18" for annuums, 24-30" for chinense. the row spacing can be a challenge...all depends on how much you want to brush up against them as you walk/work the rows. Tomato cages really help with the annuums. I try to squeeze the rows down to 20" for annuunms. Never had ROWS of chinense, but I'd say 30" or so.

Kevin

Thank you so much. This is very helpful. I never paid much attention to the classifications, but I just looked them all up. I have 5 Capsicum Chinense. My bed is about 5'X10', so I think I can fit a couple of each of them in there.

I may build another bed for the Capsicum Annuum (Giant Jalapenos and Huge Bells). We tend to eat a lot of those, especially making jelly.

The Giant Mexican Rocoto kind of scares me. I just read that Capsicum Pubescens could grow up to nine feet tall. I do not know what to do with those, maybe line my driveway. lol

This post was edited by Elbourne on Fri, Mar 14, 14 at 20:11

Yah, Woohooman and I are pretty much on the same page. Some of those super hots can get 4' or more wide. Which is fine if you don't need space between the plants and some over lap is perfectly fine. If you have one or two varieties that your are concerned about growing way too big, you might want to consider putting them in containers so they can be moved easily.
Good luck,
Bruce

OK. Lets do a simple math.

If you have 8 vars. and want to grow 8 of each: 8 x 8 =64 plants.

If you plant each in a 2' by 2' area (4 sq.ft) then you need : 64 x 4 = 256 square feet of land. This does not include the extra space between rows.

So you have to work out the NUMBER , sq_ft PER PLANT and the SQURE FEET OF your garden.

If you use 3 sq_ft per plant you will need about 200 sqr_ft of land.

It depend on the dimensions of your bed. In a 4 ft wide bed you can comfortably plant 2 rows. So in a 4' by 10' bed you can plant 12 plant.

BTW: I am going to plant about 20 pepper plants. NO super hots and NO huge varieties. The hottest will be Habanero. I will plant them in pot/containers. The average size will be 3.5 gallon per pot (2.5 to 5 gal). With the pots, i can move them and adjust the spacing. the reasom for all this juggling is that I don't have enough garden space.

You could possibly get in 14 any more then that would overcrowd . 12 would be better. Like Seysonn said throw a few in pots.As far as the Rocoto goes find a Lg pot like a tree comes in they take a long time. If you can winter in over you would probably do better the 2nd year. I grew 3 plants one year ,got 4 peppers the first year,wintered it got maybe 60 year 2. Good pepper but lots of effort . Anyone who has luck with Rocotos should feel proud . not hard to grow but superhots are early in comparison and overwintering is a challenge also.
Good Luck
Pepper Dave

Bruce, Thanks. I will probably add some containers to the mix as well. I've done ghost peppers in 5 gal buckets before with pretty good success.

Thanks Dave. You have me excited about the Rocoto. I do have space to over-winter them in my garage. But if they do well this summer, that may give me an excuse to finally build a green house this fall. :)

ROCOTO:

Slightly off topic: I am growing MANZANO, which is a YELLOW cousin of Rocoto. From what I have heard, they don't like too much heat and sun. Apparently they are native to some mountainous region. About the size, I am sharpening my scissors. (Grin)

I think when you grow in smaller containers and plants get root bound, they start fruiting sooner, as they see themselves facing a dead end.

In a 5x10 spot? I see 2 rows of annuums 5-6 plants per row -- 6 if you squeeze them down to 16" apart and use cages on the annuums. Another row of them 20" over and in the middle of the bed. Then, 1 row of chinense on 1 edge staggered with the middle row of annuums(4 plants, 5 would be pushing it) A "little" bit of squeezing, but not so much to inhibit production.

PERSONALLY, I'd leave the annuums to the ground(and get in a couple morein the last row) and the chinenses to 10 gal containers

My experience with container peppers, the larger, the better. I have had decent production with chinense in 5 gal, but much better with 10 gal. Annuums, 1 good flush in 5 gal, and then poor after that. I will never try large fruited annuums in 5 gal again--- Maybe a Thai or Jalapeno, but not with an Anaheim or Bell or similar.

Kevin

Im going to try a few Wall-Mart bags this year . Most of my plants are going in the ground but Im using 5 -1 -1 to Isolate for seed ,so along with some pots I have Im going to test this method so many other members have had success with. 300+ plants to deal with in 10 locations. Should be an interesting season

I've been a Square Foot Gardener for years!

Last year I planted all my pepper in containers, ranging in size from 2.5 to about 6 gallons. Because we have cool and short season, peppers don't grow very big. If I grow them in a much bigger container, they would grow a lot of foliage and begin fruiting too late. So in a way smaller containers force them to fruit early, though that might not be a whole lot.

In a 5' by 10ft I can plant 20 plants in a staggered fashion. That is about 2.5 sq-ft per plant. ( 19" by 19"). That is roughly how I space my tomatoes in raised beds. But I have to work harder to support and prune them.

Seysonn