Tips on Growing Hot Peppers in Your Houston Garden
Welcome to the Houston hot season. The summer months are the most challenging in the Houston Kitchen Garden, but many vegetables thrive in the heat and humidity.
The Houston hot season officially starts in June and lasts through August, but hot temperatures begin and extend well before and beyond those dates. Hot peppers such as jalapeno, serrano, shishito, poblano and more can be planted in May and June and love the heat that the Texas summers bring.
Plant Peppers in Full Sun in the Kitchen Garden
Peppers are a fruiting vegetable which means they produce flowers and then fruit. As a result, they thrive in 6-8 hours of full sun.
A raised vegetable garden is the perfect place to grow peppers. Raised kitchen gardens can be placed in the sunniest location in your back yard, side yard or even front yard. They are as beautiful as they are functional allowing you to have precisely the correct set up for a successful garden.
The Rooted Garden team installs exclusively raised kitchen gardens allowing us to fill up the entire garden with rich, organic sandy loam soil. Peppers need to establish roots up to 2-3’ deep! This is tough to do in the hard, clay soil found throughout Houston. Raised gardens make that possible!
Favorite Pepper Varieties for the Houston Hot Season
-Jalapeno peppers are a popular favorite that can be used in a variety of ways from stuffed to sauces to grilled. These peppers ripen to green, but can be left to ripen to red for a spicier pepper.
-Serrano’s are a spicier option to grow during the hot season and work well in salsas and stir fries and due to their thinner size are not as easy to stuff.
-Shishito have quickly become a favorite found on appetizer and side dishes in restaurants across America. Their slightly sweet, smokey flavor is native of Japan.
-Poblano are less spicy than jalapeno and used in the popular Mexican dish Chile Rellenos.
-Banana Peppers are a versatile and snackable option right off the garden vine with little preparation. They are mild in flavor and pair well with sandwiches and salads.
Local nurseries are the best place to source pepper plants and will have additional, unique varieties for purchase.
Pepper Care and Tending
Peppers are part of the nightshade family, the same family as tomatoes, eggplants and tomatillos. Pretty cool right?
Peppers need consistent and frequent watering. A Rooted Garden installation consists of tapping into a client’s existing irrigation system to allow irrigation within the raised garden . This provides consistent and frequent watering set to a timed schedule.
Nightshade plants are heavy feeders meaning they love a good quality organic fertilizer such as a fish emulsion spray or a high phosphorus fertilizer. We suggest using a fertilizer on your hot peppers plants every 1-2 weeks. Both granular fertilizers, placed directly in the soil, as well as liquids that can be sprayed around the roots work well.
As your peppers grow taller you might find they need some additional stakes or supports. We love a natural stake such as bamboo attached with some twine, followed by a small mound of fresh compost around the base of the plant. Not only does this meet the plants nutritional needs, it also supports the plant as it grows.
Harvesting Peppers
Hot peppers are smaller in size and therefore are ready for harvest sooner than their large cousins the bell pepper. You can expect to harvest starting at approximately 60-90 days after planting. Many factors affect this including sunlight, temperature, water, soil quality and pepper variety.
Once the plant flowers, a fruit will begin to flower and a pepper anywhere from 2-4” will begin to form. Harvesting early encourages the plant to continue producing fruit, so harvest early for maximum production!
Pepper plants are biennial, meaning they can remain in the garden for up to two years in milder climates such as Houston. They won’t produce during the coldest months, but once temperatures are in the 80’s peppers will start flowering and growing again.
We Think Everyone Should Grow Hot Peppers in Houston
Peppers are a great addition to the kitchen garden. They don’t take up a lot of space, are very productive during the hottest months, they can be frozen and saved for later and are versatile enough to be used in a variety of dishes.
The Rooted Garden Team has consulted and installed over 500 kitchen gardens for clients since 2015 and we would love to help you next! We are now booking June consultations and would love to meet with you this summer!