I love hot peppers, all types of them. My brother in law gave me some seedlings and some peppers and I tried this year to grow indoors hot peppers. I had 3 peppers and I use the seeds and 4 seedlings. From the 3 peppers I got lots of seeds but in the end I got only 4 plants. The big ones are from my brother in law and the small ones are mine. I have 4 plants of the hottest pepper in the world. Can’t wait to see the peppers. It will go great in my Red chili jam.
I have “Bird Eye Demon”, “Bishops Hat”, “Carolina Reaper” and “Habanero White” and other but I don’t remember the name. This is the first time when I try to grow them so it is a process. I will keep you inform about my progress.
What I learnt so far:
- Growing your own chili peppers is a great project if you love hot peppers and want to have your own supply.
- Chili seeds don’t need to be planted very deep.
- The multi cell trays will make for easier and safer transplanting later on.
- You should use a good quality, general-purpose compost, do not use garden soil.
- Because you’re growing the chilies inside, it doesn’t really matter what time of year you plant.
- Indoors, you may have better luck growing smaller chili varieties, such as habaneros and cayenne peppers.
- As the seeds germinate over the next two to four weeks, keep the soil moist, but not soggy, as the seeds germinate and sprout.
- You can cover the seed pots with a plastic lid or a clear plastic bag – it will reduce how much you have to water.
- Make sure that the temperature stays above 65 °F (18.3 °C and keep the seeds in this location until they start to sprout.
- Uncover the sprouts and transfer them to a bright window.
- The plants will need to get at least six hours of bright sunlight a day. If you do not have a sunny window, then you can also use a fluorescent tube light to help the plants grow.
- The first transplant will happen when the new sprouts have two to four sets of leaves.
- A balanced fertilizer is one that contains equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium such as 10-10-10 or 2-2-2. A fish and kelp emulsion or concentrated liquid fertilizer is a good option.
- Harvest chilies when the peppers become shiny and bright.
- To ensure your chilies survive indoors, you’ll have to maintain a daytime temperature of about 80 F (27 C), and a nighttime temperature of about 70 F (21 C). You can keep the plant warm by:
- Keeping it in a greenhouse
- Installing an artificial light 3 inches (7.6 cm) above the plant
- Placing the plant on a heating mat
I am still learning and I need all the help that I can get. Write me if I do something wrong or I need to adjust something.
Happy growing!!
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Thanks for all the info. I have the perfect window. We have a big garden, but I use peppers year round. Out Jalapeno survived the winter outdoors and is giving us a huge crop again this year. The rest of the peppers were replanted.
Nice!
Funny, growing up in the West Indies, all peppers are hot peppers, so the title “growing hot peppers” would be redundant. My wife is Indian and it’s the same for her. And in India, they use the word tikka for what westerners would call “spicy” and the word “garam” to mean hot. The word garam refers to “heating the body”.
Is my country we have peppers and hot peppers. It is a little different to grow them because of the temperature here. It is not so hot all year so we can grow hot peppers only indoors or greenhouse. We can grow peppers outdoors.
This is an awesome post. What else will you be growing this summer?
We have strawberries, beans, tomatoes. Salad, parsley.
I’m starting my own herb garden in my apartment this week and your post made me THAT more excited for my own indoor garden journey. I can’t wait to see your updates. 🙂
Thank you. Good luck with your garden.
You’re an adventurer, alright ! 🙂
Downunder we have chillies and capsicums, and chillies are always hot (but verying in their degrees of heat, of course). Capsicums include sweet capsicums, long ones and the ordinary sort of squat ones. Love ’em all !
I like the long red chillies a lot: they’re hot but not too much. You’d probably be scornful !
[grin]
Ours are in raised beds this year. Wish us luck!
Good luck!
Great post. I will warn you to beware the Reaper. Those are some seriously hot peppers. I like hot, but they are a whole new level of hot. Take care.
Thank you. I will take care.
Nice window garden! Can you imagine how thrilling it’ll be in August, when the plants are beautifully lush and cover most of the window? Oh, and all those peppers!
Two things that always work for me when I grow peppers – add ground-up eggshells to the soil, also, add matches. Yes, matches. I have no idea why it works, but it produces great results!
Thank you
Thank you so much for the tip, I’ve always wanted to grow my own herbs at home, was going to start with basil, I should look for hot peppers too 🙂
You are welcome
Loved the read, and the chilli jam recipe. Will you plant any more indoor herbs or spices in the future?
Thank you. I plan to do that.
Is picking when peppers get shiny a good general rule? I have a jalapeno plant and I don’t know how to tell if the peppers are ready. They’ll smaller then I’d buy at the super market but I don’t know if they’ll ever get that big being that its not a huge plant. I don’t want to pick them too early either.
You are far away. This is my first time so I don’t know. I read that they are ready when get shiny.
Pick you jalapeños green and shiny (where as many chillies you pick red which is fully ripe). Probably they will get to about the size a bit between your finger and thumb and that’s the perfect size. If you start to see cracking on them then pick them as they will be going past their best. Most other chillies don’t seem to crack so you just let them get red and enjoy the heat 🙂
Perfect! Thank you. Looks like I may have a few that are ready for picking. I’ve been too afraid to start pulling them off.
My tips for you would be LED lights are the best grow lights, both because they are efficient and come with the best light spectrum. You can pinch out the chilli back to the second lot of leaves to make it bush out. Your chillies will be later but you will have more (and a less tall plant). Blowing on your chillies (maybe with a fan) will make them less leggy, especially if they are growing in low light conditions. Treat them mean, don’t over water and feed with a tomato fertiliser, wait till you see roots before you pot on. This will encourage flowering as the plant will panic thinking it’s about to die. Use gloves when you cut up your California reaper and try a little in a curry before adding a whole one, it’s about 20 times hotter than a scotch bonnet!
Thank you for your help.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this. Big fan of chillies, I might give this a try at home. Good luck with the peppers, looking forward to some hot stuff!
Thank you
Cool. 🙂
… a bit melancholic for me, the chile pepper, pepperoncini… an uncle spent maybe… 3-4 decades, maybe more, growing his own on his terrace, selecting for the right flavor and heat until, well… they’d become perfect, fresh or dried and ground. But neither of his sons… took particular interest in those fragrant, lovely fruits, so when he passed a few years ago, no, already 4…. so, to, did the plants, those his own varieties. His funeral was the last time I’ve been there, to Rome… two weeks ago I finally bought my own plants, growing now on this terrace….
What are the hottest peppers and/or sauces that you have tasted?
Carolina reaper pepper
Is that pepper as hot as they say it is? I have heard multiple reports on the scoville heat unit rating, each with different ratings.
Hot! Hot! Hot! It is very hot!
I will take your word for it.
Appreciate the helpful growing hints for my own garden. Many thanx.
You are welcome
Helpful article!
Thank you
My kind of thing🌶
I looove chilies.. can’t wait them to grow in months or two 😊
Me too
Will try. Have you tried growing basil indoors in the winter?
Not yet
Some great tips there! I don’t grow chillies (yet) but grow herbs on the kitchen window sill in winter and lots of veggies and herbs in the garden in summer and the whole family loves it. There’s something very satisfying about growing your own food!
So true!