can be planted together. about 2 sq ft per plant

Are you going to keep seeds from them?If so,you need to put them in different areas.If your not saving seeds,then it will not matter.

I definitely plant all my hot peppers separate from my sweet peppers. Too often we have had sweet peppers that are quite spicy if they are planted in the same area. I love hot peppers, and I eat a lot, but my wife cannot eat them at all. She gets very upset when a sweet green pepper is as spicy as a jalapeno - so I try to separate the plantings as far as possible.

@ drmbear. This is a very debunked belief unless you are saving seeds from the mild peppers planted near hot peppers, then they can get genes from the hot.

Too often we have had sweet peppers that are quite spicy if they are planted in the same area.

It is a commonly held myth that sweet peppers planted near hot peppers will take on a hot flavor, which is why many gardeners avoid planting them close together. In fact, pepper plants are self-pollinated, which means it is impossible for hot peppers to affect the flavor of nearby sweet peppers, or vise-versa.

Q. If you plant hot peppers beside sweet peppers, will the sweet pepper plant produce hot fruit?

A. Absolutely not. Pepper flowers are self-pollinated, although occasionally cross-pollinate. However, the result of this crossing will appear only if seed is saved from this year's crop and planted next year. It will not result in off-flavor or differences in fruit characteristics of this year's crop.

This post was edited by northeast_chileman on Sat, Feb 7, 15 at 10:57

I can say with confidence that for taste wise, you can plant sweets by hots. I've planted them together and in fairly close spacing and have had no problems.

Seed saving might be another issue, and one I'm just learning about this year. But I think that if you make sure you isolate some of your blooms before they open with bagging to prevent any possible cross-pollination, you can plant your sweets and hots together still.

I have never had cross pollination problems with any that I have saved seeds from. They grew true to the parent.

Peppers like it when the leaves brush another plant. Some say they like to hold hands. I try to give the larger ones at least 18 inches of space apart. Smaller ones get 12 inches of space. Some of my container plants are closer than that together, though the containers are quite large.

I would not plant them closer than 12 inches apart for the short, and small ones, and at the very least 18 inches for the larger ones.

Agree with above... no problem with this season's fruit. Regarding saving seed.. yes, you SHOULD keep separate, but with a minimum of 300-400 feet required to "ideally isolate" to prevent crosses, who can do THAT? To minimize possible cross pollinating, just bag off a branch to "isolate."

Kevin

{{gwi:2143908}}
To minimize possible cross pollinating, just bag off a branch to "isolate."

Depends on your climate and rainfall. I like to keep'em 2-2 1/2' on centers to allow good air circulation and easy access all around the plant. Some that get really bushy like habs need to be 3' on centers. The more upright varieties like Thai hots may be planted more closely. IMHO, the drip lines of the plants shouldn't overlap...

Plant spacing in the case of peppers is MOSTLY to accommodate top/foliage. Otherwise, IMO, you can plant one per square foot. That is more that equivalent of 8 gallon pot. This, I am talking about medium size variety, as annual ( Seysonn

One square sq ft per plant? In a row thats 12in apart. I plant 21/2ft apart giving me a good a good 4 sq+ per plant for roots.

I've used square foot/lasagna gardening for years and have had great success. YMMV

I space the rows close to 18 inches apart (really depends on the bed dimensions; sometimes it's a couple inches less) and space the plants 12 inches apart in the row. Also wanted to add, which goes with what chileman said, that I've never had a problem with my sweet peppers being hot and I've always planted hots right next to them.

Rodney

Last year for my first year, I grew 28 plants in my raised bed that is 2 feet wide by 20 feet long with an average 18" spacing. They produced well for me.

As I said before (my opinion) extra spacing is to give more elbow room for the plants and provide convenience for the gardener. Row spacing does not benefit plant but provide access way for farm machinery. I know this is true for commercial potato planting, hilling and harvest.

Seysonn

I agree on the spacing part for the people, and not the plants as long as there is at least a foot between them. I like to give a foot and half of space at a minimum for most of my in ground plants. Some of my containers I will have almost touching the other. The thing is I can get to what is on the plants without it seeming like I am in a jungle of leaves, or damaging branches while harvesting the peppers.

He!l make it interesting a/ plant them 6in a part a/ see what happens. :)

Spacing has a series of variables like those ref. above (i.e., isolation, just to eat, don't care if cross, etc.). A/ there are multiple ways to accomplish any scenario type w/ just about any growing condition.

I grow 2sq ft per plant for isolation purposes of those plants I want to keep "pure." Eating kind just get planted amongst eachother.

Look at your avail space a/ design accordingly. For example: if you have 12 plants but only a 4'x4' space, then put them all in 5gal buckets a/ get a three tiered shelf to put them in/on.

Johnny

Consider This.

I have a short and cool season. Root Bounding make the pepper plants to accomplish their mission by getting on with it fast. With large containers they'll take their sweet time in "vegetation" stage and postponing sexual cycle. Of course there is an optimum pot size for this too. Obviously you need some decent top growth in order to do adequate photo synthesis.

This is particularly applicable to hot/super hots that I will get just one flush at the most anyway.

I will try to post a video from YouTube later.

I'll take those grown in One to 5 gallon pots, happily.

I have a very small garden area in my yard. 4ft by maybe 6ft.

I give my plants approx. 1ft of breathing room. Never an issue with them growing. Last year my Choc. Moruga grew to almost 4ft tall, luckily it was in the back row, Habs stay around 2-2.5ft tall. Thai's funny enough only hit 1 ft but pushed a ton of fruit last year.

An Observation:

Yesterday I was emptying my 2014 pots. All of the pepper had hair like roots , NO tap roots. nothing thicker than 1/16th of inch. There was plenty of room for more root growth. AND THERE WAS NO ROOT BOUNDS.
I have to add that I planted out around early May and by early October growth had already stopped. That is 5 months. Probably If they were growing somewhere with 8 months of grow season, with hot weather they would have grown more root.
In conclusion, I THINK, 4 gallon containers were adequate. ONE square foot foot in ground (12" deep) is roughly 7 gallons. Again, I have to reiterate that one must accommodate for the top growth and give them some elbow room. JMO . YMMV

Seysonn

After pulling this year's ground plants, I noticed very little tap root development. Maybe 1/4" thick at the most. A concentrated root mat just under the surface of the mulch extending to the drip line of each plant, and down about 6". The big and small pots had root mats that completely filled the pots, with thicker tendrils running around the bottom interior.

The largest root systems were on the three tree habs that were 6-8' tall. Hard to pull up...