Growing Peppers

How to Grow Sweet, Bell & Hot Peppers

Growing peppers. How to grow sweet, bell and hot peppers. Ornamental pepper plant. Pepper growing tips. Grow peppers in containers.



Growing peppers, mixed bells.

If you want to stay lean--grow green! Peppers that is!

When you grow green peppers you are raising vitamins on a bush. Not only are sweet and hot peppers richer in vitamin C than oranges, they are also lower in calories.

Health Benefits of Bell Peppers

One large green pepper contains approximately 287 mg of potassium but just 5 mg of sodium making it the ideal snack food for people with high blood pressure.

Orange, purple, yellow and red bell peppers bring all of the above to the dinner table plus a multiplicity of antioxidants. Growing bell peppers will make all of this nutrition available to you at a cost of just 33 calories per fruit.

Pepper Growing Tips

The following tips for growing peppers will have you growing pepper plants which produce larger and more intensely flavored fruit in short order.

Growing Peppers from Seed

Pepper seeds are slow to germinate so be sure to start them at least 6-8 weeks before the weather warms up.

Peppers grow and fruit best in warm weather. Even a light frost can kill them so make sure you wait long enough before setting the seedlings out into the garden.

When planting pepper plants, set them into the soil just deep enough to cover any visible roots. Do not plant their stems as you might with tomatoes.

How to Grow Red Peppers

First, select the types of peppers that turn red (as opposed to gold or purple) when ripe. California Wonder sweet bell peppers are a fine example of a red pepper plant though there are many others just as good.

Then, leave the peppers on the plant until they turn red. This is a much longer wait than you will have if you simply pick them at the green (immature) stage.

It is best from a production standpoint, to pick the peppers green early in the season and only let them ripen fully as fall sets in. This is because allowing the fruit to ripen tends to stop the plants from blooming and setting more fruit.

How to Grow Hotter Peppers

Hot temperatures and bright sunlight are how to grow chili peppers that sizzle.

In general, the longer a hot pepper remains on the plant, the more capsaicin it will manufacture.

To a point.

You can't turn a jalapeno into a habanaro just by leaving it on the bush for a few more days.

Each of the types of hot peppers falls into a range on the Scoville Heat Scale. All you can do is try to push the variety you are growing to the outer limits of its range. It simply isn't possible to push a pepper plant beyond this genetic limit.

Hot peppers growing in cool climates with short summers will tend to be milder than the same pepper growing in Arizona or Southern California where the summers are as fiery as you want your chilis to be.

For similar reasons, growing chili peppers in a shady location will result in a milder harvest.

Growing Bell Peppers in Containers

When growing peppers in pots, be sure to plant them in a high quality potting mix. Never use garden soil as it can contain pathogens which will send your pepper plants into a quick decline.

Mix a little organic compost and some slow release fertilizer pellets into the potting soil before you set the plant in.

Keep the soil moist, but not wet, and give the growing sweet bell peppers a shot of liquid fertilizer once a month.

Pepper varieties which produce small to medium sized fruit make better container gardening peppers than large fruited types.

Burpee.com - $15 off purchases of $75 or more HP Banner

Bell Pepper Plant

Bell pepper plant varieties. Purple and orange bell peppers. California Wonder pepper bell. Blushing Beauty and Chocolate Beauty sweet bell pepper plants. Bell pepper seeds.

Growing Bell Peppers

Growing bell peppers. How to grow sweet bell pepper plants. Container gardening bell peppers. Planting green bell peppers.

Growing Hot Peppers

Growing hot peppers. How to grow Capsicum annuum pepper plants (often misspelled annum). Growing cayenne peppers . Red pepper plant care. Hot pepper seeds.

5 Hot Pepper Plants for Containers

5 hot pepper plants for container gardens. Growing hot peppers in pots. Ornamental pepper plants and 5 other hot pepper varieties.

Ornamental Pepper Plant

Ornamental pepper plant. Growing ornamental chile peppers (also spelled chili). Ornamental pepper seeds. Edible ornamental peppers.




Go from Growing Peppers to Plant Guides Home Page