How to Grow Peppers in Containers, Complete Growing Guide

what's going on growers it's  James Prigioni coming to you live   from jersey today me and Tuck are going to show  you how to easily grow peppers in containers   so you can be harvesting fresh peppers  from your backyard or porch let's go this is the end goal right here to have  organically grown peppers in containers that   are fresh and ready to be eaten now let me show  you how anyone can grow peppers just like this   the first thing we need to do is choose which  varieties of peppers that we want to grow   i suggest you try one of these two varieties  or even both of them these are some of my   favorite kinds to the left me here we've got  the criolla de cocina an excellent variety   that i suggest you get into the ground and another  one to my right here this is the jimmy nardello a   fantastic pepper as well now that we've chosen  which variety of peppers that we want to grow   next we can start getting our seeds planted about  six to eight weeks before our last expected frost   date i like to plant my seeds in cells and use  a high quality potting mix like happy frog soil   after filling my trays with a quality potting mix  i plant my pepper seeds about a quarter of an inch   deep then i water the whole tray cover that tray  with a plastic cover and then put it in my house   on top of a heat pad i place my tray on a heat mat  because pepper seeds will germinate based on the   temperature of the soil so if the temperature of  the soil is about 85 degrees fahrenheit then the   pepper seeds will only take about seven to ten  days to sprout but if the temperature of the   soil is like 55 degrees then the pepper seeds will  not germinate once my young pepper seedlings first   try to push their way out of the soil i take my  tray and bring it to location that gets full sun i   prefer bringing my tray into the greenhouse before  the pepper seedlings truly emerge out of the soil   because if you allow the peppers to pop out of the  soil in a spot that doesn't have a lot of light   and is warm your pepper seedlings are going to  grow really weak and really spindly at the start   after all my pepper seedlings have sprouted i  thin out the weakest ones and leave only six   peppers per cell once the pepper seedlings have  two true leaves they're ready to be transplanted   to a larger pot i like going from my small cells  to a four inch pot i don't like going from my   small cells right to my five gallon bucket the  reason for this is because it's too cold outside   for me to put my plants outside so i have to take  these plants and put them in the greenhouse so   when i transplant into the small four-inch pots  that allows me more space in the greenhouse after   the young plants growing for a few weeks in the  greenhouse or an indoor grow room they can be   transplanted into their larger pots before we  transplant our peppers into their final home   i want to mention that it's really important to  have good drainage when growing in pots because if   your plants don't drain well then that encourages  root rot so what i like to do is i take these five   gallon food safe containers that you can get from  like home depot or lowes then i drill a bunch of   holes in the bottom with a half inch drill bit  this may look like a lot of holes but what i do   is i put a tray underneath my bucket this way  anything that flows through when i water my   plant it captures that and then the bucket and the  plant are able to suck that moisture back up this   way i'm not just flushing all the nutrition out of  my soil every time i water it now that we've got   all of our plants ready and our container ready we  can start working on our soil so you could either   use a quality potting mix like a happy frog soil  and just plant it to that or you can make your own   soil like i do my basic soil mixture consists of  three equal parts it's one part either peat moss   or coco coir whichever one you prefer one part  compost and then one part either vermiculite   or perlite vermiculite is going to help with  water retention perlite is going to help with   drainage so whichever one you want to use that's  up to you i take all those three ingredients mix   them together with a tarp and then put my soil  into the five gallon buckets i'm using mushroom   compost as my compost component and because it was  already used to grow mushrooms the nutrition can   be a little depleted the mushrooms have sucked a  lot of the available nitrogen out of the compost   so to compensate for this what i like to do is  mix in about a half of a cup of an all-purpose   fertilizer into my soil now that our buckets are  filled with soil and our plants are matured we can   start transplanting our plants into their final  five gallon bucket homes when i fill my buckets   with my homemade soil i purposely only fill it  about 80 fill this way later on i could come by   and put a top dressing of some fertilized soil  around the base of my plant when it needs it   when transplanting i also inoculate my plants  roots with the mykos this way they have the   mycorrhizal association then i plant my pepper  at the same depth that it came out of the other   pot at this time i also put a steak in my bucket  this way later on in the season when the pepper   plant is loaded with fruit the steak can help  keep it upright when it gets really heavy when   transplanting your peppers you want to actually  pass up on the ones that have flowers on them   or already have fruit on them because these ones  won't produce well pepper plants take about two   months from the time that you set them out  to the time they actually start producing   so if you have a short season make sure you pick  some pepper varieties that are early producing   it's very important that before you bring  your pepper plants outside that you first   harden them off hardening them off is essentially  just getting your plants acclimated to the outdoor   growing conditions before actually bringing them  out there so what i like to do is the first day   i'll bring my pepper plants out to like a shaded  location and leave them out there for like an hour   or two then as the days progress i'll bring them  bring them to areas that get more light and once   the pepper plants can stay outside for at least  24 hours on their own then i know they're ready to   be transplanted outside so you could either harden  your plants off before you put them in five gallon   buckets or after just make sure that you harden  your plants off at this point your pepper plant   should be in cruise control just make sure you  keep up on watering them but it's important not   to over water at this time what i like to do is  judge if the pepper plant needs water based on   the weight of the bucket so what i'll do is  i'll lift up the bucket if it feels really   light like it is now then i know that the pepper  plant needs water i'll come out in the morning   and water this pepper plant making sure not  to get any of the leaves wet when i'm ordering   so i'll water it in just like this then you'll  notice at the bottom i've got a tray so if i water   just a little too much or the water passes through  quickly then the tray allows it catches the water   and then the plant can suck that moisture right  back up after the plant is finished watering and   suck that moisture back up i'll come by and  lift the plant up just to gauge the weight   so i know when it starts to get lighter as  the weather starts to warm i like to put a   mulch down around my plants to help retain the  moisture and hope and also help the temperature   of the soil stay consistent so i like to use  either a diced leaf mulch a nice thick one or   something like a wood chip mulch once the peppers  start blooming and producing they're going to be   draining a lot of nutrition from the plant so to  compensate for this i like to put a top dressing   around the plant so what i'll do is i'll take a  five gallon bucket i'll put some of my homemade   soil into that and then i'll take say about  a third a cup of an all-purpose fertilizer   mix that into my soil then i'll take that  top dress it around the base of my plant   then water it all in take my mulch put it back  around the base of my plant and then water it   in again as your pepper plants start to head into  production you want to have a steak in your bucket   so you could tie the pepper plants to it just to  keep them nice and strong and sturdy so if you   didn't put one in earlier in the season i suggest  you do it now but it's advised to put it in   earlier because now you're going to have to push  that stick through some of the roots in your soil   when it comes to harvesting most sweet peppers  will get even sweeter when they go from green   to red yellow purple whatever color the  predetermined variety is said to change   to that's when they taste the best but early in  the season it's a good idea to go out there and   cut some of these peppers off before they ripen  because if you allow the pepper plant to hold on   to some fruit and let it mature then this plant  is going to stop producing new flowers and mostly   just focus on the production of seed this is what  we've been waiting for time to harvest but it's   very important when harvesting your peppers you  don't just want to yank at the peppers because   that could really damage the plant what you want  to do is take a pruner like this and make sure you   cut the peppers off the plant so you can safely  remove them you don't do any damage to the plant   also when the expectation of a frost is coming  you want to make sure you come out and harvest   all your peppers because once the frost comes  it's going to end your pepper production unless   you bring them inside or in a greenhouse so  let's taste one of these jimmy nardello peppers   such a beautiful pepper a sweet pepper and most  the ones i grow are sweet peppers although a lot   of the information i've given you it pertains  to hot peppers as well let's take a bite incredibly sweet strong pepper flavor absolutely  delicious jimmy nardello it's such an incredible   variety and if you are new to growing peppers  you need to try the jimmy dardello it's an   old italian heirloom been around for such a  long time incredibly incredibly productive   very just all around amazing plant you can see  and it's a staple in the garden every single year   another variety you should try if you're new  to gardening or haven't tried it before is the   criolla de cocino another heirloom variety that's  been around for a while this one is actually   hails from nicaragua so it's got an incredible  awesome shape to the peppers they almost look   like they're like folding up it's just a beautiful  specimen you can see how incredibly productive it   is and they have an excellent flavor as well  so if you're new to gardening if you're new   to growing peppers you need to make sure you get  these two varieties in they grow fantastic in pots   and man they have great flavor that's today's  video growers thanks for watching i hope you   enjoyed it i hope you got something out  of it i hope me and tuck encourage you   to get some peppers into containers if you don't  have the space even if you do have this space   like me it still was a blast to grow in containers  and they did fantastic me and tuck were thinking   just recently and like i was like saying it in  my head you know just because you don't have   space that's not a good enough excuse not to  grow some of your food so it's like no space   no problem growing buckets so that's kind of like  one of the ideas and like the heart behind this   video where we want to encourage people to get  some food growing in their backyard like again   not having space to plant into the ground  that's not a good enough excuse it just   it really isn't so me and tucker thankful you guys  came along with us we hope we brought you some   value in this video and we hope that you can grow  your own pepper plants successfully in your garden   the things that i did to grow those peppers like  beautifully and get good production i shared with   you everything that i did so as long as you follow  a lot of these instructions i'm confident that you   could have fantastic harvest also before i let you  go i want to mention where's the boss i hear him   in the background over here let's take a look  at him this guy hasn't been in the video a lot   but he's doing his own thing hanging out in the  backyard it's got hot out again today so he's   just relaxing hanging out among the watermelons  and you know just supervising basically the   important stuff but before i let you go i want to  mention and thank one of our new channel members   shannon thomson thanks for being a part of team  grow thanks for contributing thanks for having   your hand in everything we do back here it  it means so much to me and the little boss   i also want to say to grab some of the merch down  at jamesprigione.com grab a food foresrt shirt   grab a team gross shirt and join the team tuck  and james will be back again real soon we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 306,571

Keywords: how to grow peppers in containers, how to grow peppers in pots, how to grow peppers from seed, how to grow peppers, growing peppers, pepper tips, pepper growing tips, gardening, organic gardening, porch garden, porch gardening, tips for peppers, pepper, organic pepper, peppers in 5 gallon bucket, 5 gallon bucket, 5 gallon bucket garden, bucket garden, James prigioni

Id: EscCh57fHcQ

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2022