Growing peppers in a cold climate is in many ways similar to growing tomatoes, but still different. Tomatoes are more popular, more forgiving, and a bit easier to grow. Overall though if you are successful in growing tomatoes, peppers can be your next thing to conquer.
We love to grow peppers. There are so many delicious recipes that call for peppers. Peppers are also on the dirty dozen list and expensive to buy organic. It makes sense to grow our own.
Choose an early pepper variety
With early, we mean that the days to maturity should be below the number of frost-free days in your area. We have about 100 frost-free days, so the peppers we grow need to be below that to get a bit of a harvest window. There are many choices for early pepper varieties. Here are some that we have successfully grown in our garden:
- Early Jalapeno (70 days) Productive.
- Doe Hill (60-65 days) Very tasty and beautiful yellow tomato pepper.
- King of the North (70 days) A pepper that actually matures in a short season.
- Orange Bell (85 days) Tasty.
- Orange King (72 Days) thick-skinned large sweet peppers a favorite.
- Joe E Parker (75-95 days) Mildly hot Anaheim pepper type.
As with any seeds it is best to get them from local growers, or a climate similar to yours. Those plants have already been adjusted to the weather and will grow and produce better.
Soil or hydroponics
Growing peppers in good organic soil, mulched with compost is best. Taste-wise and health wise the soil-grown peppers are better. Often they are larger, but take longer to mature so at the end of the season many are still green.
Peppers seem to love it to be a bit crowded. They can be planted quite densely. The square foot garden book recommends one plant per square foot. Containers are also a great option. Use compost-rich soil and water regularly.
We grow many of our peppers in the aeroponic Tower Garden. It does not matter what system or garden you use, but aeroponic (meaning the roots are in the air and get watered with nutrient solution) simply allows plants to grow about 30% faster. This advantage is what moves us to grow them in aeroponics. Growing them in the Tower Garden allows us to grow them vertically. Another advantage.
Note to the Tower Garden. We do not sell or promote the Garden for money. In fact, I wish the Tower Garden would be available other than through a marketing company. The cost is high, but the product is good. A DIY option could be an NFT system.
Since the alternative to homegrown peppers are store-bought hydroponic peppers, we prefer to grow them ourselves. Yes, most greenhouses of today do grow things also in water instead of soil.
Start peppers indoors about 10 weeks prior to planting them out
In our area, the last frost date is May 26. Start the seeds indoors mid-March. You want the seedling to be just about setting out buds but not blooming yet.
Just like with tomatoes you want to use a good potting soil instead of seed starter soil. The plants will be in that soil for several weeks and need nutrients to grow. Read more on starting seeds indoors here: Starting seeds indoors.
Wait till all danger of frost is gone before planting the pepper seedlings into the ground. If you choose to grow peppers in containers, they can be planted earlier and brought in for the cool nights.
Since plants in aeroponics grow fast we start the hydroponic seedlings 6 – 8 weeks prior to being able to move the plants outside or into the greenhouse. The plants do not need to be transplanted, we just move the whole Tower Garden out. Read more on planting a hydroponic garden here: Planting a hydroponic garden.
Choose a perfect location
Peppers are a summer crop and prefer a warm, dry spot. In a cold climate, a greenhouse or a south-facing hot microclimate is best for them.
A warm spot on your deck can be a great location for peppers grown in containers or grow bags. See how to grow in grow-bags.
The Tower Garden alongside a south-facing wall does well, but even in hydroponics peppers do better for us in a greenhouse.
To grow peppers in an open garden in a cold climate is not worth it. If growing in soil, they do best in a greenhouse.
Even in raised beds in a sheltered location, they do not grow well as the picture above shows from a local demonstration garden. The fruit did set, but it is still very small even at the end of the season.
Note, I’m aware that your summer is probably at least a few degrees warmer than our area. If your night temperature does not fall regularly below 10C (50F), you might have better results growing peppers outside. Just know, peppers are heat-loving plants.
However, peppers do not tolerate too much direct sunlight on the fruit. If there are not enough leaves to cover the fruit, give it some shade with a shade cloth.
Protect pepper plants
Peppers like it warm. In case of a cold spell, give them as much protection as you can. I like the Plant Protection Blanket
As I mentioned above, the fruit does not tolerate too much direct sunlight. The protection blanket is also great for that.
You can also create a micro-climate by building a wind barrier for the plants out of recycled windows or by building a window protected garden bed.
Aphids love peppers
We have tried to grow pepper plants indoors in our window garden room. It is nice and warm there and it seems like the perfect place. However, because aphids love pepper plants, it is a constant battle.
In the greenhouse pepper plants are also often infested by aphids. We shower them with a garden house a few times to reduce the population of aphids. Otherwise, we just leave them alone. Usually, as the plants get stronger the aphids don’t do too much harm to the plants. Also, as the season progresses, in an organic garden lady bags and other beneficial insects move in and keep the aphids at bay.
Water the pepper plants
Pepper plants do not need constant watering. Keep them moist but not wet. Much like tomato plants.
Watering plants with tap water may or may not harm beneficial bacteria in the soil, but it sure is too cold for heat-loving plants. It is better to use stagnant water that is warmed up from the sun. That way the plants will not go into shock every time you water.
If you grow in water instead of soil, add a water heater in spring and also at the end of the season. If the summer nights are cool, you can also have a heater on a timer to heat only during the night.
Pruning and support
Pepper plants are just like tomatoes from the nightshade family. They also come indeterminate – bush type, and indeterminate – vine type, varieties. Personally I have only seen vine type peppers in a commercial greenhouse. For home use, especially early pepper varieties are normally bush-type peppers. A bush pepper plant does well in a cage to support it.
We do not prune our pepper plants. Some growers like to start plants very early, only to prune them back to force branching. It is an option, we haven’t found it to be necessary.
You can prune pepper plants back at the end of the season and bring them inside. They will overwinter and continue to grow next spring.
Ripening peppers indoors
In cold climate and short growing season, we are often left with a fair amount of green peppers. Green peppers are great tasting too and can be used as-is. However, the question came up can peppers be ripened indoors just like we ripen tomatoes?
It seems that the results are very mixed. Trying it myself, I think it more depends on the variety. Some seem to turn color and some don’t. Also, of course, it depends on the maturity of the fruit.
To ripen the peppers quicker they need to be in a warmer place which leads to drying out. In the end, they are not as crispy as freshly harvested. Wrapping them in newspapers or storing them in a brown bag would help some with that.
Preserving peppers
We use peppers mainly in cooking. For that peppers can be diced and frozen. Blanching is not needed.
We also love pickled hot peppers, fermented hot pepper paste, and canned bell peppers. See our favoring Lecho recipe here. Many of our canning recipes ask for peppers both sweet and hot.
Growing peppers in a cold climate has been a great experience, and every year we seem to learn more.
Do you grow peppers? Please share your best growing peppers tips with us.
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Since growing peppers is so similar to tomatoes, here are
Thanks for sharing your garden lifestyle with us. I loved and thanks for sharing with us. We all learn from one another and we enjoy too.
Thanks
Almas Nathoo
You are welcome, glad it is helpful.
I was given a pepper plant and it is producing nicely. It is in a pot so can bring it in and out. Good to know about the sun and water requirements; was wondering about overwintering and will give it a try.
Awesome, you should have a great start next year.