Our Homestead

I wanted to say here that I've read that before... don't over-fertilize but in my experience you can fertilize a lot before it is too much. Last year I grew some pepper plants in pure compost and they did just fine. I got nice peppers off of them.
Also in my experience the most important thing is heat. If you live in a cold climate, growing them in the greenhouse would give a better yield.

Another fact good to know... I have noticed that hot peppers take much longer to mature than sweet peppers. You would expect the opposite since sweet peppers are usually bigger than hot peppers but no. My hot pepper plants always blossom long after the sweet pepper plants blossom.

Peppers seem to be hit or miss, I have no idea why. Some years we have a huge yield and other years, it's just poor.

I've learned a few things over the years though, so here are some tips:

- Peppers should not be planted too close together. One year I planted them in a close 'block' and only the plants on the outside got a few peppers.
- They also should not be planted too far apart. Pepper plants should "touch", that's the rule of thumb.
- Don't fertilize until after they blossom. Over-fertilized pepper plants will look big and lovely, but they will not give you any peppers.
- Start your plants indoors, or buy them at a greenhouse. They take longer than most other things in the garden, so they need lots of time to grow and form peppers.
- Give the plants dome support. I've seen pepper plants fall over in a bad wind storm.