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Beyond Jalapenogate: Tough summer for pepper lovers

Cool spring challenged seedling growth, no matter the pepper variety

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUL 19, 2023

This not-jalapeno is another mislabeled pepper in the summer of #jalapenogate. Laura Litzinger Hafner via Facebook

It’s been a tough summer for peppers – no matter the variety.

First, there’s Jalapenogate. Thousands of gardeners in several states are dealing with mislabeled jalapeno (or purple bell) plants. Instead of producing what their buyers expected, these plants grew yellow fruit that looks like a banana or wax pepper (and definitely not a jalapeno).

“I planted jalapenos, habaneros, serranos, Anaheims, green bells, yellow bells, and red bells,” wrote SDG reader Hollie Snider of Colorado on our Facebook page. “One of my jalapenos appears to be either a golden jalapeno or a Hungarian wax. Another jalapeno appears to be a banana pepper.”

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/

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Keywords:

Sacramento gardening peppers summer vegetables July spring weather seeds nurseries jalapenogate seedlings

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

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May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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