peppers in pots

[diane]

A nursery owner in Manitoba recommends growing peppers in pots for a much higher yield than in the ground.

I normally sow peppers in February, plant in the garden in May, dig up before frost, put them in pots and put them
in the greenhouse.

This year I decided to try pots from the beginning - sounds like less work even if it doesn't give me ten times
the crop like she gets in Manitoba.

This year I am growing 30 kinds of Capsicum annuum, 4 C. baccatum, 6 C. chinense, and 3 C. pubescens.

I have three plants per 3 gallon tub. (I think - they are 30 cm across and 24 cm high. or 12 inches by 9 inches)

The differences in growth are astounding.

Most of the annuums look miserable. Maybe one or two peppers per plant, and only a tuft of leaves at the top. Some
haven't even flowered yet.

The other three species have grown vigorously and have lots of fruit. It's not ripe yet, but I've just moved all
of them into the greenhouse as our rains have begun and the temperatures have dropped.

I am most pleased to see all the purple flowers and green fruit on the pubescens as I have not had any success
the other times I've grown it.

[mskrieger]

In my experience, this has to do with heat. Peppers like it warm, especially in the evening. If you put the pots on a hard surface such as concrete that absorbs heat during the day and releases it at night, yield can be considerably greater. (If you live somewhere with cool nights.) The same trick works for eggplants.

[diane]

That's interesting. Some of the black pots were on concrete with the sun shining on them, some were on soil with no sun shining on the pots,
just on the plants. I think the hot pots did better.

The pubescens were on the ground under a peach tree, and did really well. I think they must like things cool. I just looked them up - they're grown in
the Andes and the highlands of Mexico and Central America. They need shade. Well! I did something right.

[walt]

I have grown chiltipines in pots year round and potted in winter but in ground in summer.  They did about equally well both ways.  But I am in an area where summer night heat is plentiful.
Thai Hot x chiltipine F1 did well and produced for 5 years.  They produced more during summer when they got full sun and heat.
All were single plant per 1 gallon pot.
I've never tried other peppers potted.

[diane]

Plentiful heat is something I don 't get even in the daytime. A typical July day will have a high of 22 C and a low of 12.
Translated to F - about 72 and 54.

[mskrieger]

For your climate, diane, peppers in pots on asphalt or a hard patio that gets full sun during the day will definitely do better for you than peppers in the ground. Eggplants too. The other option would be to use black plastic sheets as a mulch. Traps heat in a similar way.

[diane]

Thanks! I'll remember that for next year. Too bad the neighbours all have cars - the middle of the road
would work the best.

[RpR]

Sept 11, 2018 16:56:12 GMT -5 diane said:

A nursery owner in Manitoba recommends growing peppers in pots for a much higher yield than in the ground.

I normally sow peppers in February, plant in the garden in May, dig up before frost, put them in pots and put them
in the greenhouse.

This year I decided to try pots from the beginning - sounds like less work even if it doesn't give me ten times
the crop like she gets in Manitoba.

This year I am growing 30 kinds of Capsicum annuum, 4 C. baccatum, 6 C. chinense, and 3 C. pubescens.

I have three plants per 3 gallon tub. (I think - they are 30 cm across and 24 cm high. or 12 inches by 9 inches)

The differences in growth are astounding.

Most of the annuums look miserable. Maybe one or two peppers per plant, and only a tuft of leaves at the top. Some
haven't even flowered yet.

The other three species have grown vigorously and have lots of fruit. It's not ripe yet, but I've just moved all
of them into the greenhouse as our rains have begun and the temperatures have dropped.

I am most pleased to see all the purple flowers and green fruit on the pubescens as I have not had any success
the other times I've grown it.

You could try putting the pots inside a much larger black pot, the kind trees come in, that way the big black pot would suck up the suns heat and put them in a micro hot pot.

I am surprised you get away with crowding them like that, I used to plant my chiles closer together in the garden and they did not like it.

[walt]

How much room depends so much on the variety.
My chiltipes and (Thai Hot x chiltipine) F1 plants did very well in 1 gallon pots for 5 years.  I have seen other varieties that make huge plants and need 3-5 gallon pots.  Neighbors had those, not me.
This year's chiltipines got a late start.  They are at the 4-8 leaf stage.  They should produce by spring.  This one is different from those I've grown before.  Native Seed/Search says the origional plant was 20 ft. tall.  It was in the ground in Arizona.  Not in 1 gallon pot like I've grown chiltipines.

[diane]

A tree! Did they say how old it was?

[prairiegardens]

It's good to hear peppers can be grown in 1 gallon containers as that's the plan this year. It's been so cold and wet with spasms of extreme heat lots of stuff may not get out of the greenhouse at all which will be a challenge in terms of space. I tried to start a bunch of peppers which was moderately unsuccessful since the nights have been so cold, the only ones which actually sprouted were seeds from a store pepper from last year and a whole bunch of those sprouted while 7 other varieties sulked. I thought it would be interesting to grow them out and see how they do, pepper seeds which will still sprout after coping with near freezing night temperatures seem to be worth working with. It will be interesting to see if a 1 gallon pot will suffice. Tomatoes also reluctant but a few Shasta's Altai and a couple of Paul Robson struggled awake.

[Rutos]

I'm starting to think soil matters a lot more than the climate, in many cases. However, wherever you grow your peppers, I highly recommend mulching them (containers or not), such as with a shredded wood mulch. It reduces watering needs a lot, and prevents soil from splashing on the leaves (which can stunt plants). I'm sure it helps promote worms and does stuff with the soil temperature.

Here's a list of some peppers that have done well in my garden where many haven't done as well:
* Aji Habanero (C. baccatum)
* Chipotle (from Trade Winds Fruit)
* Randy Sine's Evil Jalapeno
* Ring of Fire (Baker Creek's, container-grown)
* Sweet Banana
* Hungarian Yellow Wax
* Satan's Kiss
* Neapolitan
* Aji Dulce 1 (except it needed a longer season than it got; C. chinense)
* Orange Carbonero (started extra early; C. chinense)

I'm hoping Mustard Bhutlah turns out well for me. It's got flowers now, anyway, and doing better than the Habaneros.

[diane]

Aug 13, 2019 2:55:01 GMT -5 Rutos said:

I'm starting to think soil matters a lot more than the climate.

Yes, I agree. This year I bought a different seed starting mix, though produced by the same company that makes the one I usually use. The peppers barely grew.

[mskrieger]

Hi Rutos, mulching? Soil splashing and stunting plants? That all sounds totally bizarre to me...where are you growing? What's your soil like? I'm curious what kinds of conditions you have. Because peppers need heat, I never mulch them (they like the soil warm) and I never have soil splashing problems nor stunted plants.

[Rutos]

mskrieger

I'm in SW Idaho (it's a near-desert steppe climate). Our soil is amended gray clay. It's no longer clay, but it can still get reasonably compact in places. Soil in the area tends to be alkaline, but it's hard to say what ours is. The reason it was clay is because they scraped off the soil when they built the house. It used to be a farmer's field.

Anyway, yeah, when our soil gets on the leaves of young plants, and older ones, too, but less noticeably (peppers or not) in our garden, they grow a *lot* more slowly. I'm not sure exactly why. Washing the leaves off helps to fix the problem.

I thought mulch was more a temperature buffer than a cooling agent. I believe it can help to retain warmth from the day into the night when it gets cool (sometimes too cool for peppers' tastes). Perhaps mostly, though, I think it helps with moisture and soil life, and peppers seem to love it. Our area is normally extremely hot and dry during the growing season, but the heat (even when it's 110+° F.) doesn't really seem to stimulate unmulched peppers here, unless they're in containers. We do get steeper than average temperature drops at night here, but not as steep as some places. We get a *lot* of sun (in unshaded areas). Even peppers without soil on their leaves still struggle in the ground without mulch. I'm pretty sure it's the soil, combined with the cool nights (but mostly the soil). A neighboring garden has purchased soil and their peppers grow super fast in their raised beds, without mulch—surprisingly fast.

But yeah, mulch and the right varieties is a great way to handle the problem without getting new soil. Same for containers.

I have yet to try peppers with black plastic in our soil, but after writing this reply, I'm thinking they might like it quite a bit. The tomatoes love it (except when it gets too hot, the black plastic makes the soil too hot for some plants, while others are fine; variety and nutrients seem to be factors here). Peppers probably wouldn't get too hot.

Peppers like a looser soil than ours, as I understand it. But, the thing that surprises me is my neighbors' soil is pretty tough. Pulling weeds out of it is a lot harder than pulling them out of ours, and so it seems pretty compact (but their peppers grow much faster anyway). It's probably more about soil composition than how compact it is. Ours might have too much/little of some mineral or other. Or maybe their soil heats up faster and retains heat longer.