"Growing peppers
hot and sweet!"

Growing peppers is ideal in a small space or where space is limited. They are a great family crop and the children will love them! Sweet peppers and hot spicy peppers come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours.

Pepper plants are kind of 'cute' plants! They grow into miniature bushes with glorious coloured fruits sprinkled over them.

If you are buying plants rather than growing peppers from seed, buy the plants from a good supplier and make sure the foliage is deep green and the plants look strong and healthy.

Don't plant your peppers in soil that grew potatoes or tomatoes the previous year. They belong to the same plant family and could pick up diseases in the soil.

To avoid cross-pollination, keep sweet peppers and hot peppers away from each other!

Peppers like the morning sun but long periods in direct hot sunlight will damage the foliage. You could also be growing peppers in containers on patios near the house.

Peppers are originally a tropical plant and like to grow in warm soil. The soil should be well drained and your pepper plants should be planted in late spring when the soil has significantly warmed up.

Growing peppers from seed:

I've always grown peppers from seed and never found it a chore. Thompson & Morgan (UK) have a broad range of peppers available online.

Sweet Peppers:

"Mini bell""Jumbo""Summer Salad"

Growing peppers in the UK Type 'peppers' into the search box for their full range.

If you're growing peppers in the US, try Gurney's

Sweet Peppers:

"Banana""Bellboy""Minibells"

Gurney's UK Again, type 'peppers' into the search box for their full range.


Hot Peppers:

"Basket of fire""Pyramid""Mixture"

Here are the 'hotlinks' to the hot pepper pages:

Growing peppers in the UK Type 'peppers' into the search box for their full range.

Hot Peppers:

"Habanero""Hot mix""Carnivale"

Gurney's UK Again, if you're growing peppers in the US, type 'peppers' into the search box for their full range.

Start growing peppers from seed fairly late in the spring. Although it's tempting to get them going early, I've always found the small plants' growth was restricted by cold temperatures and although those plants may well reach full maturity, they don't tend to produce so much fruit. So wait a little while!

Sow seed in shallow trays of seed compost and keep moist. Make sure trays are well-drained. Don't allow the roots of the new pepper plants to sit in water.

When the plants are a few inches (7-8cms) tall and have 3 or 4 true leaves, re-pot them into separate containers ready for planting out later in the garden. Ordinary flower pots or any plastic pots will do, as long as they drain well. There are a number of pots on the market you can buy these days that are planted along with the plant it contains. These pots decompose naturally, and also let you handle the plants without fear of damaging the roots.Your local garden centre will probably have some. Or make your own!

Making pots in the UK

Paper PotMaker - Amazon US

Once you've re-potted your pepper plants, keep warm and watered and wait for the best day to plant outside. Check your local growing guides and regional zones for exact timings, asking other local gardeners will give you a good idea. Mostly use your own instinct. It's your garden, live with nature for a while and you'll soon 'just know' when the time is right!

Lots of gardeners believe you should plant out during the days when the moon starts to wane.

The gravitational downward pull helps to establish a good root structure. Sounds good :-)

Prepare your soil and remove all weeds. Plant the pepper plants about 12 inches (30cm) apart. Check on your seed packet for any special instructions.

Peppers generally grow in tight little bushes and you can dot them around in the garden rather than planting out in lines if you prefer.

Water in well, and keep weed-free and watered during the growing period. Once the little bushes have grown they don't suffer very much with weeds. The foliage protects the soil around them from alien plants.

Slugs like young plants in general and you should keep an eye on possible slug attacks during the early weeks. Broken eggshells around plants help keep slugs away.

Peppers don't like lengthy periods of extreme heat and you should shade your plants if weather conditions are extreme.

Water well but don't allow soil to become boggy.

Keep weed and slug-free in the early weeks and you will be rewarded with an abundant crop of peppers!

If your soil is 'tired' or lacking in minerals, feed the plants, after they've been in the ground for a couple of weeks, with an organic fertilizer. Try comfrey; spread the leaves around the plants from time to time during the growing season. Or if you like the idea of producing your own FREE organic fertilizer, read about 'The Comfrey Feed' on this page....
Comfrey Feed

It is advisable to wait until your peppers are fully mature on the plant before picking them. However, this means you'll have piles of peppers all at once.

As soon as the peppers are a reasonable size, start eating them. Some varieties may have a slightly softer or even tougher skin during this immature phase, but you will find the ones that suit you.

Twist the tops gently and if the pepper breaks off easily in your hand, it's ripe. If it doesn't but you still want to eat it, use a pair of sharp secateurs to remove it from the plant. You'll do less damage using a sharp tool than twisting and pulling at the fruits.

Chop up into the salad bowl all through the summer months, then collect all the peppers from the plants before the first frosts.

They will store for a couple of weeks in the chilling compartment of the fridge, sometimes much longer, but you will probably have to give lots away!!

Happy Gardening!

Grow Your Own Winter Food: A good diet incorporating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables is a must if you want to stay fit and healthy and keep the bugs at bay during the cold winter months.

Growing your own winter food is just one way of ensuring you get the freshest, tastiest produce packed with goodness straight from the garden to the kitchen table. This easy-to-follow self-sufficiency book shows you how to grow your own fruit and vegetables for winter use and includes facts on each fruit, vegetable or herb as well as nutritional value, recipe ideas and storage suggestions.

Before the days of computer games and electronic pets, children used to have fun without rummaging about in the fridge every five minutes. Enjoy a few rainy-day games and crafts of yesteryear with today’s kids. They’ll love it and so will you! Granny's Book Of Good Old Fashioned Common Sense

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