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How Often Should You Water Pepper Plants in Pots?
The size of your container or pot, and the weather conditions will determine how often you need to water your pepper plants. We recommend watering after the soil has dried somewhat. During the longest hottest days of summer, that may be every day. During cooler weather and during spring and fall you may only need to water them every 2-3 days. The best bet is to feel the top layer of soil to see if it's moist, if it is, wait before watering. If it feels very dry, go ahead and give your pepper plants water.
Peppers are verysusceptible to overwatering, in fact, we find thatis one of the main reasons some people have trouble with pepper plants! Chile peppers originally came from dry, Mexican climates, and they really don't like soggy feet. Often, if you overwater peppers, it can cause them to get yellow leaves, droop, stunt their growth, and have general poor health.
Use Large Pots for Peppers:
Many chile peppersgrow great incontainers,you cangrow peppersin any type ofcontainerif it'sbig enough, has well-draining soil, and hasgooddrainage holes. Don't plant peppers in containers with no drainage, or they will most likely be doomed! Learn more about Growing Peppers in Containers »
How DoesWatering Affect the Heat of Peppers?
The heat level can vary in all hot peppers, depending on the growing conditions/weather/water, etc. For example, if peppers get too much water, this waters down the heat and the plants can struggle.Less water results in higher capsaicin production, which means hotter peppers, and they are more flavorful in addition tohaving a higher heat level. For the hottest peppers, many hot pepper growers recommend routinely letting the plants dry out until the leaves wilt slightly before watering again.
Feel the Soil Before Watering Peppers:
Check the soil as well, if it feels dry an inch or two down, then you can water again. Don't water pepper plants if the soil feels and is already moist! Even if they're drooping, as this could mean that you're overwatering them. Sometimes people confuse drooping with needing more water, when in fact, the soil is soggy.
Yellow Leaves on Pepper Plants?
This often is caused by overwatering! Overwatering, in addition to drowning pepper plant roots, also dilutes the nutrients in the soil so the plants struggle. Always let the soil dry out before you water again!
Peppers Grown in the Ground Need Watering Less Frequently Than Container-Grown Peppers:
If you grow peppers in the garden, you won't likely need to water them as often as peppers grown in containers. Containers and pots dry out much more quickly than the ground, especially during hot weather. Our best advice is to feel the soil's top inch or so and only when dry should you water again.
Pepper Plants with Only Leaves and No Blooms?
Too muchnitrogen fertilizer in the soilwill result in pepper plants with all leaves and no blooms.When the fruit is growing, do not apply any more fertilizer. The theory is that a little plant stress causes the plant to put all its resources into reproduction to produce good fruit and seeds for another season. That means big chiles with great flavor! Read more about How to Fertilize Chile Plants »
Starting PepperPlants from Seed: Find more of our top tips on
How to Grow Peppers »
Find out what are the Best Hot Peppers to Grow in Containers in our recent blog post, along with other good info like what sized pot to use:
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