If you’ve ever grown green peppers, then you already know how to grow hot peppers. All peppers belong to the genus Capsicum and although green peppers are the mildest in the family, they all like the same growing conditions. Peppers originated in Central America and as such are tropical plants. They are sun and warmth loving plants that like a moist soil, but don’t like “wet feet”.
If you’re new to this type of plant, then you’ll find that growing them is one of the easiest and most satisfying parts of gardening. Once you’ve achieved success (and it’s easy to do) at how to grow hot peppers, you’ll most likely be growing several cultivars at a time!Chile
However, when you do grow more than one variety of hot peppers, be sure to plant them in different areas of your garden or pollinating insects that don’t understand the difference between a habanera and a green chili will be cross-pollinating your pepper plants, resulting in some surprising taste sensations at harvest time!
Peppers act as a Natural Repellant
Another reason to plant them in several areas is that these plants are quite pest resistant and will even act as a repellant, keeping some garden pests out of your garden entirely!
However, one garden pest that doesn’t mind the spice of hot peppers is the cutworm. It’s a good idea to protect your young pepper transplants with a collar to keep these culprits at bay!
Aeroponics Indoor Garden - AeroGrow AeroGarden Chili Peppers Seed Kit
You can start your experiment from seeds and if you do, you may find that growing peppers is as much fun as growing them in your garden!
Transplanting young plants
However, whether you intend to grow them inside or out, after the seedlings have germinated and your pepper plants have their first true leaves, they need to be transplanted into what will be their permanent flower and fruit gardening guides home.
True leaves on pepper plants, as on many others, are the second set of leaves. The first set is actually the “seed leaves” that become visible as the sprout breaks out of the ground. In fact, if you look closely, you’ll see that the seed leaves of most plants look very much alike. The second set of leaves, or true leaves, will look like tiny versions of mature pepper plant leaves.
Learn how to grow hot peppers and you’ll have a rainbow of color as well as flavor. Hot peppers are available in every color from yellow, to green, to red, to purple and provide your garden with some real eye-candy! Sugar and spice and everything nice… could be the nursery rhyme was about hot peppers!