Growing Sweet Peppers with SeedCo

Sweet peppers also known as bell peppers come in a range of colors such as red, yellow, orange and green, this highly nutritious crop, exceptionally rich in vitamins but low in calories is also very lucrative despite having a few growers of this specialized plant in Zambia.

For one to venture in to sweet pepper production, one needs careful market identification because there are very few places where this crop can be sold. Farmers are encouraged to have enough market information to help in packaging and identifying where to sell their crops.

On a market level peppers go for as much as 40, 50 and 60 kwacha Per Kg. On average one pepper weighs about 250 grams. One can expect to harvest a minimum of a 5 kg per plant.

Sweet peppers are a triennial crop that take months and grow like a trees. However, SeedCo hybrid peppers take 60 days to reach maturity. Change of colour from green to red and finally yellow usually takes up to 120 days. Colour changes usually take place depending on the temperature in a particular location. Therefore, the hotter the area the faster it takes to change colour.

Although the germination of sweet peppers tends to be problematic, the process of planting to transplanting only takes about 6 weeks. Sweet peppers can also be purchased from Nursery propagators to avoid the stress that comes with planting.

Good harvesting management is an essential component when it comes to harvesting of peppers, and it is highly recommended that farmers use their hands when harvesting the fruits.

Harvest can take place for about 2 months and go on up to three months depending on management, the more one harvests the more money they get , however the more it grows the more it looses its quality.

Therefore, if one is growing peppers for business purpose it is encouraged that the grower observes the yield numbers because that determines whether one continues to grow green peppers or not to avoid working on loses.

After harvest all fruits must be air dried before packaging, or wiped with a cloth to ensure that they are dry this helps reduce storage looses.

Sweet peppers need a lot of attention and growers need to ensure they have chemicals to prevent termites, there is also need for fungicides to prevent and treat diseases such as late blight, leaf spot, and bacterial wilt among others commonly found in tomatoes.

Farmers are therefore, cautioned to take note of physiological disorders such as sun scald which are not caused as a result of diseases but rather stress.

Hybrid SeedCo varieties include Red Prime which is the (red pepper) and Solan or (yellow in colour) however, aside from the hybrid varieties SeedCo also stocks the Californian wonder variety which is green in colour and is commonly found on the market.

By Eric K. Mwenda

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