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Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden

How to grow Capsicum & Chillis

This is our Capsicum (Peppers) crop, at the time of the photo, it was well into Autumn and the production was slowing. We were still getting small green fruit, but decided to clear the crop to make way for others to follow.

Capsicum

Click here for the E-book - A step by step guide to growing Capsicum and Chilli's.

Capsicums (aka peppers) and the closely related chillis are warm season crops and really need to be left to mid spring in cooler climates. Although they are technically perennial plants (go dormant in winter and regrow the following season) they are generally less productive in successive years and are best replaced each season with fresh seedlings. There is a wide range of varieties of both chillis and capsicums. intensity. Capsicums vary in size and colour with taste varying in sweetness to a slight peppery taste.

Capsicums like a well fed soil, full sun and regular watering and perform best in hotter temperatures. Their requirements are very similar to those of tomatoes, but don't need as much phosphorous as tomatoes. They do however love calcium and as such, you need to treat the planting area accordingly. See the bed preparation guide The fruits start from white flowers develop initially green fruit which then ripen varying to the variety grown. (eg. in capsicums green to red, yellow, orange, black/dark burgundy or lighter green with purple). Generally chillis vary in size and most importantly "heat"

Capsicum/Chillis can be direct sown in the bed or grown from seedlings transplanted out approximately 30cm apart. The plants as they start to fruit will become top heavy and will need to be staked to keep the plants upright and the fruit out of the soil. If you live in a cooler area like I do, you're best to either raise seed in a greenhouse or buy seedlings. Because the growing season is shorter, the plants will not have enough time to germinate, grow and fruit. Raising seedlings inside in late winter/early spring will give you a good head start. If you live in a hot area, the plants can suffer from flower drop if the temperature exceeds 38 degrees C (100 f), so some shade is necessary. (No flower = no fruit!) There may also be times that the developing fruit needs some shade protection as it can be sunburnt in extreme summer temperatures.

Planting Guide

Position: Full Sun to partial shade, protected from strong winds
Plant: Can be grown in pots or planted out as seedlings in spring when the soil temperature has warmed
Frost tolerant:No	Heat tolerant:Yes - but protect from extreme summer heat to prevent sunburn of the fruit
Feeding: Well composted soil, liquid feed weekly when the plants are mature to ensure good fruit development. Require less phosphorous than tomatoes, but like calcium. See general description above.
Plant Group: These are both Solanums and are grouped with Chilli, Eggplant and Tomatoes.
Pests: Main pests are birds/slugs/snails. If you experience higher humidity levels, good plant spacing is essential to ensure air flow and help minimise a number of potential mould problems.
Harvesting: Capsicums are brittle plants. Although fruit can be picked by twisting, you are likely to take a branch off the whole plant, so best harvested with scissors or secateurs.

I find that Capsicums are one of the most rewarding crops, heavy barers, you'll have plenty throughout mid to late summer, autumn and I recently picked the last of our crop in mid winter! I don't usually bother trying to preserve them but have had great success roasting them with garlic and keeping them in olive oil. You will be amazed how much fresher they are when you pick them. Stand back when you chop them up, they are so crisp that you can feel the juice spray as you cut them!

Chillis

This is the BALANCE of our chilli crop at the end of the season. Like the Capsicum crop, it had to be removed to make way for others to follow. This is after I had already harvested several kilos for drying and freezing.

Want to know more about different Chilli varieties available? Click here

Planting Guide

Position: Full Sun to partial shade, protected from strong winds
Plant: Can be grown in pots or planted out as seedlings in spring when the soil temperature has warmed
Frost tolerant:No	Heat tolerant:Yes - but protect from extreme summer heat to prevent sunburn of the fruit
Feeding: Well composted soil, liquid feed weekly when the plants are mature to ensure good fruit development. Require less phosphorous than tomatoes, but like calcium. See general description above.
Plant Group: These are both Solanums and are grouped with Capsicum, Eggplant and Tomatoes.
Pests: Main pests are birds/slugs/snails. If you experience higher humidity levels, good plant spacing is essential to ensure air flow and help minimise a number of potential mould problems.
Harvesting: Chillis are brittle plants. Although fruit can be picked by twisting, you are likely to take a branch off the whole plant, so best harvested with scissors or secateurs. Towards the season end, up root the entire plant and hang up to dry in a dry, airy place

Chillis, equally productive, can be stored either dry or frozen. I usually do both. When freezing, I mince them whole (minus the stalk) and freeze them in a jar for use in winter, normally only growing a crop every other year because I get so many.

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