Group/Class:  Sweet Bell

Description:

A perfect way to introduce peppers to children; Sweetie pie produces small, 3" fruit, emerging green and maturing to red; edible at either stage; thick walled, sweet and flavorful; these petite peppers are perfect for fresh eating, grilled or stuffed

Edible Qualities

Sweetie Pie Pepper is an annual vegetable plant that is commonly grown for its edible qualities. It produces small green oblong peppers (which are technically 'berries') which can be harvested at any point. The fruit will often fade to red over time. The peppers have a sweet taste and a crisp texture.

The peppers are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking
• Pickling
• Canning

Planting & Growing

Sweetie Pie Pepper will grow to be about 28 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 32 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 28 inches apart. Because of its vigorous growth habit, it may require staking or supplemental support. This vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.

This plant can be difficult to integrate into a landscape or flower garden, and is best grown in a designated vegetable garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Sweetie Pie Pepper is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.