After tomatoes, the pepper is the most popular vegetable grown in most home gardens (although it’s technically a fruit). Every gardener seems to have a favorite, whether it’s mild, hot, incredibly hot, sweet, yellow, red, purple, brown, or just a traditional green bell. There are hundreds of varieties of sweet peppers, mild peppers, and hot peppers to grow in your garden and a pepper for every culinary use.
But sweet peppers and hot peppers can be much fussier to grow than tomatoes. Even though the two are frequently grown together, slight changes in your local weather or rainfall can have a significant impact on your pepper plants – anything from slowing their growth to killing them – while your tomatoes may continue to thrive.
To what part of the world are peppers native?
Peppers are native to Mexico, Central America, and South America, which will give you a clue in creating conditions favorable for their growth. Plants native to that part of the world thrive on lots of sunlight, very warm temperatures, and dry air. Not much has changed from the pepper plant’s perspective in spite of hundreds of years of breeding and cross-breeding by humans.
The misleading name “pepper” (pimiento in Spanish) was given by Christopher Columbus upon bringing the plant back to Europe. At that time peppercorns, the fruit of Piper nigrum, an unrelated plant originating from India, were a highly prized condiment; the name “pepper” was at that time applied in Europe to all known spices with a hot and pungent taste and so naturally extended to the newly discovered Capsicum genus. The most commonly used alternative name of the plant family, “chili”, is of Central American origin. Bell peppers are botanically fruits, but are generally considered in culinary contexts to be vegetables.
Wikipedia
How to start peppers from seed.
Pepper plants bought at a nursery will sometimes mysteriously wither and die a few weeks after you transplant them to your garden. Assuming they are disease-free, the culprit could be the change in weather conditions, light exposure, soil pH, moisture, or nutrient levels (fertilization). The best way to ensure success for your sweet peppers and hot peppers is to start them from seed indoors about 8 weeks before the last frost in your area. Many seed packages will recommend a seed starting start date 4-6 weeks before your last frost, but I’ve found that 8 weeks indoors makes the plants hardier and able to withstand most of what your local weather conditions may throw at them.
Peppers do best when they get off to a quick start, so keep the soil in the starter pots as warm as possible with a heat mat to ensure quick seed germination. When the seeds germinate, remove the pots from the heat mat. Read how to start seeds indoors.
How to plant peppers.
Harden off pepper seedlings before transplanting them.
One week before planting, it’s essential that you harden off pepper seedlings. Transplanting them directly to your garden from under your grow lights, window sill, or the plant nursery can cause transplant shock which may be lethal to the plant. They’ve been indoors in very controlled, consistently warm, windless conditions and now they’re subject to swings in temperature, wind, moisture, rain, and new soil.
To harden off sweet peppers and hot peppers, leave them on your porch or other sheltered outdoor space for at least one week, avoiding direct sunlight until two or three days before transplanting. Don’t feed the plants during this time and reduce the amount of water they’ve been used to. Keep the soil in the pots moist, but not saturated.
When to plant peppers
Plant the pepper seedlings when nighttime temperatures are consistently over 60 degrees (15.5 Celsius) – usually 2-3 weeks after your last frost date. Plant sweet peppers and hot peppers in a location that gets full sun all day. If that’s impossible, pick a location that gets sun in the morning until at least mid-afternoon (some late afternoon shade can actually be beneficial).
Create a hole at least twice as wide as the roots and set the plant just a little deeper in the hole than it was in the pot. Backfill with soil and load the area around the roots with compost. Remove any flower buds at this time, as the immature plant won’t be able to hold the peppers. This will also encourage the plant to send out deeper roots and produce more flowers, which means a bigger, healthier plant with lots of peppers.
Space your pepper plants at least twelve inches apart (depending on their mature size) and mulch around the roots to stabilize the soil temperature. Add additional compost around each plant’s root zone (but not touching the stem) every four weeks. Little else in the way of nutrients is needed, but if necessary, give them a feeding once a month of liquid fish emulsion to give them a boost. Be careful with fertilization because too much nitrogen will create spindly, leafy growth and a plant unable to support the fruit. After planting, pinch off the first flowers (I know it’s difficult, but it should be done). This encourages deeper root growth, earlier fruit production, and a healthier plant.
Don’t plant peppers too early.
Peppers need warm soil and air temperatures to thrive and you’ll notice almost immediately if they’re unhappy in the garden. Sweet peppers and hot peppers which seem to stop growing or begin to wilt are many times responding to air and soil temps which are too cool. Peppers grow best when daytime temps are in the 80-85 degree range and nighttime temps are around the 70-degree F mark. Frost is an absolute killer for them. If you experience an unexpectedly cool early season, cover the peppers with milk jugs to keep them warm until temperatures rise. Floating row covers are a good option, too. The warmer you keep the plants at night, the healthier they’ll be.
If you live in Northern latitudes with late-to-rise soil temps, try covering your garden bed with black garden mulch for one week prior to transplanting. The black plastic will seal in the heat and warm the soil about ten degrees. If you want to leave it in place, cut a hole in the plastic before planting each pepper.
Companion plants for peppers.
Peppers grow well with other plants and like the company of carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs like parsley and basil. See a list of companion plants for peppers here.
How often to water peppers.
Peppers don’t need loads of water, so give them one deep watering in the absence of rainfall each week (one inch). Too much water increases the chance of fungal infection and too little water may result in bitter fruit. Water the roots, not the foliage – this is really important as many fungal diseases of peppers and tomatoes are encouraged by wet foliage. Mulching the root zone helps retain moisture in dry weather.
Diseases of sweet peppers and hot peppers.
Most diseases of peppers are bacterial or fungal, usually caused by too much moisture and consistently wet foliage and fruit. It can also be caused by the previous year’s infected crop, as bacteria and fungi frequently overwinter in the soil. Crop rotation reduces the chance for infection, but don’t follow tomatoes with peppers as they are vulnerable to many of the same diseases. If you have consistent problems with these diseases, grow resistant varieties (symbols indicating resistance are on plant tags and seed catalogs).
The most common diseases of peppers (click links for images).
- Anthracnose infection appears on fruit as soft, dark watery spots.
- Bacterial spot appears as yellowish, green raised spots on young leaves and dark spots with light-colored centers on older leaves and fruit.
- Early blight appears as dark spots on leaves, stems, and/or fruit, eventually killing the plant.
- Verticillium wilt appears as discoloration on lower leaves first and moves up through the plant.
- Mosaic Virus appears as dark and light splotches on the leaves of young plants. Later, they curl and wrinkle and the fruit becomes bitter.
If you spot any of these diseases, remove all infected leaves, stems, and fruit immediately and dispose – do not compost.
Buy on Amazon: Fiskars Garden Snips, Black/OrangeHarvesting sweet peppers and hot peppers.
All peppers first appear on the plant as green peppers. As they mature, they take on the characteristics of the mature fruit: sweet, hot, mild, red, yellow, orange, brown, purple, etc. They can be eaten anytime after they appear to be full size, but the sugars and heat don’t enter the fruit significantly until they take on the mature size and color, at least 8 weeks after transplanting. It’s actually a good idea to harvest some of the peppers early, as it will signal the plant to produce more fruit.
I’ve learned the hard way that one should use a snip scissors or harvest knife to cut the peppers from the plant, instead of trying to snap them off. When I’m impatient or lazy about this, I’ve ended up with half the plant in my hand and immature peppers lost. The plant stems are remarkably easy to break, considering the weight of the fruit.
Green, immature peppers can be set next to apples to ripen indoors. Because peppers are fruit, the ethylene gas that ripe apples give off triggers the peppers to set color and sugar.
How to save pepper seeds
If you’re saving pepper seeds, save the seeds from the first mature pepper that grows to perfection. This will be the seed best adapted to your climate and soil. Saving pepper seeds is incredibly easy. Just take out the core of the pepper, separate the seeds and let them dry on a white paper towel for a few days. Then mark a plain white envelope with the type of pepper you took the seeds from and the date and year you harvested it. Place the seeds in the envelope and put the envelope into an airtight glass jar (like a canning jar). Store in the refrigerator until next spring, as pepper seeds remain viable for up to three years. Learn how to save seeds from your garden.
We garden in Pennsylvania, United States, zone 6B. Much of the info we share is based on gardening in our temperate area. But many of the flowers, vegetables, and fruit we write about can be grown in soil other than ours (clay) and significantly different weather conditions and elevations. You might need to choose specific varieties for your region, modify your garden, add soil amendments, or adjust the soil pH to match our results. Please check your local university extension website for specifics for your area.
Hi I live in Chicago, IL. I have problem with my pepper plants ( bell pepper, Thai chilly )
The plants were producing flowers and it turns into young fruit. After it turns into young the baby fruit it turns into yellow and it drops down and after a period of time it stops producing flowers .
I see no disease in the leaves or stem . It is planted with tomatoes and broccoli and has well spacing and in the raised bed garden .
Sasi:
First, have you been experiencing unusual heat? When temperatures climb into the 90’s for a prolonged period, it can cause flowers and fruit to fall. Once the weather cools down, the plant returns to normal (assuming it survives the heat). The 2nd possibility may be that the temperatures at night drop below 55 degrees for a prolonged period, or above 75 degrees at night. Plants are especially vulnerable during pollination early in the season.
If weather is not the cause, you may have used or may be using too much fertilizer. When peppers and tomatoes receive too much nitrogen, you get a plant with enormous leafy growth which flowers, but doesn’t contain enough potassium or phosphorous to support fruit growth. The last cause may be that you’re overwatering your plants. They can only utilize about 1 inch per week, so if it rains, don’t water for 7 days.
Good morning I live in Orlando FL. And I have lots of plants of chile Habanero or Habanero pepper, 10 plants have some spots like cotton spores or something like that. What can I use to eliminate this problem?
Hector:
Without seeing the plants, I can only guess. Most likely you have a fungal infection such as powdery mildew. Most fungal infections can be treated with a solution of copper diluted in water. See this article.
Florida, due to its humidity, is ground zero for fungal infections, so you have to be vigilant about creating conditions to reduce the plant’s susceptibility. When planting, space them far enough apart that they receive sufficient airflow so that foliage dries quickly after rain. Choose varieties resistant to fungal diseases. When watering, water only the root zone, not the foliage. Also prune out discolored or infected foliage as soon as it’s discovered, bag it and trash it.
I can’t stop reading your Blog :). I wish I found you earlier in the season. I have been gardening for some time but I think I take on too many gardening projects at the same time…because I LOVE it all so much. I like that I am being reminded on here how to keep my garden in “check”…thank you!
The terms “bell pepper”, “pepper” or in Australia and New Zealand “capsicum”, are often used for any of the large bell shaped fruits, regardless of their color. In British English, the fruit is simply referred to as a “pepper”, or additionally by color (as in the term “green pepper”, for example), whereas in many Commonwealth of Nations countries, such as India, Canada, and Malaysia, they are called “bell peppers”.^