Growing hot peppers is a bit different from growing sweet peppers. They can be finicky, but once you get the hang of their requirements and nutritional needs, they are a rewarding culinary crop.
Hot peppers are an integral part of so many cuisines, and I use them in some form almost every evening. From fresh peppers in salsas, marinades, and pepper jams to dried peppers and spice blends, hot peppers are versatile and add so much to an otherwise everyday meal.
However, the hotter the pepper is, the more finicky they tend to be to grow. Also, hotter peppers need a longer growing season than many other vegetables.
Take for instance the jalapeño pepper. This is one of the most widely available “hot peppers” around. Some people debate if the jalapeño should even be considered hot. They rank between 2,500 and 8,000 Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville scale, which puts them in the “medium” range of intensity. Fittingly, this moderate ranking makes it one of the easiest hot peppers to grow. It can reach maturity in as little as 75 days if the temperatures are warm enough. And they need little care or special fertilization compared to other peppers.
The Carolina Reaper, on the other hand, likes a bit more fertilizer, a lot more heat, and is more picky about water requirements. And they still can take 100-120 days or more until maturity.
So, how do you prepare for growing hot peppers? Here are some tips to improve the nutrition the plants receive and allow them to produce lots of peppers.
Tips for growing hot peppers
- Peppers need light, porous soil. It needs to be well-draining, and they like to have oxygen at their roots. Therefore, it is good to use soil which has some perlite or chunks of bark in it. Or, rabbit pellets work well, too. A good quality potting soil really does make a difference.
- Amend your soil with a good amount of compost. Not only will this will help with drainage, which is super important for peppers, but it adds in critical micronutrients.
- Never transplant peppers until the weather has sufficiently warmed in the spring. Cooler weather will stunt the growth, and cold weather, even when it is not frosty, could kill your pepper. Wait until the weather has warmed consistently to above 60 degrees. (Because of the long growing season for hot peppers, this means you almost always have to start your seedlings indoors)
- Peppers consume a lot of calcium and phosphorus, so it helps to add eggshells, fish meal and bone meal to your pepper planting hole.
- Limit the amount of nitrogen you use as fertilizer. Choose something with a low first number (the first number represents the nitrogen) and opt instead for something with a higher middle (phosphorus) number. Nitrogen only encourages leaf growth, and you want the plant to set more fruit.
- You can also add an aspirin (salicylic acid) to the planting hole to help prevent plant diseases, just like you would for your tomatoes.
- I always use a small plant support for my peppers. This allows me to put a wind block over each individual plant in the spring. The plant support also supports the branches after the plant has gotten larger. Plants with bigger peppers will need the supports, but even smaller peppers can use the cages as protection during blustery weather. You’ll want to remove the wind block once the peppers start to flower, as they are often wind-pollinated.
- After the peppers are about 8 inches tall, add high phosphorus fertilizer. Peppers don’t need a whole lot of fertilization, so apply in moderation. But you do want to encourage more flowers on pepper plants, so a little phosphorus is good.
Tips for adjusting the heat of your peppers
Did you know that you can grow hotter (or milder) peppers within the range of the Scoville ranking for your pepper? This is why most peppers have a range rather than a hard and fast Scoville number.
Just like wine grapes, a stressed pepper will also produce more flavorful fruit. In the case of the pepper, this flavor is in the form of capsaicin, the compound which makes the pepper hot. Capsaicin is produced when the plant is stressed due to lack of water.
One method to trick the plant into producing more capsaicin is to withhold water on a larger plant – one that has a great root structure and has been flowering and starting to produce fruit. Water again as soon as you see the leaves curl just slightly. At that point you can water well. Then withhold water again until the soil is again dry and you see the plant leaves starting to curl again. Repeat this pattern of withholding and watering for super – hot peppers.
Additionally, the longer you leave the peppers on the plant, the hotter they will be. The peppers continue to produce more capsaicin all the way up until they are harvested. This explains why red ripe peppers are usually hotter than green ones.
What do you think? Let me know how your peppers turn out this year!
