The best pot for your chili peppers

[glen]

Most folks here plant in the ground.  However, it is getting more and more popular to grow chili's in pots.  Chili's like being grown in pots.  They look great on the patio.  I hope that eventually everyone will try growing your chili's in pots and keep a few right in the back yard where you can enjoy them.  This is a video that talks about what pots are best for growing chili's.




The man suggests at a minimum that you use a 10 liter pot.  I sometimes grow peppers in 10 inch nursery pots which are 2.35 gallon pots.  About the same as the man in the video suggests.  You can grow a nice jalepeno in one of these pots.  I pay about 1.49 for one of these pots and they can be used over and over.  Now, I use 5 gallon buckets and also 10 gallon pots as well.  It depends on what type of pepper you are growing.  Most chili peppers will do absolutely great in a five gallon bucket.  I used to get those for free when I lived in the US.  I pay 2 dollars for them here in Panama.  Big pots means big plants and huge harvests.  Most of use don't need a lot of chili's so the smaller pots are just fine.  

[macmex]

I need to experiment with this, as it has such great potential for more urban growers. I did start some bush beans in a five gallon bucket. It was late and the variety extremely rare. I set the bucket on the fender of one of our trailers, so as to avoid predation from our chickens.
 
Here it is on August 28



A few days later my daughter wanted to tie her horse to the trailer. She took the bucket and set it out of reach of the horse (but on the ground). I found it a few hours later.

[glen]

The chickens are brutal? I have had this issue before. Hard to put a stop to. If you got a good source for 5 gallon buckets container gardening is a good project though. You do have to figure out how to discourage the chickens. The ahicito peppers love to be planted in containers for example.

[glen]

Bon, there are down sides to pots. For one, if you are using small, 10 inch pots or 2.35 gallon pots you have to water them every day when its hot out. They don't take a lot of water but they need water regularly. However, when it is super hot you can move the pots out of the sun and put them in a place where they can receive less sun. Diffuse sun. Or, just less hours of direct sun. You have to understand that plants in small pots are sensitive to the heat. The pots can roast. This is because the volume of soil is much less than if the plants were able to spread out in the garden soil. So you must experiment. Experiment with how much water is needed and also where to place the pots. And, of course, there is the chickens? They can do a lot of damage to potted plants. George brought this point up.

[glen]

Good job. Here in Panama we are near the equator. We are closer to the sun than you are which means we have hotter more severe sun for most of our year. I have to learn to use the tree's in the yard to shade my plants. You have this type of bright sun most likely in the harshest part of your summer. We have it here all year. Even in the over-cast days the sun is bright. You sun burn easily here in Panama. Pots are wonderful but you always have to worry about the pot burning up. You do too but not all the time. I live in one of the harshest most extreme climates on the planet. So, I have to move my pots around to get more sun sometimes or to get less. If I don't, the plants will just die. Plants can take a lot more sun if planted in the ground, especially if you mulch. The mulch does 3 things, it holds in the moisture, keeps out the heat and holds down the weeds. Mulch is in short supply here in Panama. You would think it would be plentiful but its not. To make up for it we use the shade of other plants and tree's and the side of the house. Anything you use to get some relief from the blistering sun. The sun is so bright here that indirect sun is all most plants need. Peppers are what they call under story plants. They live in the shade of other plants. You will never see a wild pepper in Panama that is not in the shade of a tree. Ever. Chili's come from S America. That is why I can grow them with such ease. But, I have to follow just a couple of rules in order to be successful.

[glen]

Rick, its not bad here. You just have to play by the rules. The rules are different here that's all.