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The Secrets of Growing World-Class Peppers

Rebecca's Garden : Episode REB-705 -- More Projects »
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Grow beautiful peppers like this one with tips from "Pepper King" Tony Zappa.
"Pepper King" Tony Zappa helped launch the "Pepper Fest" more than 50 years ago in North Hudson, Wisconsin. From its humble beginnings, the event has grown to a three-day pepper festival, where thousands migrate to savor the robust flavor of Italian hot peppers.
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Figure A
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Zappa waters his pepper garden.
The genesis for the festival is rooted in the sandy soil of Zappa's garden (figure A), where conditions are perfectly geared for producing perfect peppers. The "Pepper King" shares his secrets:

  • Start with the basics: plenty of sun, water and good soil. Till the soil well in the spring, and work in some compost. Make sure to provide a porous-type soil with good drainage.

  • Adding a bit of fertilizer to make your peppers grow by mid-summer.

  • The pepper plants can became too top-heavy and fall to the ground, losing their bounty. Zappa recommends to build plant cages with fencing that has five-inch squares.
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    Figure B
    To do this, make a hoop and set it over the plant. The plant will grow right up through the fencing. These little squares of the fencing help to keep the plant from falling down (figure B).

  • Another tip is to set the plants so close to one another that they come up through the cages and then touch each other.
    • Guests
    Tony Zappa
    Pepper Farmer
    North Hudson, WI
    Phone: 715-386-9027
    Also in this Episode
    Rebecca's Garden : Episode REB-705
    •The Secrets of Growing World-Class Peppers
    •Summer Maintenance in the Garden
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