My First Pepper Harvest

Hi

I am a complete beginner when it comes to edible gardening, so I thought i would start with something easy like peppers. I only have three relatively small pepper plants on the go at the moment. However I am quite proud of my crop!

Although small and mishapen, they taste wonderful! Any tips on how to make them bigger and better for next year? Is the reason for them being small my impatience, could I use better soil or fertiliser? I have used a liquid miracle grow feed this year.

Also I have included a pic of the lone pepper as it is beginning to go black, i can't decide whether it is has rot (although still firm to touch) or whether is it just turning red?

 

Well done LollyB.
Sometimes the size is down to the variety you are growing, some are just small and some are whoppers.
If you want to try some different kinds try growing some seeds from supermarket poppers next year. They grow fine for me. You can start them off early on the windowsill. February is a good time.
That pepper with the black patch just looks as if it is turning red, but I don't think it will ripen now that it's off the plant. They're not like tomatoes in that respect.

 

Well done, indeed.

 

Lollyb - they look fantastic

I have never grown veg - so know nothing about it. But my experience with ornamental plants suggests :-
1) As Alice says get the variety right - you could always Google 'Biggest peppers' - the first site it brought up was this http://henryfields.com/product.asp?pn=12362&bhcd2=1283789128
2) I like to put plants in as large a container as I can - it will get you a bigger plant, but not sure about bigger peppers.
3) They will need lots of sun, possibly need lots of water and lots of fertiliser.

With Brugmansia (I know its quite a different plant) the suggestion is to water twice a day and fertilise every day. That's way over the top - but I suspect that its extremes like that that people use to grow world record size veg. But it does give you an idea of what governs the size of the fruit.