How to Start a Bell Pepper Plant
Bell peppers add sharp texture, bright colors and sharp, sweet flavor to recipes and salads, and taste even better straight away from the garden. Green varieties naturally mature to red, but there are also yellow, purple and orange bell peppers, as well as miniature bell cultivars. Because the price of a single pepper is usually more than the usual pack of seeds and non-green varieties may be pricey and hard to find, it is worth it to begin your own bell pepper plants from seed. Bell peppers are warm weather plants that you may begin indoors from seed seven to ten weeks before evening temperatures outdoors are consistently above 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fill a seed-starting tray two-thirds filled with moist seed-starting mix or a blend of equal parts perlite and peat moss.
Choose viable seeds that are light colored and discard any dark brown seeds. Sow the tiny flat seeds one-quarter inch deep.
Put seed-starting tray in addition to a waterproof nursery heat mat, called a propagation mat. Bell pepper seeds germinate between 70 and 95 F, with the best germination rates above 80 F. Soil temperature is usually 5 degrees cooler than the air temperature. Light isn’t essential during germination.
Cover the tray with its lid or plastic wrap to help the seed-starting mix retain moisture. Add water when you no longer see condensation on the underside of the plastic. Seed should germinate in 7 to 10 days.
Remove the lid following plants sprout and put under fluorescent lighting or transfer into a sunlit window, without the propagation mat. Temperatures don’t need to be as warm as during germination, but should not fall below 65 F for best growth.
Re-pot into potting mix in person 4-inch pots when the seedlings have their first pair of true leaves.
Fertilize the transplants once per week using a water-soluble all-purpose fertilizer diluted to half strength or using fish emulsion.
Reduce water and fertilizer two weeks before you expect to plant the seedlings outdoors.
Establish your seedlings outdoors in a protected area for a few hours every day over the two weeks before planting time. Gradually increase the time that you keep them out and their exposure to full sun until they can withstand a full 24 hours outdoors.