How do cayenne peppers grow

By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article Steps. Tips and Warnings. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. All rights reserved. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. Decide where you will grow your peppers. If you live in a hot climate, you should opt to grow them outside.

People who have colder weather should aim to grow them in a container, where they can be moved indoors and outside according to the heat.

If you plan to plant them in a container, choose a pot with drainage holes. Place a shallow dish below the pot, so that you can irrigate the soil well. Plant seeds in a grow pack, if it is not yet 75 degrees Fahrenheit 24 degrees Celsius outdoors. Although your seeds may be able to fertilize outdoors or in a container, cayenne peppers germinate best at a constant heat of 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit 24 to 29 degrees Celsius , which is often too hot for places that frost or even regular indoor temperatures.

Place 3 or 4 cayenne pepper seeds in each cell. Try to space them evenly. Moisten the soil. Cover the grow pack with plastic wrap. Place it on a sunny windowsill or on the top of the refrigerator to germinate.

Dampen the soil when needed over the next 1 to 6 weeks. Thin your seedlings over the next few weeks. First snip off the weakest seedling when they get their first leaves.

Cut off all but 1 seedling when they form 2 sets of leaves. This seedling should be ready to plant, once there is no risk of frost. Choose or amend your soil. If you are planting in a garden, you will need to choose a bed that gets at least 8 hours of sunlight per day. The soil should be slightly acidic. You can add some aluminum sulfate to increase the acidity of the soil. If you plan to plant in a container, you can buy potting mix from a gardening store. You can also make your own potting mix with even ratios of loam, peat moss and sand.

You will need to sterilize the mix in the oven for 1 hour. Place it in a shallow pan and heat it to degrees Fahrenheit degrees Celsius. Once peppers are slightly brittle and tough, they can be stored in airtight containers and saved for future use. Cut your favorite variety of pepper in half. All of the seeds inside are most likely viable and you can use them to grow the same variety of pepper in containers or in a sunny garden spot. Collect the seeds and lay them flat on a paper towel for 24 hours.

Label the plastic bag with the permanent marker with the name or variety of the pepper seeds. Place the seeds inside for planting. Keep the seeds in a cool, but not cold, dark area until you are ready to start them in early spring.

Seed Packs. Indoor Seed Starting. Seed Starting Calendar. Seedling Care. Natural Pest Control Guide. Companion Planting. A-Z of Garden Pests. Beneficial Garden Friends.

About Non-Hybrid Seeds. Organic Gardening Resources. Non-Hybrid Seeds. Organic Growing Guides. Pre-Seeded Pellets. Pre-Seeded Pots. Pre-Seeded Mats. Pre-Seeded MicroGreens Mats. Pre-Seeded Wheatgrass Mats. Pre-Seeded Baby Lettuce Mats. Private Label Seed Products. Guide to Growing Vegetables. Bok Choy. Brussels Sprouts. Guide to Growing Fruits. Soil that has warmed to 75 degrees F is ready to handle mulch successfully. Old grass clippings or straw are two mulch options for your backyard garden.

A vital part of the germination process for cayenne peppers is to water the plants at the right time and frequency. Watering your subtropical peppers provides the plant with nutrients, assisting in healthy growth development. Understanding how to grow cayenne peppers is straightforward when you know how much to water the plant weekly.

Different types of peppers, like growing ghost peppers , red peppers, or cayenne peppers, demand at least one inch of water each week. If there is unusually dry or warm weather where you live, your plants need extra water. When these super hot peppers have leaves that are yellow or beginning to wilt, watering is required. Although watering your cayenne peppers is important, overwatering is a dangerous aspect to look out for, too, as it causes root rot and other plant diseases.

We suggest using row covers to provide your plants with a little shade when there is full sun to lock in moisture. Watering your cayenne pepper plants is vital for proper growth. However, there is another source of nutrients found in the sunlight. The sun gives your plants nutrients through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis allows the plant to turn sunlight into organic matter the heirloom peppers demand. Therefore, the sun is an elementary part of growing cayenne peppers.

If you plant your Serrano or cayenne peppers indoors, place your pot in a sunny location, like a sunny window, for eight hours a day. Making sure your plants receive enough sunlight while growing indoors makes transplanting smooth and effortless. When growing peppers outdoors, fertilize and locate your plant in a sunny location. It is possible, though, for your peppers to receive too much sunlight, causing the plant to dry out.

If your cayenne pepper plant dries out, it will not fruit at the end of its growing season. As you grow cayenne pepper in your backyard, ensure your pepper gets enough sunlight to harvest. Keep an eye out for aphids on cayenne pepper plants. Pick them off by hand, spray them off with the water hose, or use a DIY aphid spray. Moving the plants indoors during especially cold winters is required and wintering your peppers indoors is recommended in most climates.

Prune your pepper plant to encourage more compact growth and fruit production. Peppers should be ready to harvest in days. Most varieties of cayenne pepper start out green and mature to a red most common , yellow, orange, brown, or white color.

When they are ready to pick, most pods should be around four to six inches in length and relatively easy to pull off the stem.

Though it only seems right and natural to pick a pepper by hand, using a sharp pair of garden shears to snip the plant causes much less damage and leaves the plant ready to sprout new growth and produce more fruit in the place of the harvest you reaped. Unfortunately, the shelf life of your cayenne peppers are limited. One way to elongate that shelf life is drying. The most efficient method is to use a food dehydrator to dry out your peppers. Turn the peppers in the oven frequently to make sure they are drying out evenly.

If you have no oven and a bit more patience, just placing the peppers on a sunny window ledge and turning them often will eventually do the trick.

Once your peppers are dry and cool, place them in an airtight container and store to add to future recipes. To collect cayenne pepper seeds for future planting, simply cut the pepper in half, remove the seeds, and place them on a paper towel for 24 hours.

This process will dry out the seeds so they will not mildew. Once dried, place the seeds into a plastic bag and label them for future use. Leaf blight and fruit rot can be treated with fungicides. Powdery mildew and root rot can occur if there is a drainage problem. Aphids, mites, slugs, snails, pepper maggots, thrips, whiteflies, and root knot nematodes are all common issues with cayenne pepper.

Crop rotation, hosing down your plants to knock off small pests, hand-picking snails and slugs, removing diseased or damaged leaves or stems are all-natural ways to fight garden pests without using chemicals. Treating your pepper plants with organic insecticide spray in the spring when new growth begins can go a long way towards warding off most garden pests.

This do-it-yourself guide shows you how to grow cayenne peppers from seed: Check out this video to learn how to grow cayenne peppers indoors for winter transplanting: This helpful tutorial video helps you pick out the perfect containers for growing cayenne pepper plants: This how-to video shows you how to make crushed red pepper out of your garden fresh cayenne pepper pods:.