Why isn't there a "bell" in my bell peppers??

[i_am2bz]

So, I have 2 varieties of "bell" peppers growing this year. The plants are tall, but kinda spindly & not very bushy (I think it's too shady where I planted them).

The few peppers I've gotten so far are not round & bell-like but kind of long & squished-looking (as if all the air has been sucked out of them!). They taste fine, the flesh is firm & thick; but they look more like jalapenos than bells.

Any thoughts on what causes this?

 

[NwMtGardener]

I havent grown bell peppers, but i have noticed a similar occurance with my anchos! (i dunno, maybe they're a type of bell??) when they're younger, they're squished, as you described, kinda curled up and flat (like that makes sense...curled and flat!!) and as they mature they puff up, and fill out. I wonder if you left them on the plant longer if they'd be more traditional looking?

 

[Gnome_Czech]

Mine are long and pointy as if they aren't even bells. I am container gardening but that is the only thing I am doing this year.

 

[Jared77]

Bell peppers in my experience have rather pointed bottoms as they are developing. Kind of looks like a really big hot pepper in shape. I leave them on the plant and they will develop that classic bell pepper shape. I have more than enough bell pepper plants so I just leave them to develop more. Seems like that bottom portion of the pepper is the last part to fully fill in.

 

[Dave2000]

There are dozens, maybe hundreds of different strains of "bell" peppers. None of mine have pointed bottoms at any point, well some do eventually have lobes that make them look a bit like a squashed tooth but nothing like a central point at the bottom and this includes a couple sickly plants where they weren't developing well and a heat wave caused them to turn ripe-redish colored without really being mature fruit, as well as the better yielding plants.

On the other hand I have a hybrid bell-jalapeno with fruit shaped exactly how you'd expect them to be if you crossed the two, nice pointy bottom. IF your bells are pure strains, that still doesn't mean they will necessarily be the same shape as someone else's, even mutations or evolution, however you'd like to put it, may cause some differences.

Yes tall spindly plants can come from lack of sun, and/or putting the other plants too close together.

 

[grow_my_own]

I have never grown them, but last summer at the Farmer's Market, I bought some sweet peppers that looked like long, skinny hot peppers about 6 to 8 inches long and kind of curled like some hot peppers are. But they were really sweet and tender, and I would have loved to have known what variety they were so I could find seeds and grow some of my own. Alas, however, there was a slight language barrier between myself and the vendor, and all I could get out of her was "sweet peppers".

I have also grown bell peppers that look more like a pablano pepper on the plant until they get more mature & then round out some. I agree with the comments by another poster that there are so many varieties of bell pepper out there, that the shape of the pepper when it gets ripe will vary.

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome to TEG, Grow my own. Perhaps you can go back and buy some more and save the seeds for next year? Just a suggestion.

Mary

 

[i_am2bz]

Looks like I will have to go pull up the little plant spikes & see exactly what they're called...

I like Dave 2000's description, a "squashed tooth"!

These are grown in raised beds, so I try to water them a lot, but it has been awfully hot. I've just never grown bell peppers that have all turned out like this...they taste fine, but... :/

 

[Jared77]

Leave one on the plant and see what happens. It might surprise you.

 

[momofdrew]

Bell pepprs are 'blocky' in shape from the getgo...maybe the seed company goofed and you got a different variety...there are so many types of sweet peppers...Just enjoy what you have and leave a note on the seed package that it isnt bells...