Bell Peppers have a long growing season (60 to 90 days), so most home gardeners buy starter pepper plants at the garden nursery rather than grow them from seed. However, you can start pepper seeds indoors if you want to grow your own. Northern gardeners should warm outdoor soil by covering it with black plastic as early as possible in late winter/early spring.
Red and green peppers are good sources of vitamin C, some vitamin A, and small amounts of several minerals. They’re wonderful raw in salads or as a snack with dip or hummus. You can also stuff peppers with seasoned bread crumbs or meat and bake them.
On this page, we focus on growing sweet peppers, but much of the advice for growing hot peppers is the same. That said, we also have a growing guide for jalapeño peppers!
For more information on how to grow bell peppers click the following hyperlink to Farmers Almanac Peppers.
For other resources please click on Cornell Universities Peppers link or click on Gardening Know How's Peppers link.
Jalapeño Peppers: The jalapeño is the most popular chili pepper in North America! This medium-size pepper produces deep-green 3-inch fruit that mature to a bright red.
Hot peppers love the sun and grow in temperatures that range from 70 to 90 F (21 to 32 C). They don’t take up a lot of growing space. A half dozen plants should provide a family with peppers all summer long. You can also grow peppers in containers; look for compact varieties.
All chili peppers vary in heat. On the Scoville heat scale, the jalapeño is rated 2,500 to 5,000 units—a “medium-hot” pepper. If you’re interested in growing other hot peppers, you can follow this same guide. It’s fun to grow a variety, especially if you yearn for the burn!
For more information on how to grow bell peppers click the following hyperlink to Farmers Almanac Jalapeno Peppers.
Armageddon is the world’s first F1 super-hot chili. It measures in at 1.2 million Scovilles. This gives a fantastic gardener advantage in terms of improved plant vigor and fruit uniformity. It is the earliest maturing super-hot variety, at least 14 days earlier than its competition.
This little plant packs lots of punch! Prolific fruiting plant is loaded with small hot peppers in a compact size. It has good tolerance to cooler weather. Makes for beautiful Fall decor.
Add zest, flavor and heat with this hot pepper. At a whopping 5 in. (13 cm) long, this might just be the biggest jalapeño you've ever seen! Perfect for pickling, stuffing and slicing - and it really sparks up a salsa. Scoville rating: 4000
Mildly spicy peppers are delicious raw or cooked whether picked green or red. Tasty 'Sweet Heat' can produce 65% higher vitamin C content than the average garden pepper.** Mildly spicy peppers are delicious raw or cooked whether picked green or red. Extreme earliness gives sweetness of ripe fruit with just the right amount of spice. Compact, bushy plants work well in gardens and large planters. This variety is a member of the BOOST Collection of high-nutrition vegetables.
You'll enjoy tasty peppers up to two weeks earlier than other sweet bell red peppers when you put this All-America Selections winner into your veggie garden! Each 1-oz. (28-g)
Shishito peppers are on menus and at farmers’ markets across the nation. Gaining the ranks of culinary excellence, Shishito peppers are on menus and at farmers’ markets across the nation. Dragon Roll tops out at about 200 Scovilles, making it more mild than a jalapeno pepper, but letting you know you got some heat. A great choice for your “Foodie Fresh” vegetable garden.
Pepper Hot Habanero Burning Bush:
Wrinkled, lantern-shaped ‘Chichen Itza’-type peppers are produced on early-maturing, sturdy and productive plants. All the heat you expect from a habanero, tempered with a touch of sweetness. Plants reach 24 to 36 in. (60 to 90 cm), with good yields of 3-in. (7-cm) by 1.5-in. (3.5-cm) fruit that matures from green to an unusual peach color. Perfect for sauces and salsas.
Among the very hottest peppers ever measured! Lantern-shaped, 1 x 1.5-in. (3 x 4 cm) pods have thing, wrinkled, light green flesh and ripen to a golden orange.
This heirloom from Ecuador has a spicy aroma and is best fresh, in sauces or for drying. Hot Lemon’s 3- to 4-in. (8- to 10-cm) fruits ripen to yellow, but are also very flavorful when green. The skin is tender and the aroma is spicy with a hint of pine woods. As hot as any Cayenne, these peppers have a truly unique flavor. Plant in full sun and keep well watered. The more you harvest, the more your plants will produce!
Great for pickling or drying, using in salsa or adding spice to your recipes. In about three months you can begin harvesting these versatile, 6 to 8 in. (15 to20 cm)-long, yellow-to-red peppers. These hot, tapered fruits are great for pickling or drying, using in salsa or adding spice to any recipe.
Pepper Hot Jalapeno Gigante II:
The largest jalapeño, these peppers measure as much as 5 in. (13 cm) long! Grows easily in patio containers. One of the largest jalapeños, these peppers measure as long as 5 in. (13 cm)-long! Jalapeño Gigante produces jumbo delicious peppers that are perfect for salsa or stuffing as poppers. Easy to grow in any sunny garden or large patio pot, these peppers can be harvested throughout the Summer when they’re green or red.
These mildly hot, long (12-in./30-cm) fruits tend to curl and twist, making them great for drying. Ristra Cayennes start off lime green and ripen fully to bright crimson, drying easily for chili and salsa recipes. Easy to grow, these peppers are heavy producers, so you will only need to plant one. Ristra Cayenne is great in large patio containers. Pick the peppers as soon as they are ripe to ensure a large harvest. Disease Resistance: PVY 0,TM 0.
If you like sriracha sauce, this is the pepper for you! The new Sriracha home garden hot pepper produces large, uniform dark green fruit that turns to red with smooth skin. Fruit has a good shelf life. Used in making the famous condiment, this pepper tops out at about 2,300-2,500 Scovilles.
This fiery hot pepper made Tabasco sauce famous. The small, light yellow-green peppers turn to red, growing on tall plants. Tabasco peppers are used fresh, or dried and ground into a powder. Like many other plants in your garden, these peppers prefer full sun (at least six hours) and moist soil (water every other day). Easy to grow, Tabasco peppers are great for small gardens and patio pots. They are hot. Don’t go overboard the first time you cook with them.
Pepper Snack Mardi Gras Fun Orange:
Four colors that beg to be eaten! The perfect snack-sized peppers feature eye-catching colors that beg to be eaten. The Mardi Gras Fun series offers four colors that can be grown together in one large container for a pretty patio display. Plants are well matched in habit and timing across all colors: Red, Orange, Yellow and Purple.
These giant peppers start yellow and mature orange-red, so you can pick them at any stage you like. If you like tasty banana peppers, you’ll love this whopper, which produces much bigger, meatier peppers on much smaller plants. These truly giant peppers start yellow and mature orange-red, so you can pick them at any stage you like. Great for pickles, salads or grilling.
These gigantic yellow peppers are great tasting grilled, sautéed, stir-fried, roasted, or stuffed. Big Daddy produces jumbo, 10-in. (25-cm) yellow peppers in three months. Pick a sunny location that you can water every couple days and keep a couple stakes handy in case the stalks begin to bend. Versatile in the kitchen, try roasting with red peppers for an attractive combo.
Fruit resembles Cherry Bomb but with less heat and more sweet. Neat, compact plants produce an abundance of snackable, stuffable, grillable 2-in. peppers with more sweet than heat. Matures from green to red. TMV resistant.
Pepper Sweet Costa Rican Sweet:
These 6-in. (15-cm) ruby red peppers have more flavor than most sweet bells and are best in salads or sliced for dip. Costa Rican Sweet is a truly tasty pepper that’s easy to grow in gardens and patio pots – ready to pick in less than three months. Plant in a sunny garden bed or in a large patio pot and keep well-watered. Fertilize two or three weeks after planting. Perfect for salads and dips, they’re also delicious roasted or grilled.
Great eaten fresh or cooked. These big, fleshy peppers have a sweet, smoky flavor.
Pepper Sweet Jalapeno Sweet Poppers:
All the sweet without the heat! Sweet Poppers is a no-heat jalapeño that gives you all the flavor without the burn! These peppers are earlier to fruit and produce high yields with well-drained, nutrient-rich soil.
Habanero flavor without any heat! Roulette offers the signature look and taste of a habanero without the heat! Peppers start green and mature to red, where they are at their best flavor. 2018 All-America Selections Winner matures faster than other habaneros in its class.
Huge Marconi sweet pepper. This HUGE Marconi sweet pepper delivers exceptional flavor and texture, with thick walls for a satisfying crunch. Great fresh, fried or stuffed! These bold plants produce big yields of tapered 13-in. (33-cm) peppers that mature from green to red, for appealing color along with great taste. And they feature disease resistance to Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Tomato Spotted Wilt. Ideal garden or large-container peppers.
You'll be thrilled with this plant's high yields of 4-in. peppers. The aristocrat of bell peppers, bright red Baron is distinguished by high yields of blocky, 4 in. (10 cm)-long fruits. Thick-walled, with heavy flesh, Baron is excellent for eating fresh, roasting and stuffing.
Pepper Sweet Bell Better Belle IV:
A popular green-to-red pepper. Known for early maturity, outstanding color and high yields of quality fruit, Better Belle IV has fantastic disease resistance: BLS 0,BLS 1,BLS 2,BLS 3,BLS 5,BLS 7,BLS 8,TMV This sweet bell, hybrid pepper yields plenty of shiny, firm and blocky fruit that ripens early from green to red. It has a crisp texture and sweet flavor with thick walls perfect for slicing, stuffing or baking.
Pepper Sweet Bell California Wonder:
The standard bell pepper for many decades! This 1928 introduction is still the largest open-pollinated, heirloom bell pepper you can grow. A perfect stuffing pepper - blocky, 4 x 3.5 in. (10 x 4 cm), thick-walled, tender and flavorful. Fruits mature in 75 days.
Unique eye-catching variegated foliage and multi-color fruit! Confetti is a mini bell pepper with unique eye-catching variegated foliage. Its mounded plant habit will hold up in a vegetable garden or patio container. Its fruit ripens from light green to bright red, with a sweet, crunchy flavor that is perfect for fresh eating at any stage of ripeness. Can be grown with or without support cage or trellis.
Pepper Sweet Bell Flavorburst:
These sweet peppers are easy to grow, producing a bountiful harvest of crisp, juicy golden peppers all summer long. They grow well in patio containers in a sunny location. A Burpee taste test winner, Flavorburst beat out hundreds of other sweet peppers with the most crisp, juicy and sweet taste. These peppers produce fruit all summer, longer than most other varieties. Grow in a sunny spot with plenty of water. You might need to stake your plants if the stalks begin to bend.
Pepper Sweet Bell Gold Standard:
Bell pepper with resistance to Bacterial Leaf Spot, Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Potato Virus Y. This great, big, green-to-gold bell pepper offers an excellent disease resistance package for easy and successful gardening, all while producing high yields.
Pepper Sweet Bell Great Stuff:
Great stuffed or baked, these peppers are easy to grow and productive all summer long. This jumbo, 7-in. (18-cm) long, 5-in. (13-cm) wide pepper ripens from green to dark red. It’s versatile in the kitchen, perfect for slicing, stuffing or baking. Excellent in any garden, Great Stuff is resistant to pests – a gardeners’ favorite. Water your plants every couple of days, and make sure they get at least six hours of sun for excellent yields.
Pepper Sweet Bell Jungle Parrot:
Gorgeous red color on this sweet pepper! Jungle Parrot is an excellent choice for space-saving gardening. The plants grow strong without support and perform equally well in containers or in the ground. The blocky, bell-shaped fruit ripens from dark green to red, and can be eaten at either stage. Mature fruit size is 3 in.; harvest more than a dozen peppers from each plant!
Pepper Sweet Bell Red Standard:
Colossal green-to-red bell pepper! This colossal green-to-red bell pepper produces thick-walled fruit that adjusts well from cool to warmer seasons. It offers early maturity and high yields, and the peppers will ripen to red quickly in hot climates. It also offers excellent disease resistance and an early bush-growing habit. You'll love how easy it is to grow these peppers in the ground or in patio containers. Red Standard has resistance to Bacterial Leaf Spot 1-5, 8 and 9. It also has Cucumber mosaic virus resistance.