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Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Bell Peppers (Sweet Peppers)
Planting
Grow peppers in a space with full sun and well-draining, moist (but not wet) soil. Plant peppers in a spot where they will get at least six hours of direct sunshine every day. A balance between sandy and loamy soil will ensure the soil drains well and warms quickly. Mix large amounts of organic matter (such as compost) into the soil, especially when working with heavy clay.
Avoid planting peppers in places where you’ve recently grown other nightshade family members—such as tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants—as this can expose peppers to disease.
When to Plant Peppers
- To start peppers indoors in pots, sow seeds 8 to 10 weeks before your last spring frost date.
- Plant pepper starts or transplants outdoors about 2 to 3 weeks after the threat of frost has passed and the soil has reached 65°F (18°C).
How to Start Peppers Indoors
- To start indoors: Start pepper seeds 1/4 of an inch deep, three to a pot filled with potting mix. For faster germination, maintain soil at 70°F (21°C) or above. To achieve these sorts of temperatures, you’ll probably need a heated propagator or heat mat and some grow lights.
- Ideal conditions should see seedlings appear within about two weeks, but some varieties take as long as five weeks, so don’t give up on them too soon! Thin out the weakest seedling; let the remaining two pepper plants in each pot grow as one. The leaves of two plants help to protect the peppers.
- If seedlings become leggy or too tall before it’s time to plant outside, replant them in a bigger pot up to their lowest leaves, just like tomatoes, to help support them. Keep seedlings warm with plenty of light until you’re ready to plant. If the plants have around five to eight leaves and you can see roots at the drainage holes, it’s time to move them up a pot size.
- Be sure to harden off the seedlings about 10 days before transplanting outdoors, as peppers are very sensitive to cool temperatures. Before planting peppers outdoors, acclimatize plants to outdoor conditions by placing them in a sheltered spot outside for gradually increasing periods over two weeks. Take care to avoid frosts. Plant out only after your last expected frost date has passed.
How to Plant Peppers Outdoors
- If you’re buying pepper starts, choose ones with straight, sturdy stems, 4 to 6 leaves, and no blooms or fruit. To harden off pepper plants, set plants outdoors a week or more after the frost-free date or when the average daily temperature reaches 65°F (18°C).
- Before transplanting in the garden, mix aged manure and/or compost into the soil about 8 to 10 inches deep and rake it several times to break up the large clods.
- Put transplants into the ground once the soil temperature has reached 65°F (18°C). Speed up the warming of the soil by covering it with black plastic or a dark mulch about a week before you intend to plant.
- It is best to transplant peppers in the evening or on a cloudy day. This will keep the plants from drying too much and wilting.
- Make the transplant holes 3 to 4 inches deep and 12 to 18 inches apart in the row. Space the rows 2 to 3 feet apart. Before planting, fill the holes with water and let it soak in. Into each planting hole, put two or three wooden matchsticks (for sulfur) and 1 teaspoon of low-nitrogen, high-phosphorus fertilizer (too much nitrogen will reduce the fruit set).
- When pulling the transplant out of its tray or pot, be gentle and leave as much soil as possible around the roots. Set the transplants about one inch deeper than they were in their original container. Fill the hole with soil and pack it loosely around the plant. Leave a slightly sunken area around each plant to hold water.
- Water the plants after planting.
- Using liquid fertilizer material (manure tea or starter fertilizer) is usually beneficial at this time.
- Stake now to avoid disturbing the roots later. If necessary, support plants with cages or stakes to prevent bending. Try commercially available cone-shaped wire tomato cages. They may not be ideal for tomatoes, but they are just the thing for peppers. Or, build your own garden supports.
Check out this video to learn how to plant bell peppers:
Types
Look for varieties that ripen to their full color quickly; fully mature peppers are the most nutritious—and tastier, too!
- Green peppers that turn Red: ‘Lady Bell’, ‘Gypsy’, ‘Bell Boy’, ‘Lipstick’
- …Orange: ‘Milena’, ‘Orange Sun’
- …Yellow: ‘Golden California Wonder’
Harvesting
- Once the plants begin producing fruits, pick them promptly: the moment they have reached their full size and color. Regular picking encourages plants to produce more flowers and, of course, more fruits.
- That said, the longer bell peppers stay on the plant, the sweeter they become and the greater their vitamin C content.
- Snip the stems of fruits with a sharp pair of clean pruners, scissors, or a sharp knife.
How to Store Peppers
- Peppers can be refrigerated in plastic bags for up to 10 days after harvesting.
- Bell peppers can be frozen for later use. See how to freeze peppers.
- Peppers can also be dried. Preheat oven to 140°F. Wash, core, and seed. Cut into 1/2-inch strips. Steam for about 10 minutes, then spread on a baking sheet. Dry in oven for 4 to 6 hours; turn occasionally and switch tray positions. Cool, then store in bags or containers in a refrigerator.
Cooking Notes
Peppers are excellent with almost anything: sandwiches, scrambled eggs, pizza, salads, and dips.
We also enjoy cooking peppers, whether beef stir-fry, smoky roasted peppers, or meat and rice stuffed peppers.
Plus, peppers can be pickled! See how to make pickled peppers!
Catherine Boeckmann
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Hi, and thank you for your article. I have been gardening for decades and truly enjoy it. Growing peppers has always been a staple. This year however, weird things happened to them. 1: a couple plants never produced, but got dozens of tiny leaves where the blossoms would be. No fruit. 2: a brown film like a paper bag got wet and dried in them. Can be scrubbed off but 20% would remain in the creases of the fruit. 3: recently we went to harvest a few from the healthy plants (we did get a dozen or so from unaffected plants), and the recent fruits (8/26) were soggy and like mush. Never had any of these issues before, any ideas? Thanks again for your article and insight.
My pepper plants are always leggy. They are grown in a greenhouse as I live in Northern B.C, they get loads of flowers but don't set much fruit. Any suggestions?
Leggy is usually caused from low-light. Too much nitrogen can cause pepper plants to become very green and lush but not produce fruit. Solution: To figure out where your soil is at, you can get a soil testing kit to show the pH balance of your soil, as well as fertilizers for any nutrient deficiencies that the soil may have.
Legginess can be caused by a few things, such as not enough light. Are the plants all leaning toward a certain direction from which the most sunlight comes? If so, that might be the cause; in which case you might consider supplemental lighting. Also make sure that the plants are not overcrowded.
Avoid giving too much nitrogen, which can cause legginess and lots of vegetative growth vs. flowers; the fact that you do have flowers, though, suggests that this is not the issue.
Sometimes a little too much warmth, such as from a heat mat, can cause leggy seedlings; if you suspect this might be the case, be sure to provide enough airflow. This can also help the lack of fruit issue: Even though peppers self-pollinate, it can help to stir the air a bit with a gentle breeze from a fan, or to brush your hand across the plants gently (which can also help legginess). Or, if you don’t have a lot of plants, you can try hand pollination.
Too high or low temperature can also deter fruiting; when peppers bloom, try to keep the temperature inside the greenhouse below 85F in the day (hot peppers can tolerate higher temps) and above 60F at night.
Hope this helps!
I soaked some pepper seeds, from the red, Yellow and orange peppers I bought from the grocery store. I let them soak a couple of days, and planted them in little TP pots. To my amazement, they all sprouted. But Now, after 2 months in those pots, they will not grow a second set of leaves. I have them in a light filled window and gets full sun at the end of the day for a couple of hours, and my home is kept at 78 degrees. I am letting them dry out between watering. There are probably about 10 or 20 plants in each pot. Why won't the sprout more leaves?
Hi Kitty,
It sounds like there might be a couple issues keeping your pepper plants from thriving. First is that peppers need a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of direct sun per day, so you should put them in a spot that gets more direct sun, either inside or outdoors now that the weather has warmed. Another thing is the amount of plants per container. Peppers need plenty of room to grow and enough space around them for adequate airflow. That many plants per pot, no matter the size, is too many. Most recommend only one plant per pot to ensure proper growing conditions, so your plants would likely do much better being moved to their own pots or just a couple plants in larger containers.
I'm trying indoor seeds for the first time. I understand pepper seeds and seedlings love it hot. My house stays at 62. I use a heating mat, but it says it only heats to 10 degrees higher than the room. Should I double up on the heating mat? I have two.
Hi, Nicole, Doubling heating mats, thereby putting a lot of heat on the bottom, is not necessarily a solution. Instead, use the one heating mat and tent your seedlings to that they have a bit of greenhouse effect. Don’t seal them off entirely but, for ex., cover them loosely in a plastic bag. We hope this helps!
I would appreciate further information on how to prune and keep peppers as a perennial plant.
My Grandpa used to water his tomatoes and his peppers with a 5 gallon bucket of water with a couple TBS of epsom salts. Only on transplant....and he had the most magnificent crops ever. I have a friend who does this w/her container gardening every year...and holy wha..the tomatoes are AMAZING.
He'd also grow clover instead every couple of years..he'd move crops around and the areas that didn't get "plants"...got clover. His gardens were magnificent.
