You can grow your own peppers by starting the seeds indoors, although most gardeners prefer to buy starter plants from the nursery. If you live in a northern climate, you should warm the outdoor soil by covering it with black plastic as early as possible in late winter or early spring.
Red and green peppers are packed with nutrients like vitamin C and vitamin A. They’re also a good source of minerals like potassium and magnesium. You can eat them raw in salads or as a snack with dip or hummus. You can also stuff peppers with seasoned bread crumbs or meat and bake them.
On this page, we focus on growing sweet peppers, but many of the tips for growing hot peppers are the same. That said, we also have a growing guide for jalapeño peppers!
Types of Peppers
Peppers are available in many colors and sizes, and each type of pepper has its own culinary uses. Once you start growing peppers, you will want to diversify your garden.
The pepper plant belongs to the genus Capsicum. Most of the peppers that are cultivated are the species Capsicum annuum. “Chile pepper” is the term used for hot peppers. There are many varieties of hot peppers, such as habanero peppers, which are the species C. chinense, and Tabasco peppers, which are of the species C. frutescens. The following is a very small selection of the many different types of peppers that are available to gardeners.
Bell peppers are a type of large, sweet pepper with high water content. They can be enjoyed fresh or cooked, and come in a variety of colors including green, red, white, orange, pink, and purple. Red bell peppers are generally the sweetest, while orange bell peppers are tangy.
The Cajun Belle bell pepper plant is a quick-growing, disease-resistant plant that produces mildly spicy peppers. The peppers can be picked green or allowed to turn red, and take just 60 days to mature. The plant grows to about 2 feet tall and wide, making it ideal for small plots or container gardens.
Islander bell peppers are three-lobed and start out purple. They turn yellow with orange streaks as they ripen and become red. You can enjoy them while they’re still lavender-colored or wait until they’re fully ripened. They have a mild, slightly sweet flavor.
Banana peppers are a type of chile pepper that are bright yellow and curved, like a banana. They are not very hot, with a Scoville score of 0-500. The peppers will be sweeter if they are picked when they are more mature. Banana peppers are also called yellow wax peppers.
Poblanos are mild chile peppers that become ancho chiles when dried. Ancho chiles are popular in Mexican cuisine, often used in mole sauce. Poblanos usually have a Scoville units measurement of 1,000-1,500.
A popular chili pepper used in salsa and pico de gallo, jalapeno, may also be fried with cheese to make poppers. It usually grows to about 3 inches on plants that are 14-18 inches tall. Jalapenos are picked when they are still green, but if left on the plant, they will eventually turn black, and then red. These peppers are 2,500-8,000 Scoville units. Older fruit with white scars, called “corking,” will be hotter.
Hungarian hot wax peppers look like a banana pepper but are hotter, anywhere from 1,000 to 15,000 on the Scoville scale. The fruit grow to be between 4 and 6 inches long and are typically harvested before they mature, when they turn orange and then red. These are popular pickling peppers.
Cayenne can be used as a spice by grinding it up, as an ingredient in pepper sauce, or even as squirrel repellent. The skinny red chiles that it comes from can grow to be 6 to 8 inches long. In terms of the Scoville units used to measure the heat of peppers, cayenne peppers are at the upper end with 30,000 to 50,000 units.
The Tabasco pepper is a small pepper that is very spicy, with a Scoville rating of 30,000 to 50,000. Tabasco sauce is named after this pepper, and it is also used to flavor vinegar. Tabasco peppers grow upright, and they change colors as they ripen, from yellow to orange to red. This makes them attractive ornamental plants, especially when grown in pots.
The Habanero chile pepper is a variety of pepper that is popular in hot sauce and salsa. The fruit of the pepper is 1 to 2 inches long, and the peppers are typically red or bright orange when ripe, though they can also be white or purple. Habaneros are known for being hot (100,000–350,000 Scoville units), but there are new “heat-less” varieties as well.
Where and How to Plant Peppers
The best place to grow pepper plants is in full sun with well-drained soil and a pH between 5.5 and 7.0. A soil test will reveal the garden’s pH and will also note any nutrient deficiencies in the soil.
To ensure your peppers have plenty of nutrients to grow, add compost and rotted manure to the soil before planting. Be careful not to add too much manure, as this can cause the pepper plants to produce more leaves than fruit.
Cut off any fruit or flowers that have developed prior to transplanting. This is beneficial for the plant as it will put its energy into root and stem development and acclimate to the outdoor environment. The plant will then produce new flowers and fruit with a stronger foundation and in warmer weather. The yield will ultimately be higher.
Space the seedlings 12 to 18 inches apart, depending on the variety. Pepper plants do best when grown close together but not touching.
When transplating pepper plants, it is ok to bury a little stem, but doing so won’t provide any additional advantage. Unlike tomato plants, pepper plants will not readily grow roots from their stems.
If you don’t support your pepper plants, the weight of the fruit will make them collapse. So put in some stakes or install tomato cages early on, before the plants have grown too much.
How to Store Peppers
- Peppers can be refrigerated in plastic bags for up to 10 days after harvesting.
- Bell peppers can be frozen for later use. See how to freeze peppers.
- Peppers can also be dried: Preheat oven to 140°F. Wash, core, and seed. Cut into 1/2-inch strips. Steam about 10 minutes, then spread on baking sheet. Dry in oven 4 to 6 hours; turn occasionally and switch tray positions. Cool, then store in bags or containers in a refrigerator.
How to Start Peppers Indoors
- To start indoors: Start pepper seeds 1/4 of an inch deep, three to a pot filled with potting mix. For faster germination, maintain soil at 70°F (21°C) or above. To achieve these sorts of temperatures, you’ll probably need a heated propagator or heat mat and some grow lights.
- Ideal conditions should see seedlings appear within about two weeks, but some varieties take as long as five weeks, so don’t give up on them too soon! Thin out the weakest seedling; let the remaining two pepper plants in each pot grow as one. The leaves of two plants help to protect the peppers and often greater than that from two separate plants.
- If seedlings become leggy or too tall before it’s time to plant outside, replant them in a bigger pot up to their lowest leaves, just like tomatoes, to help support them. Keep seedlings warm with plenty of light until you’re ready to plant. If the plants have around five to eight leaves and you can see roots at the drainage holes, it’s time to move them up a pot size.
- Be sure to harden off seedlings about 10 days before transplanting outdoors, as peppers are very sensitive to cool temperatures.
How to Plant Peppers Outdoors
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The best pepper plants to buy have straight stems, 4-6 leaves, and no blooms or fruit. You can harden them off by setting them outdoors a week or more after the last frost date, or when the average daily temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Before transplanting in the garden, mix aged manure and/or compost into the soil about 8 to 10 inches deep and rake it several times to break up the large clods.
- Put transplants into the ground once the soil temperature has reached 65°F (18°C). Speed up the warming of the soil by covering it with black plastic or a dark mulch about a week before you intend to plant.
- It is best to transplant peppers in the evening or on a cloudy day. This will keep the plants from drying too much and wilting.
- Make the transplant holes 3 to 4 inches deep and 12 to 18 inches apart in the row. Space the rows 2 to 3 feet apart. Before planting, fill the holes with water and let it soak in. Into each planting hole, put two or three wooden matchsticks (for sulfur) and 1 teaspoon of low-nitrogen, high-phosphorus fertilizer (too much nitrogen will reduce fruit set).
- When pulling the transplant out of its tray or pot, be gentle and leave as much soil as possible around the roots. Set the transplants about one inch deeper than they were in their original container. Fill the hole with soil and pack it loosely around the plant. Leave a slightly sunken area around each plant to hold water.
- Water the plants after planting.
- Using liquid fertilizer material (manure tea or starter fertilizer) is usually beneficial at this time.
- Stake now to avoid disturbing the roots later. If necessary, support plants with cages or stakes to prevent bending. Try commercially available cone-shaped wire tomato cages. They may not be ideal for tomatoes, but they are just the thing for peppers. Or, build your own garden supports.
Common Pepper Pests & Diseases
Although pepper plants are not as susceptible to pests and diseases as other plants in the edible garden, they can still have problems.
Fruitworms, hornworms, and armyworms bore into fruits on pepper plants. To control them, handpick eggs on stems, leaves and fruit, and pick off any caterpillars. You can also use Bt, an organic control that is safe around humans and pets. Just be sure not to apply it around butterfly larvae host plants.
Aphids are insects that suck the juice out of plants and can spread diseases. They excrete a sticky substance called honeydew, which attracts ants and other insects. To get rid of them, knock them off plants with a sharp stream of water.
Whiteflies are similar to aphids in that they feed by sucking sap from plants and produce honeydew. They are naturally controlled by wasps, but peppers can also be treated with insecticidal soap.
GROWING PEPPERS
- Water regularly with 1 to 2 inches of water per week. This doesn’t mean shallow watering; peppers like a good dousing but should be left to almost dry out between waterings; they need that period of relative dry. Slow, deep watering helps the root system grow strong. Do not let pepper plants wilt because this will reduce yield and quality of the fruit. Inconsistent watering also makes pepper susceptible to blossom-end rot.
- In a warm or desert climate, or at the height of summer, you may need to water every day. Note that in desert regions at around 4,000 feet of elevation, sweet bell peppers often fail to develop a thick, fleshy wall.
- Peppers are extremely heat sensitive. Blossoms may drop if plants are stressed—if it’s too hot (above 85° to 90°F in daytime) or cold (below 60°F at night) or water is inadequate. Use shade cloth or row covers to avoid heat stress or sunscald (exposure to direct rays of the sun during hot weather which will cause peppers to get papery, blister, or get papery).
- Mulch to maintain moisture and deter weeds.
- Weed carefully around plants to avoid disturbing roots.
- Contrary to popular belief, spraying pepper plants with epsom salts isn’t beneficial. Read more about epsom salts here.
Harvesting PEPPERS
The text states that it is important to take note of the ideal color a pepper should be at harvest time, as picking it at the wrong time may result in it not tasting as good.
To avoid damaging the plant, use a sharp knife or pruning shears to cut just above where the stem meets the fruit when harvesting.
If you don’t wash your peppers, they can last in the fridge for a week or two. You can also dry them out in a dehydrator or oven, which makes them last longer.
What are the things that you do that help you to grow peppers successfully? Please tell us about them by writing in the comments section below.
