It all started when my mom returned from vegetable shopping one day and was expressing her frustration with the way prices have been going high. Especially this capsicum or Bell peppers as its popularly known. It was around INR 40 a kg.
“Can you not plant some of these in our garden?”
Fueled with this motivation, I biked to the seeds selling store and returned home with seeds of a cultivar called “California Wonder”.
Seed starting procedure was as usual.
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Take a sterile seed starting mix.
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In small pot/pan sow the seeds in the moist media ( 1/16th of an inch deep).
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Slightly cover the seed with media.
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Cover the pan/pot with a polythene to preserve the humidity.
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Keep it in a bright place away from direct sunlight.
Tada! thats all there is to it. In about a week’s time, you can see seedlings just peeking through the media. At this stage, they need good amount of sunlight and lack of sunlight will make the seedlings lanky.
Once the seedlings has two true leaves, they can be transplanted into their final containers/ prepared bed. In my case it was containers that too a 3 litre container.
The container mix is equal parts of cocopeat, vermicompost, sand. Regular watering and fertilizing is all you need to do for good results.
You can see there are 4 good sized capsicums from that 3L container.
Another view of the same plant.
Plant with the container. The fibrous thing that you see near the root of the plant is “Moss”. I am not sure if it sphagnum moss or not. This moss is what you see wrapped around a stick and sold as stakes in garden stores for plant support. They are also called Moss sticks. Why I have put it in there?. This “Moss” doesnt decay that easily. Infact it stays the same for so long. So I started using it as a mulch to avoid water loss.
Size of a pepper.
I have 3 such pots and each of those containers have around 4-6 descent sized peppers. Not bad huh!?
Next I am gonna sow pepper cultivars called “Bull nose” & “Purple beauty”
More later.
gg
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Love your veggie experiments and trials. Go, Go, gg!
The capsicums look good! I’m not sure how long it took you from planting the seed to the photos, but seems to be an amazingly short time! I’m tempted to move back to Bangalore!
Hi Guru,
Thanks. They were sown exactly on 28 of Jan 2008. I must say they forgave me for my improper fertilizer regimen and lack of timely care. With the marriage processes that was going on then.. it was very difficult to tend to them. Now they are happy
.
Come back to bangalore.. lets grow some amazing veggies
.
gg
have been following your blog…commenting for the first time…i usually grow capsicums from the store bought capsicums…seeds that drop while chopping..cover them with soil..i am tempted to grow them in a pot after seeing yours.
Hello Krithika,
Glad to hear that you follow my blog regularly and thanks for the comment. I have a question, the store bought capsicums are not ripe and hence most of the seeds do not germinate. Are they ripe when you chop them?. Anyways.. Growing them in soil is actually much better than growing in pots. Yield wise you will get more. For me, all I have is pots and not an inch of land hence I grow my veggies in containers. Next I am planning to grow round radishes..
gg
hmm…good question..my capsicums are not ripe. This is the same idea as dropping green chili seeds in soil.
love the idea of growing my own veggies. will try n get back if i succeed. any tips are welcome. did u water daily? n what fertiliser did u use……… how often?
Hello Amita,
Thanks for stopping by. It sure is exciting when we grow our own veggies. I do water daily. I use organic and inorganic fertilizers for my plants. Frequency depends on the plant.
gg
Capsicum is a yummie fruit and i love eating it but im trying to grow some and its been 14days and none of the 7 i planted have grown why?
Hi Kozzy,
Capsicum can sometimes be very tricky to germinate. Esp if the weather is colder it takes a little longer. Is the weather too cold? How old are the seeds?
gg
Apparently capsicum seeds need to be dried out before planting. maybe that’s why they haven’t started growing? I tried planting chilli seeds once, straight out of the chilli, they didn’t grow, but a year later two plants came up.
Really nice to read all the happenings on CAPSICUMS,I am going to start these now. I just read few days back Capsicums are the sure relief for heart attacks and then maintaining healthy heart. so it becomes more important for us Indians to grow capsicums as much as possible.
Hi Chandrashekhar,
Thanks for sharing such a useful info. I wasn’t aware of that fact.
gg
Have been trawling your blog today after discovering it… awesome stuff!
So one question before i consider embarking on capsicum, how often does it yield? I mean what frequency, so after I pluck the first crop, when’s the next?
Hi Swapna,
Capsicum yields continuously after 60 odd days from the date of transplanting. As and when the friut matures you can pluck it.
gg
I had bought capsicum seeds & planted them in a pot. Its been around a month now & the seeds have sprouted & have more than 4 leaves now. As you mentioned it should be transplanted at this stage, I want to know if I can grow the plant in the same pot itself? There are plenty of sprouts in it already.. around 10-15.
Good to see others appreciating the soil. I have just transferred mine .I didn’t know there are transplanted that early.
Don’t capsicum plants require a 10 – 20 litre container? Can i also grow it in a 3L container? :surprised:
Hi GoodEarth,
Yes you can grow them in a smaller container as well. The yield will be proportional. 20L gives them bigger root space.
gg
Hi gg:
I had sown capsicum & tomato seeds in seedling trays. They germinated well but started to become lanky. Quite a few fell flat too. This happened in spite of there being enough sun light. Any way, I quickly transplanted the ‘remaining’ seedlings into individual plastic bags where they seem to be doing well. However, I still don’t understand the reason why the seedlings became lanky. Any idea or even guesses?
Hello Satish, How is the soil/cocopeat temp..? I think too much warmth in the media can also cause seedlings to become lanky. I could be wrong in this. Do enlighten me if you happen to solve this.
Can we grow capsicum in Rajasthan too? how many times capsicums grow on the same plant ?
Capsicums grow in little cooler temperature. I am sure it can be grown in a climate controlled greenhouse in Rajasthan. In my greenhouse, I have harvested somewhere between 10-15 fruits per plant. It depends on variety, soil, temperature. May be one can get more if grown commercially.
Hi gg:
Regarding the lanky seedlings: the same has happened to me with Broccoli, Cabbage, Red Cabbage & Cauliflower. The first failure was while using Cocos-peat with leaf-mould. Next time I tried in soil with vermicompost. Same result with all the above-mentioned seeds!! I concluded that media was not the problem. I know the seeds are very high quality from different reputed companies. The failures remain a riddle! I have sown now for the third time in the same media as the first time. Even if I do succeed, I would still like to know the reason for what happened earlier. May be someone knows has had the same experience and has solved the problem. The tomato and capsicum seedlings I was able to save are doing fine after transplant. Hope I get at least as many fruits per plant as you did if not many more!! Please keep your fingers crossed!
Are the seedlings surrounded by tall plants or something? How deep are you sowing the seeds? Do send a picture of the seedling tray/pot. Good to hear that your tomato and capsicum transplants are doing good. Wishing you a bountiful harvest from those plants
.
GG
Hi GG,
I have been posting many questions with respect to desparate state of some of my plants, thought will drop in a triumphatic comment as well
Couple of days back, I saw a small capsicum peeking out from one of the capsicum plants sowed months back, I don’t even remember. See here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59750057@N08/5458151951/
Any suggestions on how to tend it hereafter? Should I remove some of the flowers? Some flowers do drop off themselves.
Similarly, one of the tomato plants has started flowering, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59750057@N08/5458775246/
Still waiting for fruits to start showing up
Sam
U hv mentioned about container.can u give me the details like which container should be used.and actually how the container look.kindly reply at the earliest
Hi,
Any container that can hold above 10L can be used for growing capsicum. Paint buckets, Old buckets, Mineral water cans.. etc.
Hi,
Great Blog and really encouraging
Have been trying a bit of Vegetable gardening.
But buying seeds is proving to be a huge problem.
Can you tell me where to get seeds in Bangalore?
Cheers,
Roomana
In bangalore, you can get seeds in lalbagh. I also do seed sales for all vegetables. You can drop by / send a list which I can send by courier to you.
Thanks
GG
Hi, I just made some (green) capsicum bhaji and saved the seeds – but do they need to be dried in the sun before planting? For how long? Am in Kolkata – capsicums are listed under April in your sowing chart for north India, but am not sure if it’s already too hot for them (high 30s celcius). Should I plant them where they get early morning sun rather than late afternoon?
I am afraid you cannot germinate from fruits that are green(unripe). The peppers should be ripened on the plant to get good viable seeds. Planting them in morning sun is good.