I would encourage you to go beyond bell peppers and instead grow sweet peppers of all shapes/sizes/colors. Almost all peppers do better for many gardeners than Bells. I really don't know why home gardeners continue to struggle with bells given how fussy they are.

I don't have any specific recommendations as this will vary based upon where you live, but please try to grow some peppers other than bells next year. I think you will be glad you did.

Matt, I've had pretty good luck most years with Fat N Sassy and several others whose names escape me at the moment. I usually look for varieties that are 62-65 day. This year I won't be getting any ripe ones, but considering the deer ate my plants right down to the stem over the 4th of July, I'm thrilled to be getting quite a few green ones. I never put my plants out before the end of May. One thing I've found that seems to help, is to cut the bottoms out of the gallon or larger dark green or black nursery pots and put them around my transplants. The extra warmth early in the season seems to help them get off to a good start. I leave the pots on until the plants are coming out the top, usually around 3 weeks. I know of someone else who stacks up a couple of old tires around their pepper plants. The trick seems to be planting into warm soil and keeping some warmth around them, especially in a summer like the one just past. I also tried a pepper called Margaret's Pepper. Unfortunately, the deer must have like them especially well as they pulled them right out of the ground and devoured the entire plants.

Try to grow Cubanelle peppers next year.They are sweet and have their own taste little different from Bell peppers.

Try planting several different varieties to find out which does best for you. California Wonder always seems to do best for me in size, quantity, and taste, but I've tried others that do well also, and depending on the year, the others may do better. I also like to plant colored peppers, which seem to be a bit sweeter. The purple ones seem like they are ready to pick a bit sooner than the Calif. Wonders. Jalapenos and New Mexican chiles also do well for me, but habaneros and poblanos seem to like a longer growing season. Pimiento's have done well for me, too.

I never had luck with bell peppers, and for years grew Cubanelle (the quintessential Italian frying pepper). Yields are huge and early. For the last few years, however, I have been growing Corno di Toro, great yields though not as early as Cubanelles. They are exactly like bells, though shaped differently. I switched because my main reason for growing them is to can a marinated pepper recipe, and the Cubanelles were too think walled to hold up well. The Corno di Toros are perfect.

Thanks guys. I'll definitly try some of these. I'm certainly interested in "fat-and-sassy" With a name like that you cant go wrong!!

I have never had much luck with peppers until I put them in pots. They love the heat and the exceptional drainage. (I use a soilless mix that is very course, being made up of mostly almost-compost) This year, I am over run with peppers....but the "extra" plants that I put in the ground are producing as ussual. Slow and sparse.
Kay.

I had great success with bells this year and the only thing I did differently was that I put them in a highly fertilized bed. I was preparing the bed for lettuce and I put a lot of fertilizer in it....At least double what I would normally use and everything in that bed has been growing like gangbusters. I think I realize now that I never quite fertilized enough for fear of overdoing the fertilizer.

This was my last year with bells. Too much loss to sunscald, no matter what variety I try. I compost at least two peppers for every one I pick.

I had good luck with Giant Marconis this year, though. I'll definitely grow them again.

Ed

put black plastic mulch under your peppers in zone 4. That will make tons of difference.

This year I tried four varieties of peppers other than bells. In addition three or four varieties of Bells. All of them were a struggle. Slow to get going and a constant problem with rabbits.

In the end the bells won out. Some of the alternates did well but they are thin walled and I don't like the flavor as much.

I started with about sixty pepper plants. About a dozen are looking really good right now. The bells are among the best looking plants and they have huge peppers on them.

I wish I new what variety they are. However the huge plants are not limited to one variety. They are all in one area of the garden. None of them looked any good until it warmed up. They took off well after the tomatoes did. The best pepper plants were in a rich area of the garden. Peppers in marginal areas of the garden were total flops.

Zeuspaul

I don't grow it, but Carmen seems to be the most popular non-bell on pepper forums. I grow Melrose for a frying pepper, it is dependable and very early. Since the primary use of bells is as a stuffing pepper here, there are few substitutes for that purpose. A reliable bell that colors up fast is Satsuma. the long type La Rouge Royale has done well here, but it is a long season pepper. Have not found a Pimiento with appropriate disease resistance for this area.
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I've never been able to grow bells. Our season just isn't long enough, apparently. BUT, banana peppers grow like gangbusters here. We can hardly keep up with all the peppers on 3 plants. I was once advised by a local woman who grew for truck gardens that I should plant peppers in my worst soil and refrain from fertilizing. I've been doing that ever since and have had great success. (The bananas are also absolutely blemish free and beautiful.)

Here on the south coast of MA I have had indifferent success with a wide variety of Bell Type peppers over these past thirty years. Reflecting some of the above comments, Cubanelles and Banana types have been much more successful in production, and they taste great. Tough to stuff but great to use in so many dishes. Four plants keeps the two of us in peppers all year long. Give them lots of space and lots of sun and they like their water regularly. Don't be in a rush to plant them. Early June is good for this zone. Good Luck!

I've grown bells with unpredictable results. If my Summer is too cool (like this year), or if the frost comes early, they may not ripen. But some years the yield is very heavy. "Chocolate" & "Orange Bell" have done best for me.

Sunscald on bell peppers was a problem for me also; growing them under cages covered with floating row cover proved to be the cure. I highly recommend this method for all peppers, since they thrive in the warmer, more humid environment of the cages. Those in warmer climates should substitute a light shade cloth for the row cover.

There are two really good non-bells that I have grown:

"Pizza" (from Territorial Seeds) has thick-walled peppers like 4-X oversized jalapenos. It is listed as a hot pepper, and can be mildly hot at times... but if harvested during cool Fall weather, it becomes a gourmet-quality sweet pepper.

While the ripe peppers are tasty, "Pizza" is at its best immature. This is the best green pepper that I have ever tasted, bar none; sweet, tender-skinned, & very crisp. They also keep exceptionally well; I pick them all just before frost, and keep them in a plastic bag in an unheated garage... most are still good quality 30 days later. In the fridge, even longer. My recommendation is to plant this pepper late (unless you are saving seed) to time its green harvest to coincide with cool weather.

The other of my favorites is an heirloom pimento-type, "Greygo". They are "cheese" shaped, and larger than any similar pepper that I have seen, 4-5 ounces. They ripen earlier than bells, under heavy leaf cover. When ripe, the peppers are very thick-walled, thin-skinned & completely sweet, without any of the "off" flavors I experience so often with bells. I eat them like apples. As far as I know, there is presently no commercial source; but I saw a seed crop being grown on Heritage Farm last year, so hopefully someone will be offering it in 2008.

Seems like the time of year to pop up last years goodies on this.

I really like frying peppers the best for me they have more usage then other peppers.

ML

I would second the comments on Italian fryers like Marconi and Corno Di Toro. Very good peppers, but best if allowed to ripen red. Jimmy Nardello's looks a bit like a cayenne but is really an excellent sweet, tangy pepper. One of the tastiest I've ever had.

If you have trouble maturing bells I would avoid large pimiento peppers. Not too productive and take forever to ripen. Very thick walled though. I think something like gypsy would be a good alternative also.

I have a problem with peppers too because we have cool foggy summers on the coast. I grew Yellow Banana last year and it seem to do well. I have to start with big plants in May to get any.
Clare

Here is a link that might be useful: Spice Up Your Cooking with Peppers