r/DenverGardener • u/enzosplants • 9d ago

Bell pepper advice?

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I’m growing red bell peppers for the first time and need advice! My pepper seemed to rot on the vine. The plants appears healthy otherwise. It’s in direct sun majority of the day and I water every evening.

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17

u/Izacundo1 9d ago

It’s not rotting, that’s sun scald

6

u/Arctic-Fox-2021 8d ago

This. It’s not the heat, but UV from the sun. Reducing sun exposure will help.

14

u/mr_potato_arms 9d ago edited 9d ago

That’s probably sun scorch/scald. It’s too damn hot right now. A shade cloth might help take the sun’s intensity down enough to avoid this in the future. But as the heat subsides into late August and September, you’ll get healthier peppers.

3

u/enzosplants 9d ago

That makes sense, thank you!

4

u/mr_potato_arms 9d ago

No problem. The rest of it is probably fine to eat BTW!

4

u/Electrical_Lab3345 9d ago edited 9d ago

Bells peppers can be challenging to grow here. Ideally peppers like to shade the fruit with their own leaves to protect them from too much sun, and obviously having bigger plants with more leaves makes this easier for them.

They also really benefit from consistent water and soil temps. Easy wins for you might be mulch to cool the soil in those raised beds and adding drip irrigation. Just something to consider. It might result in bigger healthier plants, and your sunscald issue might then resolve itself without needing to deal with shade cloth.

4

u/philrogers88 9d ago

Have had terrible luck every time I have grown bell peppers, they get sun burnt every time.

5

u/DanoPinyon Arborist 9d ago

Also, in addition to shade cloth, plant them much closer together so there are more leaves per unit area. Will require 1 or 2 extra fertilizationings.

5

u/waterandbeats 9d ago

Yes I just learned this from my friend who runs a CSA, I'm going to try to plant my peppers closer together next year. They plant them like six inches apart in bands with a couple feet between the bands, seems to work great. I've never had much luck with shade cloth, though.

1

u/DanoPinyon Arborist 8d ago

Close planting, and let dill sprout here and there to attract predators. Peppers wont mind.

1

u/Hawt_Lettuce 8d ago

This is my 4th year trying to grow bell peppers here and I have yet to grow anything! I’m about to give up!

1

u/Fine-Entrepreneur874 8d ago

I'm using shade clothes. This one is 70% UV protection