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Pot Size Question

If you want a small plant with a few pods. If you want a more productive plant with allot more pods you should at-least have a 3.5 gallon pot as a minimum and preferably a 5 gallon. Most here will tell you to have anywhere from 10-15 gallon size for the largest and most productive plants.
 
hope this helps !
 
figure an 8 inch pot is approx a one gallon container. So is kind of small for even a single plant -- THat said yes it will work if you do not mind a plant that does not reach it's full potential ( Figure plants will adjust how they grow to the environment they find themselves in - some people grow plants in a Solo cup or soda bottle and can get a few pods from them.)
 
SO while an 8 inch pot will work it will limit the production of the plant since the limited root space will not support much growth. But you could always use that as an interim pot and upgrade later if funds or space is limited just remember the longer it is in the smaller container the more chance that you lose some potential.
 
I asked a similar question, and somebody recommended 10 gallon pots.  I bought five on Amazon and had them a couple days later.  I put some rocks at the bottom for better drainage and the plants have done a lot better since I moved them to the 10 gallon pots.  Good luck!
 
FWIW, I try to pot up my plants till I reach Homer Bucket #5g size. They only cost $3/ea & so far, I've gotten 3-4 years of use out of them. When it comes to OW'ing them I prune back the majority of the foliage, leave appropriate branches/nodes etc, get some new growth, pop them out, trim the root mass back to match the veg growth & repot into a smaller conatiner (maybe #1g-#2g size planter).

Depending on the type of pepper, when I get seeds germ'd/growing and yearly growing conditions (here in SW OH we have a fairly short growing season & my yard doesn't got crap for long sun exposure) - most of the more productive ones have grown to be approx 3'-4'T & maybe 2'-3' in diameter. In the past, my plants have yielded anywhere ~50 pods/plant up to 100+ pods/plant.

I realize this isn't as physically big or as high a yield as other growers but, with my ~25 plants, it's manageable for me and I still wind up with more pods than I can really handle.

Of course, YMMV.
 
You can still grow plants in small containers. A friend of mine has a bunch in 1 gallon pots. The only ones really putting out peppers are the "atomic" starfish, but there are probably 10 pods in various stages of ripening at the moment. Just know you will not get many peppers unless you grow either small ornamentals or perhaps thai/cayenne-types.
 
For me, I found that the plants don't get root bound during the first year in a 3 gallon pot, which is a 10 inch pot. That gives me a chance to put it in a 7 gallon pot the next season. Moving it up gives you a chance to refresh the soil that may have compacted a bit, or depending on the soil components, they might have degraded a bit. 8 inches is a little small, but may work, but just for the first season. People grow big plants in small pots when they hydro, so I have played with something that helps. First, I use Nutricote 360 that gives great feeding for an entire year, so you don't have to worry about running out of nutrients. With hydro, the plants get all the moisture it needs. I bought a capillary pad for about $12 online. I cut it in 2 inch strips to the length that it will go all through the container and hang out the bottom hole about 3 inches. I place the pot over a Tupperware full of water and the plant gets all the water it wants, but never to much. I found that the plants grow much faster and got bigger than the ones without the set up. It is worth a try.
 
twisterdude1009 said:
Will a 8 inch pot be big enough for _one_ Carolina Reaper Plant?
...
dang I really don't have space for a 5 gallon bucket for all my peppers.
Click to expand...
 
Huh?
How many plants do you actually have?
 
IMO, 8" is definitely on the small side.  A 5 gallon (an honest ~4) nursery pot is my minimum for a healthy first-year plant. And even that is tight for some of the fast growing baccatums.
 
Most nurseries have a stash of used pots.  If you buy something from them, and apply a bit of sweet talk, they'll very likely give you a few freebies.  Or go with a 50 cent Wallybag (6+ g).
 
cycadjungle said:
For me, I found that the plants don't get root bound during the first year in a 3 gallon pot, which is a 10 inch pot. That gives me a chance to put it in a 7 gallon pot the next season. Moving it up gives you a chance to refresh the soil that may have compacted a bit, or depending on the soil components, they might have degraded a bit. 8 inches is a little small, but may work, but just for the first season. People grow big plants in small pots when they hydro, so I have played with something that helps. First, I use Nutricote 360 that gives great feeding for an entire year, so you don't have to worry about running out of nutrients. With hydro, the plants get all the moisture it needs. I bought a capillary pad for about $12 online. I cut it in 2 inch strips to the length that it will go all through the container and hang out the bottom hole about 3 inches. I place the pot over a Tupperware full of water and the plant gets all the water it wants, but never to much. I found that the plants grow much faster and got bigger than the ones without the set up. It is worth a try.
Click to expand...
do you place the strip in the middle of the pot or the edge of the pot ? I'm thinking of giving this a try. 
 
SavinaRed said:
If you want a small plant with a few pods. If you want a more productive plant with allot more pods you should at-least have a 3.5 gallon pot as a minimum and preferably a 5 gallon. Most here will tell you to have anywhere from 10-15 gallon size for the largest and most productive plants.
 
hope this helps !
Click to expand...
I second this advice. I have 3 yr old reapers in 15gal and they love it! Go big 
 
I have a couple in 1gal pots just because the potting soil I used ain't cheap. But I will say I have what I think is a scotch bonnet that has over 30 peppers on it and still putting out. Now I do have a reaper in a 5gal and it's pretty tall so I would imagine reapers would want a bigger pot then a one gal. I think they say the reapers on average get close to 5ft in height so if it's outdoors your plant will blow over very easily even at 1-1/2ft tall
 
I'm growing in mainly 5 gallon pots with coco coir. I'll likely leave them there until next year unless some of the plants could really more root space. Got to fit as many as possible in the greenhouse over the winter, and still have room for getting my starts going and being able to move.
 
I have a feeling that a number of them will need more space though, as they've already taken all of the root space in a 5 gallon.
 
slade122 said:
I'm growing in mainly 5 gallon pots with coco coir. I'll likely leave them there until next year unless some of the plants could really more root space. Got to fit as many as possible in the greenhouse over the winter, and still have room for getting my starts going and being able to move.
 
I have a feeling that a number of them will need more space though, as they've already taken all of the root space in a 5 gallon.
Click to expand...
 
Is there an easy way to tell when a plant has take all the root space?  Do you have to take it out of the container to check?
 
M
 
When it's dry you can push a bit on the outsides of the pots, and give it a tug from the main stem, if a decent amount of media falls loose, it's not ready.
 
Once you up pot, should take about 3-4 weeks for it to fill it out if growth is good and the plant is healthy. If it hasn't, it may have reached it's peak rootball, or environmental conditions have prohibited it from doing so at optimal rates.
 
I was reading another post in another thread about you recently getting some tiger bloom. I would highly suggest getting some General Organics cal/mag and Fox Farm's "Big Bloom" to go with it. Tiger bloom runs short on cal-mag and the big bloom supplies micro-nutrients that a plant can be deprived of, especially if ferting heavily with Tiger Bloom.
 
The first signs of it are yellowing veins, so keep an eye out.
 
SavinaRed said:
do you place the strip in the middle of the pot or the edge of the pot ? I'm thinking of giving this a try.
Click to expand...
Actually, I let the 2 inch strip hang down out of the bottom hole, but then I cut the strip in half and pull it to just below the top of the pot, (leaving it above the soil could wick out moisture from the soil into the air) where the strips evenly separate the soil in 3, close to equal parts. For a 7 gallon container, I made the strip about 3 inches wide and cut the top part into 3 strips to get more uniform moisture. Once those roots catch hold, it works great. If I am putting s rooted 1 gallon plant into a 7, i will usually just put the strips on either side of the root area so the roots get the moisture right away. I used to grow African violets the same way, but with wick strings. People make bigger wicks, but they really don't work well, but these capillary pads wick great. I also start a lot of seeds and 4 inch plants the same way, just with the pad material in the bottom of a tray with the pots sitting on top.
I have thought about for the future finding some sort of long troughs that can hold the weight where you could place the pots on top with wicks going down and automatically watering entire rows of plants and all you have to do is add water to the troughs, which could also be done automatically with as float valve.
 
slade122 said:
When it's dry you can push a bit on the outsides of the pots, and give it a tug from the main stem, if a decent amount of media falls loose, it's not ready.
 
Once you up pot, should take about 3-4 weeks for it to fill it out if growth is good and the plant is healthy. If it hasn't, it may have reached it's peak rootball, or environmental conditions have prohibited it from doing so at optimal rates.
 
I was reading another post in another thread about you recently getting some tiger bloom. I would highly suggest getting some General Organics cal/mag and Fox Farm's "Big Bloom" to go with it. Tiger bloom runs short on cal-mag and the big bloom supplies micro-nutrients that a plant can be deprived of, especially if ferting heavily with Tiger Bloom.
 
The first signs of it are yellowing veins, so keep an eye out.
Click to expand...
 
slade, thanks very much for the feedback.  My understanding of plant nutrition and when to apply is super noob.
 
So with the General Organics cal/mag and Fox Farm's Big Bloom, am I understanding right that all three should be applied (including the Tiger Bloom)?  I just don't want my pepper plants to catch on fire so thought I'd check first :)
 
And thanks for the info on checking the roots.
 
M
 
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