How to Plant Hot Peppers & Sweet Peppers

A variety of peppers can be grown together.

A common myth in the gardening world is that you cannot grow hot peppers and sweet peppers in the same garden space. Because peppers are self-pollinators, they can indeed be grown in the same space without the sweet peppers becoming hot. While peppers can be grown from seed planted directly in the garden in the Deep South, pepper plants should be started indoors during the spring and transplanted to the garden when the soil is warm.

Things You'll Need

• Prepared garden space
• Garden spade
• Pepper plants

Instructions

1. Dig holes 18 to 24 inches apart in the prepared garden space.

2. Remove the pepper plant from the growing pot by gently turning the plant upside down.

3. Place a single pepper plant in each hole and cover the roots with the removed soil. Press down the soil around the plants.

4. Water the newly planted transplants to remove any air pockets in the soil.

5. Continue to water the plants as needed to keep the soil moist during dry periods of the summer.

Tips & Warnings

• If planting seed, plant the seed 2 to 3 inches apart and thin to 18 inches when the plants are established.

• If desired, you can add starter fertilizer to the soil when transplanting pepper plants. Follow the label instructions for how much fertilizer to use.

• Use a general 10-10-10 fertilizer as a side dressing to the plants after the pepper fruit begin to develop on the plants.

References

• University of Maryland Extension: Peppers
• University of Illinois Extension: Peppers
• "Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening"; the Editors of Organic Gardening and Farming Magazine; 1975