Whether you garden on an acre or a balcony, there’s always room for peppers. Grow them in a vegetable garden, container, or with your flowers. The colorful fruit of many varieties makes them a decorative addition to any garden.
For those that like it hot, get to know the Scoville scale. This system rates the relative hotness of peppers with bell peppers rating 0, jalapeno at 2,500 to 5,000, cayenne rated 30,000 to 50,000, and habanero receiving the superhot 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). This scale can help you determine which hot pepper is best for you. For those who like really hot peppers, the Ghost pepper averages about 1 million SHU, Carolina Reaper averages 1.6 million SHU and Pepper X measures 2.7 million SHU.
Whether you grow sweet or hot peppers, proper care from planting to harvest will yield the best flavor and an abundant harvest. Grow peppers in a sunny location with moist, well-drained soil. Add several inches of organic matter into the top 8 to 12” of soil, if gardening in poorly drained clay soil or fast draining sandy or rocky soils. This compost improves drainage and increases the water holding ability of fast draining soils. This is also a good time to add a low nitrogen, slow-release fertilizer.
Peppers, like its cousins, tomatoes and eggplants, like it warm. Wait for the soil to warm to 60° degrees, about two weeks after the last spring frost. Colder temperatures in the 40’s can stunt and damage your transplants.
You can jump start the season with the help of cloches, wall-o-waters, and floating row covers. These protect your plants from frost and cooler temperatures, which are often common at the start of the season. Use them to keep plants warm and help shorten the time to harvest.
Plant peppers 18 to 20 inches apart depending on the variety. Check the tag for mature size and recommended spacing. Make the most of your available space by planting in wide rows. Stagger rows within the bed, allowing just enough room for plants to reach their full size. Design pathways to allow for easy access to all the plants within the wide row.
Grow a few peppers in containers alone or mix them with herbs and flowers. A 2-to-3-gallon pot is perfect for a pepper plant and its smaller companions. Check the soil moisture daily and water thoroughly when the top inch of soil is dry.
Make sure pepper plants growing in the ground receive about an inch of water each week. Supplement rainfall as needed, applying water to the soil surface using a watering wand, soaker hose or drip irrigation. Spread a layer of shredded leaves, evergreen needles or other organic material over the soil surface to conserve moisture, keep roots cool as temperatures soar, and help suppress weeds.
Once the fruit forms, you may need to add fertilizer. Let the plants’ growth and fertilizer directions be your guide.
Peppers grow and produce best when day temperatures are 70 to 80 degrees and night temperatures are 60 to 70 degrees. Hot peppers seem to tolerate the heat better than sweet varieties. Cold, heat, and drought are the most common causes of blossom drop, misshapen fruit, and a poor harvest. Night temperatures over 90 degrees and under 55 degrees can cause blossoms to drop. Continue providing proper care and wait for better weather for flowering and fruiting.
With proper care throughout the season and a bit of cooperation from the weather, you are sure to enjoy an abundant harvest.
Melinda Myers has written over 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, Revised Edition, and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.