Q. This past season I planted about 10 green bell pepper plants along with banana, cayenne and jalapeño peppers. All the peppers did well except for the bell peppers. We did not harvest anything from the bell peppers. Just wondering if you think we have a problem with the plants, pollination or the pH of the soil? I should also note that our new garden resides in a former “hog lot.

A. The “hog lot” soil may have been a bit high in nitrogen, though if the other plants were not affected, I would not suspect this to be a soil or excess fertilizer problem. It is possible that the soil is not uniform and could have some “hot spots” of composting manure that may have caused a bit of foliage burn.

Bell peppers have a fairly narrow temperature range at which they will set fruit. Last summer’s temperatures were not very good for bell pepper production, so a lot of gardeners complained of poor pepper production. The optimum temperature for bell peppers is 70- 75 F, while the optimum for hot peppers is 70-85 F. Bell pepper flowers are likely to drop without setting fruit if temperatures climb above 85 F or drop below 60 F.