planting sweet peppers

[fishing]

hello all i am new to veg growing. and computors. my question is how early can i sow my peppers? i have a heated greenhouse. is it possible to steal a month so that i have peppers in july or august when prices are high in shops. many thanks fishing.

[Elaine]

Hello Fishing. Welcome!
I sow my sweet peppers late January, in a heated propagator, here at home, where they subsequently get pricked out and potted up. I take them to the unheated greenhouse, on our allotment in March, protect them from frosts, then plant them out in the greenhouse borders in late May.

The thing with peppers, is they are slow growing and need a long season to grow to the ripe stage. I have never tried growing them earlier but I would think that low light levels and a heated greenhouse would make the plants leggy and you wouldn't gain much by sowing very early. I have harvested ripe peppers in August from a January sowing, in a good year, and a bit earlier than that, when green.

Someone more knowledgeable than myself may be able to help you more!

I hope this helps a little. Cheers.

[Nature's Babe]

Hello Fishing, and welcome. I tend to agree with Elaine, would be surprised if you gained much by planting sooner because of low light levels. However with my chilli peppers I have overwintered them by cutting back to a third of growth and they should produce a crop earlier this coming year, we grow as annuals, but if you can keep them warm through the winter they are perrennials. I haven't tried it with sweet peppers yet but it might work they're so similar

[Mike Vogel]

Oh boo, I recently took all my chilli plants out of the greenhouse and left them out in the cold or composted the plants. idiot me!

[Mike Vogel]

I found this morning that I had 3 pepper plants in their pots which i had not yet disposed of. They've been outside and were frozen stiff with the leaves all droopy. Do you think they'll survive indoors, NB?

[Colin_M]

You could do worse than try Mike.

I overwinter some of our rarer chillies each year and generally prune them right back to just a stem and a few twigs. The leaves etc always re-grow without fail. However if the core & roots of your plants have been heavily frosted, it might be too late....

[Mike Vogel]

My 3 plants are now in the spare bedroom by the window. Will report developments in a few months.