Sweet pepper comparisons

So, I've grown 3 types of sweet peppers this year, Grand belle mix, sweet banana peppers, & a few 10" long bell type peppers.  There were about 30 plants in total with the intent to only pick them once they mature & change colors for seed saving.  I know that peppers can self-pollinate, but I was hoping there would be some percentage of natural cross pollination going on for some interesting mixes for my own use.  I've since lost maybe 2/3rds of those plants due to weather, too much water, not enough water, competition with weeds, slow start after transplanting, bugs, etc.  Now we're down to about a dozen "survivors" that have produced fruit that I will save seeds from.  Interestingly enough, the Long bell peppers have nearly died out, down to 3 weak plants that have yet to produce.  The grand bell mix had another 4 plants that are a bit stronger & have produced 4 ripe peppers that only reached the size of a ping pong ball, but were packed full of seeds.  The sweet banana peppers I thought had a weak start have flourished & rebounded to produce the glut of my pepper crop, saving my harvest as a result.

My plan is to continue to try a few new varieties of sweet peppers each year, hoping for natural crosses, saving seed from survivors, and keep it going year after year, eventually getting better/stronger plants.  

For those of you that are successful with bell type peppers from seed, do you have any advice for getting larger fruit?

I grow several sweet bell peppers this year: Cali wonder, grand bell, king north and bull nose. They are all doing well and producing. They are tucked in different spots since I have so many plants so the difference in their fruit sizes could be due to the location rather than varieties. They all suffered transplant shock early in the season and took a long time to adjust to dense soil from the light starting mix.
Have you tried hand pollinating with a cotton swab?

I haven't tried hand pollinating yet, but have seen some youtube videos where a man hand-pollinates to create new varieties of hot peppers.  I believe he keeps them indoors under grow lights, which would certainly make the process easier.  I initially thought I had too many seedlings started, but now I'm glad I gave them a chance.  I think my scenario is a good lesson that the more genetic material (different varieties) you start with, it increases the possibility that one of those varieties will like the conditions that year even if the others fail.  So many factors come into play to get a successful harvest.  I wonder why the transplants you buy from the store always do so well?  I know they are pruned & sometimes grafted, but still, they just seem to do better.  

Mines are all grown from seeds. Peppers have a slower start than tomatoes so I plant them early in March and baby them until May to get into ground. Some may get stunted or shaded out but they all survive and produce all thd way to frost.

I even overwintered some dormant peppers the past winter and replanted like bareroot trees for early harvest. The caveat is that these pepper plants have older physiological age and they immediately started to bloom like bonsai trees, resulting in sun-scalded peppers without enough leaves for shade.

If you want to try these varieties, I have extra seeds to share.

May,

I have recently heard of overwintering peppers indoors, but have not tried it yet.  Do the leaves stay small like bonsai, or do they eventually get to normal size?  I wonder if picking young fruits off early in the season would allow time for the leaves to catch up first before letting the fruit grow to size?  PM on its way.

I am currently growing Ace which has not been a producer of large fruits. Previously I have grown Intruder which did produce larger fruits for me.

I am also working with a passive kratky hydroponic system this year (only hot peppers) and I may never grow peppers in the soil again. It is working very well.

Cy Cobb wrote:May,

I have recently heard of overwintering peppers indoors, but have not tried it yet.  Do the leaves stay small like bonsai, or do they eventually get to normal size?  I wonder if picking young fruits off early in the season would allow time for the leaves to catch up first before letting the fruit grow to size?  PM on its way.

I actually did that last year.  Dig them up, put into a pot, pruned back to just above second set of leaves from bottom.  They wintered over and I had early peppers this spring after setting them back into the garden.  I think I pruned them once in the house because they were getting too big.  Had them by a south facing window and a small grow light to supplement a little more light and heat.  (cold in my house).   Will definitely do it again.  

I tried overwintering pepper indoors by a bright window. The plant was quite healthy and even tried to produce throughout the winter. But it took quite a bit of room. The second try was to trim the peppers down to where it branched and kept several in a pot in a dark corner. They slowly dropped all the leaves and went dormant. After replanted in spring they all budded out mostly along the main trunk. I tried removing some flower buds but they kept coming back. The overwintered plants got surpassed by young  and vigorous plants grown from seeds so I feel it's not worth all the time and efforts. In my area they had to stay indoors for over 6 months. Maybe it will be easier to do in a warmer climate or a big sun room.

Faye Streiff wrote:
Dig them up, put into a pot, pruned back to just above second set of leaves from bottom.

Faye, that's what i was missing. I either brought in the whole plant to grow or trimmed but let it go dormant. I will try growing a trimmed one indoors this winter. Maybe the third time's a charm.

This is what I mean a healthy pepper plant has lots of leaves to shade the fruits.