Growing Bell Peppers
Bell peppers are one of the easiest, most rewarding plants in our garden, sweet, thick-walled, and just as good roasted as they are stuffed. Here’s exactly how we grow ours.
Sun
Full sun, 6–8 hours
Soil
Well-drained, pH 6.0–6.8
Spacing
18–24 in. apart
Harvest
70–90 days
Planting
Start seeds indoors 8–10 weeks before your last frost date, bell peppers are slow to germinate and want warm soil (75–85°F) to do it well. Don’t rush them outside: transplant only after nights stay above 55°F, and harden off seedlings over a week before they go in the ground.
Watering & feeding
Keep soil evenly moist, peppers hate drying out between waterings, and it shows up as blossom drop. We feed every 3–4 weeks with a balanced organic fertilizer once flowering starts, and always with a layer of mulch to hold moisture through the South Carolina summer.
Harvest
You can pick bell peppers green, but leave them on the plant another 2–3 weeks and they’ll ripen to red, orange, or yellow with a noticeably sweeter flavor. Cut, don’t pull, peppers snap the branch easily.