How to Grow Hot Peppers in Pots Indoors
Hot peppers (Capsicum annuum) add heat to your cooking and decorate your home with their bright fruits. Getting the tiny seeds to germinate can be challenging, but once they start sprouting, they are relatively easy to maintain. Select clean plastic pots or grow trays to start your pepper plants. Avoid pots containing peat, because this can prevent the peppers from germinating. Keep your hot pepper plants in a warm, well-lit spot and you can look forward to plenty of red, green or yellow-orange peppers.
Fill 4-inch plastic pots with the potting mix to within 1 inch of the top.
Press one seed into each prepared pot, at least 1/4 inch deep, into the center of the potting mixture. Cover the planted seeds with potting mix.
Place the pots in a warm, well-ventilated room on a warming mat set to a steady 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Water the plants with warm water until water runs from the drainage holes in the bottom of the pots. Keep the pepper plants uniformly moist, but do not over-water them or the seeds might rot.
Place 40-watt grow lights 3 to 6 inches from the top of the plants and ensure the plants receive 12 to16 hours of light daily after the seeds germinate and sprouts are visible through the soil. The grow lights typically increase the ambient temperature, so decrease the temperature of the heating mat by 5 to 10 F.
Water the plants with a 50-50 mix of water and liquid fertilizer once a week after the seedlings reach 2 inches. A 15-15-15 nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus mix is best for indoor hot pepper plants.
Transplant the seedlings to 8- to 10-inch pots when the plants are at least 4 tall. Fill the larger pots with the potting mix to within 1 inch of the top. Make an indentation in the center and place the seedling into this hole, gently pressing the roots into the soil. Cover the roots and the base of the plant with additional potting mix.
Place the plants in a window where they can receive direct sunlight for 10 to 12 hours per day, or use grow lamps set 6 inches from the tops of the plants. The plants typically produce fruit in 90 to 110 days.
Harvest the peppers when the fruits are shiny and firm. Grasp each pepper near the stem and gently tug it loose. Most varieties of hot peppers will continue to produce fruit for several months indoors.
4-inch plastic pots
Soilless potting mix
Fluorescent grow lights
8- to 10-inch pots
Things You Will Need
Use 3- to 5-gallon containers if you want to transplant several plants into a single pot.
- 4-inch plastic pots
- Soilless potting mix
- Warming mat
- Fluorescent grow lights
- Liquid fertilizer
- 8- to 10-inch pots
- Use 3- to 5-gallon containers if you want to transplant several plants into a single pot.