Peppers are heat-loving vegetables which require a long, frost-free season. Despite the name, they are not related to the spice, pepper. Instead, they are close relatives of tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants.

There are two groups of peppers: sweet and hot. The sweet or mild category includes bell, sweet cherry, pimiento and sweet banana peppers. They range in color from green, red, yellow, orange, and purple to brown. Jalapeños, serrano, cayenne, chili and hot cherry are examples of hot peppers. Some are red, some green and some yellow.

In spring, most garden centers stock a plentiful supply of both hot and sweet peppers, but peppers can be started easily from seed indoors. Starting your own plants affords you greater variety in flavor and color and may be more economical. Kept cool and dry, a packet of pepper seeds can last several years.

Start seeds indoors about 8 weeks before you plan to transplant outside. Peppers need warm soil (at least 65 degrees) so wait until 2 weeks after the last frost date before planting them outdoors.

Plant seeds ¼" deep in a sterile soil-less planting mix, then dust the top of the seedling container with milled sphagnum moss. (Sphagnum is the light moss used to line wire baskets. To mill it, run a handful through a blender or crush it in a plastic bag.) This helps prevent damping off, a fungal disease that causes seedlings to shrivel at the soil level and fall over.

To speed germination, put the newly planted containers on top of your refrigerator until the seeds sprout, then move them into a brightly lighted, warm location. Germination normally occurs in about 10 days. Peppers need a lot of moisture during this early stage. Water frequently but don't let the soil become waterlogged.

If the plants outgrow their original containers, transplant them into larger containers to grow in until you move them outdoors. Hold the seedling by a leaf when you transplant it, not by the stem. Use Styrofoam coffee cups with a hole poked in the bottom, peat pots or similar containers.

When peppers are about 5" tall and 6-8 weeks old, start acclimating them to the outdoors through a procedure called hardening off. Put plants outside in a place where they'll receive half day sun and protection from wind. Gradually expose them to more sun and wind over the next 7-14 days, but be sure to bring them indoors if night temperatures approach freezing.

Transplant peppers into a garden spot with full sun after all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed; usually late May to early June in the Twin Cities. Space hot pepper plants 12-15 inches apart and sweet or bell peppers 15 to 18 inches apart. It usually takes 75 days from transplanting to picking the first pepper.

Protect each transplant from cutworms by wrapping the lower two inches of each stem with aluminum foil or a double thickness of paper. Juice or soup cans opened on each end also work. Simply press the can down an inch or two into the soil so that it securely encircles each plant. Cutworm caterpillars emerge from the soil at night, crawl up the stems about an inch then chew through the stems, leaving the severed tops uneaten. They are greyish black or brown and curl up into a "C" when exposed to light. You can find them during the day by scratching up the first inch of the soil around plants.

Fertilize around each pepper plant with a teaspoon of granular 5-10-10 at planting and again at blossom set. Spray the plants with one teaspoon Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) dissolved in a quart of water at blossom time and 10 days later. Extra magnesium helps the peppers set fruit.

Apply straw, grass clippings or other organic mulches after the ground has warmed. This helps retain moisture, reduce weeds and lessen the impact of pounding rain or sprinkler irrigation. Plastic mulch has been found to increase pepper yields, with brown plastic superior to clear or black.

Use tomato cages over bell and banana peppers to reduce damage from heavy rains and strong winds.

Green bell peppers are actually immature red peppers; they'll turn red if left on the plant to ripen. Pick them any time after they're 3½ to 4 inches long. Red peppers should be used quickly as they deteriorate more rapidly than green peppers.

Pick hot peppers once they're large enough to use. Frequent harvesting encourages a steady supply. Cut the fruit from the plant rather than tear it, as peppers have shallow roots. Wear garden gloves and pick hot peppers carefully. It's easy to accidentally get the oil, capsaicin, which makes peppers hot, on your fingers, then accidentally in your eyes.

A pepper's pungency depends on the amount of capsaicin it contains. It's most concentrated in the seeds and membranes inside the fruit. Sweet peppers become sweeter and hot peppers become hotter as they mature. The vitamin C content in each increases the longer the fruits are allowed to ripen on the plant. When frost threatens in fall, pick all peppers, regardless of size.

PROBLEMS

Blossoms drop when temperatures rise above 90. Nighttime temperatures below 60 or above 75 will also cause blossom drop. Normally, peppers will set additional flowers when temperatures moderate. Moisture stress also causes blossom drop.

Blossom end rot is another water stress problem. It appears as a tan, leathery patch at the tip of the fruit as it starts to enlarge. It indicates a past water shortage, often due to fluctuating moisture levels. You may cut away the leathery patch and eat the rest of the fruit.

Water the soil regularly to a depth of 6 inches. Uneven watering causes moisture stress problems. If possible, don't use overhead sprinklers as splashing water can spread diseases from the soil to the plants or from leaf to leaf. Water at the base of the plants instead, or use a soaker hose or drip irrigation system.

White patches on the sides and stem end of the fruit may be signs of sunscald. It occurs when mature green fruit is suddenly exposed to sunlight. The white patch will never ripen. To avoid white patches, don't prune pepper foliage; try to keep leaves healthy so they don't drop on their own.