Bell Pepper Seeds 7g

The bell pepper is the kitchen's most versatile sweet pepper — a blocky, thick-walled fruit with a crisp bite and a clean, mild sweetness that has none of the heat of hot peppers. Picked young it is firm, glossy and bright green; left on the plant a little longer it ripens to red, yellow or orange and turns even sweeter, making it as decorative as it is delicious. Crunchy in fresh salads, perfect for stuffing, and rich and tender when roasted, this is the colourful all-rounder every home garden deserves.

Planting

This is a warm-season crop that gets its best start indoors, sown roughly 8 weeks before you plan to move the seedlings outside. Set the seeds about 0.6 cm deep in a sterile seed-starting mix. Warmth is everything for germination: keep the soil at around 27-32°C and the seeds usually sprout in about 7-10 days, while cool soil makes them dawdle. Once true leaves appear, thin or prick out the seedlings to about 5-7.5 cm apart. Transplant outdoors only after all frost has passed, when night-time lows stay above 10°C and the soil has warmed to around 18°C. Give each plant full sun, spacing them about 30-46 cm apart in rows 61-91 cm apart. In Egypt, the main Delta and Lower Egypt crop is started in the nursery in January-February and transplanted in March-April once the cold has gone; a second autumn ("Nili") crop is sown in July-August and transplanted in late August-September for harvest in the cooler months. In warmer Upper Egypt, shift the spring planting a little earlier so flowering finishes before the worst heat.

Fertilizing

Go easy on the nitrogen — too much produces a big leafy bush with disappointing fruit. At transplanting, water the plants in with a high-phosphorus starter solution to settle the roots. Once the first flush of peppers has set, side-dress with a supplemental feed, applying phosphorus and potassium according to your soil's needs. For peppers grown in containers, feed weekly with a high-potassium liquid fertiliser from the moment flowering begins, to keep the fruit coming.

Care

Peppers love full sun and do best in air temperatures above 15°C; once it climbs past 30°C fruit set drops off, and nights below 10-13°C slow growth — which is exactly why the milder shoulder seasons suit them in Egypt. Give about 2.5 cm of water a week when rain is short, ideally through drip irrigation rather than overhead watering, and keep the soil evenly moist; uneven moisture triggers bud drop and blossom-end rot. Watch for common pests such as aphids, cutworms, tomato hornworms, tarnished plant bugs and flea beetles, and for diseases like bacterial spot, Phytophthora and mosaic viruses, alongside disorders such as blossom-end rot and sunscald. Harvest green peppers once they are full-sized, firm and glossy at about 8-10 cm long, or leave them on the plant to colour up to red, yellow or orange for sweeter flavour. Pick the first fruits promptly with shears to encourage more to set; depending on the variety, maturity runs roughly 60-90 days from transplant.