Please be gentle as this is the first time I’ve ever gardened in my life
I decided I wanted to grow peppers this year. I visited my local garden center and was advised I could likely get by with planting 2 pepper plants per pot.
On the left, you see serrano & shishito. On the right, Thai hot & habanero.
Now I’m second guessing planting these in the same pot after a little research. They seem to be doing well. I only water every 3 days or so, and they’ve been getting a lot of sunlight.
Should I repot or leave them be?
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
by passionx9
9 Comments
I’d leave them. Make sure to fertilize. Good luck!
You can do it. They won’t die or anything but they won’t be able to reach their maximum potential when they are competing for space. Like the other person said make sure to stay on top of your fertilizer
First of all, welcome to hot peppers growing.
To answer your question I personally always leave at least 12-18 inches between each plant, depending on where you live these can get pretty big.
Pay close attention to overwatering over the coming season, hot peppers tend to like to have their soil dry up between watering.
Good luck and happy growing
honestly I’ve found that sometimes peppers do better with a buddy! I’ve had more success with planting 2-3 close together (bigger/healthier plants) vs lone plants, but could just be a coincidence. I found the extra foliage really protected the fruit from any sunscald too!
I would suggest to repot separately before the roots get entangled. You can grow 2 plants in a pot provided you have means to ensure their growth rate isn’t too far off. I had 2 fish pepper both same height during transplant. After 3 months, one had fruit the shorter one didn’t. The shorter plant gets shaded by the taller one and the foliage of the taller plant rests in the flower buds making it hard for the other to be pollinated by wind. It gets worst when the pods start forming and block even more light .
It seems to me that some varieties do better with 2 in a pot. Chilhuacle Amarillo didn’t do so well and moved away from each other. The stems bent at a 90 degree angle to get away. Trinidad Green Scorpion is doing well 2 in a pot
Those pots are not that big. I would only grow one pepper plant for each pot. also fill the soil almost to the top (lift the plants, don’t bury the stem) and leave them in the shade for a few days after repotting them.
Welcome to growing! Hot peppers are by far my favorite crop to grow and can produce some monster yields if you know what you’re doing.
The more you progress throughout your gardening venture, the more you realize that each plant needs its own separate container. If not, roots will get entangled, nutrients will be depleted twice as fast, and plant size will be stunted. It’ll also be very difficult to remedy any nutrient deficiencies for one plant without over-doing it for the other.
Your plants look young enough to be separated at this point. I recommend soaking your soil and waiting an hour before transplanting. Best of luck with your future grows homie 🤙🏼
My first year i planted two peppers in every pot right next to each other. Roots literally touching. They all produced more than we could handle. They’ll have more room and the potential to grow a lot bigger in single pots, but peppers don’t mind being close to each other if you don’t care about min maxing your garden, have space issues or just want to experiment.