Care for your peppers:

Your peppers will come to you hardened off and ready to live outside.  You can certainly put your peppers in the ground and treat them as you would any other garden annual; however, these are special plants and deserve extra attention from you.  I grow my exotic peppers in pots. Any container in the 3 to 5 gallon range will work. The soil should be slightly sandy and drain well.  Allow the soil to dry between watering. Peppers hate having wet feet! Use a compost tea, manure or commercial growing agent for the best results.

Place your pot in an area that receives at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. A hot summer will produce the most pepper yield and harvest often to promote new growth.  Another advantage to growing your exotics in containers is…

Overwintering:

I have several peppers that are over 4 years old!  Before the first frost (or when nights are dipping to the middle 40’s) bring your plant inside.  Place it in a corner of the basement or the furnace room, water occasionally and have a florescent light (on timer) shining on it. Give it 5 to 8 hours of light a day and for pennies a day you’ll have a jump on next years pepper harvest!  My older peppers grow twice as many fruit as the “first year” plants.  For more information about hot peppers, join thehotpepper.com.