When to start growing peppers
How to Plant Peppers: Key Steps to Success
well you successfully started pepper
plants from seed so how do you plant
them now if you know anything about
pepper plants or tomato plants you can
tell that I've waited just a little too
long to get these out of the pot because
they are very tall very thin they've
been in the greenhouse they've had this
diffused lighting but not a lot of wind
movement so they just kind of grew up
tall and skinny pepper plants are
generally heat tolerant but they also
don't mind a little bit of shade
sometimes the shade helps them produce a
bigger more plump fruit than it would be
if it were planted in the full Sun a
pepper can be planted several in the
same hole they will grow up and make a
bush where each plant will provide a
little bit of shade for the others in my
garden right here in this garden bed
directly behind me is east and in front
of me is West this row of tomatoes is
going to grow up and provide some relief
from that Evening Sun that tends to be
very hot here in Texas there's plenty of
gardening books that will tell you that
you have to plant them so many inches or
so many feet apart all in a straight
line those guidelines were created for
mechanized planting we're in a small
organic garden so we don't have to worry
about anything that is designed for
large-scale mechanized planting like on
tractors we're going to plant them
closer together I have a total of nine
pepper plants so I'm going to plant in
three groups of three if you have a
mulch layer on your garden make sure
that that's pulled back sufficiently so
it doesn't fall down in your planting
hole you don't want to be burying that
carbon layer down in the bottom of the
hole it could take nitrogen away from
the plants as they're trying to grow
if your garden soil is nice and crumbly
you don't have to dig the hole very big
if your soil is hard and packed like a
thick hard clay you may want to dig the
hole much larger than you think you need
and put some potting soil in with it to
help those baby roots spread out the
only additive that I'm going to be
putting in the planting hole is finely
ground eggshell powder this is eggshell
calcium and this is just going to add
calcium to the garden it may not be
immediately available to the plants this
season but the calcium that I put in
last season should be ready and then
this will help in the following seasons
I'm going to put three plants in each of
these holes so this this here has two
plants I don't feel the need to separate
those the pepper plants don't mind
crowded roots they really don't mind
growing closely together so I'm going to
just put this one down in here first you
can pinch those lower leaves off make
sure that you're pinching the leaves and
not pulling them off of the stem that
stem is very sensitive and if you damage
it you could kill your plant pepper
plants don't mind being planted deep
either so just make sure that the the
leaves that you leave on the plant are
above the ground level
now we're just going to fill in the soil
making sure not to bruise those stems
too much
if you feel that your garden soil is not
very rich or doesn't have a lot of
nutrients in it you can get an organic
fertilizer to put in the hole at
planting time and also spray the leaves
with some sort of a foliar spray now
don't use too many of those products but
they are available if you feel like you
have some deficiencies at this point
I'll go ahead and pull the mulch in a
circle back up around the plant but not
all the way up to the plant when the
pepper plant gets a little taller then
I'll pull that mulch up close to the
base while the plants are small go ahead
and put some sort of protection around
it this will give it structure to grow
up on and also help prevent things like
your neighborhood cats or your farm cats
from getting in and laying on those
young plants if you do have more plants
in one container that you want to plant
in one hole the easy way to separate it
is just to put your fingers in there
turn it over and then lower it down into
some water just let the water and
gravity do the work gently massaging a
little bit you don't even have to do a
whole lot here and all that soil will
fall off and you end up with just roots
when you're holding this you need to be
very gentle like I said those stems are
sensitive so we're going to be we're
never going to be pinching the stems if
you need to hold one plant you can hold
it by a leaf or by the root ball we're
going to gently pull these apart under
water
and there's one that's separated we'll
lay that there and gently reaching down
by the base we're just going to pull
those apart there's another one see a
good amount of roots still on that and
these two actually I'll just leave those
together because I am going to put three
in this hole so I'll just leave those
like this okay Alex my turn come on
that's not your hole okay gently like
before we're going to pinch these leaves
off careful not to pull and rip on the
stem so these guys right here I'm going
to lay gently right here you can see
that there's plenty of stem in the hole
and the leaves will be above that soil
level and I can lay one more on this
side
after I pinch these leaves off and I'm
going to use the soil to kind of prop
these guys up in the hole
he and his friends are the reasons I
have cages around all of my plants
because they come in here and dig and
they want to use these nicely dug holes
these fresh holes for toilets and they
also like to use them as lounging areas
so we're going to do our best to
accommodate giving the cats and a nice
place to hang out but not destroy our
plants and none of that soil that went
in that hole was packed and I just
loosely dropped it in and right at the
last moment when the plants are in I'm
given just a just a little tiny bit of a
pat to help put them in place and now
that the cats have lost in trees
hopefully we'll pull that soil will pull
that mulch layer back up around the
plant
well no such luck
you can see in the background here that
I gave up pushing the cat's away I put a
piece of fencing temporarily around
these plants once those pepper plants
get large enough the cats won't be able
to hurt them too much but right now
they're very young and very tender so I
want to protect them with this wire cage
we have three remaining pepper plants so
this one that we pulled out with the
water method we're going to lay it in
here and you guys have seen the
gardening channel gardening with puppies
where Paula she has her two puppies that
are often in the garden with her well I
feel like I'm gardening with kitties and
often I'm gardening with one hand and
pushing cats out of the planting holes
with the second hand
now because this one is so much smaller
I'm going to go ahead and put some soil
to prop it up
oh I almost forgot
oops
all right hopefully that small piece of
wire in there will keep the cats off of
the plant and I can pull that mulch back
up around the mulch layer helps keep
moisture and overtime as those leaves
break down or your mulch breaks down it
adds nutrients to your soil be sure to
water your pepper plants when you
transplant them very well to help
prevent shot
well there we go even with cats I
managed to get nine pepper plants
planted thanks for joining me in the
daddy curbs garden thank you for joining
Chevy in the garden
Chevy thanks for joining me in the
garden thanks for not destroying my
plants this time I don't mind planting
with the cats sharing the garden space
with the cats because they are a sweet
addition to our farm we only have four
they're all rescues and they help
prevent some of the rodents and things
so we'll deal with the cats thanks again
I'll talk to you soon
hot yet what are you doing morning okay
normal more yes you're a big boy
