theguyondacouch

I have decided to plant peppers this year in a little backyard garden. The seed packets say to plant inside 8 weeks before transplanting to the outdoors. My question is, when should i plant outside? I live in northern RI if that means anything.

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Jim Kata

Do you mean plant outside as in start them outside? or do you mean, when should you transplant them outside?

Starting outside, I would say spring time. Maybe 2 weeks into it just to make sure the cold weather is gone.

Starting inside, I would say your goal is to move them outside around mid april or may. So go back 8 weeks from there and start them inside (which would be in a couple of weeks).

Yalaynia

Thats funny that it wouldnt tell you anything on the back of the package. Usually it would say something along the lines of plant in mid april early may.
I would say plant them when theres no chance of frost even as late as wait til the middle to end of May. Start them from seed about half way through March in a little green house covered container.
My mom and I bought some green and yellow pepper plants that were already about 3 inches tall back in june and they grew really well. They were also on sale just to get rid of them and half dead when we got them but for 12 plants for a buck we thought we would take a chance.

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gonadman

Sounds like good advice above. Just remember that pepper seedlings need LOTS of light, or they will get "leggy". You will have good results with a flourescent plant light. Also the seeds/plants like heat, so allow them to germinate in a warm spot or put a propagation mat under them. Finally, don't put them outside until ALL danger of frost has passed.

All of the above learned through the unfortunate senseless murder of hundreds of pepper plants over the past 20 yrs!
(Last year a late frost in May killed a half dozen each of my Jalepenos, Habanaros, Cherrys, and Cayannes!)

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clavus

Peppers like lots and lots of light and heat.

Peppers die when it is cold.

Do with this information as you will

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Benny

What they mean by when it's time is after the last frost or when there will be no more frosts in your area. (because it wacks them bad)

You can avoid that with young ones cheaply and pretty cool by cutting the bottoms out of 2 liter cola bottles and using them as mini greenhouses. The catch heat in the day and retain it at night, which in northern climates helps peppers a lot. Peppers like it real warm, they even like the grond warm. Many gardeners use black plastic around their peppers to catch the sunlight and make the ground warmer than it would be. A good rule for trying something in the garden new is just plant more of them than you think you want and give yourself some mistake room. Then you will usually have something to give to your neighbors and there is nothing more fun than giving away great veggies, people love them.

mxyzptlk

Little late for this year, but for future reference, peppers need warm soil for maximum growth. Also, peppers, like tomatoes, produce more if you set them a little lower into the ground than their surface in the starter parts. They are capable of adding extra feeder roots along the buried trunk.

Did you know that you can take your pepper plants indoors before it gets cool and use them as house plants? this works especially well for hot peppers. Fun to pick your habenero's from the windowsill. Just make sure that you keep them moist and misted as they are prone to spider mites when the air is too dry. Of course you don't want to use poisons on an edible house plant, so a strong blast of windex (believe it or not) followed in a few minutes by water will do that trick. Enjoy...

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