Planting Times for Hot Peppers

Hot Pepper Plants

• Varieties of hot pepper plants include cayenne, jalapeno, habanero and serrano. Hot peppers are more well suited to hotter and drier climates than are sweet bell pepper varieties that tend to not bear any fruit in daytime temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. You can propagate both hot and sweet pepper plants from seed and, since peppers are self-pollinating, you can save seeds from one growing season and replant them the next season.

Planting Time

• Peppers should typically be started from seed indoors in a controlled environment and transplanted outdoors after the winter. Plant germinated pepper plants after the last winter frost and when the soil and air temperature have warmed above the winter lows. Pepper plants do not grow well in temperatures 50 degrees Fahrenheit or colder; their leaves wither, flowers drop and often the plants will fail to produce any fruit at all. Therefore, timing your transplanting according to when the soil and air have warmed is essential.

Planting Tips

• The planting site for your peppers should feature lots of sunlight exposure and well-drained, fertile soil. If you are growing the plants in rows, space them 18 to 24 inches apart; if you are growing single plants in a flower bed, space them 14 to 18 inches from each other on all sides. Use a starter fertilizer when planting the transplants outside.

Long-Term Care and Harvest

• Even though hot peppers are well suited for hot and dry climates, a consistent supply of moisture is absolutely essential to a good hot pepper harvest. Manually water the plants during especially dry times of the year. Peppers can generally be harvested any time depending on the flavor that the grower wants out of the harvested peppers, but hot peppers are usually picked when they have turned red all over, indicating they have ripened to full maturity.