Garden Corner - Pepper - Growing Tips

Peppers, especially hot pepper plants with their colorful fruits, are ideal for spot planting around a garden, providing contrast in flowerbeds, or brightening a container garden.

To prevent cross-pollination, sweet or bell pepper plants should not be planted near hot pepper plants.

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Keeping the soil in which your peppers grow weed-free, aerated and enriched with composted matter will encourage a healthy root structure, lush foliage and delicious peppers.
The rule of thumb is: Healthy Garden = Healthy Peppers.

Growing Tips

Soil
Go with 1/3 good garden soil (don't go with clay soil as it compacts badly). Add egg shells add calcium to the soil, and snails and slugs don't like crawling over them.Coffee grounds and tealeaves add nitrogen.Banana peels (chopped up) add potassium.
Fish scraps add nitrogen and phosphorous. Keeping the soil in which your peppers grow weed-free, aerated and enriched with composted matter will encourage a healthy root structure, lush foliage and delicious peppers. The rule of thumb is: Healthy Garden = Healthy Peppers. , 1/3 vermiculite or similar growing medium, and 1/3 sand. Hot pepper plants love sand as many varieties originate in areas with sandy soil. Also it provides excellent drainage. Mix all 3 ingredients together very well.

Containers
Plastic gro-packs for 6 to 12 plants, peat pellets or peat pots are best. Gro packs are especially good because you can cover tightly with "cling-wrap" after first watering and create a little "hothouse" environment. The soil stays moist longer at a higher temperature. Just remove cling-wrap when seedlings emerge. Put your soil/seedling mix into containers. Don't fill to exact top but leave at least 1/4 inch for watering or it will run off.

Location
Find a good and warm sunny windowsill. Seedlings prefer at least 6 hours of sunlight, the more the better. Hot pepper seeds need to be coaxed through the germination and transplant stages. Remember they all originated from a tropical environment. But keep in mind you'll be rewarded with a healthy, robust, prolific plant for your patience. Some varieties can be finicky to germinate. Try soaking seeds overnight in warm water to give them a head start. Then sow seeds 1/4 inch deep 6 to 10 weeks before the last frost. Keep seeds moist, but not soaked, through germination phase. They germinate best above 65 degrees. Ideal is 75 to 85 degrees. Because most homes are not this warm, another tip is to place them on top of your refrigerator until seedlings emerge. It stays pretty warm there. Don't forget the cling-wrap tip in a sunny windowsill. Again, be patient, some varieties can take 4 to 6 weeks to germinate. Others can show up in 7 to 10 days. It depends on temperature, sunlight, soil and variety. As they develop their first set of leaves snip off with a scissors the weakest one. As they develop their second set of leaves snip off all but the healthiest one. If any variety starts to grow tall and too "leggy", open the window just a little bit to shock the plant with cooler air. This will slow down its growth and make its stem thicker and more conducive to transplant. Once you have healthy seedlings you're ready for the transplant and growing stage, then the harvesting stage.

Chili peppers like an acidic soil: 5.0-6.0 pH

You can grow peppers successfully from seed by planting seeds in sterile seedling mix indoors, with accessory heat and light. After six to eight weeks, after all danger of frost is past, plant "hardened off" plants (they have been acclimatized to outside weather) into your garden - between mid-May and mid-June in most regions of the state.

Keep peppers well-watered and protect from excessive wind and sun. Pinch off any premature blossoms or fruit that may have developed before transplanting.

For the best yeild try picking the first set of Peppers when they are green, then let the next set ripen to their mature color and size. This can trick the plant into thinking it's producing too little fruit, causing it to produce more.

Here are some simple items from your kitchen that will help keep your pepper plants healthy, whether you're growing peppers in a planter or garden bed:

Crushed egg shells add calcium to the soil, and snails and slugs don't like crawling over them.

Used coffee grounds and tea leaves add nitrogen.

Banana peels (chopped up) add potassium.

Blended fish scraps add nitrogen and phosphorous.

If night temperatures in your area stay cool in the summer, the following techniques will help coax peppers into ripe fruit before the first frost:

Cover the soil around the plants with black plastic to help the sun warm the soil.

Grow peppers under cover for the first few weeks. Surround each pepper plant with a round wire cage wrapped in clear plastic, to form a miniature heat-storing greenhouse. The cage should be about two feet tall. Leave the top open.

Later on, in about July, when the plants are good sized, remove the cloche cover or plastic from the wire frame.