The way to Grow Hot Peppers at Pots Indoors
Hot peppers (Capsicum annuum) include warmth to your own cooking and decorate your house with their glowing fruits. Getting the very small seeds to germinate can be challenging, but once they start sprouting, they are comparatively easy to maintain. Select clean plastic pots or grow trays to start your pepper plants. Avoid pots containing peat, because this can stop the peppers from germinating. Keep your hot pepper crops at a warm, well-lit place and you can look forward to a lot of green, red or yellow-orange peppers.
Fill 4-inch plastic pots using the potting mix to within 1 inch of the top.
Press one seed into each prepared grass, at least 1/4 inch deep, deep into the center of the potting mixture. Cover the planted seeds using potting mix.
Place the pots in a warm, well-ventilated room on a heating mat put to a steady 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Water the plants with warm water until water runs in the drainage holes at the base of the pots. Keep the pepper crops uniformly moist, but don’t over-water them or the seeds might rot.
Place 40-watt grow lights 3 to 6 inches in the top of the plants and make certain the plants receive 12 to16 hours of light each day following the seeds germinate and sprouts are visible through the ground. The grow lights typically increase the ambient temperature, so decrease the temperature of the heating mat by 5 to 10 F.
Water the plants using a 50-50 mix of water and liquid fertilizer once a week following the seedlings reach 2 inches. A 15-15-15 nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus mix is ideal for indoor hot pepper crops.
Transplant the seedlings to 8- to 10-inch pots when the plants are at least 4 tall. Fill the bigger pots using the potting mix to within 1 inch of the top. Make an indentation in the center and set the seedling into this hole, gently pressing the roots into the ground. Cover the roots and the base of the plant using extra potting mix.
Place the plants in a window where they can receive direct sunlight for 10 to 12 hours every day, or utilize grow lights put 6 inches in the tops of the plants. The plants typically produce fruit in 90 to 110 days.
Harvest the peppers when the fruits are firm and shiny. Grasp each pepper near the stem and gently tug it loose. Most varieties of hot peppers will continue to produce fruit for several months indoors.