Bell Pepper
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Purple Beauty Pepper is a striking open-pollinated heirloom that transforms from deep purple to vibrant red as it matures, earning its place in both ornamental and edible gardens. This Capsicum annuum variety reaches 18, 24 inches tall and produces abundant sweet peppers with zero heat, making it perfect for raw eating, salads, and anyone seeking pepper flavor without spice. Ready to harvest in just 70 days from transplant, it thrives in zones 4, 13 and adapts beautifully to containers, raised beds, and garden plots, rewarding gardeners with heavy yields of those distinctive jewel-toned fruits.
Full Sun
Moderate
4-13
24in H x ?in W
Annual
High
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What sets Purple Beauty apart is its exceptional productivity paired with stunning visual appeal. This heirloom pepper is drought tolerant and non-GMO, delivering consistent harvests without demanding excessive water during dry spells. The combination of deep purple coloring that transitions to red, the sweet flavor profile with zero heat, and its proven ability to perform in containers makes it equally at home on a sunny patio or in a traditional garden bed. High-yielding and reliable, it's the kind of variety that keeps producing right through the season.
Purple Beauty peppers shine raw in salads where their unique color creates striking visual contrast with other vegetables, turning a simple green salad into something garden-fresh and beautiful. The sweet flavor and lack of heat make them ideal for eating fresh off the plant, slicing into coleslaws, or adding to fruit-based pepper salads. They work equally well roasted whole, stuffed, or layered into sandwiches, bringing both flavor and ornamental appeal to the plate.
Start seeds indoors 6–8 weeks before your last spring frost, sowing at a depth of about 1/4 inch in warm soil. Pepper seeds germinate best at soil temperatures between 70–85°F. Keep seedlings under grow lights and maintain consistent moisture until they're ready for transplanting.
Harden off seedlings over 7–10 days by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions, then transplant outdoors after all danger of frost has passed and soil has warmed to at least 60°F. Space plants 18 inches apart in rows 36 inches wide. Plant at the same depth they were growing in their containers, and water in well to settle the soil.
Harvest peppers when they've reached full size and turned a glossy deep purple for the most striking presentation, or wait until they mature to bright red for peak sweetness. Peppers are firm and ready when they feel substantial in your hand and the skin has developed a slight sheen. Use a sharp knife or pruners to cut peppers from the plant rather than pulling, which can damage branches. Harvesting regularly encourages continued production throughout the season.
For this upright variety, light pruning of lower branches can improve air circulation and make harvesting easier, though it's not essential. Removing the first few flowers encourages a stronger root system before the plant enters heavy production. Once flowering begins in earnest, minimal pruning is needed, this variety naturally grows as a compact, bushy plant and doesn't require aggressive shaping.
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“Purple Beauty is an open-pollinated heirloom pepper, part of a long lineage of Capsicum annuum varieties that gardeners have preserved and saved seed from across generations. As a non-GMO cultivar, it represents the tradition of seed-saving heritage that connects home gardeners to agricultural history. The variety's journey to modern seed catalogs reflects the renewed interest in heirloom peppers that offer both culinary value and visual distinctiveness, traits that made them worth preserving when industrial agriculture favored standardized green and red types.”