Grow Your Own Peppers

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How to Grow Perfect Peppers

Peppers are surprisingly easy to grow in most climates. A sheltered spot and a hot summer will give you a crop outside - but they also make great houseplants as they don't need to be pollinated by insects.

And there's a pepper to suit all tastes - from sweet and fruity to fiery! 

Peppers on the Alternative Kitchen Garden 

A show about your favorite plants!

Peppers at EdenEpisode 55 of the Alternative Kitchen Garden is all about growing peppers.

The AKG show is all about growing your own vegetables, fruits and herbs in an environmentally friendly way.

This episode is on growing peppers successfully in a cool climate, saving seeds from store bought peppers or your own varieties and getting a head start on the growing season.

 

Suttons Chilli Bhut Jolokia Seeds

Pepper photos 

Soror Sarek flowering by Fluffymuppet

Heritage pepper Soror Sarek flower

First fruits by Fluffymuppet

The first fruits ripen on the Sweet Lipstick pepper

Sweet lipstick peppers by Fluffymuppet

The over-wintered Sweet Lipstick pepper has 7 fruits growing

Tall peppers by Fluffymuppet

Dedo de Mocha peppers, reaching for the sky

Newly planted peppers by Fluffymuppet

Sweet peppers planted outside and surrounded by Slug Buggers

Overwintering peppers 

Get a head start on the pepper season

Sweet lipstickIn cool climates, peppers are usually grown as annuals with seeds being sown in late winter or early spring. You then have to hope for a long summer if the fruits are to ripen (small chillies are easier to ripen than large bell peppers).

Peppers are perennial plants, and it is possible to keep them overwinter and get a head start on the growing season - however, they need a lot of light and in less than ideal conditions they tend to drop all of their leaves.

Seedlings require less light and I experimented with sowing pepper seeds in September to try and overwinter seedlings instead of mature plants. They've thrived on a sunny windowsill and by the beginning of April, the first of these overwintered peppers was starting to fruit!

Grocery Store Peppers 

Seed catalogues are full of interesting varieties of peppers, but if you want a low-budget project then you can try growing your own plants from seeds you collect from store-bought peppers.

Sweet peppers in a cool climate? 

Get a good crop, wherever you are

DSC00070.jpgIt's perfectly possible to get a good crop of peppers in a cool climate. You just need to choose the right varieties, start your seeds early and make the most of the sunshine.

Learn more about growing sweet peppers in a cool climate.

The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia: Everything You'll Ever Need To Know About Hot Peppers, With More Than 100 Recipes 

The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia has the answer to just about any question one could ask about chile peppers. Which chiles are the hottest? What country did the first chile plants come from? What popular brand of dandruff shampoo is made with chile peppers? Can chiles really be used to cure headaches? Even the most devoted "chile-heads" will be satisfied. The encyclopedia is researched and written by Dave Dewitt, the country's foremost expert on hot and spicy foods and longtime editor-in-chief of Chile Pepper magazine.

In addition to entries on chile species, culture, terminology, and agriculture, the encyclopedia includes more than one hundred fiery recipes like Madras Fried Chile Fritters from India and Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings are sure to please any hot-and-spicy food lover. Black and white drawings and photographs, charts, and graphs appear throughout, and an eight page insert includes color photographs of dozens of varieties of chiles, invaluable for identification. The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia is an indispensable sourcebook for chile aficionados, gardeners, cooks, and anyone else who has a burning interest in fiery foods.

Growing peppers in Georgia 

My pepper garden ...

Go ahead and get started on your own garden! Just try it!I grow peppers to give to my maw-in-law. She makes awesome pepper jelly!

Runtime: 2:52
4861 views
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Growing unusual peppers 

Not for the faint hearted - these are hot!

DSC01652.JPGMost commercially available pepper varieties are from the Capsicum annum family. There's a huge variety, differing in color and habit and heat. There's enough here to keep most pepper growers happy, but for those looking for a bigger challenge there are other pepper families to look out for.

Read more about these unusual peppers in the pepper plant and growing your own peppers and the other chilli peppers.

Hot sites! 

Growing Peppers in Containers
There are many advantages to growing peppers in containers. People who live in apartments and townhouses without gardens can grow peppers and other plants on their balconies, patios, or even in a closet under lights.
Real Seeds : Early Sweet Pepper Seed
Early sweet peppers, suitable for the UK climate
Real seed: Chilli Pepper Seed
Chilli pepper seeds suitable for the UK climate

The Edible Pepper Garden 

One of Rosalind Creasy's beautiful Edible Garden series, with lovely photographs of hot and sweet peppers, together with detailed cultivation information and plenty of recipes.

Edible Pepper Garden, The (The Edible Garden Series)

Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009)Buy Now

From sweet peppers to four-alarm spicy ones, here are all the essentials on growing your own private pepper garden, including basic gardening tips and mouth-watering recipes for both the hot pepper lover and the faint of heart.

Hot lens? Let me know! 

poutine wrote...

Pretty useful info. I was thinking of growing peppers
this summer. This comes in handy.

ReplyPosted April 26, 2009

ArtSiren wrote...

Oops. Forgot to mention, I've lensrolled this to my Chili Growing lens. :)

ReplyPosted October 30, 2008

ArtSiren wrote...

Excellent lens packed with good information! I appreciate the section on overwintering seedlings, sowing them in September. I sowed mine in May - a little late - and in England we only had 3 hours of summer this year (lol) so I'm hoping Santa brings me some ripe chilies for Christmas. If not, then I'll wait til spring. 5*

ReplyPosted October 30, 2008

SudokuNut wrote...

Very useful information. We tried growing bell peppers here in Nevada and they never did ripen by the time winter hit. We had decided not to bother trying again next year but I'm going to try your suggestion of overwintering seedlings to see if that works instead. :)

ReplyPosted October 20, 2008

CleanerLife wrote...

Great Lens! I really need to start growing my own hot peppers!

ReplyPosted August 12, 2008

 
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