Peppers Have No Taste This Year

[bluelacedredhead]

At least 6 varieties of sweet peppers growing here this year and of the ones that are ripe, only the Sweet Chocolate have any taste.
Must be all this rain we've had.

Anyone else having a similar tasteless year for their peppers? It's wonderful that I'm having a decent crop, but it would be nice if they had some flavour to go with the colours.

[canadamike]

I had an ALMA PAPRIKA yeaterday and tought that too. Geewizz, they are growing on black plastic. Mind you, with water and frogs in it between the rows, the water table was right up there for them to drink from, water came from under!

I will leave them longer on the plants to manufacture flavor and sugar.
I think watery is a them for many veggies this year. Funnily, my celerys taste great, but they all are small. I guess they need the sun more than I suspected. We should not forget that not only did we had lots of rain, we also had very little sun. Sometimes you can get both, but not this year. 1 gray day without rain in June, no sun ( here at least) and 3-4 gray days with a little sun, only a few hours at a time in July, most often at the end of the afternoon. Not much. »And the first 15 days of August were the pits too...

I think our veggies need our patience and understanding this year...

[bluelacedredhead]

Speaking of rain, it rained after midnight here.
It woke me up and oddly enough, I remember thinking, Good, now I won't have to water the container plants in the morning.
Isn't that wild, after all the rain we've had to be thankful for rain? It's been what? About 5 days now without it? LOL

[canadamike]

«««same here, I am hoping for rain now!! The clay is cooking, I am an involuntary potter!!The bean are thehardest hit, they are loosing their juices, are soft and giving me flageolets now, I have enough for many meals!! Would be nice to like eating it ;D

I am trying to figure out where I will put all these potatoes. We've been eating for a month on one third of a row, and I have 13 of them, plus the 4x 50 patch of Voluntary Rose Finn Apple. They need water too. It is only very timely for the melons.

I have been taste testing up to the gazoo, soon I won't be able to look one in the eyes

I got a recipe for melon jam from my buddy Michel, it comes from a starred chef who created it especially for the Lunéville. I think I will make gallons of it. I'll taste it to adjust it then it will be no more melons for me for a while....I was afraid I would get dirrhea from so much fruits, I guess they have more fibers than I tought

[cbstieff]

Generally people make two mistakes growing peppers. Peppers do best with benign neglect. To much water and firtelizer will make bad watery tasteless peppers that do not keep well. Only water when you think the plant will die without being watered. (typically 21 or more days without rain in the summer after the plant is established). Fertilize only when you want the plant to grow quickly right after transplanting. I often only fertilize peppers when I am preparing the bed for planting. The fertilizer should also be low Nitrogen and I prefer a "Bloom Buster" fertilizer with a 10 - 30 - 20 ratio (or at least a fertilizer with the same ratio). Another thing peppers typically don't develop full flavor until the seeds fully developed (and the pepper flesh is fully colored). It is not in the plants best interest to put flavor into a unripe fruit.

[canadamike]

I agree with you wholehearthedly, they are an excellent '' I'll see you in August'' crop. Loving green peppers, you will permit me to disagree with the last sentence

And by the way, welcome in the big family. I hope you find what you want here, this is a jolly bunch of very generous people, should you need anything, just ask!!


Michel

[grungy]

Thanks for the info, cbstieff, and as Michel said before, especially with tomato seeds, feel free to ask, especially when we get the 2008 list posted.
Cheers,
Val / grungy

[orflo]

The peppers most of us grow (capsicum annuum) probably originated in an area between Colombia and North-Mexico, the first selected varieties were discovered in old Mexican settlements, wild relatives of C.annuum were found in the whole of middle-America: Costa Rica, Panama,...These origins indicate they are adapted to quite a wide range of conditions, from the wetter rainforest regions to a somewhat drier climate. Unlike other capsicums (c.frutescens (well-known is tabasco), baccatum, chinense, and the other 'wild' varieties (I believe there are 22, but I could be wrong here)), they don't need a steady rainfall, and can indeed thrive very well in drier climates, but are also adapted to areas with more rain. In fact, the sweetening proces depends more on the amount of sunshine, so give them a sunny place (if you have a shaded but hot and wet place, try to grow some of the other ones, especially capsicum baccatum has got quite a lot of selections, including at least one sweet pepper, that can become big).
I think one thing is overlooked here: the choice of varieties. I had good-tasting peppers over here, in grey and rainy weather (anyone knows how grey a Belgian summer can be?). Some varieties however just rotted away, I think out of the seventy or more varieties I grew , maybe 20 produced ripe peppers, and they all tasted the way they taste in other years. But my peppers aren't the thick-walled shiny peppers, more the thin-walled pepper you'll never see in the shops, but far tastier. Maybe these thick-walled peppers are more sensitive to wet weather, I don't know, there's possible a bigger sort of osmosis if the peppers are thicker .
As far as fertilising is concerned: it's a good thing someone said peppers are often over-fertilised, that is indeed the case. Peppers thrive very good when they are given a few handfuls of compost, this usually contains all the nutritients they want, too much fertiliser gives bigger plants, more leaves and less fruit.
Michel, a word on your celery, it's a bit strange it didn't grow just the way it should have grown, celery likes wet conditions, it doesn't even have to be in a sunny spot for thriving well. Did you give it enough nutritients, or was the spot flooded during some time, or...?

[canadamike]

It was growing in 2 different spots, one with some shade, the other in full sun, in very rich well amended soil in both cases. It is the first year I have this problem, I have success with it usually. I did not grow it from seed myself, maybe it was in the stryrofoam cells for too long, I dunno!!

But I usually have huge ribs....well, not this year.