--- title: "Red Bell Peppers" description: "Red bell pepper is the reference block pepper of Dutch production, carried on the plant until it colours fully. Reference values with their Dutch sources, and what the crop asks of a greenhouse." canonical: "https://dutchgreenhouses.com/crops/sweet-pepper/red-bell-pepper" locale: "en" updated: "2026-08-11" --- # Red Bell Peppers > Part of: [Sweet pepper](/crops/sweet-pepper.md) · Provider: [DutchGreenhouses](/) Red bell pepper is the reference block pepper of Dutch production, a four-lobed blocky fruit carried on the plant until it colours fully. Ripening on the plant is what the buyer pays for and what the crop costs, since the fruit occupies plant capacity for weeks after reaching full size. Sweet pepper # Red bell peppers. The Dutch block-pepper baseline, carried to ripe colour. Red bell pepper is the reference block pepper of Dutch production: a four-lobed blocky fruit carried on the plant until it colours fully. Ripening on the plant is what the buyer pays for, and it is also what the crop costs — the fruit occupies the plant for weeks after it has reached full size, consuming light and heat that a green harvest would have released. ## What the crop needs The plant is long-cycle, grown on substrate and carried on a high wire, with a heavier fruit and a slower set than cucumber. It responds to the balance between vegetative and generative growth over weeks, so the climate strategy is judged across a season rather than a day. Holding a steady relationship between temperature and accumulated light is what produces a continuous set instead of alternating flushes and pauses. ## What the greenhouse has to do Carrying fruit to ripe colour is what the house is being asked to pay for. The fruit sits on the plant for weeks after it has reached full size, occupying plant capacity and greenhouse capacity while it colours. That time is heated, screened and lit as though it were growth, so the heating design and the screening strategy for a red crop are set against the colouring period rather than against the setting period. Pepper is also a set-sensitive crop. Fruit set stalls when the plant runs too warm or too dry at the wrong moment, and the gap that creates travels down the season as an uneven harvest rhythm. Steady climate across the whole floor, ventilation that answers quickly and irrigation with buffer for the peak are what keep the rhythm regular. DutchGreenhouses® specifies the structure, climate, screening and irrigation around the pepper crop, its harvest stage and the local climate, so fruit reaches ripe colour on schedule. Get in touch to plan a pepper greenhouse. ## Crop data Red bell peppers ### Day climate1,2,3 Air temperature 20–23 °C CO₂ concentration 750–800 ppm Sources (3) - Kas als Energiebron / WUR, 2025, project 24004 — Minimal-CO₂ fossil-free block pepper E045 - Kas als Energiebron / WUR, 2024, project 22014 — Resilient fossil-free block pepper E046 - WUR, 2017, GTB-1434 — Energy-efficient pepper with crop balance E048 Reference values, not a specification. Setpoints are calculated per greenhouse, crop and location. Related ## Other sweet pepper varieties and the systems behind them ### Yellow bell peppers A separate genotype class, not a shade of red. ### Orange bell peppers A separate genotype class, not a shade of red. ### Green bell peppers A harvest stage, not a colour genotype. ### Red pointed peppers A conical sweet pepper with its own spacing and support. ### Climate Heating, cooling, humidity control and carbon dioxide dosing. ### Hydroponics Substrate growing with drip supply and drain recirculation. ## What the colouring weeks buy Red bell pepper is the same plant as a green-picked crop, taken further. The fruit reaches full size and then stays where it is, and sugar and vitamin C keep accumulating while it colours. A red pepper ends up with well over the vitamin C of the same fruit cut green, and sweeter with it. The colour is the visible part of a change that happened on the plant. Those weeks are paid for. The fruit occupies plant capacity, heat and light that a green harvest would have released, and the premium at the counter is what covers them. A red crop is a decision to spend greenhouse capacity on ripeness rather than on the next fruit. Ripeness does not travel. A pepper picked at full colour is already at the end of its development, so every day in a container is taken off the shelf life instead of added to the crop. A greenhouse near the market picks at colour and delivers within days, which keeps the premium attached to a product that still eats like the one that left the plant. ### Nutrition facts Sweet pepper, red, raw Per 100 g Energy 26 kcal Fat 0.3 g Carbohydrate 6.03 g Sugars 4.2 g Fiber 2.1 g Protein 0.99 g Sodium 4 mg Potassium 211 mg Vitamin C 127.7 mg Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC 170108 Questions ## Red bell pepper, asked and answered Why does red pepper cost more to produce than green? The fruit stays on the plant for weeks longer to colour, using light and heat in that time and delaying the next set. The premium pays for that occupancy. Is red a cultivar or a harvest stage? A cultivar property. Red, yellow and orange are separate genotype classes. Green is a harvest stage, and a green-picked fruit still belongs to a genotype with its own ripe colour. What most affects pepper set? The balance between vegetative and generative growth, held over weeks. A climate that swings produces a crop that flushes and stalls rather than setting continuously. 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