An early sweet pepper with a beautiful colour evolution: the large trapezoidal fruits start out pale yellow, gradually shifting to orange and then reddish-orange as they ripen.
About the variety. Weighing around 170 g per fruit, with thick skin and crisp flesh, this is a zero-pungency variety (fully sweet), equally enjoyed raw or cooked. Well suited to container growing.
Itinerário técnico
Como cultivar albaregia pepper?
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
pH ideal 6.0 to 7.0Temperatura ideal 22 to 30 °CCompasso 40 to 50 cm in the row, 60 to 80 cm between rows
Sementeira
Sow in trays eight to ten weeks before planting out, half a centimetre deep, and keep the compost between 25 °C and 28 °C. It is the slowest and most heat demanding seed in the vegetable garden: below 20 °C germination can take three weeks or fail outright. A heat mat or a warm spot indoors makes all the difference. Prick out into individual pots at the two true leaf stage and plant outside only once nights stay above 14 °C. At about 40 centimetres tall, this variety grows well in a pot twenty centimetres deep with drainage holes. Use a pot at least twenty five centimetres deep with drainage holes, and water more often, because it dries out far faster than open ground.
Solo
It prefers loose, fertile, free draining soil with a good reserve of organic matter and a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. The root system is shallower than that of tomato, so the top layer of soil must stay cool and must never be compacted. Rotate with crops outside the nightshade family.
Clima
It demands full sun and steady warmth, ideally between 22 °C and 30 °C. Below 15 °C it stops growing and drops its flowers; above 35 °C it also drops flowers and exposed fruit scorches in the sun. It is very sensitive to wind, which snaps loaded branches. On the Atlantic coast, with cool nights and morning fog, pick the sunniest spot sheltered from wind and space the plants well so air moves through. Inland in Iberia heat is the limiting factor: in weeks above 35 °C the plant stops setting fruit and light shade over midday pays off. In northern France and in Germany a greenhouse, a tunnel or a south facing wall is worth it, planting out only after mid May. Where summers are short, always choose the shorter cycle varieties and start them early in a heated tray. This is a long cycle variety. Inland in Iberia and in southern France it finishes without difficulty; on the cool Atlantic coast, in northern France and in Germany it only gets there if started early with heat and grown in a greenhouse or tunnel.
Fertilização
Work two to three kilos of rotted compost or mature manure into each square metre before planting and add a handful of bone meal or wood ash for phosphorus and potassium. Once growth is away, feed with a liquid organic fertiliser every two or three weeks, moving to a higher potassium formula as cropping begins. Avoid excess nitrogen, which gives lush leaves, a poor crop and a lot of aphids.
Rega
Water regularly without waterlogging, keeping the soil moist but never saturated. The critical phase is flowering and fruit fill: a water shortage then drops the flowers and causes blossom end rot. Water at the base and mulch the soil with straw, above all in dry inland areas.
Controlo de Infestantes
Hand weed in the first weeks, while the plant is small and loses every contest for light and water. Once it is established, mulch with five to seven centimetres of straw, dried grass or leaves: it holds weeds back, keeps moisture in and stops rain splashing soil onto the lower leaves, which is how most diseases begin. Always hoe shallowly so you do not cut the roots running just under the surface.
Controlo de Pragas
Aphids, whitefly, thrips and red spider mite dominate, and thrips matter most because they transmit viruses. Use blue sticky traps for thrips and yellow ones for whitefly, alternate potassium soap and neem oil, and keep a flower strip for beneficial insects. Cutworms sever young plants at soil level: a cardboard collar around the stem solves it. Under cover whitefly multiplies very fast and it pays to act at the first individuals.
Doenças
The commonest problems are powdery mildew on the leaves in hot dry weather, anthracnose, which makes sunken spots on the fruit in damp weather, and collar rot in poorly drained soil. Prevention means generous spacing, watering at the base, raised beds where the soil is heavy and a four year rotation. Viruses spread by aphids and thrips distort the leaves and cannot be cured: pull up and destroy affected plants. Blossom end rot on the fruit is an irrigation problem, not a fungus.
Colheita
You can pick green, with the fruit full and glossy, or wait for the final colour, which multiplies the vitamin C and the sweetness. Cut with scissors, leaving a short stalk, because pulling tears the branch off. Pick often, because leaving many fruits to ripen on the plant halts the next flush. It is a sweet variety with no heat. Allow about 90 days from transplanting to the first harvest of this variety. The reference colour is yellow, orange or red, and that is what tells you it is ready.
