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How Deep to plant Peppers?

P. Dreadie

P. Dreadie

I've got a question about how deep everyone plants their peppers ? In the info from CCN they say,
"While tomatoes may be planted deeper, plant chiles/peppers and eggplants at the same depth as in the pot".

I've always ,regardless of the type of plant , planted most my plants deeper. Especially if plants were leggy or had a few damaged leaves. My belief has always been roots will start on the sunken stem.

The only thing I can think of why CCN says that is something AJ has said. AJ says he trims off several sets of leaves from the bottom of the plants after he transplants his. He reason is so no leaves are touching the soil because that can cause fungus issues.

I would ask CCN , but at this time of the year I'm sure their dance card is darn full and it seems rude to take away the time from them .

Any thoughts on this out there ?

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
Every time I pot up I plant a little deeper for extra support. Unlike tomatoes, chiles won't aggresively root up the buried stem but you'll likely get some roots as well as the extra support.
 
Thanks POTAWIE .... kind of what I wanted to hear. I never really looked at old stems on pepper plants when I pulled them up . I always took it for granted if a plant could grow from a cutting .... it would grow roots on a stem that was put under ground.

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
i plant them deep more for stability than anything else, but if the stem is already getting woody, as was the case with several that i re-potted a few weeks ago, then i would keep the woody stem above ground. i haven't seen much evidence of peppers putting roots out of their buried stems from my personal experience, although your mileage may vary...
 
So if the stems are thick and woody should they be left above ground ? I have some that are less than a foot tall but the stems are beefy. About as think as your little finger. I like the idea of planting them a little deeper but sure don't want to jack things up.

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
I just repotted 7 peppers that I had pretty deep. None showed anything more than a lightening of the green color of the stem, not even a hint of roots from the stem.
That said, I repotted up and went just as deep, but it was for support more than anything.
 
Here's how I'm doing mine this year. I take off the lower leaves and bury it about 3 inches deeper. I'll try to remember to examine the stem when I pull up this particular plant.
pottingup.jpg
 
IDK really, but I have been told they WILL grow roots out the stem, so I plant deeper. I potted up 6 plants tonight into 3 1/2 gallon containers and sunk them a little deepr than normal since this will be their final homes until they die. Some were pretty root bound, one plant in particular had a complete root casing over all the dirt that was in the cup, it slid out pretty easy when I turned it upside down...
 
I suppose it depends on the variety and especially the species. For example the baccatums definitely grow new roots when planted deeper. Most annuums do as well. I am not so sure about pubescens, frutescens, and chinense.
 
I get roots up the stem on probably all pepper varieties but as I previously mentioned they just don't grow aggresively like tomatoes so there is no use planting too deep. With tomatoes I've been known to plant several feet deep to remedy legginess and rtoots appear within days.
I'll try to find some old pics of my cutback, overwintered plants with some cool looking stem roots
 
Here is a pic of one of my Peter Peppers that I noticed has already begun growing roots out of the stem after I cut off the cotyledons and planted a bit deeper in the first transplant. I noticed the roots because I was top watering and the soil compressed a bit. I thought it was pretty neat. Convinced me to plant a bit deeper when I transplant from now on.

IMG_1717.jpg
 
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