Tips For Growing Peppers

Gardening Guide: How To Grow Peppers

Peppers are one of the simplest crops to grow in a home garden. Most of the time, you just sow the viable seeds from your seed packet or heirloom seeds, water them regularly, and they’ll grow into happy little healthy plants.

Growing peppers in containers, as well as growing peppers in raised beds, is a good idea since peppers will also thrive well in containers. I have grown them in raised beds, containers, in ground garden beds, and they do well in all.

Growing different type of peppers in small or larger containers, such as a large pot, is an excellent option if you don’t have a lot of lands to make use of.

But if you want to produce more peppers for your kitchen or when growing peppers indoors year round, you need to show your pepper variety and young plants a little more love. Here are some useful tips for growing peppers in your own garden.

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Timing is Key When Planting Peppers

Peppers are warm-season crops, so they should be started 8 to 10 weeks before your last spring frost date. Their fruits will set at around a temperature range of 65°F/18°C – 85°F/29.4°C. As soon as the warm weather settles, transplant the growing peppers.

Knowing when to grow peppers is key to having successful growth. Making this one of the essential tricks to growing peppers.

Get the Temperature Right When Sowing

If you’re wondering how deep to plant peppers, plant pepper seeds or organic seeds need to be planted ¼ inch deep into a fine-textured seed starter or vermiculite that offers good drainage. You can use a seed flat on heat mats on seed trays to maximize the number of seeds you can plant.

For the best results, the bottom heat of the seedling heat mat should be high temperatures of 80–90°F/27–32°C to promote seed germination. In 7 to 8 days, the seeds will start peppers germinating. This is one of the most crucial tips for growing peppers.

Transplant Pepper Seedlings Properly

When planting peppers, start by hardening off bell pepper plants about a week before transplanting outdoors. Don’t skip this step for how to grow peppers. You’ll regret it as I did! Check out what happened to my plants one year:

Space them out about 18 to 24 inches apart and no deeper than they already were to prevent rotting.

Add in compost and/or organic matter when you’re transplanting your best peppers to give them a good start.

Be sure to choose a sunny spot as they need 6-8 hours of full sun a day. Also, choose an area with good drainage.

The soil temperature should be about 65°F so that the peppers will survive. You can warm up the soil by covering it with plastic.

Water in Moderation

Peppers love water. They need a moderate supply of water once the seeds sprout until the end of the long growing season. However, it’s essential to keep in mind that with these tips on growing peppers you should use soil that drains well because they don’t tolerate saturated soil.

Work some organic matter into the soil to ensure moisture retention and use a mulch to prevent excessive evaporation in the summer months.

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Don’t Overfertilize

Peppers are light feeders, so go gentle on fertilizers. If you over-fertilize, your pepper varieties will end up developing lush foliage instead of producing fruits. This is important to remember for your growing pepper tips.

So if you want to know how to make peppers grow faster, you’ll want to make sure you don’t kill them with kindness… or over fertilize.

You can use a 5-10-10 organic fertilizer on the top of the soil prior to transplanting.

Stake Them

When peppers bear fruits, they can easily get damaged because of the weight of the fruit. Support them by tying the plants to stakes or trellis to prevent them from breaking. This is one of the top tips for growing peppers from seed to remember.

Avoid using wire twist-ties or twine since they can gradually choke off the plant’s stem as it grows.

This tool for tying up plants is inexpensive and works great.

Are Peppers Annuals Or Perennials?

Peppers are actually perennials and are usually grown as annuals. They are tropical, so they can’t survive a cold winter outdoors. You can bring them indoors or keep them in a heated greenhouse over the winter and get a head start on your pepper growing for the next season.

I live in Texas in zone 8, and I put mine in the greenhouse to overwinter, and they do just fine. If you live in an area with colder winters, you probably want to take them indoors to overwinter them.

Peppers are easy to grow and maintain. If you keep them happy, one plant will produce more peppers than one family can eat.

Different Varieties Of Peppers:

• Hot peppers
• Sweet peppers
• Green peppers
• Ghost peppers
• Red pepper
• Carolina reapers
• Sweet bell peppers
• Red bell peppers
• Scotch bonnets
• Banana peppers

What is your favorite pepper to grow? Share them with me in the comments – I’d also love to see pics of your vegetable garden or harvest!

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