Why doesn't the pepper turn red on the bush?

Why don't peppers turn red in a greenhouse?

First of all, it is worth checking what type of pepper you have chosen.
Perhaps ripe fruits should not be red at all, but green or lilac. Therefore, if the peppers have acquired not a red, but a yellow, orange or dark green hue, do not be surprised; perhaps this is a natural stage of development. To get an early harvest, you need to choose the right variety.
Residents of the middle zone and northern latitudes need to choose only early and very early varieties of hot and sweet peppers, while those who live in a milder climate will benefit from mid-season varieties. The best harvest is produced by hybrids: they are resistant to frost and disease, and have excellent taste. There are a huge number of varieties of both red hot and sweet peppers on the market, so it will not be difficult to choose the most suitable one, and growing peppers in a greenhouse will give excellent results.

Features of maturation

It must be said that there are two stages of pepper maturity - technical and biological. At the technical stage of ripeness, the fruits are still green and firm, but have stopped growing, and the seeds inside are fully ripe. Biological maturity occurs later, sometimes 20-30 days after technical maturity. By this time, the peppers have already acquired their final color and taste. Therefore, if the bell pepper has grown but does not change color, you just need to wait a little and it will reach the desired state.

Sweet peppers are harvested only at the stage of technical maturity, since fully ripened fruits are poorly stored and easily wrinkle. But unripe vegetables can be stored for a month, and it will not lose its beneficial properties. Everything is exactly the opposite with hot peppers: you can cut them from the bush only when they become completely red and hot. Thin pods of hot peppers dry out quickly and can easily lie on the shelf with seasonings for several months.

Pepper is very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, and if something is wrong, it can completely shed its flowers and ovaries, refusing to bear fruit. Factors affecting pepper ripening:

• Soil acidity. The soil should not be acidic, the optimal balance is 6.0 -7.0. Pepper will not do well on clay soils, and where there is a lot of nitrogen in the soil;
• Temperature. The air during the day should be warmed up to 25-30 degrees, and at night the thermometer should not fall below 15 degrees, otherwise the flowers will begin to fall off. Overheating is also dangerous - when the temperature in the greenhouse is above 40 degrees, the plant withers. The plant will not appreciate drafts, so you can open the windows to ventilate the greenhouse only on one side;
• Humidity. It is very important to maintain a balance here, because the vegetable does not tolerate drought or excessive watering. The water should be warm and settled. It is advisable that water does not fall on the leaves when watering. Fruiting peppers are watered once every 2 weeks, and to prevent the moisture from drying out, the soil is loosened or mulched;
• Light. Paradoxically, too much light will even harm the plant. Pepper is a “short day” crop and produces the best yields when daylight hours last no more than 12 hours. But, at the same time, a sufficient amount of ultraviolet radiation must reach the leaves and fruits so that they form and ripen normally. If a vegetable grows in the shade and stretches out without releasing flowers, gardeners recommend installing reflective screens that will provide more light, or ultraviolet lamps;
• Fertilizers. Peppers really need potassium, so wood ash will help them grow and develop properly. This mineral will be useful for pepper at any stage of development, regardless of whether the pepper is growing in a greenhouse or in open ground.

Pepper does not bloom or dries out

It is especially unpleasant when, despite external health and high-quality green mass, the plant does not bloom or begins to suddenly dry out. Such manifestations are not uncommon, and they can be caused by the following unfavorable factors:

• a significant increase in temperature in the greenhouse or poor-quality shading of plants on very hot days;
• too low a temperature or sudden fluctuations in temperature for several days in a row;
• overly active application of nitrogen fertilizers to the soil and an imbalance of microelements in the soil;
• excessive watering of plants;
• lack of lighting and a large number of cloudy days;
• dry air in the greenhouse and non-compliance with ventilation;
• too cold water used for watering heat-loving plants.

Peppers are very sensitive to errors in care and can dry out as a result of:

• non-compliance with the optimal temperature regime at each stage of the growing season;
• irregular watering;
• non-compliance with the scheme for applying fertilizers to the soil.

The most difficult test for peppers is damage by diseases and pests. At the first signs of a disease, you should immediately carry out the entire range of measures to help eliminate pests and restore plant health.

Care Tips

But what to do if all the conditions are met, the cultivation complies with all the norms and rules, but the fruits do not want to ripen and turn red?

Experienced gardeners do not recommend keeping bell pepper fruits on the bush until fully ripe. Once they have become heavy, smooth and shiny, they can be removed from the bush. To guarantee, you can wait until the color begins to appear, but waiting any longer is both pointless and harmful: the sweet pepper has already accumulated all the necessary nutrients and vitamins. As a rule, after the first harvest, the pepper gains color again, turns red and begins to bear fruit.

If you want the fruits of sweet peppers to ripen on a bush, in a greenhouse or open ground, the following folk recipe is often recommended: spread banana peels under the bushes. This advice has both negative and positive consequences, since on the one hand the sweet smell attracts insects, including harmful ones, and on the other hand, bananas contain a huge amount of potassium, so the pepper receives an additional portion of this useful substance.

Pinching the top and removing the first four flowers does not harm the plant, but quite the opposite - the first fruits ripen for a long time and draw all the juices from the mother plant.

It often happens that the fruits of sweet peppers grown in open ground begin to darken instead of ripening. This happens if the air temperature drops below 15-18 degrees. To preserve the harvest, you need to cover the plants with film or covering material and increase the temperature inside. In a greenhouse, it is easier to regulate the temperature; just leave a few bottles of hot water or heated stones overnight, which will give off heat, saving the plants from frost.

At home, sweet pepper fruits turn yellow or red in a matter of days. It is enough to put them in a box with apples, red tomatoes or already ripened peppers of another type. The fact is that when vegetables ripen, ethylene is released, which also affects other vegetables, starting a chain reaction. The main thing is that the box is tightly closed, because very little gas is released. In addition, apples have a strong effect on all fruits, and if you put a bell pepper that is not yet red in the same box as an apple, you will notice that it turns red in a matter of days.

You can try to use the same mechanism to speed up the ripening of peppers in open ground - put an apple under a covering material. This method is not suitable for bell peppers in a greenhouse - the greenhouse area is too large, and each plant will have to be covered with a second layer of fabric or film.

Pepper ripening stages

Considering harvesting pepper to be a simple matter, many people pick the fruits at the stage of incomplete ripeness. This affects the taste and further storage and preparation of vegetables. Agrotechnicians distinguish 2 types of maturity:

1. Technical (cleaning). It occurs 40-45 days after the formation of the ovaries, when the pepper has not yet fully acquired its characteristic varietal properties, but is already suitable for consumption and processing.
2. Biological (natural). It begins when the seeds ripen and the crop acquires a bright varietal shade.

20-30 days pass between biological and technical maturity. During this time, vegetables accumulate the maximum amount of nutrients and vitamins and are saturated with sugars and microelements.

Important! Fully ripened bell peppers have the best flavor and distinct aroma. Therefore, it is recommended to collect them in this phase.

The heat of hot pepper can be adjusted. A technically ripe crop still contains a small amount of pungent substance, so it is collected for preparing mild dishes and marinades. If you plan to store the harvested crop for a long time or process it into a powdered state, it must be picked from the bushes at the stage of full biological maturity.

Why do peppers not turn red in a greenhouse or greenhouse?

Sweet peppers may not turn red if the vegetables for seed selection were purchased at the supermarket. Typically, large-fruited peppers with thick walls and high yields are on the shelves. They are brought from countries with warm climates and long summers. The ripening period for such peppers is late.

In most of the post-Soviet space, climatic conditions are not suitable for growing store-bought peppers, as they will not have enough sunlight to fully ripen and turn red.

Reference . On the bag of seeds, the manufacturer writes the terms of technical ripening of sweet peppers - the period when the vegetable is poured. Pepper coloring occurs during biological maturation. Up to 30 days pass between these stages.

Southern culture is sensitive to any changes in weather conditions. During cold weather or drought, the plant may completely shed its foliage and ovaries, refusing to bear fruit. The following are factors that can significantly affect the ripening of bell peppers.

Feature of the variety

Before sowing seeds, you need to make sure that the variety is chosen correctly. Bell peppers can be a rich green, orange, red or yellow color when ripe.

Residents of the middle zone and northern latitudes have adapted to growing very early and early varieties of pepper. Late-ripening crops are suitable for southern territories. The best choice for temperate and cool climates are hybrids. They tolerate light frosts well, are resistant to many diseases, and have excellent taste.

Lack of nutrients in the soil

Pepper is a demanding crop regarding the presence of calcium in the soil. You can compensate for its deficiency using wood ash. The mineral is useful for pepper at any stage of development.

Southern culture does not tolerate clay soil well. Sandy loam, light soil, enriched with biological humus, is an ideal choice for growing sweet peppers. You should not allow an excess of nitrogen compounds: this will negatively affect the yield and increase the green mass.

It is recommended to feed the plant every 14-16 days. Organic and mineral complexes are suitable for enriching the soil. At the moment of fruit formation, you need to add phosphorus to the fertilizing, and to prevent the pepper from rotting - calcium, calcium nitrate (2-3 times during the entire growing season is enough).

Not enough heat

Bell pepper is a heat-loving crop. At low air temperatures, its fruits acquire a dark shade. As a rule, this happens if the temperature drops below 15°C.

To preserve the crop in cool weather, it is recommended to cover the plantings at night with any covering material; this will help the plant not to freeze. In greenhouse conditions it is much easier to regulate the temperature than outside. Not far from the plants, containers with heated water are placed or stones heated in a fire are placed along the paths.

A comfortable temperature for the development of bell pepper is within 25-30°C during the daytime, at night – not lower than 18-20°C, otherwise the ovary will begin to fall off.

Attention! Air overheating above 35-37°C is also dangerous for peppers. In this case, due to dry air and dry soil, the plant withers. Drafts are also harmful to pepper.

Not enough lighting

Paradoxically, too much sunlight can only harm the plant. Pepper is a short-day crop. You will get improved yield performance by providing the plant with about 12 hours of daylight.

Foliage and fruits should evenly receive ultraviolet radiation in the required volume. This will help the plant form, mature and turn into its natural color. In the shade, the crop stretches out and forms few ovaries. According to gardeners, this situation can be corrected by installing a reflective screen. It will reflect the light on the sweet pepper.

A tall plant is placed in the center of the bed, and a low-growing plant is placed on the sides. If the plant grows in a greenhouse, the coating must be highly transmittable to ultraviolet rays.

Attention! To ensure intense light flow inside the polycarbonate greenhouse, a reflective screen or devices with ultraviolet reflection are installed.

Planting too thick

If the bell pepper plantings become too thick, the soil will begin to deplete quickly. Seedlings growing close to each other shade each other, so the light falls unevenly on the seedlings.

Reasons why peppers don't turn red

Every summer resident dreams of collecting large, fleshy and bright fruits on his plot. However, why, having reached a large size, do the peppers never ripen? There may be several reasons.

Varietal features

One of the common mistakes of inexperienced gardeners is trying to grow a high-quality crop from seeds collected from store-bought vegetables . Beautiful and large fruits, which can be bought all year round in supermarkets, are imported from China, Turkey, Egypt or the southern regions of Russia. The climatic conditions of these regions are very different from the middle zone, where crops lack heat and sunlight. Therefore, these varieties either do not ripen completely or ripen several weeks later than more adapted ones.

Reference. Some species should not turn red or yellow. Depending on the varietal properties, the pepper can have a shade from light green to bright purple and even chocolate. On the package with seeds, the instructions indicate the ripening time and color of vegetables at the stage of biological ripeness.

Unfavourable conditions

Unsuitable growing conditions for pepper also affect its ripening and coloring:

1. Temperature regime. When the thermometer drops to 12°C, the growth and development of pepper stops, and when it rises to 35°C, the bushes quickly dry out. The optimal range is from 18 to 30°C.
2. Lack of lighting . Peppers require at least 12 hours of exposure to sunlight. Ripening and fruiting are also impaired when daylight hours are too long - more than 14 hours.
3. Violation of irrigation technique. Cold, unsettled water is absolutely unsuitable for this culture.
4. Thickened planting. Fruits on bushes blocking each other ripen poorly and do not turn red for a long time due to lack of nutrients.

The method of watering affects the development of bushes. Water should not get on the stems and leaves; it should be carefully poured right to the root. The soil should not be overly moist - this will lead to the development of fungus and bacterial diseases.

Agrotechnical errors

Beginner gardeners make mistakes even at the stage of planting seeds. They can be added to the soil when temperature fluctuations are not expected day and night . The weather should be consistently warm and the soil should warm up sufficiently.

The soil for peppers should be light, fertile and nutritious. The beds are fertilized with organic compounds and dolomite flour is added. This allows you to normalize acidity. Neutral or slightly acidic soil is suitable for timely ripening of vegetables.

One of the reasons why peppers do not ripen is incorrect fertilizing technique. The crop does not tolerate excess nitrogen: instead of bearing fruit, the green mass actively develops and the bush grows strongly. A lack of potassium has a negative effect on the plant, without which redness may not occur at all. This problem is common in areas with a high content of peat or sand.

Attention! Compositions containing nitrogen cannot be applied during fruiting and flowering of the crop.

Pepper needs calcium fertilization at any stage of ripening. Its deficiency is well compensated with the help of wood ash. At the moment of fruit formation, phosphorus is added, and calcium nitrate is added 2-3 times throughout the growing season, which prevents rotting.

A plant with too many ovaries also does not produce a good harvest. For this reason, the fruits do not have time to develop to large sizes and the desired color. Therefore, it is recommended to remove the first inflorescence at the branching point of the stems. Only one, the strongest bud is left in the internodes, otherwise, due to the growth of branches, the bush will not have enough strength to ripen.

Reference. A large number of ovaries on one bush (more than 25) slows down biological maturity, and the pepper grows small.

Eliminating the causes

No matter what climatic conditions the bell pepper grows in, it requires proper care for full ripening. Let's look at how to correct the situation when the fruits do not turn red:

1. In the greenhouse, close the doors and windows at night. Additionally, you can use agrofibre.
2. Install heat accumulators between rows of plantings. These can be containers with heated water, heated stones or bricks. During the day they will be heated by the sun's rays, and at night they will give off heat to the plants.
3. Strictly monitor soil moisture. It should be slightly damp. Avoid overwatering.
4. Do not feed the crop fertilizer containing nitrogen. During the fruiting period, it will be enough to add 1-2 tbsp of wood ash under the bushes. l., phosphorus and potassium.

When planting this vegetable, the main condition for obtaining high yields is good quality seeds. In most areas of the country, it is better to use ultra-early or early ripening varieties. Mid-season crops are suitable for greenhouse conditions.

For open ground

In open areas, it is more difficult to protect the crop from hypothermia, so it requires shelter and heating similar to a greenhouse (bottles between the beds or stones heated in the oven).

A prerequisite for rapid maturation is regular shaping . At the end of the summer period, all flowers are removed, and shoots that grow too large are plucked during the entire growing season.

Small peppercorns are also removed from the bush at the beginning of autumn, as they will no longer be able to reach biological maturity. The remaining fruits can be removed from the bush unripe in the event of early cold weather and constant rainy weather. In conditions of increased dampness and coolness, the fruits quickly rot.

How to make peppers ripen

According to experienced gardeners, sweet peppers should not be kept on the bush and wait until they are fully ripe. The fruits are removed when they become shiny and have thick walls. You can wait for new buds, but you don’t need to wait too long. By this moment, the fruit has already managed to accumulate all the nutritional elements necessary for full ripening.

Life hacks from experienced farmers

After the first harvest, bell peppers continue to bear fruit and turn red. If the color does not appear for a long time, you can try to speed up this process using traditional methods.

A few secrets:

1. Place banana peels under the bushes.
2. Be sure to pinch the first four flowers. The plant only benefits from this, since the first inflorescences from the mother bush draw a lot of juices.
3. To make sweet peppers turn red or yellow faster, the fruits are picked and placed in wooden boxes along with apples and ripened tomatoes. The boxes are covered on top. Redness will occur in a matter of days. This is explained by the fact that ripening vegetables release ethylene. It is he who affects the pepper fruits. Thus, a chain reaction is started.

What can be done to solve the problem

If the problem is the weather or improper care, you should try to eliminate the cause. When it gets cold, cover the plants with non-woven materials, if there is a lack of nutrition, feed them, water them with warm water and without fanaticism. When large but green fruits are already hanging on the bushes, the peppers do not need nitrogen at all, but they do require fertilizing with wood ash.

If the fruits have already reached the desired size, it is better to remove them, and if you want to get red ones, ripen them at home. They need to be laid out in a warm place (not in the full sun) and turned over periodically. The process will go much faster if you put a couple of red specimens nearby, or maybe a ripe apple. Peppers are often placed on foil, which reflects the heat of the sun falling on it and warms the fruit.

If you wish, you can speed up the reddening of peppers even on bushes, although there is not much point in this. For example, you can put banana peels directly under them, but this way you can also attract pests. A more reliable method, but a little barbaric, is to slow down the growth of the entire bush. At a height of several centimeters, a through hole is made in the stem (a split 2–3 cm long). An ordinary chip is placed in it, which stops the development of the bush and forces it to redistribute its forces to the ripening of fruits. The gardener receives red peppers, but after a week he loses the whole plant.

Video: techniques for ripening peppers

The reasons why peppers do not turn red on the bushes are mainly due to the characteristics of the variety or the vagaries of the weather. But bell pepper is a crop whose fruits are better not to be allowed to fully ripen in the garden: they are edible even in an unripe state, but can ripen during storage.

If you wish, you can speed up the reddening of peppers even on bushes, although there is not much point in this. For example, you can put banana peels directly under them, but this way you can also attract pests. A more reliable method, but a little barbaric, is to slow down the growth of the entire bush. At a height of several centimeters, a through hole is made in the stem (a split 2–3 cm long). An ordinary chip is placed in it, which stops the development of the bush and forces it to redistribute its forces to the ripening of fruits. The gardener receives red peppers, but after a week he loses the whole plant.

Why don't peppers turn red?

This question is often asked by gardeners who have sown peppers with seeds from fruits purchased in the supermarket. Usually these are productive, large-fruited, thick-walled hybrids. They were brought from the south of the Russian Federation, from Turkey, China or other countries with a warm climate and long summers. In terms of ripening time, they usually belong to late varieties.

Supermarkets usually sell the most productive peppers, but we do not know their variety and ripening period

In most of Russia, weather conditions are not suitable for the ripening of such peppers. They simply lack warm sunny days. This situation alone conceals several reasons for the unripening of peppers on the bushes. And if you analyze the situation in different gardens, there may be even more of them:

• You may have seeds of a green-fruited variety or hybrid. Peppers also come in yellow, white, orange, purple, and chocolate color, so they shouldn’t turn red.
• There is not enough heat. Favorable temperature for growth is +22… +25 °C, at night +15 °C, at +12 °C peppers stop growing altogether, and at +6 °C their leaves die off.
• The ripening period has not arrived. Moreover, even if the seeds are bought in a store, the bag says a specific period before the start of harvesting, in fact the peppers can grow longer. This happens due to various stresses: trauma during transplantation, cold weather, heat, rain, drought, lack of nutrition, diseases, pests. Because of each such reason, plants stop developing for a week or longer.
• The packages with seeds indicate the period of technical ripeness, when the fruits are filled, and not biological, when they are completely colored. The gap between these two stages can last about a month. And this is under favorable weather conditions!
• Incorrect feeding. If the soil contains a lot of nitrogen during ripening, the bush grows leaves to the detriment of yield.
• High soil moisture, as well as excess nitrogen, activates the growth of tops rather than ripening.

Video: growing peppers from sowing to harvesting

Why don't bell peppers turn red in the garden?

In general, the reasons that peppers do not turn red in a greenhouse or open ground lie in the nature of the variety or in the state of the weather (sometimes the gardener’s mistakes are also to blame). Thus, not all varieties of pepper sold in stores (especially in winter!) can ripen in regions that are not the hottest. And it often happens that an inexperienced gardener takes seeds from purchased fruits for sowing.

Even zoned varieties can have yellow, purple, white and even green coloring of completely ripe fruits, although most often peppers at the technical stage of ripeness are green.

Pepper Star of the East white will never turn red

But in full (biological) ripeness, peppers are only slightly tastier and healthier than in technical ripeness, when the fruit is already fully formed and its growth has stopped. For most varieties to reach full ripeness, it will take another month, and, in general, there is no need to wait this period: fruits left on the bushes until they are fully ripe only interfere with the growth of others. Therefore, most gardeners collect peppers precisely in a state of technical ripeness: they are well stored and gradually ripen at home.

Most varieties of peppers at technical ripeness are light green in color.

If the gardener thinks that the pepper should already be red by date, he needs to carefully check the varietal characteristics. Perhaps the ripening dates indicated on the seed packaging refer specifically to the period when the peppers are ready to eat, but have not yet acquired their final color. If there is no error, it is worth looking for the reason for the delayed maturation. It can be:

• lack of heat (at daytime temperatures below 20–22 °C and night temperatures below 15 °C, peppers develop very slowly, and at 12 °C their growth stops altogether);
• slow development due to damage to roots when planting seedlings;
• sudden weather fluctuations (excessive heat, heavy rains or, conversely, drought);
• lack of nutrients in the soil or, conversely, a significant excess of nitrogen fertilizers;
• diseases, pests.

Any of these factors can delay the redness of the fruit by a week or two, or even a month.

How to speed up the ripening of peppers in a greenhouse and open ground

Wherever your pepper grows, it needs to be given the conditions to ripen:

• If temperatures drop below optimal temperatures for peppers, cover them. Keep doors and windows in the greenhouse closed at night. You can additionally cover the bushes inside the greenhouse with agrofibre. Place heat accumulators on the ground: large stones, bricks, water bottles. They will bask in the sun and give off heat at night.
• Always keep the soil moist, but not flooded. In open ground, protect peppers from heavy rains using film and arches.
• Avoid fertilizers containing nitrogen. During the fruiting period, it is enough to feed the peppers with wood ash - 1-2 tbsp. l. under a bush, or mineral phosphorus-potassium fertilizer according to the instructions.

How long does it take for pepper to ripen? What will help speed up the ripening of peppers?

The climatic conditions of our region do not always contribute to the full ripening of fruits. At the end of summer, when the nights are short and cool, this problem becomes very urgent. Experienced gardeners recommend speeding up the ripening of peppers on their own.

Acceleration of pepper ripening

Correct fit

To get a large harvest of ripened paprika, lay down the conditions for this at the very initial stages of crop development. Its further development and the timing of fruit ripening depend on the planting of the plant.

1. Temperature. You can use the rule, the sooner you plant, the sooner you will get the harvest, with extreme caution. This will work in regions with warm climates. In other cases, the crop can only be planted in well-warmed soil.
2. Plant the plant in a permanent place during a period when a stable, comfortable temperature has established. The thermometer readings should not fall below 180C during the day and 140C at night.
3. Lighting. Paprika bushes love light. Lay out the area for beds for this crop in well-lit areas. When planting plants of different varieties, place them correctly. For tall crops, allocate a plot in the center of the bed; low-growing crops will feel great at the edges of the bed.
4. Thickness. Follow the planting pattern for sweet peppers. During the growing season, the plant becomes powerful and spreading. Neighboring bushes will interfere with each other. Lack of light and nutrients will negatively affect the timing of fruit ripening.
5. Priming. The culture loves fertile and light soil. Before planting, be sure to fertilize the soil in the beds with organic fertilizers. Apply dolomite flour to reduce soil acidity. To make the soil lighter, periodically loosen the beds.
6. Fertilizers. Don't neglect feeding. For each period of crop development, certain nutrients are needed. You should not fertilize the plant with nitrogen during flowering or fruiting. A properly organized diet helps reduce the ripening time of fruits.
7. Watering. Water the peppers rarely but generously. Creating high humidity for the crop will result in the development of fungal and bacterial diseases.

Subscribe to the channel in Yandex.Zen! Click “Subscribe to channel” to read the site in the Yandex feed

Pepper - features of care, planting and growing

Reviews:

Lenya NOTES OF AN AGRONOMIST

writes: the girl in the avatar is beautiful