Tips For Growing Peppers Indoors - 5 Methods For Beginners - Pepper Geek 

From my experience growing peppers inside and out, i have kept it cheap and simple by using potting mix from Home Depot and feeding them hydroponic nutrients. Maxibloom has everything a plant needs in a powder you mix in your water. 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. its the only thing i use now. I dont even check ph or ec or whatever, my plants are okay with my tap water.

I am trying growing peppers in doors this winter (In Nebraska). When I learned that they're perennial and I could grow them in pots I had nothing to lose bringing in 1 of my pots for winter. So when I brought them in the plants were loaded with peppers and blossoms. I've picked off the peppers as they dried or shriveled. Plants are doing pretty good in my sun room. It's not ideal growing conditions as I'm a lazy brown thumb Gardner, but the plants are Still green, blossoms and peppers are still appearing.

I used to grow a lot indoors for years, before switching to much larger space with balconies. I have self made growing tent, but I use it for herbs and seedling. Pepper plants grow well on windowsill with slim type of grow lights mounted above above them. As long as you heat up the soil in your oven for a bit to kill all pests before using it, its fine. Or get treated soil. Having a view or nice ripe peppers with background of falling snow in window beats it :) This year I had 16 chilli plants in apartment, with so much produce I was giving out pickled jars. So growing over winter does not make sense anymore for me, since I pickle them all anyway and barely use fresh ones. But I have to admit that I miss it and I'm looking forward to spring.

I have a extra room that gets plenty of sunlight, I am going to try this, when I bring my potted peppers in, thanks for sharing

Great tips!

To anyone using soil indoors: you can pour boiling water on the soil before using to kill all bugs. And never ever bring outside plants near your inside only plants. Bugs like aphids hide and will spread very fast. Edit: ignore this if you are growing organic and using living soil

I grew a habanero plant for two years in a plastic Folgers coffee “can” using the Kratky method, and it was massive! Pre mixed water with maxi grow and maxi bloom, to keep it topped off and it worked out great! Ended up with about 1 1/2 lbs of peppers…which isn’t great for two years but I’ll take it! South facing window was definitely key though

I just bought a DWC Aquaponic system and am so excited to be able to start growing year round and faster!

Give Thanks! You have freely given, may you freely receive! Blessed Love ❤️‍🔥

Great tips. This also reminded me I was gonna try some winter hydroponics! And s some other people in the comments said, a fan is pretty darn near a must if you plan to grow bigger plants in something like 5 gallon buckets. And I'm also considering trying either coco coir or use the boiling water trick for some winter "soil" plants 🤔

Love the bee!

Hi, can you make a video on cloning pepper plants? Not only how to do it but also caring for them and what? Should I fertilize? How often should I water? Etc. I cant find hardly anything other than how to start rooting. Thank you. I'm a big fan of you're videos.

Yay! I was looking for a video like this a week ago, and was disappointed that it didn't exist.

Just started this year about 6months into with a Habanero plant. Learned the hard way that fertilizer is a must because the nutrients in the potting soil runs out. Only managed 5 pods the first harvest but had such high hopes with 30-40 flowers that all ended up falling off. Anyways, found this channel and binged so many videos. I now have a proper light, Ateum Hydra 1000, and I fertilize as instructed by the manufacturer. Just started flowering again so here’s hoping I get more than five pods this time!

Well timed, I was yesterday going though my seeds, trying to decide which I'll grow and how, since I'm also just indoor city tiny flat grower. Thanks for great video!

Thanks for the great information for growing indoors. Peter Stanley and Matt Garver channels are great sources for Hydroponics information. Their channels have inspired me to switch to Hydroponics this year.

I used to keep goldfish in s big trash can with some reed plants i found in a marshy area... When i needed to water my plants i would just set them in the water and wait until it shows at the top... Excellent set up

You also want to shake them throughout the growth to mimic the wind.... It'll strengthen up the roots and make the plant more hardy... Just found the channel and thanks Bud, good stuff

I love my pepper babies.

Fungus gnats can be a nightmare indoors, so it's super important to rinse clean your roots before fresh potting if you're overwintering plants, or give them a good bath in an insecticidal soap to kill any baby bugs before bringing them indoors. Hydro can look low maintenance, but the monitoring of water/pH and EC levels is always needed as your plants will go from healthy when you leave home to almost dying when you come back from work, if the levels go too far from their comfort zone while you're gone. If you're growing on a windowsill of your house/shed/garage, open the window if possible a few hours a day, the breeze will help strengthen the stems, a lovely bee or 2 might fly in, or you'll have a good draft for pollination otherwise.

@10:45 another benefit to having your grow lights turn on at night is in some locations the utility company charges less per KW/h during the evenings as it is a lower demand time. This can add up to quite a substantial savings if there is a big rate difference from low demand time to peak demand times, like where I live.

So I spent this year growing peppers indoors and they did great with your helpful hints with lights fertilizing etc...they thrived and Im now getting prepared to start hardening off and then transplanting into the ground...question is do I harden off the same way that I would with seedings or is it any faster/different for fully grown fruit bearing plants? Thanks!

Good tips! Having a fan on in the grow tent will also make the plants develop more sturdy stems. It unpleasantly amazes me how fast you can get pests on your indoor plants, but a neem oil & green soap mix fixes those if you spot them early. Concerning light, try and use every spot that gets natural sunlight, growlights are good for starting plants but nothing beats the real thing.

This year, I decided to overwinter my peppers (six of them) from my garden, indoors, following your advice on this channel. So far, I'm pleased with the results. I had three of them not survive the shock of being dug up and potted, but it's more success than I had last year, when I tried, following advice from another channel. They're currently in an extra bedroom, with heat and morning sun. I water every couple days and monitor for signs of stress. Next month, I'll be starting an indoor grow tent in my basement. I have the lights and shelving, just need to assemble everything. Can't wait to get started, but know that, for my region in western PA, I shouldn't start pepper seeds until the end of February.

Hey Pepper Geeks. Another great and informative video - thank you! .. Have you guys tried growing in Coco coir? That's like growing hydroponically, but with the more practical approach that we know from growing in soil. This means that you don't have to control for PH, EC or salts. All you have to do is water them like you would water soil and account for about 10 % 'run-off' nutrients, which help take care of those three control issues. In addition, you can't overwater, there are no pest issues and you can successfully grow decent size plants in very small pots .. Personally I think it's a great alternative to growing in soil and I frequently use it for fast forwarding hybrid generations during the winter half. I do have to say that coco does not seem to be meants as a permanent solution, as plants seem to stop thriving if you grow in that same coir for over a year. I believe this has to do with the coir absorbing some nutrient and give of others, which means that there is a kind of buildup in the coir that cause nutrient imbalance over time. Give it a go and tell us what you think :) .. On another note, I'm curious to hear if you experience difference in taste between the different growing methods (soil, hydro etc.)? In regards to the coco, the peppers seem to be less sweet (maybe due to less real sunshine, or due to some of the micronutrients in soil). best regards, R

Something worth menchoning is if you install an inline exhaust fan in your tent, it may create a negative air pressure and potentially affect the draft of your chimney. I keep my tent on my second floor, far away from my fireplace or home heating system. I have read of basement growers running into issues where when both the exhaust fan and heating system are on, the flapper on the boiler can’t function properly and sets off CO detectors.

I live in sw Louisiana, so I’ll just wait a few more months and plant outside!! But I do have another question? I made some hot sausage following your recipe, towards end of growing season could I save some peppers, dehydrate them then use to make your hot sausage? Thx and happy new year

I only pre-grow indoors and will take the plants outside when climate allows. I use coconut fiber for germination in a closed grow box over a radiator with an LED light above, in daytime I get ~32°C in there. After that the seedlings go into a device like that click & grow (I found something similar like that at Aldi germany for 20€). Since the seedlings etoliate a bit in the coconut phase, I have them planted deeper when they go into that device, and I only use mineralic substrate there, later on they go into bigger self-watering pots like you explained (with a wick), also in mineralic substrate (since I want to overwinter them eventually indoors, and I have no soil indoors)

Dont forget about pure worm castings, 10% or more, great organic option with some special properties

I've got a tent set-up with a few pepper plants. I use FoxFarm soil with liquid organic nutrients.

Do you have any tips for pruning a pepper plant grown indoors? How do you keep it a manageable size?

if you do it completely indoors to maturity would the harvest be good. Im doing california sweet bell pepper variety right now

How do you prevent blossom end rot when using hydroponics?

My DWC bell peppers are not producing fruit. The flowers drop. I also have leaf curl. My setup is in my basement usinf a grow tent to keep rhe temps around 75 degrees. I have the water aerator going 8 hours per day. My plants are 4 months old and about 14 inches tall. I use the 3 part flora liquid nutrients. Any advice to getting fruit to develop? Thanks

Are the downsides you mention true of all indoor green plants or are pepper plants particularily sensitive/attractive to pests etc? Ice never had issues with mess and splashing watering my large indoor plants...

Hey man, can you help me? I have others plants that need 18h of light to grow, when i switch to 12/12 the pepper will start producing or it's automatically? I can't find this answer anywhere

So idk how or why but my organic mixture produces springtails every time … even in a one gallon pot .. recent got into growing . Was feeding Sytheric nutes (hydro) in my soil😂 Then on the second grow changed to an organic soil of my making . And boom. Spring tails ! I’m growing cannabis but now would like to get into vegetables as well

I've been having trouble with me pepper plants recently, I have additives for the soil to keep it nutrient fed but I must be doing something wrong, the first 5-6 months after bringing my plants in they were still producing fruit and going about their business, lately however the leaves are wilting and falling off and just look pretty bad... is there something I can do?

Very informative for mentioning about what peppers like and about the sticky traps. I didn't even know you can get them in different colors to help control pests' further. I wished however there were basic humidifiers that aren't like $30 to air purifiers' prices though!!

no info on the indoor lighting schedule. Is it 12/12? or 18/6?

i heard that you dont need bees indoors for pepper plants as they self pollinate? I got an unlided pyrex dish with water on the tent floor for humidity and it last 2 weeks

I think it’s important to know that bees when leaving the hive don’t have a “set flower” as I’m going to call it but when they find the flower they want for that trip out of the hive they will exclusively collect that flower so plants that attract pollinators will actually attract them but if they go to that that’s all they are going for for that trip not your other flowers

I don't think hydro is any faster than soil but I personally have greater success starting seeds in water. In a hydro system under lights I can have all plants growing evenly without waiting for some to play catch up.

How do you deal with black scales on indoor pepper plants? Thanks.

For hydroponics, how do you avoid over watering since the roots are constantly saturated

When I save some seeds from a pepper they turn black does that mean it was to early?

any tips on how to fix Edema? all of my indoor peppers have it :( using high quality soil, good ventilation etc. think i may have overfertilized but even the habanero that i flushed out is still battling a lot of edema

What I'm curious about is what to do when the grow tent is operating too HOT. I'm not trying to open up the sides of the tent, because I want to limit the ingress of bugs and whatnot. I understand that increasing the CO2 content of the local atmosphere can help heat tolerance in some plants. However, I am not sure if this is the case for most pepper plants. I have a Ghost Pep plant that's looking on 2 years of age. It's had a wild ride up here in VT, having only produced a few pods in it's first year as an indoor house plant outside of a tent in open living space. Since then, it spent last year in the ground, but got covered up by a neighbor's squash, pumpkin, and sunflower plants. After that I was given a grow tent from a friend who had used it to grow his pot-I mean tomatoes... ...and I've found that while the light system is on a ballast, the Ceramic Metal Halide that I'm running is still too hot. The tent is 8-84 degrees F when the light is on, and 70-74 degrees F when the light is off. I'm doing a 12-12 cycle, fertilizing every other watering, and the leaves are looking happy. I'd like to up my yield from nada to a lotta, and I'm wondering if the heat of the tent is what's got her dropping buds instead of pollinating and producing. I've got fans running for circulation, and I'm periodically shaking the stems gently to encourage it to pollinate. After investing this time energy, and $, the funniest thing is that when I didn't do ANYTHING, I had peppers. Any advice would be most welcome. Gracias, Elisha

Is it possible to grow peppers indoors, without sun, with only light?

I have a pepper plant that I've been growing inside for almost a year now, it got a ton of flowers but none have even started to make a pepper. I've tried gently jiggling the branch/ flower thinking it had something to do with no pollinators. Is there another way to potentially hand pollinate that won't damage the flowers and spur them to make peppers?

Dont go cheap on the growlight and you ll be rewarded! Pretty much it for peppers, tent need more environement dialing than simply in a room

electric toothbrush is perfect for pollination

what about aquaponics?

🎉

I received a grow tent as a gift. It came with an "exhaust system". I haven't set it up yet and I noticed you don't have one set up. Is there a reason why you didn't set it up?

lol that link has so many ads, the article is barely readable.

i cant collect rain water, im in a care home, tap water ok ? what about germination, bottled or distilled water or again tap water ok ?

I've had the same pepper plants for about 5 years in pots that I take outside during the summer and bring them indoors for the winter.. every winter I battle aphids.. this year they are so bad don't know if my plants will make it..what can I do? Start all over again? I've cross breed these and hubby and friends love them. Worried I won't get the same kind.. replant in new pots and soil?? I'm so upset about this..help before I just set the house on fire 😩

Hi guys, he is using 1/2 cup vinegar for his hot sauces, can someone tell me how much ml it is for german use?

Somw of the info on hydroponics is wrong, you can use organics!! They just need to be made specifically for hydroponics. You can even make some compost solutions yourself.

oh, shit... I've been using a q-tip, I had no idea just a waggling the plant works.

Who as a grow tent? Not a pepper farmer!

is 24-26 C is too high to grow indoor.

They are chilli plants

That sudden bee scared me, wtf

Haven’t watched in a long time got pretty sad cause Ian destroyed everything hopefully I can get the motivation to get going again next year

With the right lights you won't notice them on electric bill

I grew peppers indoors with no grow-lights, grow tent or direct sun light...

I will never overwinter peppers again. After spraying my peppers and using new soil, I ended up with Aphids and after trying about ten different methods to get rid of them, I just let them die. But the aphids are now attacking my new pepper seedlings. I'm waiting on live ladybugs.

This dude is just giving us a how-to on growing freaking weed

"other plants..."

my goal is not to use any fertilizers bought from the store, i also don’t want to use potting soil. it’s not idealistically possible. i can’t rely on money in order to grow my plants. it’s just hard finding videos that post about natural fertilization. people often act like store bought fertilizer is always a go to, but it doesn’t have to be.

@farmermarcus has great tutorials about growing with hydroponics

If you are using store bought soil, can "baking" the soil "eliminate" the insect problem??

“Cleanly”?