YOUNGSTOWN Pepper plants that push the limit

A backyard gardener isn't revealing the secret to his 6-foot plants.
By REBECCA SLOAN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- To say that Michael Lacivita has a green thumb would be a gross understatement.
After all, for the past 10 years, the 79-year-old Youngstown resident has grown green pepper plants that have reached an astonishing height of more than 6 feet.
"Their stems are as thick as cornstalks, and I have to stake them up to keep them from falling over," Lacivita said.
Lacivita isn't giving away his horticultural secrets, but he does 'fess up to using Miracle Gro plant food.
"I use a 15-30-15 composition weekly or bi-weekly," he said.
The type of pepper Lacivita grows is called a Laparie sweet pepper. Laparies are very mild and tender and are used in many Italian recipes.
It is not typical for Laparie peppers to reach such towering heights, and even the folks who manufacture Miracle Gro were astounded by Lacivita's mammoth plants.
"They'd never seen anything like it," Lacivita said.
Sowing date
Lacivita grows his pepper plants in a backyard garden at his home on Eldora Drive.
"I buy the plants in the spring and plant them around May 15. I don't do anything special to the soil other than add some horse manure," Lacivita said.
Before this year's frost took its toll, Lacivita had about a dozen Laparie pepper plants growing in his garden, and each one of those plants produced about 22 peppers.
"My wife cooks them. She fries or stuffs them," Lacivita said.
The largest Laparie pepper Lacivita ever harvested from his garden was nine inches long and weighed 8 ounces.
"The tallest plant I ever grew reached a height of 7 feet. It produced 25 peppers that weighed a total of 8 pounds," Lacivita added.
Looking back
Lacivita has been gardening since age 6.
"I grew up during the Depression, and I helped my dad in the garden. Our family's survival depended upon our backyard vegetable garden," Lacivita said, adding, "We used to collect horse manure for our garden from the ragman's horse after the cart passed by our house. My dad grew about 300 tomato plants and about 100 goat horn Italian sweet frying pepper plants."
Lacivita still grows tomatoes and goat horn Italian sweet peppers in his garden.
They grow right along side his gigantic Laparie pepper plants, but Lacivita dismisses the theory that the tomatoes and goat horn peppers have something to do with the tremendous height of the Laparies.
"I don't always plant them in the same places, so I don't think so," Lacivita said.
Recognition
During the past decade, Lacivita's giant Laparie pepper plants have been pictured in Country magazine and Ranch Living magazine, and Lacivita has been featured on the local news a handful of times.
Still, the secret of his towering Laparie pepper plants remains somewhat of a mystery, even to Lacivita himself.
"I've grown these plants in sun, part shade and shade. Professional growers told me my plants wouldn't produce any peppers if they were grown in the shade, but they were wrong. The real secret? God only knows," Lacivita said.