Commercial greenhouse bell peppers

Canopy of a healthy greenhouse sweet bell pepper crop

Introduction

Bell peppers (Capsicum annum L.) originate from central and south America. Their cultivation spread throughout Europe and Asia after the 1500's. Although perennial, they grow as annuals in temperate climates. Bell peppers are sensitive to low temperatures and relatively slow to establish. As there is little field production of bell peppers in Alberta, greenhouse production provides most of the local source of this product.

Greenhouse production of sweet bell peppers is based on indeterminate cultivars in which the plants continually develop and grow from new meristems that produce new stems, leaves, flowers and fruit. In comparison, field pepper cultivars are determinate; the plant grows to a certain size, produces fruit, stops growing and eventually dies.

Indeterminate cultivars require constant pruning to manage their growth. In order to optimize yield, a balance between vegetative (leaves and stems) and generative (flowers and fruit) growth must be established and maintained.

Greenhouse pepper production is based on a year-long production cycle. Typically, seeding occurs in early to mid-October, plants are moved from the nursery into the production greenhouses six weeks later, just before Christmas. Harvest begins in late March and continues through to the following November. It takes roughly four months from seeding to first pick.

Topics covered

The information in this section can be used by growers to optimize the greenhouse environment and crop performance.

Commercial greenhouse production

This Commercial Greenhouse Production in Alberta guide provides in-depth information on greenhouse management. It covers basic indicators to help growers evaluate the plant-environment interaction as they move towards optimizing the environment and crop performance.

Chapters particularly relevant to sweet bell pepper include:

• Optimizing the greenhouse environment for crop production
• Environmental control of the greenhouse
• Managing the greenhouse environment

Production of sweet bell peppers

This page provides greenhouse information specific to sweet bell peppers.

Topics covered include:

• Introduction to sweet bell pepper production
• cultivars
• pepper plant propagation

Pests of greenhouse sweet peppers

Find out about common pests of greenhouse peppers and the biocontrol agents recommended for their control.

Topics covered include:

• assessment biological control agent quality
• information on a range of pest insects, from aphids to whitefly

Diseases of sweet pepper

Find out about major diseases of sweet bell pepper and their control.

Topics covered include:

• fungal diseases
• virus diseases
• physiological disorders