I planted my peppers to their final location Feb 22 - two days after my last frost date. I had a bunch of tomato cages that I found out last year are useless for tomatoes, but they worked great here. I used 1 gallon water jugs, with the bottoms cut out, as mini greenhouses and they worked perfectly. I've been getting peppers for the last 3 weeks - just a few but more are coming. I love y'all's channel. You have such great and relevant content. You have helped me a lot and I appreciate you.
i grew peppers and tomatoes directly in the soil last year and couldn't believe how much bigger and stronger my plants were even compared to the ones that were in really big pots.
I have been using "tomato cages" for years for my peppers. Now add in Peony (ring) cages as well. Those fold down nicer and sometimes that's all the plant needs is that lower support. I always add a stick of some sort too right next to the plant soon as I plant it (so that the roots don't get damaged). That also helps support it using some of the same wrap I use with my tomatoes.
I direct sow in the ground with all of my vegetables it thrives every year i get loads of it. My Jalapeños, Habanero, Bananas peppers and Thai hot peppers just to name few. Every Spring it comes back, all i do is pruned it after the last forst this is my 3rd year. As I'm speaking there's lots of fruits(huge) and flowers. One thing i never do is let the leaves get wet i avoide that part. I only underwater at the base of the roots. No diseases ever and it kept the leaves dark green and healthy. Zone 9 B Phx, Az
Great information. I did want to share something that I discovered about a unique way to germinate and grow peppers, Winter Sowing. I started using this technique a number of years ago with perennials and it worked perfectly. I then tried it with tomatoes and pepper, planting their seeds in mid winter just like the perennials. The tomatoes germinated perfectly in the milk jugs in the middle of winter, but eventually the cold snaps got them. I adjusted by planting the tomatoes and peppers in milk jugs using the winter sowing technique and they all grew perfectly. The tomatoes germinated earlier than the peppers, but by our last frost date here in PA, both were perfect, although short. I did not have to worry about hardening them off because they had been outside the entire time, going through many cold nights. I just had to take them out of the milk jugs, pulling their roots apart carefully, then planting them directly into the garden. Try it. It works. You will never go back to grow lights once you see how easy and cheap this method is.
I started hardening off all of my vegetable plants and accidentally brought in a yellow jacket and it stung my 20 month old baby girl and causes severe allergic reaction. So yes, always check your plants for pest and such before you bring them back in great thing to let people know.
I'm also allergic to stinging insects. Finding out early is a good thing. I had to carry a little bottle of green medication anytime I was outside playing.. it was some variety of epinephrine..fast acting, oral.. prevented my airways from closing. more than once. I don't know if something like that's still used for kids.. I cant' see turning little ones loose with an epi pen..
This year's peppers have started off pretty sad. I sowed them before Easter and none of my plants are above maybe an inch and a half tall. Hoping May heat and watering finally kickstarts things.
I don't know your growing zone or last frost dates but I grow in zone 6a/b (last frost usually May 10th) and I started my peppers on March 5th last year. Most of the (more than 20) varieties ultimately did well. Your seedlings may just need a bit more time, especially if you think you've been meeting their basic needs.
The tomato/pepper cages are the best. I joined a community garden last year and used them on my plot for my peppers (as I have always done.) I'm sure others wondered why initially, but I visited the garden today and noticed other gardeners are using them this year, I can only assume they saw mine and realized what a game changer they can be.
If I waited for 55° nights, I'd be planting in July. I plant in late May but honestly the peppers don't put on much growth until mid summer. I'm going to try more growing in containers and move them into garage or next to the house as needed
I usually harden off my peppers and other plants by opening the window theyre in when it gets a bit warmer. Then they get the wind going thru them and a chilly breeze. Leave it open an hour or two every other day
Great tips! I always pick off the flowers and little fruits when I first plant out so they can get established. I feel like it really helps get them strong!
You should start them around January under grow lights. Mine are already producing peppers. You said the Buena mulatas didn’t do well for you. I have had excellent results from mine. I have grown 9 plants and they all have produced great results.
Indoor growing anything can really take a couple hints from the whole weed community. Some have decades of indoor growing experience and everything that comes with it.
I always use tomato cages on my pepper plants, I also lay long thin dowels over the tops of cages and use zip ties to connect the cages together in a grid pattern for extra stability. I use black plastic garbage bags on cages during cold nights so the grid will be added in a few weeks. I also want to let you know I watched your video on over wintering pepper plants indoors and I’m very happy to report I had great success. My habanero “tree” will be going back out into the garden AFTER the 55 deg min days are here to stay. Thanks for the great informative videos.
Bro love ur channel I got a cheap eBay greenhouse this year started hundreds of tom n peppers it got down to 28 degrees ferenhiet and 101 when I was sleeping my peppers got leave scorch and none died it been about two weeks now all have recovered 💯 so I started planting out at the end of April usually i don't start planting out till mother's day zone6a Ohio keep making great pepper videos
I have a huge vole problem. This year I've planted root crops in bags or my 36" high beds. So far, they have left my peppers alone, but I'm using Molemax (castor bean) granules and peppermint oil. My Cairn Terrier would love to "help" rid the voles, but I'm keeping him out of the garden! My winter project is to empty my raised beds and put hardware cloth in the bottoms (yeah, I know it should have been done when we built the raised beds, but I was outvoted. Sigh). I have 37 peppers planted and they are looking great.
I Harden off my peppers by putting them in a greenhouse with 40% shade cloth on top. After a week, I take them out of the greenhouse and plant them where I want them, and I've never had an issue with Sun Scald
Mid 60s is a distant memory.. it's barely getting *down* into the 60s at night. My barn cat has been taking care of the vermin.. he's good at it. I picked a ladybug off the peas I picked this morning and put it with the tomatoes. I have a very late start with my peppers.. it took 3 times to get decent germination and none of my favorite, the heatles habs, germinated. My best germination has been the pimento's. I started them in very old, net-free peat pellets.. can't find them anywhere now. Everything has that dumb net. As soon as the seed shell comes off, they go into a 32 ounce yogurt cup until they're ready for a grow bag. The most leaves I have on one right now is 6.. and that's just the one.
Yeah, I just grow my peppers in large pots and always use a tomato cage for anything larger than, say, a Thai chili plant. Even helps with the deer somewhat. At least if they munch on them, they probably won't eat the whole plant. I put a rosemary plant next to the peppers, at least one rosemary for every two pepper pots, and this seems to really help with keeping the deer away. And man, do we have a lot of deer.
Danny at deep south got some motion detecting recording device of some kind.. when it gets tripped, there are multiple loud noises happening.. shot guns.. hollering.. horns blowing.. he hasn't had a deer problem since he put them out.
If I used the 55 degree marker my plants never would have gone in the ground last year. We had nights in the low to mid 50s all throughout summer. I've only been bringing my pepper starts in if the forecast is 40 or lower. Just started hardening them off about 5 days ago.
Great advice and very timely - thank you! Been growing chillies for a few years now but each season has it's challenges and anything that refreshes good practices is really helpful.
I really enjoy your TH-cam channel and I've learned a lot. Here's what I've learned about seedlings. In nature what's the first thing they see when they come up to the dirt? Exactly the intensity of the Sun . Soon as my seeds pop and I have the first set of embryonic leaves, they go outside into the full sun and wind. They do return to artificial lighting. Put everyday I take them out and let them get wind-blown as I mist them. Doing this avoids all the babying that's unnecessary in hardening plants off. This works for all plants. In the early season when it's only warm for a couple hours during the middle of the day that's when they go out. So trust me do this and you'll never see sunscald on any of your plants. I like to use bamboo stakes also to support my plants should my experience having them extra long is better than having them short enough to bend down and poke your eye out
@@PepperGeek Thanks I grew all my seeds from indoors and they even started flowering and I just moved them all outside yesterday.. i kept them in the pots for now and in areas that get morning sun
Love the channel, guys!!! Gardening is great, and efficient, and this channel is great for tips and tricks on Peppers!! I share these videos with my gardening groups all the time!!!
Two season's ago (our last garden year, we skipped last year) we encountered a pest problem that, in my almost 20 years of gardening, never experienced. We discovered via night garden cam racoons jumping our fence and stealing tomatoes. Bandits! I tried motion lights but before I could figure out what to do they pretty much wiped them out. This season, after just planting my starts yesterday I'm trying to figure out a good solution. My initial thought is to build a portable cage of some sort to surround the plants. Anyone have a good solution for raccoons-- besides a MacGyver sensor automated machine gun system? LOL
Two days intermittent rain, intense grow lights before, the third day partly cloudy, that was enough. Two fixed cats that like to hunt keep rodents away. We used crushed oyster shells normally used for chickens for extra minerals. We also made a lizard friendly place and we regularly see them patrolling the garden. The cats like them too, but enough stay around to survive. I think some surviving lizards learned to hide from the cats. We never use poisons so natural predators can keep a balance between pests insects and predators. The exception is peach trees, there is only one way to keep a harvest for them unless you know something we don’t.
Would love to see and hear more about how the Kozy coats did with peppers & how early/how low nightly temps were after putting them in. I've had great success with those and planting tomatoes 4 weeks before our last frost date here in Colorado the past 2 years now. They put on significant growth & harden off inside the kozy coat so while a bit of a pain to fill it's worth it. Also, putting the empty oozy coat over a 5 gallon bucket while filling helps tremendously. Was already thinking about getting more for things like peppers & squash to try next spring and see if I could start those 3-4 weeks before I can usually plant them outside.
I've used upside 5 gallon buckets with 6 1 inch holes and mounding soil around the bottom to prevent air flow , have temperature drops in 21 degrees, and had several inches of snow for a couple days and the tomatoes were fine Agree peppers don't like the 50s below Thanks
It literally snowed today here in Utah. Happy Cinco de Mayo. I've never seen it snow in the Salt Lake valley in May. We always get a little snow in April but it doesn't really stick. May is very unusual.
I Have 23 Different Pepper Plants Some Not Spicy Like The Sweet Poivrons All The Way Up To The 2nd Hottest In The World The Dragon's Breath Pepper I Hardened Them Off And They Are In The Ground, In My Garden So I Should Get Some Awesome Peppers!😁
Burpee Bodacious Hybrid Tomato, these can produce well over 30 lbs per plant per season. What's that have to do with peppers? Ever see a pomato plant? Tomatoes grafted onto potato root stock and the plant produces both, but yields of each tend to be less than non grafted versions since they compete for nutrients. However I'm not going to grow any tomatoes. Just the roots with peppers grafted onto them. I''ll experiment with direct approach side grafts and slowly whittle away the tomato and let the pepper keep its roots and have the tomato rootstock as a bonus and top grafts with the peppers growing entirely on the tomato root stock. Hey, the roots don't know it's Thai super hot peppers up top and try to grow 30 some pounds of tomatoes with it all going into the peppers. I once had a pot plant with 4 different types of rootstock and 2 types of bud and how I did it was planted all the seedlings in a tight bunch and light deprived them so they got lanky and braided they stems together with some gentle scraping they eventually fused into 1 plant. We called it the twisted fig and the police took it back to their station after showing up for a noise complaint. I never heard about it again. A normal plant and I would have been toast back then.
During transition months, like May, air temperature swings can be quite erratic from day to day. Following your guidance on "avoid 55 deg F or less", I'd have to protect my peppers until early June in my area (Zone 7a), which is later than I'd like to transplant into the garden. I suspect a much better guide for "safely transplanting peppers" might be soil temperatures, which don't fluctuate nearly as much as air temperatures and actually behave like a heat pump, especially on the cooler end of the spectrum. In my area, the average soil temperature exceeds 55 deg by mid April. Did you look at soil temperatures as you've developed your thoughts regarding "when to safely transplant peppers into the garden?" Oh, I usually wait until mid-May to put my peppers out, and they've always done pretty well, imo, and air temps at night often dip below 55 deg here. Curious what your thoughts are...
I agree. I use a soil temp of 60 degrees as a rock bottom, and I prefer 65 to 70. if you add compost, it will help keep the soil temps up too. I don't even start checking until May 11th because the average last frost here is May1 thru May 10. I'd rather get them in a few days late than early., but I usually do around May 20th or even a bit later.
If only our nightitme temps stayed above 55 in May here southeast of Seattle. This week it's going to range from 38 to 50. Yay. It's not until July our night temps are consistently at least 55. However, I plant in June and they perform Ok. I also use tomato cages or yes, pepper cages.
I live in northern Norway, and grow chilli outside without protection. Here it is called the "Mountain zone" and it is the coldest and toughest weather. I see a good positive difference between plants I have taken seeds from grown myself, and seeds I have bought that can struggle in the first year. We rarely have temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius, most commonly 10-18 degrees. Here are about 90 grow days outside, but we have light all night in the summer, so we have many grow hours. Sow in January, and keept hem under grow lights until June. At the end of August it is too cold to have them outside. Does anyone have any tips other than Rocoto that thrives in colder climates? Love from Norway.
I live in Canada (southern Ontario zone 5). Probably not as extreme as Norway. Rule of thumb 👍 - you don't fight nature, you work with mother nature. Peppers love hot weather. Temps have to be 25 Centigrade or over (75F) for them to thrive. Best results from Canada was growing in containers - 3 or 5 gallon pots or grow bags. Use BLACK pots or grow bags so they absorb the sunlight and warm up. You will probably get 1 month of growing outdoors in Norway. Do you really want to fight mother nature? Come visit me in Canada and we can chill out in my backyard and complain about how nice the Americans have it 😢
Healthy soil will greatly reduce insect damage. Feed you soil, not your plants. I also use insect frass by top dressing or making a tea. Chitin found in the frass repels insects.
FYI folks, remember that blood meal will attract bears, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, dogs, foxes (as well as bone meal) if you, like me, live where these animals cohabitate with us. I have to use very tall fences electric line run around it at various heights (the bears will just quickly run through just an electric wire fence alone).
I have 6 over-wintered superhots in the ground. Have been since April 20th. They are growing very thick but not stretching out like id like to see. Any suggestions on how to get them to stretch a bit for easier harvest and checking for pests?
Growing peppers outside in the UK is not the easiest so hopefully using your tips I should have strong plants to give them the best start before they are planted out.
Pepper Geek, question: Can you lay a pepper branch along the ground when planting from a pot like some people do with tomatoes? To clarify, do pepper plants grow roots when their stems are along the ground? Thanks.
You can, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. Haven’t done a proper experiment or anything but I know peppers take longer to form adventitious roots compared to tomatoes
Do you have a blog post or video about pepper plants losing leaves? I have all my pepper seedlings under lights all getting the same water, same soil, same fertilizer, but two of them have lost most of their bottom leaves and only have two leaves on the top. I do have fungus gnats, but I'm not sure if that would be the cause. All of the other peppers are big and lush. The peppers are Aji Charapita and Puma.
Can I leave my pepper plants in a small tent type greenhouse if th temp goes down to 47 degrees? Or does it need the heat from the ground with the bucket method? I'm already hardening off my peppers, and I noticed next week we have 2 nights in the upper 40s.
Yes, we'll be talking about this soon on the channel. But to summarize, we haven't "topped" young plants for years now, it isn't really worth the effort, no guaranteed payoff/yield increase.
This may be an unusual question, but when your plants are getting up to 7 or 8 hours outside, should you still put them under grow lights when you bring them inside or get them used to less light in the evening?
Insect netting is great but it can keep out pollinators, which is something that you don’t want. You can cover to protect the plants while they’re young but you want to uncover when they start to flower.
I fully agree about "tomato" cages. I mostly use them with peas that I grow in large pots starting in February, but I plan to try some for some of the larger pepper plants too. So far this year I'm having catastrophic success with both green beans and tomatoes, but only so-so with peppers and peas. One other pest I'd mention is slugs, in rainy weather. We had a couple crucial dry weeks in April but we are in the middle of a rainy stretch and the slugs damaged any smaller plants that were not elevated. Other years slugs have been much worse though -- every year is different.
Do older mature plants need to be hardened off? eg, i have a 2-3 yr old habanero growing indoors perpetually that i'm thinking of moving out to the garden this season. (It's in an east facing window, and has ripe fruit currently.)
I’m in New York and our temperature s range from 50’s during the day and 40’s at night. The temps has been fluctuating the past couple of weeks, but nights are still very cold. This week we will finally get temperatures in the 60’s but later in the afternoons. So yes, it’s extremely important that these videos include zones because some areas they have temperatures in the 70’s, 80’s & up right now! I’m in zone 7B. Going to start hardening off this week! The old saying for this area is to plant after Mother’s Day, because that’s when the weather temperature are less unpredictable & extremely cold. 🤷🏾♀️
I’m zone 9b. SW FL. I plant peppers in fall through winter. It is already 95 today-5/8/24. And the sun is scorching hot. I’m about to pull them because they are already stressed out from heat. Then the humidity comes. And they can get the poweder mildew. I am already harvesting my huge tomatos I planted end of Feb. Watermelon and squash ahould be ready end of this month. About the only thing I grow in summer is okra. And work on reammending beds through summer. To be ready for fall again
I canʻt seem to get rid of my new leaves crinkling appearance on my peppers of about 3 months old. Nice and green otherwise even had a flower ! They are in the ground. Any ideas. Zone 12
I wanted to start some habaneros/ghost peppers from seed this year and just couldn't get them started earlier ☹ I'm in zone 6A, just above Pittsburgh, PA.... can I start them now and have any hope of getting a harvest??? Not looking for tons but enough to make a bottle or 2 of hot sauce....
What can I do to make my pepper to germinate? And when I plant them, do I still water them or leave them be until they germinate. I have been waiting for a month and nothing is happening. When is the right time?
I planted my peppers to their final location Feb 22 - two days after my last frost date. I had a bunch of tomato cages that I found out last year are useless for tomatoes, but they worked great here. I used 1 gallon water jugs, with the bottoms cut out, as mini greenhouses and they worked perfectly. I've been getting peppers for the last 3 weeks - just a few but more are coming.
I love y'all's channel. You have such great and relevant content. You have helped me a lot and I appreciate you.
i grew peppers and tomatoes directly in the soil last year and couldn't believe how much bigger and stronger my plants were even compared to the ones that were in really big pots.
Yea I do both. And the bags have to be fertilized a lot just to try to keep up for me
Always
will do this once I rip out front lawn grass and finish raised beds but for now it is raised containers
I always direct sow loads of peppers every year. I actually do not grow my vegetables in pots.
@@glow1815 southern state?
I have been using "tomato cages" for years for my peppers. Now add in Peony (ring) cages as well. Those fold down nicer and sometimes that's all the plant needs is that lower support. I always add a stick of some sort too right next to the plant soon as I plant it (so that the roots don't get damaged). That also helps support it using some of the same wrap I use with my tomatoes.
I direct sow in the ground with all of my vegetables it thrives every year i get loads of it. My Jalapeños, Habanero, Bananas peppers and Thai hot peppers just to name few. Every Spring it comes back, all i do is pruned it after the last forst this is my 3rd year. As I'm speaking there's lots of fruits(huge) and flowers. One thing i never do is let the leaves get wet i avoide that part. I only underwater at the base of the roots. No diseases ever and it kept the leaves dark green and healthy. Zone 9 B Phx, Az
Any tasty habanero that is not crass, vegetable bitter or green tasting? Do you leave also peppers in the frost and they survive?
Great information. I did want to share something that I discovered about a unique way to germinate and grow peppers, Winter Sowing. I started using this technique a number of years ago with perennials and it worked perfectly. I then tried it with tomatoes and pepper, planting their seeds in mid winter just like the perennials. The tomatoes germinated perfectly in the milk jugs in the middle of winter, but eventually the cold snaps got them. I adjusted by planting the tomatoes and peppers in milk jugs using the winter sowing technique and they all grew perfectly. The tomatoes germinated earlier than the peppers, but by our last frost date here in PA, both were perfect, although short. I did not have to worry about hardening them off because they had been outside the entire time, going through many cold nights. I just had to take them out of the milk jugs, pulling their roots apart carefully, then planting them directly into the garden. Try it. It works. You will never go back to grow lights once you see how easy and cheap this method is.
I just started container gardening. I use metal dog crates to keep my young vegetables safe from critters
I started hardening off all of my vegetable plants and accidentally brought in a yellow jacket and it stung my 20 month old baby girl and causes severe allergic reaction. So yes, always check your plants for pest and such before you bring them back in great thing to let people know.
I'm also allergic to stinging insects. Finding out early is a good thing. I had to carry a little bottle of green medication anytime I was outside playing.. it was some variety of epinephrine..fast acting, oral.. prevented my airways from closing. more than once. I don't know if something like that's still used for kids.. I cant' see turning little ones loose with an epi pen..
😢hope she’s ok
This year's peppers have started off pretty sad. I sowed them before Easter and none of my plants are above maybe an inch and a half tall. Hoping May heat and watering finally kickstarts things.
Peppers are pretty slow growers in the early stages, so you should've sowed them somewhere between January and February.
I don't know your growing zone or last frost dates but I grow in zone 6a/b (last frost usually May 10th) and I started my peppers on March 5th last year. Most of the (more than 20) varieties ultimately did well. Your seedlings may just need a bit more time, especially if you think you've been meeting their basic needs.
we had crappy cold wet year making it tough for gardeners!
Last year, i had one plant that grew an inch and stayed that way all the way up to the first frost. I couldn't believe it
My plants are outgrowing their space but it's not warm enough outside yet where I live, what should I do?
The tomato/pepper cages are the best. I joined a community garden last year and used them on my plot for my peppers (as I have always done.) I'm sure others wondered why initially, but I visited the garden today and noticed other gardeners are using them this year, I can only assume they saw mine and realized what a game changer they can be.
If I waited for 55° nights, I'd be planting in July. I plant in late May but honestly the peppers don't put on much growth until mid summer. I'm going to try more growing in containers and move them into garage or next to the house as needed
my 2nd season of planting peppers in AZ from seed. they look amazing
I usually harden off my peppers and other plants by opening the window theyre in when it gets a bit warmer. Then they get the wind going thru them and a chilly breeze. Leave it open an hour or two every other day
Great tips! I always pick off the flowers and little fruits when I first plant out so they can get established. I feel like it really helps get them strong!
You should start them around January under grow lights. Mine are already producing peppers. You said the Buena mulatas didn’t do well for you. I have had excellent results from mine. I have grown 9 plants and they all have produced great results.
Love this channel! While indoors, fans help to strengthen the stems in preparation for the real wind outdoors.
This Is True! It Will Be All Bendy If You Don't Have Fans.
Indoor growing anything can really take a couple hints from the whole weed community. Some have decades of indoor growing experience and everything that comes with it.
I always use tomato cages on my pepper plants, I also lay long thin dowels over the tops of cages and use zip ties to connect the cages together in a grid pattern for extra stability. I use black plastic garbage bags on cages during cold nights so the grid will be added in a few weeks. I also want to let you know I watched your video on over wintering pepper plants indoors and I’m very happy to report I had great success. My habanero “tree” will be going back out into the garden AFTER the 55 deg min days are here to stay. Thanks for the great informative videos.
Bro love ur channel I got a cheap eBay greenhouse this year started hundreds of tom n peppers it got down to 28 degrees ferenhiet and 101 when I was sleeping my peppers got leave scorch and none died it been about two weeks now all have recovered 💯 so I started planting out at the end of April usually i don't start planting out till mother's day zone6a Ohio keep making great pepper videos
I have a huge vole problem. This year I've planted root crops in bags or my 36" high beds. So far, they have left my peppers alone, but I'm using Molemax (castor bean) granules and peppermint oil. My Cairn Terrier would love to "help" rid the voles, but I'm keeping him out of the garden! My winter project is to empty my raised beds and put hardware cloth in the bottoms (yeah, I know it should have been done when we built the raised beds, but I was outvoted. Sigh). I have 37 peppers planted and they are looking great.
Yup ! Mesh cloth will stop it.
I Harden off my peppers by putting them in a greenhouse with 40% shade cloth on top. After a week, I take them out of the greenhouse and plant them where I want them, and I've never had an issue with Sun Scald
Yes! This is the way! Used shade cloth last year in the green house and the process was so much faster!
Just live in Northern England. Stuck all mine out from under lights couple days ago and with it being overcast all week, they'll be good 😂
Kick the bucket it simulates wind
Mid 60s is a distant memory.. it's barely getting *down* into the 60s at night.
My barn cat has been taking care of the vermin.. he's good at it.
I picked a ladybug off the peas I picked this morning and put it with the tomatoes.
I have a very late start with my peppers.. it took 3 times to get decent germination and none of my favorite, the heatles habs, germinated.
My best germination has been the pimento's.
I started them in very old, net-free peat pellets.. can't find them anywhere now. Everything has that dumb net.
As soon as the seed shell comes off, they go into a 32 ounce yogurt cup until they're ready for a grow bag.
The most leaves I have on one right now is 6.. and that's just the one.
Yep, all these things are definitely month of May things and are for sure some of the most important 👍
Yeah, I just grow my peppers in large pots and always use a tomato cage for anything larger than, say, a Thai chili plant. Even helps with the deer somewhat. At least if they munch on them, they probably won't eat the whole plant. I put a rosemary plant next to the peppers, at least one rosemary for every two pepper pots, and this seems to really help with keeping the deer away. And man, do we have a lot of deer.
Danny at deep south got some motion detecting recording device of some kind.. when it gets tripped, there are multiple loud noises happening.. shot guns.. hollering.. horns blowing.. he hasn't had a deer problem since he put them out.
If I used the 55 degree marker my plants never would have gone in the ground last year. We had nights in the low to mid 50s all throughout summer. I've only been bringing my pepper starts in if the forecast is 40 or lower. Just started hardening them off about 5 days ago.
Great advice and very timely - thank you! Been growing chillies for a few years now but each season has it's challenges and anything that refreshes good practices is really helpful.
Couldn’t agree more, every year comes with some difficulty. Always learning, and happy you found the video helpful. Hope you have a great season 🌶️
I really enjoy your TH-cam channel and I've learned a lot. Here's what I've learned about seedlings. In nature what's the first thing they see when they come up to the dirt? Exactly the intensity of the Sun . Soon as my seeds pop and I have the first set of embryonic leaves, they go outside into the full sun and wind. They do return to artificial lighting. Put everyday I take them out and let them get wind-blown as I mist them. Doing this avoids all the babying that's unnecessary in hardening plants off. This works for all plants. In the early season when it's only warm for a couple hours during the middle of the day that's when they go out. So trust me do this and you'll never see sunscald on any of your plants. I like to use bamboo stakes also to support my plants should my experience having them extra long is better than having them short enough to bend down and poke your eye out
Super helpful. First time trying to grow peppers and have been leaning on your channel a lot
Glad to hear it! Hope you have a successful first season
I use old metal coffee or paint cans with the bottom cut off to protect young plants
Glad I watched this.. i grew all from seed indoors.. so i will do and follow your directions
Hope you have a great season with all your plants!
@@PepperGeek Thanks I grew all my seeds from indoors and they even started flowering and I just moved them all outside yesterday.. i kept them in the pots for now and in areas that get morning sun
Love the channel, guys!!! Gardening is great, and efficient, and this channel is great for tips and tricks on Peppers!! I share these videos with my gardening groups all the time!!!
Awesome! Thank you!
I use plastic gallon milk jugs with the bottom removed to protect my seedlings when they are first put out in the garden.
We have the crappest weather for May in the UK, bloody cloudy ATM!
Two season's ago (our last garden year, we skipped last year) we encountered a pest problem that, in my almost 20 years of gardening, never experienced. We discovered via night garden cam racoons jumping our fence and stealing tomatoes. Bandits! I tried motion lights but before I could figure out what to do they pretty much wiped them out. This season, after just planting my starts yesterday I'm trying to figure out a good solution. My initial thought is to build a portable cage of some sort to surround the plants. Anyone have a good solution for raccoons-- besides a MacGyver sensor automated machine gun system? LOL
Two days intermittent rain, intense grow lights before, the third day partly cloudy, that was enough. Two fixed cats that like to hunt keep rodents away. We used crushed oyster shells normally used for chickens for extra minerals. We also made a lizard friendly place and we regularly see them patrolling the garden. The cats like them too, but enough stay around to survive. I think some surviving lizards learned to hide from the cats. We never use poisons so natural predators can keep a balance between pests insects and predators. The exception is peach trees, there is only one way to keep a harvest for them unless you know something we don’t.
I gave up on outdoor pepper growing lol. I'm sticking with my two favorite pepper varieties and just growing them year round indoors with hydroponics.
Would love to see and hear more about how the Kozy coats did with peppers & how early/how low nightly temps were after putting them in.
I've had great success with those and planting tomatoes 4 weeks before our last frost date here in Colorado the past 2 years now. They put on significant growth & harden off inside the kozy coat so while a bit of a pain to fill it's worth it. Also, putting the empty oozy coat over a 5 gallon bucket while filling helps tremendously.
Was already thinking about getting more for things like peppers & squash to try next spring and see if I could start those 3-4 weeks before I can usually plant them outside.
I simply buy live ladybugs and let them loose in my zipped up greenhouse at night for those aphids. Works great.
I've used upside 5 gallon buckets with 6 1 inch holes and mounding soil around the bottom to prevent air flow , have temperature drops in 21 degrees, and had several inches of snow for a couple days and the tomatoes were fine
Agree peppers don't like the 50s below
Thanks
It literally snowed today here in Utah. Happy Cinco de Mayo. I've never seen it snow in the Salt Lake valley in May. We always get a little snow in April but it doesn't really stick. May is very unusual.
No real sun will do that for ya
You have a sun simulator
The light isn’t hitting the ground differently? Look around brother
Thanks. Wait a couple weeks after transplanting outdoors to remove flowers. Good to know. Love your content.
I plan on fertilizing more often this year.
For potted plants it's definitely important, just make sure not to over-do it and harm the plants!
I Have 23 Different Pepper Plants Some Not Spicy Like The Sweet Poivrons All The Way Up To The 2nd Hottest In The World The Dragon's Breath Pepper I Hardened Them Off And They Are In The Ground, In My Garden So I Should Get Some Awesome Peppers!😁
Burpee Bodacious Hybrid Tomato, these can produce well over 30 lbs per plant per season. What's that have to do with peppers? Ever see a pomato plant? Tomatoes grafted onto potato root stock and the plant produces both, but yields of each tend to be less than non grafted versions since they compete for nutrients. However I'm not going to grow any tomatoes. Just the roots with peppers grafted onto them. I''ll experiment with direct approach side grafts and slowly whittle away the tomato and let the pepper keep its roots and have the tomato rootstock as a bonus and top grafts with the peppers growing entirely on the tomato root stock. Hey, the roots don't know it's Thai super hot peppers up top and try to grow 30 some pounds of tomatoes with it all going into the peppers. I once had a pot plant with 4 different types of rootstock and 2 types of bud and how I did it was planted all the seedlings in a tight bunch and light deprived them so they got lanky and braided they stems together with some gentle scraping they eventually fused into 1 plant. We called it the twisted fig and the police took it back to their station after showing up for a noise complaint. I never heard about it again. A normal plant and I would have been toast back then.
I'm growing these this year. You have got me excited now!
During transition months, like May, air temperature swings can be quite erratic from day to day. Following your guidance on "avoid 55 deg F or less", I'd have to protect my peppers until early June in my area (Zone 7a), which is later than I'd like to transplant into the garden. I suspect a much better guide for "safely transplanting peppers" might be soil temperatures, which don't fluctuate nearly as much as air temperatures and actually behave like a heat pump, especially on the cooler end of the spectrum. In my area, the average soil temperature exceeds 55 deg by mid April. Did you look at soil temperatures as you've developed your thoughts regarding "when to safely transplant peppers into the garden?" Oh, I usually wait until mid-May to put my peppers out, and they've always done pretty well, imo, and air temps at night often dip below 55 deg here. Curious what your thoughts are...
I agree. I use a soil temp of 60 degrees as a rock bottom, and I prefer 65 to 70. if you add compost, it will help keep the soil temps up too. I don't even start checking until May 11th because the average last frost here is May1 thru May 10. I'd rather get them in a few days late than early., but I usually do around May 20th or even a bit later.
Such good editing and information.
If only our nightitme temps stayed above 55 in May here southeast of Seattle. This week it's going to range from 38 to 50. Yay. It's not until July our night temps are consistently at least 55. However, I plant in June and they perform Ok. I also use tomato cages or yes, pepper cages.
This is my first year using a cloche too, albeit for enemy squirrel protection. Interested to see if it extends your season!
Great video. I'm going to start putting cages around all my heavier fruiting plants.
I think that's a great choice
I live in northern Norway, and grow chilli outside without protection. Here it is called the "Mountain zone" and it is the coldest and toughest weather. I see a good positive difference between plants I have taken seeds from grown myself, and seeds I have bought that can struggle in the first year. We rarely have temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius, most commonly 10-18 degrees. Here are about 90 grow days outside, but we have light all night in the summer, so we have many grow hours. Sow in January, and keept hem under grow lights until June. At the end of August it is too cold to have them outside. Does anyone have any tips other than Rocoto that thrives in colder climates? Love from Norway.
I live in Canada (southern Ontario zone 5). Probably not as extreme as Norway.
Rule of thumb 👍 - you don't fight nature, you work with mother nature. Peppers love hot weather. Temps have to be 25 Centigrade or over (75F) for them to thrive. Best results from Canada was growing in containers - 3 or 5 gallon pots or grow bags. Use BLACK pots or grow bags so they absorb the sunlight and warm up.
You will probably get 1 month of growing outdoors in Norway. Do you really want to fight mother nature? Come visit me in Canada and we can chill out in my backyard and complain about how nice the Americans have it 😢
Another great video and perfect timing 👍🏻
I over wintered my jalapeño, Serrano, and cayenne. I’m already getting peppers. Zone 10
Lucky!
Healthy soil will greatly reduce insect damage. Feed you soil, not your plants. I also use insect frass by top dressing or making a tea. Chitin found in the frass repels insects.
Love the cloche idea!
I stopped using tomato cages for my peppers. they provided a landing spot for small birds to perch on and eat my plants.
We have three cats. For some reason birds are very leery about perching on anything within their reach. Not sure why. LOL
Especially Mourning Doves. They have to be the stupidest birds ever created, in addition to being the worst nest builders ever.
@grayghost5143 have you seen wren nests? The ones here are a hilarious mess of sticks.
I just put the seeds in cups with soil outside under shade cloth and have 50 pepper plants going now
I grow in felt pots only....i dont stake them when small...the wind makes them strong and able to support fruit...stake only when they start to bloom
FYI folks, remember that blood meal will attract bears, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, dogs, foxes (as well as bone meal) if you, like me, live where these animals cohabitate with us. I have to use very tall fences electric line run around it at various heights (the bears will just quickly run through just an electric wire fence alone).
Raccoons love blood meal and will habitually dig over and over and over again looking for it.
In London England mountain lions are not a problem! Foxes seem to be getting bigger.
i unfortunately wont have as many plants this year but i have a few and i might try a few of these tips :D
interesting how different this all is in different zones, here its been 90+ degrees F every say since may even started
This was helpful. Thanks
I agree, those are pepper cages…
lol, every year I tell my wife those dinky tomato “cages” stink!…but they are great on the peppers!
My wintered over peppers r loaded with fruits and blooms
All my super hots are WAY rootbound. Hopefully everything gets potted next weekend.
I have 6 over-wintered superhots in the ground. Have been since April 20th. They are growing very thick but not stretching out like id like to see. Any suggestions on how to get them to stretch a bit for easier harvest and checking for pests?
Yep, definitely harden off, especially if starting from seed. Ask me how I know.
😂
Great information I will definitely be using these tips
Great, hope it helps!
Growing peppers outside in the UK is not the easiest so hopefully using your tips I should have strong plants to give them the best start before they are planted out.
Pepper Geek, question: Can you lay a pepper branch along the ground when planting from a pot like some people do with tomatoes? To clarify, do pepper plants grow roots when their stems are along the ground? Thanks.
You can, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. Haven’t done a proper experiment or anything but I know peppers take longer to form adventitious roots compared to tomatoes
@@PepperGeek Okay, cool, I'll just follow your other tips then. Thanks for your expeditious response!
Thanks for the vids' you guys live in NJ? looks like it..was super easy to grow out there... I am now in AZ...love peppers!
We’re in CT, so not too far north from NJ
Do you have a blog post or video about pepper plants losing leaves? I have all my pepper seedlings under lights all getting the same water, same soil, same fertilizer, but two of them have lost most of their bottom leaves and only have two leaves on the top. I do have fungus gnats, but I'm not sure if that would be the cause. All of the other peppers are big and lush. The peppers are Aji Charapita and Puma.
Can I leave my pepper plants in a small tent type greenhouse if th temp goes down to 47 degrees? Or does it need the heat from the ground with the bucket method? I'm already hardening off my peppers, and I noticed next week we have 2 nights in the upper 40s.
It shouldn’t be a big deal as long as the daytime temps pop back up
thanks for this video, any thoughts on early pruning of peppers?
Yes, we'll be talking about this soon on the channel. But to summarize, we haven't "topped" young plants for years now, it isn't really worth the effort, no guaranteed payoff/yield increase.
This may be an unusual question, but when your plants are getting up to 7 or 8 hours outside, should you still put them under grow lights when you bring them inside or get them used to less light in the evening?
Insect netting is great but it can keep out pollinators, which is something that you don’t want. You can cover to protect the plants while they’re young but you want to uncover when they start to flower.
Peppers don't need pollinators as long as there's enough breeze. The flowers can self-polinate perfectly fine as long as they move around a little
Excellent info. Thanks!
Our pleasure, thanks for watching!
I fully agree about "tomato" cages. I mostly use them with peas that I grow in large pots starting in February, but I plan to try some for some of the larger pepper plants too. So far this year I'm having catastrophic success with both green beans and tomatoes, but only so-so with peppers and peas. One other pest I'd mention is slugs, in rainy weather. We had a couple crucial dry weeks in April but we are in the middle of a rainy stretch and the slugs damaged any smaller plants that were not elevated. Other years slugs have been much worse though -- every year is different.
Do older mature plants need to be hardened off?
eg, i have a 2-3 yr old habanero growing indoors perpetually that i'm thinking of moving out to the garden this season. (It's in an east facing window, and has ripe fruit currently.)
Yes, I’d still give it a gradual transition to the direct sun
i love this channel but they ought to make their advice regional in that here in NC mid 60 was last month.
I’m in New York and our temperature s range from 50’s during the day and 40’s at night. The temps has been fluctuating the past couple of weeks, but nights are still very cold.
This week we will finally get temperatures in the 60’s but later in the afternoons. So yes, it’s extremely important that these videos include zones because some areas they have temperatures in the 70’s, 80’s & up right now! I’m in zone 7B. Going to start hardening off this week! The old saying for this area is to plant after Mother’s Day, because that’s when the weather temperature are less unpredictable & extremely cold. 🤷🏾♀️
What is a good method for getting rid of Pill Bugs? They took out two starter plants so far and I dont want to keep replacing those plants.
Something other than pill bugs got your plants. You caught the pill bugs eating your dead or dying plants.
Thank you
Thanks for a ton of good tips!
2:00 should you pick off the leaves with sunscald?
Great informative video.
Thank you!
Please 🙏can you do this in reverse for us living in the southern hemisphere? Add a 'what to do in May if you live south of the equator' video 🙏☺
I’m zone 9b. SW FL. I plant peppers in fall through winter. It is already 95 today-5/8/24. And the sun is scorching hot. I’m about to pull them because they are already stressed out from heat. Then the humidity comes. And they can get the poweder mildew. I am already harvesting my huge tomatos I planted end of Feb. Watermelon and squash ahould be ready end of this month. About the only thing I grow in summer is okra. And work on reammending beds through summer. To be ready for fall again
Great content as usual. I have heard that some recommend 10 degrees Celsius for overnight temperatures but you actually recommended 13?
They won't die in colder temps above freezing, but we try to play it on the safe side.
Hi, after 5 leaves, my chilli plant is not showing any growth? What to do, any idea?
Could be a lot of things..might need a larger pot, or a bit of fertilizer, or _less_ fertilizer, more light, etc..
I canʻt seem to get rid of my new leaves crinkling appearance on my peppers of about 3 months old. Nice and green otherwise even had a flower ! They are in the ground. Any ideas. Zone 12
Hello from East Texas! New Subscriber 🤗
Piney woods region? Beautiful part of Texas. Greetings from Victoria Tx. 👋
Hi guys on cross breeding pepper/chillies can you cross a pepper with a chillie or a tomato? Or are they to differeny genecticaly?
I wanted to start some habaneros/ghost peppers from seed this year and just couldn't get them started earlier ☹ I'm in zone 6A, just above Pittsburgh, PA.... can I start them now and have any hope of getting a harvest??? Not looking for tons but enough to make a bottle or 2 of hot sauce....
What can I do to make my pepper to germinate? And when I plant them, do I still water them or leave them be until they germinate. I have been waiting for a month and nothing is happening. When is the right time?
You probably need to put them on a heat mat. Search for the germination temperatures for the types of peppers you are trying to grow.
I'm trying to grow them indoor in the pot... And they are taking long to germinate ☹️
@@tuyeimohaidula8711 put them in a smaller container like a seedling tray or red solo cup and put them on a heat mat.
Thank you soo much.....
Great job
May
Ease them in to the sun over about a week or two
Will do boss.
I have orange spider mites everywhere
Deer love my pepper plants
YUP to the fences. Deer wrecked my plants the first couple years. Now if i plant, a fence goes up the same day
does the hardening time include cloudy days?
Large V8 juice bottles are the perfect size to cover pepper transplants on cool nights
What about soil temperature? If you transplant to soon?
Is that culantro you have there? If it is, have you got a link for heirloom seeds please?
Sweeeeeet ✊🏾😎🌶🫑🫑🫑🌶🌶
Great information😊