I’m trying to grow sweet peppers in the field in Denmark, Northern Europe, and are mainly building on the work of @JesseI for this crop. More or less all the seed came from him.
My goal this year was to just get a good seed crop so the plant could start adapting to my conditions.
Started inside in cell trays in mid spring and moved outside in cold benches in late spring. I wanted to plant them out late May or early June, but could only do it later on 24th June, ie. these plants grew for about 3 months in the field.
This summer the plants were struggling alot in the nutrient poor and sometimes drought prone soil. I had drip irrigation to pull them through the drought, but since I only go to the field once a week to set the timer, a few days with lots of sun and no rain in a quickly draining soil meant that many plants suffered several times.
I haven’t tasted these this year. Next year I hope to start selecting for that. I know Jesse has been relaxed with capsaicin drifting into the gene pool, so I specifically want to select against that again. I understand sweetness is a recessive trait, so it should be relatively simple as sweet fruit crossed with sweet fruit always gives sweet fruiting plants.
At least you got some. If you like, you can open them green as well to save seeds, although then you need to be little careful not to take from those that certainly aren’t ripe. Seeds aren’t going to ripen after picking so there isn’t really need for waiting until colour change. Ofcourse they should also store some time. I have had some trouble with early spoilage and storage, but you might have had bad luck with the plants that produced to have that many. I haven’t had quite that much spoil. Actually I just dried the last big fruits that I had picked a month ago, ripened and still in perfect condition with some wrinkling as expected. Have to select more against easy spoilage in the coming years.
What size of transplants did you use? Smaller is usually better and more so if conditions are a bit rough. Time should not be an issue and bigger plants might be set back more after transplanting if conditions aren’t just right.
I’m pretty sure the spoilage came from the early frost. The skin on those fruits had been damaged by it, so the spoilage was already happening in the field. Just previously, they were looking fine.
Thanks for the tip on harvesting the seed. I’m surprised that the fruit will continue to mature, but the seed will not. Where did you learn that the seed doesn’t mature?
The transplants were plugs grown in cell trays, so relatively small. Started early frost-free and then out in a cold bench to harden in late spring / early summer. I would have liked to plant them out in May, but only had the space available to plant late June (24th).
Ok, that makes sense. If the frost isn’t too bad you could try to salvage seeds right after before they start to spoil. I usually have the plants so tightly packed and lush that the first frosts only damage upper leaves and some of the upper fruits that aren’t going to be developed enough to bother about.
It’s the standard among fruits. It makes sense also in terms of evolution as many fruits are palatable before ripeness, or even if they have defences, animals tend to evolve to overcome those. So having seeds ready first is a survival strategy. You can see it inside many fruits if you open them at the right moment when the centre has turned colour. In peppers it’s often possible to see that the placenta has changed colour a bit. That might not be as evident depending on the variety and it’s maybe not that easy to visually see if seeds are definetely ripe, but with experience it’s possible to see those that aren’t definetely worth saving. Most certain is still to wait till they start to change colour from the outside (that’s often when I pick them). Also if you ripen them indoors, those that change colour generally were the ones that had ripe enough seeds at the time of picking and thus is also clear way of selecting from which to save seeds from. Some that only partially change colour were right at the edge of being fully developed and starting to ripen. Thus seeds might not work as well. At times they might ripen fruits with underdeveloped seeds because of stressfull conditions.
Ok, that explains it. If you can transplant them earlier there most be more moisture and less stress from hot weather to delay rooting. I’m not sure if drip is the best to start with. I would have good watering right after transplanting and then again couple times the week after transplanting if there isn’t enough rain. Better have a lot of water at once than with drip. The roots will learn to follow the moisture as it goes deeper rather than expects to get it on the spot.
Is the yellow also from my seeds? I had some yellow (orange and cholate also I think) in the crosses, but so far haven’t had anything else than reds. Some with a little purple. Although can’t be certain as I did dry some possibly before they had fully changed colour, but none seemed like they were going to change to anything other than red. One possible exception might be true purple when ripe, which I haven’t seen in annuums, mine or those sold. Can’t be certain yet, but when opened they were red inside so it should have come to surface also. Saved seed separately to see how it looks when it has time to ripen outdoors. It’s one of the 1/4 wilds.
I’m from The Netherlands (northern part though) , so more south than Denmark but currently doing a similar project. This year I did a small trial run with some named outdoor varieties (Fritz, Zazu, Xaro and an yet unnamed one from the ‘Zaderij’) + several F2’s from a commercial hybrid that are only sold as pot-grown plants meant for outdoor use. Last year I bought several varieties of the pot grown plants because they produce well and I suspected them to carry very good genes for creating good lines for open field cultivation. They come in red, yellow and orange and per colour in both long pointy and block shape types.
Duet to time/space constrictions and the fact that I first wanted to see if this could be feasible I only planted a limited amount (about 50 plants, but considering there were lots of varieties that’s not so much). They were also sown/planted later then they could have (we had a baby this spring ) but still they produced quite nicely. First fruits were harvested on September 6 and I think this could have been mid august if they were sown/planted earlier.
As I expected the F2’s did great and stayed nicely compact. There was of course a lot of segregating in both size and shape of the fruits, but they tasted good (two or three did have a little capsaicin content) and most produced nicely. The first fruits to come were also from those F2’s, the first of the named varieties didn’t start producing until two weeks later and the rest came another week after that. I hope/suspect that with more selection the startpoint of the fruiting can be even earlier.
If you’re interested perhaps we can share some seeds to further our projects?
Yes I would love to collaborate. Even if you’re more south, your plants should still make seed that should fare better in my country than the seed otherwise grown in this community.
How did you water or fertilize your plants if at all?
I watered the plants a couple of times in the beginning of summer, but not after that since there was enough rain. The place the plants grew was only fertilized with homemade compost somewhere in the fall the year before.
) but still they produced quite nicely. First fruits were harvested on September 6 and I think this could have been mid august if they were sown/planted earlier.
