Bell Peppers – Growing and Uses

Bell Peppers

Growing Bell Peppers in your kitchen garden

If you are passionate about growing chillies, then you would be definitely aware of the fact that it is indeed a very challenging process, demanding a

Growing Bell Peppers

chunk of your time, patience and effort. Nevertheless, at the end, it is also a very rewarding one. Nurturing chilli plants is an extremely delicate process. Certainly, you need to bring it up with care, attention and details. You would find the process to be simple with no iota of complications.

About bell peppers

Bell peppers are tender crops especially grown in warm seasons. So, once you crave for the sweet, spicy and hot touch to your meals, think of growing bell peppers. They come in a range of sizes, shapes and colours. To grow this seed, you have to start your garden for summer. Once you grow them in summers, you can freeze them throughout the winter to add them to soups and sizzlers.

Bell peppers are usually red, green orange and yellow. However, you can also try growing the rarely coloured ones like white, brown, dark purple, lavender, etc. They are most versatile veggies making place in your kitchen and garden, no matter where you are in the world.

Also known as sweet pepper, capsicum or pepper in various corners of the world, bell pepper is a cultivator group of Capsicum annuum species. Besides being a veggie, it is a botanical fruit that has a plethora of culinary and health benefits.

Germinating your chilli seeds

Let’s look into how you can grow bell peppers, a common and spicy chili variety.

  1. You can start seeding it indoors almost 10 weeks prior to previous spring frost date.
  2. For germination, maintain temperature of 70 degrees F and keep in warm place for quicker and better results.
  3. Start with 3 seeds to one pot and thin out the most fragile seedling. Meanwhile, the remaining two will grow as single plant.
  4. Commence hardening off almost 10 days prior to transplanting.
  5. Introduce aged compost and fertiliser to the soil a week ahead of transplanting.
  6. Now, transplant the seeds outdoors with 24 inches in between.
  7. Maintain 65 degrees F within the soil
  8. Carefully place match sticks (2-3) in the hole with the plants along with spoonful of fertilisers.
  9. Drain the soil well and maintain sufficient moisture.
  10. Fertilise following the initial fruit set.
  11. Weed carefully.
  12. Water two inches every week, depending on your regional climate.

Uses of bell pepper

You can spice up your daily and boring meals with such bell peppers grown in your garden. More so, they also add perky crunch and zest to pizzas, wraps, tacos, etc. When roasted, they taste peppy. So, are you already craving to have them? Well, then it’s time to grow them in your garden. Here are some amazing uses of bell pepper.

Bell peppers are known to contain ample of vitamin C that fortifies your immunity and brings glow to your skin. You would find concentration of vitamin C in red bells. They are known to be low in calories and hence bring good news to the health conscious ones. No wonder, it is a great addition to the platter of obese. On gulping down a full cup of bells, you will gain just 45calories.

stuffed bell peppersRed bell peppers are a jackpot of carotenoids and phytochemicals. The beta-carotene can furnish you with anti-inflammatory benefits and antioxidants. The sulphur content protects certain kinds of cancer. These chillies also contain enzymes like lutein that works wonder in protecting macular degeneration and cataracts.

They are rich in vitamin B6 that lavishes you with a healthy nervous system and renewed cells. The capsaicin content in bell peppers can reduce diabetes, bad cholesterol, inflammation and pain. Bell peppers make great salads and addition to casseroles and soups. Also, they can be grilled, stuffed and placed on sandwiches for crunchy snacks.

Pop some bright coloured bell peppers into your veggie basket and start reaping the amazing benefits.


Growing Pettie Belle Chillies

Pettie Belle Chili

Pettie Belle chillies, as it is called in Africa or Bell Pepper in various other parts of the world, is a necessary addition to various types of cuisine is across the world. It is a great addition to any kind of sauces, main courses as well as salads.

Pettie Belle Chili

There are various types of new varieties that can be found from the various types of seeds and nurseries, which can include mini-bells and colored bells that you might be hard pressed to find in your grocery store. Even the farmers market would not help you to find such wonderful bell peppers.

However, you can easily grow such papers in your backyard, particularly in very little space. For example, you could grow them in your small container, and start harvesting them in order to create the best Pepper for your meals.

Pettie Belle Chili Cultivation

In case you would like to grow bell pepper of an exotic variety like the Pettie Belle, you have to secure the seed from nurseries of your choice. If it is late winter, then start the seeds indoors. You should choose an area that contains plenty of light and warmth, or you could set up halogen lights and add a heat mat under the seeding tray so as to create a small greenhouse.

You can then choose a large pea pot, or large coir which can be planted directly into the ground. The peppers can then be transplanted from the pots made out of plastic to that secure location without having the roots disturbed.

After that, fill up your pot with good and lose potting soil. Plant your seeds according to the depth recommended in the Internet or given in the plastic packet containing the seeds. Always keep the soil moist, but not filled with water.

After the seedlings emerge, always make sure that you can turn them regularly, do not allow the plant to get bent; keep changing the direction of the light.

When the time comes for you to plant the pepper outdoors, always make sure that you take them outside for an hour or so in order to harden them. After a few days, keep increasing the time of keeping the plant outside in the sun, until you feel that the plant has been acclimatized, and there is no chance of any sunburn happening to the plant.

Pettie Belle ChilisMake sure that the place is watered uniformly, do not allow the soil to dry out, and make sure that there is no sitting water. If the soil is excessively dry, particularly in the hot and windy days, then there would be no fruits, and the flowers will not bloom.

After the first batch of flower blooms, release some fertilizer. This will help you to get the best possible outcome from the Pettie Belle plant.

Anatomy of a Chili Pepper

Growing Chillies

Chili is derived from the term chil given by the Arawak Indians who were the ones that first cultivated it. When Columbus first discovered the chili, he brought it back to Spain where they add the ‘e’ to it. Chili is the oldest spice in the world with archaeological specimens being found that dated to as far back to 7,000 B.C. in New Mexico.

Chili Pepper

Today, there are many variety of chili peppers including color, degree of spiciness, and shapes. Chili not only add spiciness to the food but it is also rich in antioxidant and rich in vitamin A and C. The anatomy of a chili pepper is comprises of many parts including peduncle, calyx, capsaicin glands, placenta, exocarp, mesocarp, endocarp, seed and apex.

Peduncle is the short branch on top of the pepper that remains when you harvest it from the plant.

Calyx is the green crown on top of the fruit where the penduncle is attach to. It is the remnant of the flower that has already transformed into the fruit. Preserving the calyx can keep the fruit fresher for a longer time.

Capsaicin glands is the central seed stem inside of the pepper that is joined to the placenta near the top. It is located in between the placenta and endocarp. Many people wrongly presumed that the seeds are responsible for producing the capsaicin glands.

Placenta is the round part on top where the seeds are attached to.

Exocarp is the outermost layer of the pepper which comprises the skin.

Mesocarp is the fleshy part under the skin of the pepper which is also called exocarp.

Endocarp is the inner membrane layer that surrounds the seeds.

The seed inside the pepper has low level of moisture but a high level of lecithin. Chili pepper seeds are edible. However, most people will prefer to discard the seeds as they are hard to chew and do not add any spicy flavor to the cooking.

The seeds are hot but they are not the hottest part. The white pith or rib that hold the seeds and the part that connect to the shoulder are believed to be the hottest part. The white pith is about 100 times hotter that the pepper flesh.

Apex is the bottom tip of the pepper fruit. The apex and peduncle are two areas that have the least capsaicin so biting these areas first will be less hotter.

When preparing chili pepper, you may want to wear a pair of glove to prevent the capsaicin oil from coming in contact to your skin. The capsaicin oil in the pepper can burn your skin and cause blistering.

If your skin get burned, you can apply some white vinegar to sooth it. Skin burn can occur especially when you are preparing a pepper with high Scoville scale such as Habanero.