Hot chili peppers are one of the most fun plants to grow in your garden whether you’re a spicy food fan or not. Their unique fruits are beautiful (and sometimes crazy!) to look at and your harvests can be abundant. But for some people, growing hot chili peppers can be a real challenge. To get the best out of them, you need to provide them with the best conditions for their growth.
If you have a curiosity about growing hot peppers in your garden but don’t know where to start, then this step-by-step beginner’s guide to growing hot chili peppers will help make growing them a whole lot easier and enjoyable.
In this article, we will tell you the step-by-step procedure to grow pepper plants in your garden and the necessary tips to take care of them. Also, we will answer some most commonly asked questions about hot pepper plants.
So without any further ado, let’s begin!
How Long Does It Take For A Chili Pepper Plant To Grow?
Planting hot pepper plants for the first time? Don’t know how long to wait to see your plants bear the peppers? Well, it might not be too long. The pepper plants have a long growing season of approximately 60 to 150 days.
The sweet peppers grow early, but the hot ones take a bit longer.
Step-By-Step Guide
You can grow hot pepper plants using hot pepper seeds by following these steps:
- First, sow the seeds indoors and later place them at an outdoor location.
- Sow seeds in pots or flats 8 to 10 weeks before the expected outdoor planting date.
- Make sure the seeds are one-quarter inches deep.
- Use a heat mat or heating cables to provide heat to them.
- Maintain room temperature and use grow lights to provide them lightly for 16 hours daily.
- When the soil dries, add little water to it. Excessive water should be avoided.
- Make sure to add diluted liquid organic fertilizer to the water once every week.
- After 8 to 10 weeks, look for a fertile and well-drained soil patch in your garden and transfer the plants there.
- Place the plants 12 to 18 inches apart and use a tomato cage as support.
- Keep watering them at regular intervals but make sure that the water is added to the soil and not sprinkled on plants.
- Keep doing these practices for 2 to 3 months or the duration mentioned on the seed packet.
- Now, your hot peppers are all ready to be harvested from the plants. Use gloves to pick them up as a precaution.
What Do You need To Care About A Hot Pepper Plant?
If you’re growing how chili pepper plants in your garden, you need to take good care of them. They don’t require as much attention as say, a newborn child, but still, you need to be cautious about your hot pepper plants.
Below are the things you need to care about:
- Pinch out the tips to encourage the bushy growth of your plant.
- Your plant might need staking if it’s of a tall variety.
- Water your plants regularly.
- Do not expose plants to a cold climate.
How Tall And Big Do Hot Pepper Plants Grow?
Pepper plants, if grown in mild climate areas with proper sunlight during days, can grow healthy and live longer. But what determines the size of the pepper? And how long can it grow? The size of the pepper plant depends on the type of seed.
If you have a big space for bell peppers to grow, plant the taller varieties of seed. They can grow between 20 inches to 6 feet tall. And if your space is not big enough, so for the smaller ones which are on average 6 inches long.
How Long Do Hot Pepper Plants Live?
Most hot pepper plants only last a season in your garden. But if you take care of them, they can last longer than a year.
Keep in mind, that if your pepper plant faces extreme cold winters, it won’t survive. So, if you want to protect it, provide a suitable climate for its growth.
Some of the pepper plants can even last for more than 3 years!
How Long Does It Take For A Pepper Plant To Produce Again?
Whether a hot chili plant will produce again the following season will depend on whether it has survived the winter and is in good condition to bear fruit again. To ensure their survival, you must keep them indoors and save them from extreme cold. If you succeed in protecting it, your plant will start producing again in the next season.
Wrap Up
Hot pepper plants can be a great addition to your garden that allows you to grow many types of pepper. There’s not much variety of hot peppers available in the market. That’s why it is advisable to grow them on your own.
Here, we have told you all you need to know before growing hot peppers. Then, what are you waiting for? Get started today!
Bio: Jason Marston is a chili pepper fanatic. His love for spicy food led him to working with Sonoran Spice where they specialize in the world’s hottest chili peppers and hot sauces. When his not growing chili peppers or eating spicy food, his out hiking or mountain biking.
