Alright guys, I've been wanting to start growing hot peppers for a while (I fucking LOVE hot peppers), but living in apartments and townhouses without much of a yard has kind of made that difficult.  Just for the record, I have never grown a plant in my life.  

Well, after doing some research, it turns out people have had success growing hot pepper plants in pots.  I think I've got a decent area to grow them, an upstairs balcony with lots of sunlight.  Figured the high temperatures down here in FL would be a plus too, considering most hot pepper plants are from tropical climates.  

I think I've got the gist of how to start.  After reading some blogs and online instructionals, it appears I should start with the seeds in a smaller pot (4") and need to grow them to 4-6" tall, then they need transplanted into a larger pot.  This is kind of where I get lost.  I've read a whole bunch of different advice on pot sizes to transplant into.  Anything ranging from an 8" pot (relatively small) to a 5 gallon bucket.  

I bought a bunch of seeds from an online retailer.  The plan to start off is 6 different kinds.  I've ordered seeds for:

-  Scotch Bonnet Yellow
-  Ghost Pepper
-  Ring of Fire Pepper
-  Caribbean Red Habanero
-  Datil Pepper
-  Tabasco Pepper

Hopefully this ends up working out.  I'd really like to pickle some of these and quite honestly not sure what I'll do with the rest.  Make some Salsa maybe and use them in chili.  Probably eat quite a few right off the plant.  

So any words of advice guys?  Good websites with good info to kind of walk me through step by step?  Thanks in advance for all the help.  

UPDATE:  22 July 2015:

Well, my seeds arrived a couple days ago and I finally got around to planting them tonight.  Made a quick stop by Home Depot to gather some "Homer Buckets" (even though I won't be needing them for a while) and grabbed a pack of Serrano Pepper seeds as well.  Finally tally is 2 pots of each:

-  Serrano
-  Red Habanero
-  Scotch Bonnet
-  Bhut Jolokia/Ghost
-  Tabasco
-  Datil
-  Ring of Fire

I was originally only going to do one seed per pot (that makes sense, right?  Guess not.) but read in a whole bunch of different places that it's best to plant multiple seeds as a sort of failsafe to ensure a plant sprouts.  So each pot has between 3-6 seeds (hopefully that's fine  ).

Here they are on the patio, hopefully I'll have some peppers here in a few months.  



UPDATE:  1 August 2015:

Well, I'm starting to see some sprouts.  Got some decent stuff going on with the Serrano's and one pot of Datil's and Ring of Fire's are just starting.  From what I'm reading, it's recommended to transplant them into larger pots (I bought a bunch of 5 gallon "Homer Buckets" from Home Depot for this purpose) when they get to around 4-6 inches tall.  Any other recommendations here?

Also, we've had stupid amounts of rain the past week or two.  The first couple days, I left the plants pretty much un-sheltered on my upstairs balcony, but they got absolutely soaked.  I started to worry about seed rot, so moved them to my downstairs back patio.  They aren't receiving direct sunlight, but it's been mid 80's to low 90's temperature wise the past week.  Should I foresee any problems doing this?  Everything I've read had a bunch of warnings about "over watering" and I really don't want to go down that road.  




UPDATE:  3 September 2015:

Well, everything seems to be going good.

So far, I've only lost one after transplant (a Scotch Bonnet).  They seem to be having the hardest time starting to grow again, but everything else is moving good.  Got the Ghosts transplanted, as they took the longest to sprout (I actually thought I was bust because I didn't see anything in the smaller pot for over a month). Serrano's seem to be sprouting up the quickest as both of them are damn near 12" tall.

Hopefully I'll have some peppers in a couple months!

Don't touch your dick after handling hot peppers.

Oh and cross pollination can yield funky results.

Not peppers, but I grow tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets modded as an "earthbox" and they thrive. Cheap to make.

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt.  

ETA:  The cross pollination thing, is that where the plants are too close together and they start "mixing" or "sharing traits" I guess for lack of a better word?  Any advice on how to avoid that, other than growing them in completely separate areas?  As I said, I literally have no clue about gardening/growing plants.

Don't have sexy time with the wife after handling hot peppers.

I forgot I had cut up jalapenos one night. She was miserable for about 3 days

Yep. Pollen is  basically plant sperm (allergies = you getting face raped by a plant). Get ghost pepper pollen in a jalapeno flower, and you get.... something. Try it with a couple and see what happens. But yea, give them a wide berth from each other.

The FL weather will produce you some good hot peppers. I tried growing some jalapenos up here and they turned out like bellpeppers. The thai peppers came out OK though.

Yes.  Many pepper's that look and taste nothing alike are actually cultivars of the same species.  You can end up with hot bell peppers if you plant hot one's nearby.



 

Interesting, thanks for the video.  Question though, from everything I was reading, I was seeing that the hot pepper plants don't need all that much watering.  Since you grow them in your garden, do you water them all that much?  I'm completely unsure on the water needs of a tomato plant, so I'm interested to know how big of a difference there is.

how too

Hmmm, good to know I guess.    I've got a downstairs porch area too, so I guess I could put some in each of the four corners of the upstairs balcony and put a couple on the downstairs patio.  Thanks for the info!

Tagging this bitch.

My question is, why buy seeds when you can buy peppers, eat the peppers and use the seeds?


Usually seeds cost more than the peppers themselves.

Water stress them as they ripen. It leads to higher capsacin levels

Yeah, I came across that page.  I've got probably 10 "how-to" pages bookmarked to reference.  My only issue was the large variety of advice given (mainly pot sizes for the final transplant).

Most commercially sold fruits and vegetables are sterile.

Water stress?

Lots of water

Let the pots dry out before watering them

 

Cool, thanks.

 

What about growing as bonsai?

Dump your used coffee grounds into the dirt.  Peppers (and tomatoes) like acidic soil.
Get a dehydrator.  You will have more peppers than you can use.  I dehydrate them and grind them up in a coffee grinder = DIY super nuclear hot spice.

A buddy of mine grew ghost peppers and habaneros last year.  It goes without saying the ghost peppers are hot, but the plants were kinda close together and the habanero (to me anyways) was nearly as bad.  

We trying Carolina Reapers and Scorpion Peppers this year.  I wont shit right for a week....

 
Mine are mingled in with other veggie plants so they all get watered once daily, but my bucket plants they don't need much watering (initially maybe once a week, later on once every few days). One reason I like this system is you can't over water the plants.

-  Scotch Bonnet Yellow


-  Ghost Pepper


-  Ring of Fire Pepper


-  Caribbean Red Habanero


-  Datil Pepper


-  Tabasco Pepper
Prepare your anus

I'm pretty sure planting different species of hot pepper wouldn't make any difference unless you planted seeds of the cross pollinated plant

You are correct.

Interesting, so they should be fine near one another?

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/crosspollination-peppers-22200.html





 

I'm thinking that if you are not harvesting seeds for future planting you shouldn't have a problem.

You will need to keep cats away.  They got in my planter and used it as a litter box.  Destroyed all my peppers.  I karma'd them motherfuckers.

Ahhh makes more sense now.  Thanks.

Jalapenos and banana peppers grow just fine in 5 gallon buckets, but I can't speak for other pepper types.



 

Well, there is a feral cat colony right down the road, but so far, I haven't seen any up on my second story balcony.    Guess I'll have to watch out though if I decide to put any on the downstairs patio.

Can I ask, do you limit it to one plant per 5 gallon bucket, or can you fit 2 or 3?  I'm still kind of unsure on how much pot size I need per plant.  

I wouldn't grow more than one per bucket, they can get as big as a tomato plant.

I just put one plant per bucket, but 2 would probably be OK.  If you do it right, one plant will more than fill the container once the plant is mature.



 

Ok, just the kind of info I was looking for.  Thanks man.

I would only grow one per bucket too.  I grow a lot of peppers, and some of them get big if they're healthy.  I've had Bhut jolokia's that were easily 4' high and 4-5' in diameter.  Gorgeous plants, actually... very ornamental.

I'd also think about a drip irrigation thing.  Nothing fancy, even an empty bleach bottle with a short piece of 1/4" hose and an emitter would work.  Containers dry out fast, and a big pepper won't take long to transpire every last drop of water out there in on a sunny day.

Interesting.  As I said, I have no experience with gardening, so I didn't even know about this drip irrigation stuff.  After some quick Googling, I'm seeing some stakes that allow you to use an overturned wine bottle (or plastic bottle) for drip irrigation.  Do you have any experience with something like these?  They seem relatively inexpensive, and if they work, that'd be perfect.  

I used to grow all that crazy shit now I just grow cherry bombs for stuffing and a few jalapenos.


I always over grew and ended up trading the local market for other veggies.

Being someone who loves to make salsa, and I make alot of hot bologna. I am loving this post.

I've never tried them before, but since you're going to be growing your peppers on a balcony; using the bottle method would limit the amount of possible spillage/damage that could occur.  You will probably have to provide supplemental water in addition to the bottle when the plants are full grown, but at least you wouldn't have to water them multiple times per day.



 

Damn that looks good.  

Well, I'm now looking at plans for a gravity drip irrigation system that utilizes a 5 gallon bucket for a reservoir with irrigation lines to each plant.  Damn this shit is confusing, hopefully it won't cost too much money.  

5 gallon plastic "Homer Buckets" are pretty cheap at Home Depot $2.97 a piece.

 
I use 'em for my garden....

The fun is in the doing...if it looks too expensive, just get a watering can and plan on watering twice a day once the plants get big.



 

Its not hard to grow them in pots.  Make sure you have at least three gallon pots or buckets.  I use a little bone meal mixed in with my soil and use that Miracle gro stuff every two weeks.  I have had great success with jalepenos, habaneros, bananna peppers and a few others.  

I grow tomotoes in pots also.  Good success too.  Next year I am building a raised bed 2'x16'.  I live in base housing so I cant plant directly in the ground.

I am growing some Habaneros and Reapers in pots this year. I started the Reapers early under grow lights and will probably end up putting them back under the grow lights in the fall. Living as far north as I do is not the greatest growing environment for some things like hot peppers. We shall see how it goes. I did have a good harvest of Thai Chilis and Jalapeños last year with plants in the ground.

Well, after looking at the parts on Amazon, it doesn't appear it'll be too bad price wise.  Any idea what flow rate the drippers should be?  I'm seeing 1/2GPH, 1GPH, 2GPH etc.  Still no idea what I'm doing here and don't want to overwater the plants.

The drip rate is going to change with head pressure and number installed on your gravity system.

 
They are cheap enough that you can just buy several types and see which ones work the best.