Ever wondered what size of container for pepper plants is the best?

We enjoy growing peppers in our greenhouse. We plant some in the vegetable garden but we also grow peppers in containers. If you’re wondering what size of container for pepper plants is the best for growing thriving plants, here’s the ideal.

Choose a pot that is at least 8 inches; a 2 gallon pot is the right size. If possible, though, bump that up to growing pepper plants in a 12 inch pot; this size will give the roots plenty of room to grow. 

Want more articles about gardening? Check out all of our Food Gardening posts here.

 

What Size Container for Pepper Plants?

Do Peppers Grow Well in Containers?

They sure do! Peppers are the perfect choice for growing in containers, planters, pots or in a grow bag; they are not a huge bushy plant and you will be surprised at how many peppers will grow on just one plant!

All kinds of sweet bell peppers and hot peppers will do well in containers or in raised beds in the garden.

How Big of a Container does a Pepper Plant Need?

As mentioned above, the ideal container size for growing peppers is 12 inches. But you can grow peppers in smaller containers, they just won’t grow as big or have as many peppers to pick.

How deep should a container be for peppers?

Pots for growing peppers should be at least 10 inches deep. So a pot 12 wide and 10 deep is perfect.

How many pepper plants can I put in a container?

That ideal pot size is meant for growing one pepper plant. If you want to plant two or more, you will be better off choosing a larger pot.

 

 

How to Grow Pepper Seedlings in Pots, Indoors

We start our peppers from seed in Styrofoam cups (that we reuse many times – I just be sure to wash them out well). I sow seeds into the cups at the beginning of April, then set them in seed trays under a grow light in our basement.

The photo above was taken May 6 (five weeks later), when I moved the pepper seedlings upstairs to set them in a south-facing window. This shows you just how slow growing pepper plants are. So be patient when growing pepper from seed.

I like to let to let the young plants get nice and root bound in the cups before transplanting them into larger pots.

 

For in depth information on how to grow peppers from seed and things like germination times, click over to read the full article!

 

Sometimes, we transplant the peppers right into the ground in the greenhouse. This depends on the outside temperatures as our Greenhouse is unheated.

Where we live, in a northern climate, our growing season is not as long  – maybe five months. Also, our nightime temperatures are quite cool, too cool for pepper plants out in the open air.

Additionally, we can’t even go by our “last frost date”. Here, we have seen frost in July (surprise!) which has killed back our potato plants. For all these reasons, we usually only grow peppers in our unheated greenhouse.

 

Here are healthy peppers waiting to be transplanted into the greenhouse. We’ve got a mix of Sweet Peppers, Bell Pepper plants and Hot Peppers. We will often grow a great mix of pepper varieties including Orange Habaneros, and Jalapenos to use in our easy homemade salsa recipe (which we then water bath can!).

How to Transplant Pepper Plants into Larger Pots

Before transplanting your pepper plants into larger containers, be sure to water them well. This will help reduce shocking the plants when moving them.

Fill your larger container 2/3 full with a mix of rich potting soil and compost (or other amendment). Water this soil before transplanting.

Tip the pepper plant upside down, with your fingers on either side of the main stem and give the container a knock with your hand. This helps loosen the soil around the edge of the pot.

Remove the plant and plant it in the larger pot, adding soil around the pepper plant. Hold it with one hand and add potting mix with the other, pressing down slightly (don’t overpack).

If the roots are rootbound from the smaller pot, carefully open the roots a bit with your fingers. This will be easier if the rootball has been watered.

 

These peppers have been transplanted from the cups into 2 gallon size pots. Lots of room for these compact plants to grow nice and big! Every plant is labelled with the variety.

If you feel the plant needs it, add a stake to the pot and loosely tie the plant to the stake.

I stick little pieces of biodegradable styrofoam peanuts in the drainage holes. Excess water can still get out, but I find a lot less dirt washes out with the draining water.

 

 

I like to have a few pepper plants on our decks as container plants, because the foliage is so beautiful when they’re nice and healthy. These pots are smaller than a 2 gallon container, but there is room for 2 peppers to grow.

You can see that peppers can be put into containers of all sizes. You can do one pepper in a pot 12 inches wide. If you’ve got large circular pots, plant 3 pepper plants together in there.

How Much Sun do Peppers Need?

Peppers crave full sun and heat, so be sure to put them outside in those conditions. If you’ve got a concrete retaining wall, walkway or patio, put a few pots of peppers on the concrete.

They will love and appreciate the extra heat being soaked up by the sun hitting the concrete.

They can also take some shade, but they really do love the sun.

 

 

Our Best Tips for Growing Peppers in Containers

Once you figure out what size container for growing pepper plants is the best, it’s time to think about the soil you will be planting in. 

What soil is best for Growing Peppers?

Use a rich potting soil as a great base soil for growing peppers in pots. You don’t want the soil to be heavy and compact; light and airy is the way to go. Then add some natural fertilizers like these:

What fertilizer should I use for my Pepper plants?

While there are a number of name-brand fertilizers on the market, it is so easy to provide your plants with fresh, natural, organic fertilizers – and for a lot less money. And, you can make your own fertilizer for peppers!

Some of the best natural fertilizers for growing peppers in pots are:

• compost
• aged animal manure
• fish fertilizer

Use Compost for Fertilizing

Nothing beats a great compost pile for providing all the fertilizer you might need for your garden. It’s the ultimate way to recycle your fresh, organic waste like eggshells, vegetable and fruit trimmings, coffee grounds, and more.

Mix it in a pile with yard waste and let it age, turning it and mixing it periodically as it breaks down, then add your compost to your containers of peppers. If you have lots of compost, you can plant your pepper plants in 100% compost instead of mixing it with soil.

Use Well Aged Animal Manure for fertilizer

Many gardeners prefer animal manure above everything else. After all, if you also raise animals, you have plenty of it available, right? Just make sure you let it age in a nice pile for a few months before using it so that it won’t be too rich for your plants. Mix some in with potting soil before planting you pots of peppers.

Fish Emulsion fertilizer

If your soil is nitrogen deficient, a great source of nitrogen is Fish Emulsion. You can order it online here or find it at your local garden shop or hardware store, and you’ll want to dilute it in water before using it.

However, be a bit careful with this one. If your plants get too much nitrogen, they’ll look green and healthy and put out lots of leaf growth, but produce a lot less food.

 

Do Pepper Plants like Epsom Salts?

Peppers (along with tomatoes) love Epsom Salts. Peppers and tomatoes grow best when they have enough Magnesium, a mineral that is often deficient in garden soil.

Epsom Salt is a natural mineral compound that includes 10% Magnesium. Highly soluble, plants absorb it easily when Epsom Salt is added directly to the soil.

But your plants will absorb it even easier when you spray it directly on their leaves. Simply mix two tablespoons of Epsom Salts into a gallon of water and spray it on your plants as you water. 

Not only will your pepper plants grow better, but they will also produce more. Bonus – your peppers will taste even better!

(Note: Keep in mind that while Epsom Salt is a wonderful supplement to your Pepper and Tomato plant care, it is not meant to take the place of a great organic fertilizer.

All of your garden plants – including your peppers and tomatoes – need a good source of nutrition to grow large, healthy, and be at their most productive.)

Do you Keep Plants in Plastic Pot?

Yes, heavy plastic pots can definitely be used for growing peppers in containers – we grow ours in plastic pots right through to the end of the season.

Do Peppers grow Bigger in Bigger Pots?

Optimally, peppers are happiest when they have a little room to spread their roots. A container that is at least 12 inches across is ideal for growing peppers and should allow your pepper plant to grow large with lots of delicious peppers for your family to enjoy.

You can grow two to three nice peppers together in a 10-gallon bucket.

However, peppers are surprisingly adaptive to their environment, as I came to learn! 

What Happens if I Plant Peppers in a Tiny Pot?

Well, really you can grow peppers in tiny pots and I have got to show you this! Let me explain what happened. One year, I ran out of room putting peppers in the ground in the greenhouse.

We had so many plants I also used up all the 2 gallon pots I had. After planting, I still had a few Styrofoam cups with pepper plants left over. These are the original reused coffee cups that I had started the seeds in.

I left them on the greenhouse shelf, until I could scrounge up more containers to transplant these peppers into.

But…life happened and I didn’t get around to it.

I just kept watering the seedling cups every day while I was checking out the rest of the veggies. Here’s a picture of the end result!

 

 

There’s 3 peppers on each of those plants and they even turned colour! Look at the size of those peppers in these tiny cups!

Ideally, remember to grow one pepper to a pot of at least 12 inches. But remember, when it comes to what size container for pepper plants, a small pot will work! If you live in an apartment with a balcony, you could easily grow some peppers in pots or containers.

This year, we are determined to grow and harvest a lot of peppers. The peppers will be preserved by dehydrating, pickling and maybe even turning into jelly.

No matter what size container for pepper plants, as long as you take care of them they will grow.

For in depth information on how to grow peppers from seed, click over to read the full article!

When you get your pepper harvest, why not make some of this delicious Jalapeno Plum Jelly? It’s a favorite here.

 

More Gardening Info for you

Here are some of our weird ways we upcycle used containers for seed starting!

Is your garden neglected? Have you moved into a home with an unkept yard? Here’s how to rejuvenate a tired garden and yard.

Got heavy clay in your garden area? Here’s how to improve the quality of heavy clay soil – it’s what we do on a regular basis here and it’s easy!

All about how to get rid of Poison Ivy naturally! Yes, you can

More info about growing Peppers

 

Originally published 2014; latest update April 2025

Incredibly versatile and super delicious, runner beans can be a great veggie to add to your plate. Here’s how you can grow them in your greenhouse! 

We love green beans, and usually grow pole beans (also called runner beans) every year. I try to can up at least four dozen pint jars of beans every year to store in our Cold Room.

Because I want to be able to put up as many jars as possible, I look for plants that will give us the highest yields in a small growing space. Even though I look at different varieties of runner beans,  I usually end up planting Scarlet Runner pole beans. I’ll get a much higher yield growing these beans as opposed to bush beans.

How to Sow Runner Beans in a Greenhouse

They are the same bean, but the bush bean stays small and the pole beans, well, they climb poles! Since our temperatures can fluctuate so much from morning to night, we decided to not take any chances and plant the beans in our homemade Greenhouse. Beans do NOT like a frost.

Our Greenhouse has served us really well and we have been able to grow lots of common beans, tomatoes and peppers. 10 mm poly is recommended for covering Greenhouses, but we used regular  Builder’s Poly (6mm) that we had left over from building projects. 

We built our greenhouse right over the manure and compost piles, saving us a lot of time and ensuring great soil. Here’s how we built a simple DIY Greenhouse for under 200!

If you’re thinking of building your own greenhouse (and why not?) here’s a great book to get some ideas from. I bought it the year before we built ours and had the chance to read it over several times. There are a lot of great tips and hints in the book.

Can I Grow Green Beans in a Greenhouse?

Yes! You absolutely can grow green beans in a greenhouse or a hoop house. If you have a soil floor in the greenhouse, you can just plant beans seeds (or bean seedlings) right into the ground. 

If you have a small garden or a small greenhouse, I would recommend growing these climbing beans with some kind of cane or wigwam support structure as you get much larger harvests in a small space.

Is a Greenhouse Necessary to Grow Green Beans? 

No, not all. You don’t need a greenhouse to grow beans. 

People can grow beans outside here in Zone 3, but remember that beans are a heat loving plant and cannot take any frost. Whether you can grow them outside in your garden depends on your night time temperatures.

When I do grow beans in the vegetable garden, I grow bush beans. Then I cover the leaves with Remay cloth every evening and remove it every morning.

This can get to be quite a pain on the daily chore list and if I even forget ONE time to put the cover back on, I may pay the price. It depends on how cool it gets that same evening.

The beans may be fine in the morning or they could be frosted over – they can never come back from that. Mulch can also help protect them. You don’t want slugs or snails getting to your beans!

Tips & Tricks to Grow Runner Beans in a Greenhouse

One of the best parts is the fact that planting pole beans in the greenhouse minimizes the risk of frost damage and boosts up the harvest potential. It’s toasty warm in there all day long, and I make sure to water at least twice a day.

With it as hot as it is right now here, I’ve been watering three times a day. Usually when we have a larger garden planted we use a lot of water timers and soaker hoses, but I didn’t do that this year.

It is important to remember that runner beans need a lot of soil moisture, which is why, growing them in a greenhouse is actually perfect. 

The main garden is small enough this year to handle with one oscillating sprinkler. The Berry/Garlic Bed has another sprinkler set up, so this year, it’s just a matter of turning the tap on and off.

When to Plant Runner Beans in Greenhouse in Canada?

If you live on the coast in Canada, you’ll be able to plant bean seeds in the ground much earlier than we can. We are in Zone 3 and we need start our beans in the house as seedlings.

Beans like a warmer soil temperature – beans like 10 C which is about 50 F. And it takes a while for our soil to warm here in the spring. So we get a head start and plant bean seeds in the house under growing lights. It’s often most efficient to start indoors a few weeks before the last frost.

Later we transplant them into the garden (if they are bush beans) or into the greenhouse (if they are climbing beans). The beans plants are usually transplanted around mid-June or any time in the late spring to early summer.

Using Black Bottles for Heat in a Greenhouse

We use these bottles as heat collectors during the season. That’s why they are sitting inside the teepees; we fill them with water and spray paint them black. This will help them get nice and hot when the sun is shining and release that heat late in the evening when the temperatures go down.

During the Winter, those bottles are tied onto the tarp that we put over the greenhouse. The bottles weigh down the tarp, in case of winds.

We’ve been using this system ever since we first built the greenhouse. It’s an inexpensive way to get more heat to the plants and protect the greenhouse in winter.

How to Support Pole Beans – Bean Trellis

Before you go ahead and get started, remember to first find the right support to grow the beans and support their lanky frame. 

We used Alder branches to make the runner bean teepees. Easy to get and easy to hammer them into the ground. I like to plant 2 or 3 bean seeds around each of the teepee poles. As long as my teepee supports are thick, they can hold a lot of bean vines without any problems.

You can see I stapled a layer of Remay cloth all around the inside of the Greenhouse. It adds about 2 degrees and when the temperatures dip here, those 2 degrees can make the difference of having food or not. I’ll take what I can get.

How to Get Pole Beans to Grow Faster

• Runner beans need regular watering. Don’t let the soil dry out too much.
• Climbing beans like well drained soil so make sure your soil is not too heavy (like clay soil) to promote faster germination.
• Keep picking beans off the plant. If you let bean pods get too mature, it signals the plant to slow down production.

Now the scarlet runner beans have grown up past the top of the teepees, and the flowers are forming. Don’t those plants look healthy?

They will just keep growing and wrapping themselves around anything that can support them.

Should I pinch out runner beans?

One the plants are as tall as you like, pinch out the top of the plant. This will encourage more beans to start growing and the bean plant will start sending out more shoots.

Mid to late summer, we pinch out the top of every plant. This sends more energy into setting bean pods – plus, our evening temperatures are starting to dip down, so it’s time for the plant to stop growing bigger and start putting everything it has into growing the bean pods bigger.

What is the ideal soil temperature to grow green beans?

Beans love soil that is between 50 – 85F. Because of this, you need to be sure to have some way to cool your greenhouse when temperatures get too hot.

I spray the outside roof and walls of our greenhouse on the days when outside temperatures are above 85; this cools the inside temperature very quickly. 

That we have open vents at the tops of the greenhouse helps a lot, as does the open weave door. You can also get automatic greenhouse vents, so you don’t have to worry about overheating.

Since the greenhouse door is framed with wood and covered with chicken wire, it keeps the pests out I want to and it doesn’t make it too difficult for the bees to get in there. We have a roll up poly door that we can roll down each evening to keep the cool air out.

Think about growing runner beans under cover, especially if you live in an area where the nights are quite cool!

Scarlet Runner bean flowers are so pretty. They’re edible and they also tend to attract hummingbirds and bees. It shouldn’t be long till I am pressure canning beans, and hopefully I will be canning a LOT of them!

Here’s how to pressure can beans safely. After canning I store them in the cold room until we are ready for them.

 

More Gardening Articles

• Want a Greenhouse? See how we built our own Greenhouse for under $200!
• Want to see how I go grocery shopping without ever leaving my house? Come along with me on a weekly trip!
• All kinds of great gardening tips.

 

 

 

 

Published in July 2013; latest update August 2022

These last weeks, it has been pretty busy around here. Hoping I get a chance now to put up some posts on what we have been up to. Here’s our Greenhouse – I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in there the last couple of days.

 

This photo was taken last summer. In my Cold Room Inventory post, I wrote about hunting around downstairs only to find we had no green beans left in storage. I have got to plant lots this year.

Since we’re not planting a lot of tomatoes or peppers this year, I figured I would plant green beans throughout the greenhouse this summer. We have been having wonderfully warm days, but the nights are still very cool here. Too cool certainly, to plant bean seeds in the main garden. I’ll wait another week at least before planting them out there, and even then, will be covering them with Remay cloth.

 

Thinking of how I could increase the temperature in the unheated Greenhouse, a thought occured to me. Why not staple up Remay cloth around the inside perimeter? This should increase the temperature by 2 or 3 degrees and I could get an earlier start with planting beans in there.

 

While I was stapling it up, I realized I could just attach it half way up for now. That should help keep it even warmer. That’s what I did and later on, after the plants are all up and established, I should be able to staple the Remay up the rest of the Greenhouse walls.

After finishing with the cloth, I started watering the beds. I also laid a layer of compost over the whole area. I watered well several times a day for 3 days, digging down with a trowel to see how far down the moisture was going. It is amazing how dry the soil is when you first start watering it. It takes several repeats to get the soil moist enough for planting.

This morning, I brought my few tomato and pepper plants out to the Greenhouse.

 

I have 5 Sweet Green Peppers that have been planted into the pots and they will sit on the shelf there.

 

This morning, I stapled up the Remay in the one front corner, in preparation for planting Tomatoes.

 

 

After I dig the hole, I pound in the stake that this plant will need to hold itself up. Always have a stake or some type of support for your tomatoes, the plant ends up heavy and you don’t want branches snapping off, once the fruit is setting.

Then I put in the plant, usually taking off the lowest branches in order to plant the tomato deeper in the ground than it was in its growing pot. Deeper is always better for tomatoes. Then right away, I use a couple of velcro ties to hold the stem to the stake.

 

 

I love these ties – I bought a roll probably 5 years ago and it’s still going strong. As the tomato plant now settles in and starts growing, I will add more ties, securing the plant to the stake. By the harvesting season, I could well have 6 or more ties on each plant. Sometimes, depending on how much fruit is on the plant, we also need to use string. We hang it from the Greenhouse ceiling and then tie the tomato branches to it.

These plants have already set their first flowers. Hopefully in a few months, the plants will look like this.

 

 

 

 Are you growing in a Greenhouse? Would you like to? We sure do love using ours! If you want to read more about growing in a Greenhouse, just click the link.