Chile peppers in Phoenix

18 years ago

Okay, so Ive been cruising the chile pepper forum to get some basic answers, but want some advice from experts here in the valley. So much of the advice and info is given for zones which dont have our "issues". I have thee possible exposures to plant chile peppers in. Facing south, east and north. My questions:

1. Should plants be planted into the ground in the Fall? Would Spring be better?

2. Which exposure would be best for these plants?

3. Which varieties are recommened for our climate?

The areas for planting are on mounds or hills, sloped against block walls. I have soaker hoses embedded into the mounds themselves, and they can provide ample water. This is working well for several things in the back and front yard. Seems like an ideal solution to getting sufficient water to areas. Are many others using this technique?

Thanks a ton,

DD

Comments (3)

Padron4km
18 years ago
Some answers...
I'm no expert, but I have been growing hot peppers for a long time.

1) You can plant now, and depending on the Variety you plant you just might get some before the "cold" hits. I wouldn't expect any fruit from longer season varieties like habs right now. by the time they are ready to start flowering it will be November and the fruit doesn't ripen to good in the cold weather. Good thing tho you can overwinter them in the ground and come next spring you will start getting fruit right away, and and will harvest longer before the HOT hits again.

2) again depends on the variety, but Peppers like the sun. I do have a Chilitepin plant growing on the east wall of my house and it has done well. because there is only about 15 ft between my house and my neighboor it only gets a couple of hours of direct sunlight, the rest of the day it is in partial sunlight, or partial shade. It is a bit tall and leggy compared to it's sibling planted in another part of the yard, but it still produces tons of peppers from October thru April.

3)What varieties do you want to grow? almost everything does well here. I haven't tried Rocotos here, so I don't know about them, but I don't think they will do good in the ground. I think that is more of a pepper that will do better in containers that you can bring in and give supplemental lighting to in the winter. From what I've read the need long cool days to produce, and when our days are long they are hot and when its cool the days are short.
Varieties that I have grown with success,
Habanero
Jalapeno
Serrano
Dong Xuan (these weren't very hot tho)
Thai hot
Aji
Pablano
Nu-Mex
and a whole mess of bird type peppers. Most of the bird peppers I have growing out there now are about to enter their second winter. The two chilitepins are about to enter their 5th winter.

I have mine in raised beds wih drip irrigation.
The raised beds seem to help with overwintering, I only covered them twice last winter and only a couple suffered any damage.

HTH and welcome to the forum

jeff
DesertDreamer
Original Author
18 years ago
Jeff, that might very well be the most helpful possible reply I could have asked for. Thanks, thanks, thanks!
DD
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bethhawthorne
18 years ago
If you like mild peppers I have had a lot of success with banana peppers. They produce year round. I have them on the East side of the house in a raised bed. They get full sun until about 1PM. In Summer they get water three times a week. I would recommend planting them anytime highs are under 100, just because new plants don't have the roots yet to keep up with the heat.