Best way to grow peppers

[Deleted User]

I grew sweet pepper planet last year and the seed took ages to germinate. I did eventually get several red peppers, at the end of the season but I don`t think I gave my plants the most optimum growing conditions. I have just ordered some different seeds from real seeds

What do you do in order to get a lot of good edible peppers?

Mersgoth

How to sow seeds

• Fill a 7.5cm pot with seed compost, level and tap to settle. Lightly firm.
• Scatter the seeds of your chosen variety thinly on top - most seeds germinate so you only need to sow two more seeds than you need in case of losses.
• Cover with a fine layer of vermiculite, water and label - this is important to help you identify them if sowing several varieties.
• Pop into a heated propagator or put a clear plastic bag over the top, secure with a rubber band and place on a windowsill.

After germination

• Your seeds should start to appear in about a week. Remove the pot from the propagator or take off the bag, and place on a light windowsill. Ensure the compost does not dry out.

Potting up seedlings

• When seedlings are about 2cm tall they can be moved to their own pot. Carefully loosen the compost, then gently hold a leaf and lift, while levering from beneath the roots with a dibber.
• Fill a 7.5cm pot with multipurpose compost, level and tap to settle.
• Make a hole in the centre of the compost with a dibber and lower in the seedling, until the leaves are just above the surface of the soil.
• Gently firm, water and label each plant. Keep plants in a light place, such as a windowsill or greenhouse.
• When roots show at the bottom of the pots, move into a bigger, 12cm pot, filled with multipurpose compost.

Aftercare

• When plants reach about 20cm tall give them some support by staking with a small cane or peastick and securing with garden twine.
• When they're about 30cm pinch out growing tips to increase branching.
• At the end of May plants can go outside. Pot them into their final container - a 5-litre pot will do. As the plants grow, swap the small stakes for a larger cane.
• In hot weather you may need to water twice a day. These plants are incredibly thirsty and dry compost will quickly lead to a check in growth. This applies particularly to plants grown in a greenhouse, where it can get very hot even in late summer.
• The first flowers will appear when the plants are quite small. When this happens feed weekly with a liquid feed high in potash, such as tomato fertiliser.

Mayflower10cat

I've only ever had real success with peppers in a polytunnel or greenhouse in our last house. Last year I bought some of those tall, plastic 'growhouses' from Wilko and stuck them over large plastic square tubs in the sunniest bit of the garden - I did tomatoes and peppers. Hoorah! We actually had a decent amount of tomatoes and some peppers (not many but they ripened and were a good size) for the first time in five years. I would have had more fruit if I'd watered more often!

angelavdavis

Like Mayflower, I have only had good luck in our very sunny conservatory with sweet and chilli peppers. I also start mine off in a heated propagator in late Jan.

Last year, I grew them in the greenhouse at the allotment and they were a disaster - that could have been because they weren't getting the tlc they were getting the year before in the conservatory or could just be last year.

I am going to split my crops this year - half in conservatory and half in greenhouse and see what the results are. Luckily because they were so prolific I am still using frozen chillis harvested the year before!