One of my bell pepper plants blew over (with no peppers yet) and would not go back up. Another one was leaning to the side. They seem like small sturdy plants, do they still need staking?

This happened to one of mine as well, I was planning on staking it unless I'm told not to for some reason.

I use the wire tomato cages (which are useless for tomatoes) for my bell pepper plants. When they are full size and start forming peppers, I will sometimes use twist ties to anchor those branches to the cage or to stakes put in the ground for extra support. It works well. Pepper plants are sturdier than other nightshades, but the branches can sometimes break under the weight of the developing fruit (especially during heavy rains).

Many folks do stake &/or cage their peppers - especially when they're heavy with fruit. I've never done it, mostly because I grow mine so closely together that they pretty much hold each other up.

I use a cross between Breezy's method and stakes. All of our peppers are grown in our greenhouse, so wind is generally not an issue. We grow the plants close enough together so they can touch each other (peppers like to hold hands). And we use short stakes to support the main stem.

I suspect if we grew them outside they would need more support. But the single, short (2-foot) stakes work well inside the GH.

quote:

Originally posted by Terpsichore's Gardener:
This happened to one of mine as well, I was planning on staking it unless I'm told not to for some reason.

Thanks for the replies.

And nice to know I am not alone with such problems.

I use a wooden stake for each plant similarly as I do my eggplant and tomatoes...tieing the main stem and the branches as needed with torn old sheet strips.

Keeps the heavily fruit laden branches from snapping under the weight.

I stake peppers too, after they have fallen over for any reason. I just use the bamboo stakes, they dont need that much help, usually.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt-choo:
I use the wire tomato cages (which are useless for tomatoes) for my bell pepper plants.

Took the words right out of my mouth. I use the small green fence posts (which are useless for fences) for additional anchoring of the cages.


Dirt