How to grow chilli peppers?
Read everything you need to know about growing popular hot peppers. If you love chilli, all you need is a complete growbox with accessories, and you will be set for a spicy harvest several times a year. We will also add tips for growing chilli in the garden or in a greenhouse. Whether you prefer growing hot peppers indoor or outdoor, you will never need to go to the shop for them again, and you can also choose specific varieties that you will enjoy.
Variety and heat are characteristics that play an important role even before you start growing chilli peppers. Individual chilli varieties require their own specific growing conditions. However, these differences would only slow you down at the beginning unnecessarily, so we will simplify everything as much as possible so that you can start growing chilli peppers with the prospect of a hot and juicy harvest. You only need to avoid a few basic mistakes and shortcomings, which we will focus on.
Pre-growing chilli peppers
- Seed quality and germination time
Vital seeds are the basis. And the basic prerequisite is that they have not been stored for longer than 3 years. To ensure germination, they should also be stored in a dry, dark and cool place. Apart from the variety capsicum pubescens, whose seeds are naturally black, do not germinate seeds on which you notice black spots. Obvious mechanical deformities, softening, or visible signs of pests or mould are also undesirable. It is worth selecting the seeds. Choose only the largest ones with a proven history and clear genetic potential.
When it comes to pre-growing chilli peppers, you are probably mainly interested in how long it takes from the start of germination until you can look forward to new growth. For most varieties, the germination time is a maximum of three weeks. Varieties such as Habanero or Tupin require twice as long, up to six weeks.
- Correct timing
It is essential to determine the sowing time if you are growing chilli peppers somewhere other than in a growbox. In a grow tent, you do not need to deal with timing, which is a huge advantage of growing chilli peppers indoor. The disadvantage is the consumption of electrical energy by the artificial lighting source. In sunlight, chilli plants need an average of 6-9 months to ripen their fruits. This means that when growing outdoors (outdoor), young chilli seedlings need to be pre-grown during the last frosts in early spring, ideally transplanted outdoors after the last frost, and then the ripe fruits harvested before the first winter frosts.
- Sowing media and climatic conditions
Of course, the climatic conditions for growing chilli peppers outdoors do not play much in favour of growers in Central Europe, and pre-growing is one of the factors that can compensate for the unfavourable climate. Another option is in polytunnels or greenhouses, the advantage of which is the extension of the plants’ vegetative period and getting closer to ideal climatic conditions. It is, of course, also worth choosing the most resilient chilli varieties for growing.
Which medium should you choose for successful pre-growing of chilli peppers? Probably the gentlest way to germinate is to use rockwool, or mineral wool, from which the popular Grodan propagation cubes are made. These are inert, so they are also perfect for hydroponic growing of chilli peppers.
You can also use a quality substrate for pre-growing, but do not forget to ensure its sterility. When using a substrate, it is important not to sow the seed deeper than 3 mm below its surface.
During germination and pre-growing, it is important to maintain an optimal temperature and relatively high humidity in the growing space. Mini greenhouses and propagators or propagators (in combination with grow light) will make your work easier during pre-growing and increase the likelihood that you will transplant vital seedlings a little later. A simple way to successful seed germination and pre-growing of chilli seedlings is the practical SMALL propagation set.
At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that individual varieties have their own specific requirements. To simplify things, we can state a temperature of 29 °C as universal for chilli peppers. And it is precisely in a propagator that you will be able to maintain a constant temperature much more easily. This also applies if you decide to maintain the optimal temperature so that a specific variety germinates for you. Let us give at least a few examples. The suitable temperature for germinating tropical varieties of the chinense genus is 24-32 °C, whereas for germinating varieties of the annuun genus it is ideal to maintain a temperature in the range of 10-24 °C.
Our TIP: Shogun Start will provide young plants with full-strength trace elements at the time when they are still weak and need them most. Great nutrition for seedlings of all chilli varieties!
Transplanting chilli plants
The more we help young plants in the early stages of development, and this does not apply only to chilli peppers, the more they will repay us in adulthood with stable growth, vitality and the final quality of the crop.
During the pre-growing stage, the key factors were mainly temperature and humidity inside the growing space. As soon as cotyledons appear on the plant, light is added to these climatic factors as well! The day should already be sufficiently long when transplanting chilli plants. If young plants lack light, you can provide supplementary lighting (see below). A light deficit can be recognised by the fact that pepper plants stretch their stems upwards, making them fragile and unstable.
If you are growing plants indoor in a growbox, we recommend in particular full-spectrum LED lighting by Lumatek, which perfectly simulates natural sunlight for them. You can learn more in a separate article dedicated to a comparison of the TOP LED lights. In propagators or for supplementary lighting of shaded areas in the grow tent, you can use the 100W full-spectrum supplementary Lumatek BAR 2.9 light. Discharge lamps can also be used as a light source, which is why the topic of growing under artificial lighting, as well as the differences between lighting technologies, is summarised in another HPS vs. LED article.
Transplant young plants into the growing substrate or soil together with the rockwool base. This way you will not unnecessarily pull at the plant’s roots and you will increase the success rate of transplanting. This also applies if you used peat tablets Jiffy. Here we will briefly return to the choice of propagation medium, because although both rockwool and Jiffy allow a young plant to be transplanted with its root ball, the casing of peat tablets breaks down over time, unlike rockwool, and does not prevent the roots from further development. The fact that rockwool does not break down can, on the other hand, cause problems for weaker plants during growth or metabolism. If you use hydroponic systems, prefer rockwool. If you germinated, for example, on a damp paper towel or by another method, remember that the first roots are very sensitive and require the most careful handling during transplanting.
The minimum size of a pot for growing one plant is at least 10x10 cm in the case of chilli peppers. We recommend trying aerated pots instead of cheap plastic pots, for example HERCULES.
Caring for mature chilli plants
When it comes to caring for mature plants, we will again focus on the key factors leading from trouble-free ripening to the intense and fresh flavour of the spicy fruits:
- Light: Hot peppers are classified, just like sweet peppers, as light-loving plants. If you are growing chilli outdoors, it is therefore important to choose a place where the sun’s rays fall for as long as possible during the day. Plenty of sunlight (in indoor growing, full-spectrum lighting replaces it for the plants - see above) also means plenty of energy for pepper plants, which they then put into the development of the root system, flowers and, above all, fruits. It is important to choose a place with sufficient light intensity, but too much of a good thing is harmful, so be careful in the hot summer months if you are growing chilli peppers in a garden greenhouse with clear glass, to avoid scorching the plants. Chilli peppers require a slightly atypical photoperiod, namely: 14 hours of light - 10 hours of darkness.
- Temperature: The good news is that nowadays you can easily obtain so-called acclimatised varieties on the market. These are pre-adapted to our climatic conditions, but that is not yet a reason to completely forget that nature is simply nature, and so even these varieties of mature plants have a “coded” tendency to return to their original requirements from tropical areas. That is why they do not tolerate frosts well and low temperatures are very exhausting for them. This can lead, for example, to slowed growth. It therefore makes no sense to plant seedlings on days with short sunshine, when the weather outside is still relatively cold. The opposite extreme is temperatures that are too high, above 35 °C, which are typical of unventilated greenhouses and cause significant metabolism problems for mature plants. Chilli peppers appreciate it when you ensure air movement in the upper parts of the plants. Outdoors, wind takes care of this. In a greenhouse, we recommend ventilating often and ideally near the ceiling. Indoors, a circulation fan will come in handy.
- Humidity: High air humidity is suitable during germination and pre-growing, for example in a propagator, as already mentioned. However, although this may be surprising for originally tropical plants, it is no longer beneficial for mature chilli peppers. A typical problem is therefore steamy polytunnels that are poorly ventilated. Practically any insufficiently ventilated growing environment is often the cause of mould. Watering is also related to humidity. Mature chilli plants need to be watered with lukewarm and sufficiently settled water. Beginning growers often make a major mistake in summer, when it is hot, and plants watered with cold water suffer a considerable temperature shock. Another common mistake, which you should definitely avoid, is permanently waterlogged soil. The ideal state, on the other hand, is soil that is kept slightly moist on an ongoing basis. During the fruit ripening period, we recommend reducing watering a little more to prevent osmotic pressures in the fruits, which can cause ripening peppers to split. Reducing watering at this stage is also desirable in terms of increasing the heat of the final product. Are you interested in what affects the heat level of individual chilli varieties? It is a substance called capsaicin, the concentration of which affects the heat of a given variety, and by the heat you can also estimate the time until harvest, because it usually holds that the hotter the variety, the longer it takes to ripen.
Our TIP: Not only with chilli does it apply that the cleaner the water we use to water the plants, the more vital and tastier the harvest we will get. Therefore, we recommend reading the article Reverse osmosis (RO).
- Soil properties: Soil preparation is important. Well-loosened soil, or an aerated substrate, is an excellent basis for a beautiful and abundant harvest. For this purpose, the substrate for chilli peppers is enriched with perlite. A versatile natural helper for improving soil properties is vermiculite. For growing peppers, alkaline soil is ideal. In hydroponics, expanded clay balls known as clay pebbles (hydroton) are most commonly used.
Our TIP: If you are looking for quality soil that will allow you to grow your own chilli in organic quality, we recommend, for example, BioNova Bio Soilmix.
- Fertilisers: The most important elements in pepper nutrition are carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, manganese, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, boron, chlorine and molybdenum. When growing chilli peppers, you have the option of choosing top-quality fertilisers from the Jungle Indabox brand, made in the Czech Republic, which are also specially adapted directly for growing chilli peppers thanks to the Jungle GARDEN product line. You need the basic fertiliser Garden BASE and, with it, the specialised component, in the case of fertilising chilli peppers G11. (You can use the same procedure for other popular types of herbs, vegetables, fruit, as well as ornamental flowers including roses. Choose the larger BASE component pack for growing citrus fruits, strawberries or tomatoes right through to summer lettuce, spinach and cress.) From the very beginning of the vegetative phase you can also try the premium liquid fertiliser Chilli Focus from Growth Technology.
- Plant protection: We have already explained that soil that is too wet or a steamy growing space is an invitation to fungal diseases in plants. Furthermore, do not let chilli peppers grow outdoors in the presence of weeds, which provide shelter for harmful insects. Check the plants regularly during the growing cycle and rely above all on prevention. An excellent helper in the protection of chilli plants will be, for example, Canna CURE - pest spray. You can learn more in a separate article: How to deal with pests?
Hydroponic pot for easy growing of chilli peppers
We have saved the extra handy helper for the end! It is a hydroponic pot, which is very popular among home chilli growers! This design piece represents, from a functional point of view, a circulation system that starts automatically every three hours thanks to the built-in pump, which floods the entire clay pebbles, and you only change the watering. No timers are needed, no watering, the pot works automatically by itself once plugged into the socket.
If you do not yet have any experience with growing chilli peppers, we recommend less hot varieties for beginners to start with, which are among the less demanding ones, such as Tabasco, Habanero Chocolate, Apache, Giallo or Serrano Balin.
Do not hesitate to ask us anything you are interested in. We will also be happy to advise you on choosing specific products and their use. We are here for you at the well-known e-mail address info@higarden.cz. We look forward to your questions!
We also recommend these products:
- BioNova VitaSol
- Shogun fertilisers
- Digital temperature and humidity meter VF with external probe
- Everything for growing chilli peppers
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