Beyond Jalapenogate: Tough summer for pepper lovers

(Read more about Jalapenogate here: https://sacdigsgardening.californialocal.com/article/45405-jalapenogate-is-real/)

It’s not just jalapenos that have had a head-scratching summer; all sorts of peppers have not enjoyed 2023.

The trouble started with the cool spring temperatures, observed Evan Hanson, retail nursery manager at Big Oak Nursery in Elk Grove. “Our spring peppers didn’t grow well. We had a lot of problems with them growing. They just didn’t do anything. As a result, we didn’t have the hot peppers – such as Carolina Reaper and ghost peppers – like we usually do.”

Instead of developing, the baby pepper plants damped off or seemed stunted. It was an issue experienced by other local pepper growers, too.

Big Oak, which grows many of its own veggies from seed, avoided selling the mislabeled jalapenos, at least so far. Nurseries and customers can’t tell for sure until the peppers form fruit. “So far so good,” Hanson said.

But many pepper buyers found out the hard way that their “jalapenos” weren’t what they were labeled. For example, a quick survey of pepper plants at Fremont Community Garden in Midtown Sacramento found several peppers with “jalapeno” plant tags that were clearly bearing pale yellow peppers.

Mixing up pepper seed is an easy mistake, even for experienced growers.

“Pepper seeds look alike,” noted radio host-turned-podcaster Farmer Fred Hoffman, a lifetime UCCE master gardener and host of “Garden Basics with Farmer Fred.”

Pepper seed needs warm temperatures – above 80 degrees – to germinate and warm soil (above 55 degrees) to grow outdoors. That’s why local growers usually start their peppers indoors in February. Pepper seedlings take several weeks of development before they’re ready to transplant outside.

That need for warmth and a long growth period until maturity can make peppers challenging under the best of growing conditions. Although peppers need sun, they’re easily sunburned. The challenge now is to keep them semi-shaded during scorching summer days and evenly irrigated.

For more on peppers, check out these tips from the UCCE master gardeners: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/peppers/