Look at the Difference between 2 Sport pepper plants....

Torch

Torch

Both these sport pepper plants were planted the same day. One plant was put in the garden with all other veggies. It got watered daily and received no fertilizer at all. I put it in my garden because it was a low priority plant since its not one on my super hots or exotic plants. If you have read some of my previous posts you will remember I put all my chili's in pots so that I can limit the amount of water they receive (since all the literature I read about chile pepper plants said they don't like much water at all.

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This plant is in garden....Received water everyday, never got fertilized, was in sun all day from morning to evening.

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This was fertilized with organic fish emulsion and watered only as needed like the rest of my chili's....Maybe once a week or 10 days.

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This was my first harvest from the plant in the garden.....

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this was my first harvest from the plant on the deck in the pot....

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This is what I did with my sport peppers....(pickled)


So what the hell happened? I thought peppers dont like water everyday. If I knew this would be so dramatic of a difference I would have planted at least 15 more of my chili's including the superhots in the garden instead of pots. Not to mention I would move the pots in the house when the temp would drop below 55 F. The one in the garden had to tough it all out with no special attention.

Next year should I say screw it and put the habs, fatelli's, ghosts, etc in the garden? Any opinions or theory's are appreciated.
 
I think the pot looks much too small. I step my plants up as soon as I see the roots coming out through the drainage holes. My biggest annuum plant is about 2.5' tall x 3' wide and is going from a 7 gallon nursery pot into an 18 gallon self-watering earth-tub-box this weekend.

A general rule is: the pot should be bigger than the overall size of your plant to give it room to grow.

Also check the porosity of your potting mix. If it is too heavy or dense the roots will be suffocating.
 
Sometimes we give answers that are too short to be complete. Peppers like somewhat damp soil but not soggy. How often you have to water to achieve that depends on the soil (or pot size and how well it drains). Peppers like soil that doesn't vary much in dampness over time, not too soggy then too dry then too soggy again, etc. You'll have a larger plant and more yield if you water more often while not having the soil surface stay damp so fungus doesn't take hold, and not having it run out the bottom of the pot much so your fertilizer isn't washed away, and not having the roots drowning so they rot. The best way to achieve this is to use a larger pot and water a little more often but not every day if it can be avoided.

What starving a pepper for water does that is positive is makes the fewer peppers you end up with, hotter. There are exceptions, a larger plant has the capability of growing more peppers to a hotter level simultaneously than a smaller plant does.

Generally speaking, if you have garden space that receives at least morning through late mid-day sun your plants will grow well there with watering every 2 or 3 days, as will the rest of the garden... water deeper not more often for plants in the ground. This is assuming you don't get an excessive amount of rain and your garden soil is tilled up pretty good before hand if it is dense soil so the pepper establishes a good root system before the soil compacts around it much. I only use pots when I don't have a better spot in the ground, lots of shade from trees on my neighbor's property make my patio and side of the house the best spots and the side is taken up by tomatoes and okra. They are both larger types of plants so they get the ground soil as they need the most water on average.

However, plants in the ground often benefit from fertilizer too, especially if you're reusing the soil that you grew something in over the past few years. :twisted:
 
We have been battling near drought condition, such that rain only accrues about once every two weeks or more. So we do irrigate our supers daily. They seem to be happy under the current circumstances.
 
The plant in the pot is root bound. The Bigger the pot, The Bigger the plant...
The roots need room to roam. In most cases a plant grown directly in ground or raised be will significantly outgrow the average size nursery size container (10 gal)\
Small pots will provide enough room for a compact size ornamental......but thats about it.

Your "Sport Pepper" plants resemble an Italian or Greek pepperoncini. The typical sport shaped chili is bullet shaped and no more than 1 1/2" long...

Greg
 
The plants I put in the ground have always grown bigger and more productive than those I have put in pots. (I use 7 gallon nursery pots at the final stage)
In the ground the plants have unlimited room for root expansion, especially with good soil.
I have had chocolate habs and fatali plants reach almost 5 feet in the ground. And the biggest i have gotten in 7 gallon pots is about 3' tall.
 
Ok so I guess the bottom line is containers are limiting even if it is a 10 gallon pot. So the ground is better......well screw it next year I'll have room in my garden for about 15 chilis...... They'll be next to cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes, and will get watered very frequently.

For the other 25 or 30 peppers that I'll use in containers, I'll have to buy 5-10 gallons pots.... (Don't have any that big)........

What's better 5-10 gallon individual pots for 1 plant or one of those 30 gal build it yourself earthboxs that you can probably put 2 plants in?

If I plan on overwinterizing some of them what size pots do 2nd year, 3 rd year, 4th year plants need? Just curious if I'll ever have the room to even overwinterize?

Last question if anyone knows... Since I'll be dealing with a minimum of 30 chili"s in containers next year and since mine are so small, is there a place on Internet or anywhere that you can get a good price for buying say 30 or 40 big gallon pots?

PIC 1 said:
Your "Sport Pepper" plants resemble an Italian or Greek pepperoncini. The typical sport shaped chili is bullet shaped and no more than 1 1/2" long...

Greg
Click to expand...

I knew it!!!! I was saying that to my gf the other day. I said these peppers don't look like the same kind they put on Chicago hot dogs. And they don't taste good raw at all. That why I pickled them. CCN nurseries fault.
 
^ 30 gallons is better provided you can set the plants far enough apart that they aren't shading each other, BUT you will get most of the size in a 10 gallon pot. Roughly 8 gallons is a breaking point for most 1st year peppers, by going larger than that the plant will benefit but you start to get diminishing returns the further you increase pot size, but you also cut down on the watering schedule. Some studies suggest that for every doubling of pot size the pepper gets 50% larger but in the end it's also about how much sun it gets, growth is still based on the energy it receives to do so, and you're not going to get a 50% larger plant going with a 40 gallon pot vs 20 gallon unless it's a REALLY big plant.

To give you an example, I have a lot of potted plants growing on my patio. In the available space with good sun I could have used 10+ gallon pots instead of 5 to 7 gallon but then with plants perhaps 50% larger I could only fit 2/3rds as many plants in the available space, it doesn't really help me to use larger pots except that I'd be watering less often.

One thing is for certain though, any healthy 1st year pepper plant will be substantially stunted in size if it is in less than 3 gallons of soil, I'd consider that amount a bare minimum for any outdoor pepper plant, though often when all is said and done I have some sprouts left over in spring and am running out of big pots and good soil so I use whatever is available because I'm out of space for larger growing plants. Sometimes I gift them to people who have room later.

Overwintered plants can vary greatly in size, depending on the type of plant, the length of growing season, how much you prune them back, etc. If a plant does really well the first year it could easily need a 20 gallon pot the next. That starts to get into the unrealistic-to-move-around pot size, most people who use those 55 gallon plastic drums cut in half for two pots @ 27.5 gallons each, leave them in the same spot permanently. They may weigh about 100 lbs with moist soil, which you'd carry at an arm's length since there's a big plant bushing out on all sides

How can we answer if you have room? Remember that any plant with foliage that you bring inside is a potential breeding ground for white flies, aphids, etc with no natural predators.

I suspect the pictured pepper pods would taste good riper.
 
Torch said:
Ok so I guess the bottom line is containers are limiting even if it is a 10 gallon pot. So the ground is better......well screw it next year I'll have room in my garden for about 15 chilis...... They'll be next to cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes, and will get watered very frequently.

For the other 25 or 30 peppers that I'll use in containers, I'll have to buy 5-10 gallons pots.... (Don't have any that big)........

What's better 5-10 gallon individual pots for 1 plant or one of those 30 gal build it yourself earthboxs that you can probably put 2 plants in?

If I plan on overwinterizing some of them what size pots do 2nd year, 3 rd year, 4th year plants need? Just curious if I'll ever have the room to even overwinterize?

Last question if anyone knows... Since I'll be dealing with a minimum of 30 chili"s in containers next year and since mine are so small, is there a place on Internet or anywhere that you can get a good price for buying say 30 or 40 big gallon pots?



I knew it!!!! I was saying that to my gf the other day. I said these peppers don't look like the same kind they put on Chicago hot dogs. And they don't taste good raw at all. That why I pickled them. CCN nurseries fault.
Click to expand...

Individual containers would be the best, (10 gal min) The pots can easily be moved if necessary. I've been growing individual plants and as many as 3 per 20 gal container. Next season I going back to only one per large pot. I like the idea of moving the pots around if necessary. Plants tend to stretch and fight for light when they're grouped together. That causes flimsy branches and will need to be staked once the heavy bearing fruit arrives.

I had two plants in a pot one had mite damage, soon the other one got love bit. The plants are doing fine now but I couldn't separate them as you can when they're in individual pots....

There's nothing wrong with a good "Pepperoncini" once in a while.......................ha

You're right, they are bland when eaten raw and too thin walled for serious cooking, but that's what I do........pickle them.
What's a Chicago Sport Pepper?...................Ha, ................just kidding....

.I have a rug in front of the fridge just in case a jar of them rolls out and hits the floor when I open the door...

.Greg
 
PEPPERMEISTER1 said:
Ok, The plant on the top is in fact a sports pepper plant, you will get hundreds of pods and they are the same that go on Chicago dogs. The lower plant is a pepperoncini. The sport chile doesn't require a big pot but the pepperoncini obviously does. I harvested over 400 Sport chiles from my 1 plant i purchased at CCN.
Here's an article I wrote last summer about the Sport chile.
Click to expand...
I agree that the lower plant is a pepperoncini the peppers on the top plant look very similar as well. I question if they are Sport peppers. Also, the lower picture the plant is sitting in water it would leave me to believe that it is overwatered and needs to be dried out a bit - you say you wanted to monitor the water and that one is sitting in it - take it off the deck and off the plate and sit it on the lawn or next to the one in the garden.
 
Dave2000 said:
^ 30 gallons is better provided you can set the plants far enough apart that they aren't shading each other, BUT you will get most of the size in a 10 gallon pot. Roughly 8 gallons is a breaking point for most 1st year peppers, by going larger than that the plant will benefit but you start to get diminishing returns the further you increase pot size, but you also cut down on the watering schedule. Some studies suggest that for every doubling of pot size the pepper gets 50% larger but in the end it's also about how much sun it gets, growth is still based on the energy it receives to do so, and you're not going to get a 50% larger plant going with a 40 gallon pot vs 20 gallon unless it's a REALLY big plant.

To give you an example, I have a lot of potted plants growing on my patio. In the available space with good sun I could have used 10+ gallon pots instead of 5 to 7 gallon but then with plants perhaps 50% larger I could only fit 2/3rds as many plants in the available space, it doesn't really help me to use larger pots except that I'd be watering less often.
:(



One thing is for certain though, any healthy 1st year pepper plant will be substantially stunted in size if it is in less than 3 gallons of soil, I'd consider that amount a bare minimum for any outdoor pepper plant, though often when all is said and done I have some sprouts left over in spring and am running out of big pots and good soil so I use whatever is available because I'm out of space for larger growing plants. Sometimes I gift them to people who have room later.

Overwintered plants can vary greatly in size, depending on the type of plant, the length of growing season, how much you prune them back, etc. If a plant does really well the first year it could easily need a 20 gallon pot the next. That starts to get into the unrealistic-to-move-around pot size, most people who use those 55 gallon plastic drums cut in half for two pots @ 27.5 gallons each, leave them in the same spot permanently. They may weigh about 100 lbs with moist soil, which you'd carry at an arm's length since there's a big plant bushing out on all sides

How can we answer if you have room? Remember that any plant with foliage that you bring inside is a potential breeding ground for white flies, aphids, etc with no natural predators.

I suspect the pictured pepper pods would taste good riper.
Click to expand...

Thanks for painting the picture for me on what to expect. Damn it, it seems like it can get out of control real fast unless I want to put it in the ground. Even so the problem is moving it in the winter. I have a bad back so I'm not sure I'll be wanting to deal with 55 gal pots etc....sucks that I live in Michigan... I want my pepper plants to stay alive all year and get bigger.... Screw digging them up and going through all that each fall.. Guess I'll always buy seedlings and plant them around memorial weekend:(

However i will be prepared to have enough 7-10 gal pots for every pepper plant I have next year so hopefully that will make a difference. I won't even bother with the 30 gal earthbox thing. Next season I want to try to limit my mistakes so I'll be asking the correct way to pot up seedlings.... Immediately put them in 7 gal pot or start with a 3 than a 5 than a 10?

LUCKYDOG said:
I agree that the lower plant is a pepperoncini the peppers on the top plant look very similar as well. I question if they are Sport peppers. Also, the lower picture the plant is sitting in water it would leave me to believe that it is overwatered and needs to be dried out a bit - you say you wanted to monitor the water and that one is sitting in it - take it off the deck and off the plate and sit it on the lawn or next to the one in the garden.
Click to expand...

You are correct. Both plants are the same. The labels say sport but NO WAY.... I eat mad chi town hot dogs and sport peppers look so much different. I'm a little bummed out but oh well... Hopefully these will taste good in my jalapeño and Serrano pickled jars with carrots cauliflower garlic onion and cucumber:)
 
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