Many people will tell you 5 gal is plenty, but I have a longer growing season than many. I find 10-12 to be much more productive.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Thu, Mar 13, 14 at 21:14

Bigger the pot, more production. Keep it fed well, and drip irrigated 'cause pots dry out quickly in full sun.

My ghost got about 4' tall last year (in the earth), so they can get pretty big. I'd go with 10 gal.

Personally, I would limit it to 5 gal. The doubling of container and soil will not double the output of the plant. Not even close. You might wind up with a 3' tall plant instead of a 3.5' tall plant. Or you might even wind up with a 3.5' plant any way. I had a 6 foot tall Orange Tree Hab growing in a 5 gallon bucket last year.

Here is a photo of a Blue Mystery that I grew last year as well. You can see the silver 4 foot straight edge behind it. It is over 4 foot and it grew for another month after that before I pulled it for the year. Grow two Ghost Peppers in 5 gallon buckets instead of one in a 10 gallon bucket. you will likely wind up with nearly twice the peppers. And if you want to move the plant from one place to another, you don't need a fork lift.
Bruce

Thanks everyone. I have tons of 5 gal pots. I was thinking that they would be suitable, but I wanted to check with the experts ;) I'm thankful that the consensus is 5 gal. I'm a tiny little thing so moving things around can be difficult sometimes.

haha, yah, when you have a 4 foot tall plant in a 5 gal bucket with soil, even that can be pretty cumbersome.
Good luck,
Bruce

Hint: Wait until the plant is dry and needs watering, then move it. That there water stuff is heavy!

Dennis

I am going to pot all my pepper plants in pots, ranging in size from 2 to 5 gallon. I also have lots of fabric shopping bags to use. Of course most of my pepps are on the mild side, HABANERO being the hottest.
When you provide lots of root space, the greedy plants will try to grow lots of roots and then lots of foliage first before getting into the business of producing fruits. Given a long , warm, sunny season that might be fine. But with short season I want them to hurry it up : NO MORE ROOM FOR ROOTS guys and NO MORE FEEDING . Fruit or bust. hahaha.

Seysonn,

So are you saying its better to keep them in the smaller pots. I have 40 plus seedlings that will eventually be potted up and placed outside for the season in the next couple weeks. I have pots ranging from 1 gal to 20 gal. Any suggestions on which plants produce better vs pot size. For example should I keep the sweets and milds in the smaller pots and put the hots and super hots into larger pots. Or vise versa. I know for sure now that Im going to keep the max size to 5 gal now but was just curious. Will keep my bigger pots for my tomatoes. Last year my peppers produced til early October and I just purchased starts from Lowes and planted in June so I can have a fairly long season with the early start now. This is my first season from seed.
Thanks
Rey....

Generally, I would say the hotter peppers go in the bigger containers. If you get on some of the Pepper web sites, that list characteristics of different peppers, they will tell you how big you can expect certain varieties to get and go from there, but generally, I would put my super hots in the bigger containers.
Some of those varieties of tomatoes can get huge and they probably would like some bigger pots but I am not real knowledgeable there.
Bruce

This web site shows plant height/width for many pepper types (about 2/3 of the way down the page). Seems to me like the bigger plants should go in the bigger pots.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper growing tips