peppers combined with flowers in a container

Peppers are easy to grow from seed, but you also can purchase small plants at the local garden center in the beginning of the growing season. If you grow peppers from seed, you can grow a wider variety than what is available at the garden centers. All peppers are grown the same way, they have the same cultural requirements. There are almost 30 species of Capsicum, but in the mid-Atlantic area, we tend to grow three: C. annuum, C. chinense, and C. frutescens.

Within C. annum, there are many varieties and hybrids. Bell peppers are large and sweet, maturing in a red, yellow, or green color. These do not have capsaicin, the compound responsible for heat, due to a recessive gene that eliminates the capsaicin. Other peppers without capsaicin are the Italian frying peppers, Jimmy Nardello, Giant Marconi or Marconi, and banana or yellow wax peppers. C. annuum also includes hot peppers, also called chili peppers, which have capsaicin.

Capsaicin is primarily concentrated in the veins, ribs, and seeds. Removing these is one way to reduce the heat. Capsaicin is an oil which is why drinking water when you have eaten a particularly hot pepper does not help get rid of the burn. Instead, drink milk or eat yogurt, a banana, bread, pasta, or potatoes.

The Scoville scale is a measurement of the heat of a chili pepper recorded in Scoville Heat Units. It is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids among which capsaicin is the predominant component. This range is 0 to as high as 2,693,000 (Pepper X according to the Guinness World Records in 2023 whereas previously the Carolina Reaper was the hottest). Sweet peppers are 500 or less and include the bell pepper and the pimiento.

The C. chinense species is the habanero type of pepper – a type of chili pepper Native to South and Central America that includes habanero, scotch bonnet, and ghost pepper.

The C. frutescens species is another chili pepper native to South and Central America that produces small fruit that tend to grow upright. C. frutescens includes the tabasco pepper and the colorful ornamental varieties.

If you are really diving deep into peppers, there are two other species you can try to grow but likely you will have to start from seed as the plants usually are not available in this area.

Mad Hatter, a baccatum type sweet pepper with a unique shape that will turn red at maturity

The C. baccatum species has a wide variety of peppers, from sweet to hot, from South and Central America. Many are beautiful with unique shapes. These include bishop’s crown, Brazilian starfish, lemon drop, and the “aji” peppers (have “aji” in their name although not all aji peppers are in this genus).

The C. pubescens species has apple-shaped fruit and hairy foliage. They can be mild or very hot. Native to Peru and Bolivia, popular varieties include rocoto, manzano, and locoto.

Starting Peppers from Seed

If growing from seed, start indoors under lights about 4 to 6 weeks before the average last spring frost. Sow seeds about ¼ inch deep. They like warm rooms to germinate so if you are doing this in your basement, you may need a heating mat. Peppers are slow to germinate, the hottest peppers are the slowest. It could take more than a week to see anything. Direct sowing seeds is not recommended because the soil in May will be too cold.

sweet peppers in a container

In May, after frost has past, night temperature are consistently above 50 degrees, and soil temperatures are at least 60 degrees, move the plants outside or plant the ones you purchased from the garden center.

If you are moving your seedlings outside, remember to harden them off by gradually exposing them to light and the winds. If there is an unforeseen cold night, cover with a cloche or a 2-liter plastic soda bottle with the end cut off.

Transplanting into the Garden

Don’t rush to plant your peppers. They need warm temperatures so this could be June (or if you live in Virginia, after the dogwood blossoms have fallen). Peppers do best in soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7. Make sure you amend the soil with compost; they do not want too much clay. They need good drainage. Peppers also can be grown in raised beds or in containers that are at least 5 gallons with drainage holes. Place in full sun, at least 8 hours of sun a day, spaced at least 18 inches apart (from central stem to stem). They do not like to be crowded. Make sure your hose reaches them.

Unlike tomatoes, you don’t plant them as deep as possible. Plant the transplant so that the shoots are at the soil line as they were before transplanting.

Peppers are susceptible to sunscald which occurs on the fruit that has been exposed to intense direct sunlight. This could happen when you first plant them but will not kill the plant.

Usually, peppers do not need to be staked, nor do they need to be pruned.

Growing Peppers in the Summer

Peppers optimal temperatures for setting fruit is 65 to 85 degrees. However, the flowers can drop (i.e., not produce fruit) if the temperatures are above 90 degrees during the day and 75 degrees at night.

Jimmy Nardello, a sweet frying pepper

Peppers need fertilizer but withhold it when the plant starts to flower. A slow-release organic fertilizer with more phosphorus and potassium than nitrogen is best. You can use one especially formulated for tomatoes.

Like tomatoes, peppers can get blossom end rot. To prevent this, make sure the soil moisture is consistent, not varying widely between very wet and very dry.

The small fruit varieties do better in the mid Atlantic’s hot and humid summer than the large fruit varieties.

They fruit up until frost so if it is just one night of cold weather, you may be able to cover for the night to extend the harvest season. If you are expecting a freeze, harvest the mature ones.

Harvesting and Eating Peppers

You need to know your varieties’ mature stage fruit color. Although all peppers may be eaten in the green stage, there is more flavor and vitamins in a ripe, colored up pepper.

Temperature influences color on the pepper. Purple pigment develops under cool temperatures so if you see purple streaks on peppers, it is because the temperature is too cool (maybe in the fall). The purple color does not affect the flavor. However, that is why it is difficult for gardeners in the mid-Atlantic area to grow solid purple varieties – it is just too hot in the summer.

red and black ornamental peppers with dark foliage

When picking chili peppers, you may want to wear gloves as the capsaicin may irritate the skin. After cutting and preparing in the kitchen, wash your hands with soap afterwards and do not touch your face or eyes.  Remember that capsaicin is primarily concentrated in the veins, ribs, and seeds so you can reduce the heat in a chili pepper by removing these.

Peppers dry well and can be ground or crushed. Wash the pepper and either cut and leave open on paper plate inside the house or leave whole (but whole will take longer to dry). Often gardeners will string up the whole peppers to hang in the kitchen. Or dry the peppers in a dehydrator, the oven, or outside in the sun. Dried peppers have more flavor and heat.

Saving Pepper Seed

If you want to save pepper seeds, make sure the plant is an open-pollinated plant, not a hybrid. Peppers have perfect flowers (both male and female parts) therefore they can pollinate themselves and do not need bees. However, bees do visit peppers and can cross pollinate the peppers in your garden and with peppers in neighbors’ gardens. This cross pollination occurs within a species. If you grew more than one variety, such as a sweet and a hot in the same genus (C. annum), be aware that bees may have cross pollinated them. Therefore, if you saved sweet pepper seeds and grow the seeds the next year, the resulting fruit could be hot, not sweet. To prevent cross pollination, you would have to separate your varieties of one species by 300 to 1600 feet or grow different species.

To save seeds, simply slice open a very mature pepper and remove the seeds. Place the seeds on wax paper to dry inside the house. Seeds are dry if they snap when you bend them. When dried, put in a container, seal, and label. Store in a cool, dark, and dry place.

You will get good germination rates from saved seeds for about 3 years.

Final Note

The mid-Atlantic units of the Herb Society of America host a Chili Celebration every October at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington DC. This is a free event on Saturday, October 12, 2024, in the afternoon. The Units come to the National Herb Garden and set up tables of peppers to taste as well as products made with chili peppers plus a lot of information on growing peppers. The National Herb Garden also has pepper plants that are fruiting at this time. Yes, some of these are hot so we also provide milk and bread. See you there!