Candidate for the "Dumbest Question of the Year" Award...

Ok....here goes~

Is there a separate plant for red bell peppers vs. green bell peppers? Or do you just let the green ones stay on longer?

Please, no heckling behind the corn stalks...... :)

In simplistic terms no. All red bells, orange bells, yellow bells start out as green bells. However, the traditional market in the US has been for green bells. For this purpose you want a cultivar that is slow to ripen. On the contrary, if you want ripe bells, you want to grow a cultivar that ripens as quickly as possible. There are newer cultivars on the market designed for the ripe bell market. many vendors will specify two maturity times 1 for green bells and a second for ripe bells. Then of course there are colored bells, almost all grown for immature peppers. They also turn red, yellow or orange when ripe. There are also green when ripe bells.

The bottom line answer to your question. It is one more criteria, that you should consider when choosimg a cultivar.

Farmerdill,

I have red, yellow, and orange bells growing now. While they are turning color nicely, they do take a long time for the fruits to change color. What cultivars do you recommend that would change color more quickly for the red, yellow, and orange bells?

Thanks,

Karen

Most cultivars will take about 20 days from the mature green stage to red, yellow or orange. Some you may want to consider Fat'N'Sassy (green to red), Better Belle (green to red), Early Sunsation (green to yellow), Golden Summer (green to yellow). Queen (green to orange), Red Knight X3R (green to red), Socrates X3R (green to red)

Farmerdill,

Thank you so much.

Karen

This is actually a good question. You do wonder if they are the same plant why do red and yellows cost a lot more in the supermarket!

Because people are willing to pay it. I don't like $3.00-4.00 each for a red or yellow bell pepper. That's why I'm growing my own now that I have the area to do it in.

Karen

Actually it is a numbers game. Green bells dominate the marketplace. As ripe bells become more popular, the prices will come down. Now they are mostly imported greenhouse grown peppers. A specialty item. I f you are growing your own, just remember that it takes on average three weeks longer. Don't care for them myself, but I am old school.

I've been selling yellow, orange, purple and red sweet peppers at the farmers market here this year and I can tell you one reason why they're more expensive in the supermarket.

That extra 3 weeks to ripen them plus the color seems to make a big difference for me in terms of how many I lose to insects and rot.

The color seems like a magnet in drawing the bugs to them (I don't use pesticides) and if I don't pick them quick enough they will start rotting fast and with a pepper, once there is a hole to the center the whole fruit is pretty much wasted.

Taste-wise, I think the ripe fruit is somewhat more sweeter, but it's more of a visual aesthetics thing for me. A stir-fry made with 3-4 colors of peppers is more visually appealing than one made with just green.

People at my farmers market have started to catch on and they buy all of my red ones before anything else. For some reason the other ripe colors aren't as appealing but people are starting to ask for them too.

Jeff