Growing the Most Peppers in your small garden

Peppers are one of, if not my favorite, things to grow. There are so many things you can do with peppers and so many different varieties. Peppers are pretty prolific as well, so you will get plenty if you treat your plant well. Continuing on with my series “Small Space Garden”, I am going to go over another one of my suggestions from “11 Best Plants To Start Growing Your Own Food”. If you have not read either of those articles yet I would recommend reading them to follow along or if you are interested in beginning to grow your own food. Whether you have a large amount of space to grow or if you live in an apartment complex the goal of growing your own food can be achieved with just a little bit of creativity. While I believe all pepper varieties are a great addition to any garden, there is one variety in particular that I feel stood out the most to me as a must have when limited on space. That was the Sweet Banana Pepper variety.

The reason I love these so much is because while they are small, the plant is so productive that you can have peppers in your dinner every night from just one plane. There are just two of us in my home so if you have a family maybe consider a couple more plants of it. I found this pepper to be great raw – on salads, sandwiches or as a snack to dip. They also taste very similar to a bell pepper when cooked so I have substituted them in many recipes that have called for bell peppers. I picked the equivalent to 4 regular sized bell peppers almost daily when mine were in full production in the summer. It still continued after the summer to give me around that weekly verse daily, which is still a wonderful amount. They also freeze well too. I use a food saver to preserve mine after chopping them and lightly blanching them. They're also great for canning or pickling.

These are also a fairly hardy plant so the care for them is simple even if you are a beginner. I have grown them in ground and in 5 to 7 gallon pots and had just as much success. They really just like direct/full sun in warm weather (I grew mine in zone 9b) and to be evenly watered. They pretty much do well with that little amount of effort. I did notice that when I broke my feedings up into every other week verse once a month they seemed to flourish with even more peppers. I do caution you to be careful with over feeding or over watering of any pepper variety because it will cause them to stop producing as well if over fed or watered. The plant feed that I was using said to mix 1 tablespoon of their mix to 1 gallon of water and to do that once per month. I made my mixture as it read but then poured half out into another gallon just and diluted with water and fed my plants every 2 weeks. I usually am able to feed about 10 to 15 plants per gallon as well, so don't pour the entire gallon onto one plant. Another option you could use is a fertilizer that gets attached to your hose and water with feed daily. I also tried that and saw higher yields of all my plants not just my peppers.

If you are truly wanting to begin growing your own food, I do highly suggest the banana pepper because of its versatility as well as its abundance and flavor. They are also fairly fast to produce as well, I think it was just shy of 3 months from when I planted the seeds to when I got my first sweet banana pepper. It is also easy to find starts for these at your local plant nurseries. If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer any of them if you want to reach out to me on Instagram or Twitter @Garden4Solace. I will also be sharing some tips and photos periodically so please head on over there and give me a follow and say hello! I am by no means a garden pro, so I would love it if you would share your suggestions with me as well! If you are reading this article on Vocal and enjoyed it, consider leaving a tip to help support my urban farm! Wishing you a happy, healthy and wonderfully abundant gardening year.