Growing bell peppers in Colorado

Q: How do I grow a good bell pepper? My pepper plants never get as big as they should and the fruit is usually misshapen and small. We love stuffed bell peppers!

A: Bell peppers like the good life. They are not as resilient as their chili pepper cousins. Over the years I’ve realized that bell pepper plants don’t like to dry out and they prefer afternoon shade.

I now plant bell pepper plants where they are be shaded by larger plants like staked or caged tomatoes, okra, brussels sprouts, or other plants. This keeps them a bit cooler and shelters the fruit from sunscald. Provide compost-rich soil and fertilize monthly to get big pepper fruits. If you grow a lot of bell pepper plants, build a structure with bamboo sticks, wood or PVC pipe and cover it with 30% shade cloth. Water peppers daily then harvest in abundance in August and September!

Kelly Grummons owns the mail order businesses coldhardycactus.com & dogtuffgrass.com