How to Grow Peppers: A Complete Guide

Peppers/sweet peppers (Capsicum) and Bell peppers all belong to the same species class, Capsicum annum. They belong to the fruit category and come in all shapes, colours and sizes as well as flavours to enhance your salads and cooking. Growing peppers is relatively easy and ideal for first-time growers.

One interesting fact about peppers is that the different colours represent when they were picked during the harvest season. So, you can choose when to pick the peppers from your garden, depending on your favourite colour!

Before you start growing peppers, remember that these plants need a lot of warmth and sunlight, so growing them in a greenhouse is ideal, especially with the unpredictable UK weather. If you are growing them outdoors, make sure to plant them in a sunny spot. What’s ideal about growing peppers is that they don’t require much space. 

So, how easy is it to grow peppers? Let’s get started.

When to Plant Peppers?

The first step in your pepper growing process is to decide on the variety you would like. Sweet peppers come in a wide range of varieties, from round to pointed to large or small fruit. Consider when you are sowing your peppers, as you can choose between the larger, outdoor variant or the smaller, indoor variant. You can buy sweet pepper or capsicum seeds from your local garden centre. 

Growing peppers is fairly time-consuming, taking anywhere from 60 to 90 days. They can be sown from seed from February onwards; ideally in a propagator as they like warmth and bright sunlight. You can use cling film or a clear lidded tray as an alternative. Keep your pepper seeds in a warm and sunny place and remove the cling film once the seedlings appear.

Keep growing peppers indoors until May or till the last of the frost has passed and it is warm and sunny outdoors. 

Re-pot your pepper seedlings into bigger pots before their permanent growing place. Choose from grow bags, large containers in the greenhouse or a full sun position outside if you are in a milder area. Remember to harden them off beforehand.

When growing peppers outdoors, select a spot that receives a minimum of six hours of uninterrupted sunlight (or thereabouts, if you’re in the UK). When transplanting, make sure you plant them at least 12 to 18 inches apart. The hole should also be about 8 to 10 inches deep and the soil must be well-drained. Add a mixture of fertilisers and manure for optimal health. 

Peppers require a little water regularly, which can be difficult to get right. Compost does dry out quickly, therefore you should water containers and grow bags generously. Try not to waterlog though! You can prevent pests with mist.

When to Pick Peppers?

The pepper plants will benefit from some tomato feed once they start to flower.  You can also pinch them out to help encourage growth. They may require some staking to help support the growing plants once they produce fruit.

All peppers will be green initially, turning to red, yellow, orange and occasionally purple. The longer you leave the fruit, the less it will produce, therefore it may pay off to pick some early ones and/or pick more regularly.

When growing peppers indoors or in the greenhouse, they are usually ready to harvest by mid-summer. When growing peppers outdoors, they usually take more time to mature and are usually ready to pick by August. They will be plump and picked easily - check your variety for sowing and harvesting times.

Peppers add wonderful flavour to sauces and soups as well as being eaten raw, adding vibrant colour to a salad. They can be blanched and frozen and also dehydrated.

When growing peppers, be on the lookout for aphids and sap-sucking insects. These are often attracted by the sweet smell of the capsicum and can quickly infest the crop. Slugs and snails often eat up the younger plants, so be careful until the plant matures. 

You may also be interested in our Chillies page.