties and get a bountiful crop that you'll likely be sharing if your neighbors. I suggest a mix of mild and moderate and only a few of "hot" (a little goes a long way).
Jeff Ray is the senior First Alert Meteorologist at CBS News Texas and avid gardener. When not covering weather, he is finding stories about Gardening in North Texas. If you would like Jeff to come talk to your group about how changing weather patterns are changing the way we garden in this area, please email him at jaray@viacomcbs.com.
