Peppers are a wonderful addition to the garden
They can be grown in containers on decks or balconies as long as they have sufficient light and nutrients. There are so many varieties, flavors and colors to choose from - sweet to spicy, green to purple or even brown (chocolate).
Here are 6 tips to help you be successful with peppers this season.
1. Start Early
If you live in a region with a short growing season, start your seeds indoors about 8-10 weeks before the last frost. I usually try to get mine going in February. To aid in germination, seeds can be soaked for a couple of hours in lukewarm water. Provide a sunny window or grow light, a heat mat and covered dome to keep in the heat. Move up into larger pots if they are outgrowing their starter pot and give them a shot of fertilizer; I like to use a mixture of liquid fish and kelp.
2. Transplanting Into the Garden
Peppers are very frost sensitive so don't put them out too early. Once the weather looks like it will be warm enough to move your plants outside, prepare the soil with organic matter. The soil should be warm (at least 60°F) and nighttime temps should not drop below 50°F. I keep some floating row cover on hand just in case we get a cool night. If your soil is not quite warm enough, you can use some mulching film to help warm the soil up for you. Make sure you harden off your transplants before putting them out. This just entails putting your plants outside during the day for about two weeks before transplanting. This way they will not be shocked when planting them outside permanently.
Since peppers are members of the nightshade family, you should not plant them in the same area that tomatoes and eggplant were grown. Rotating your growing areas in the garden to prevent potential diseases is a good practice. 
3. Peppers Like to Hold Hands
When you are ready to put them out, space them about 12 -15" apart so when they are bigger their leaves touch each other or "hold hands". This will help prevent the fruit from getting sun scald. If you notice that the fruit is getting sun scald, you may want to put up some shade cloth (30% is enough) to cut down on the damage.
4. Fertilizers - Choose the Best Blend
When you are putting out your transplants, it is a good idea to give them a shot of a good organic fertilizer with a balanced amount of N-P-K. Don't give them too much nitrogen or you will get a lush plant with very few peppers. Good balanced fertilizers like EB Stone Tomato & Vegetable Food or Down to Earth All Purpose Mix. Once your plants are starting to produce fruit, you should side dress with more fertilizer. Since phosphorus is essential for fruit production, the fertilizer you use should have more phosphorus than nitrogen. A liquid phosphorus such as the Phos Fish is a good choice for a quick shot of phosphorus.
5. Take Care with Watering
Peppers like even moisture and don't like to be soggy or dry. They like it just right! Well how do you achieve that? Your soil type will help guide you to how much and how often to water. If you have sandy soils, watering will need to be more frequent. Deep watering with drip irrigation is really the way to go. Mulch with a thick layer of straw or mulching film to help prevent drying out between waterings. If your soil dries out when plants are putting on flowers or growing fruit it can lead to flower drop or fruit aborting. 
6. Check for Ripeness
Peppers can be harvested at an immature stage but most will develop a better flavor when allowed to fully ripen on the plant. Nardello peppers can be picked when green but will taste much sweeter if allowed to develop into the ripe red color. Most peppers can be judged by the color change when ripe (except green bells or ancho poblano peppers) and can be picked once the color changes, usually from green to the ripe color (red, yellow, orange). Make sure you cut the pepper off the plant to avoid broken branches.
Which pepper to grow will be the hardest thing about growing peppers. Plant a pepper in your garden or in a pot and enjoy them in salads, roasted, dried, pickled or just eaten right in the garden!
Resources
Grow the Best Peppers by Weldon Burge
Parade of peppers -- How to Choose Peppers to Grow in Your Garden
4 comments
MomTome, are your peppers getting enough water? They should not be soft and not turning brown (at least scotch bonnets). Do they have enough leaf cover to protect the fruit from sun scald? Does your plant look healthy? Your peppers should not be soft and there may be a problem, but really hard to diagnose. Try mulching around your peppers as well to help keep the soil moist.
I have a scotch bonnet plant purchased at a local nursery. It has lots of firm, green fruit on it but now some of the largest ones have started changing to a brownish color and getting pretty soft. I cut the first one off because I thought it was diseased. I left a couple on the plant and they have turned bright red and have firmed up somewhat but they’re still softer than I am used to. I have not been gardening long (this is my first pepper harvest ever!) but I have jalapeno and bell peppers (grown from seed) also that are firm throughout the maturing and harvest so I wasn’t sure if the plant is messed up or if this is normal. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
Granville, glad that you enjoyed the article. Peppers are one of my favorite things to grow… and eat! There are so many organic seeds to choose from and it will take more than a lifetime to grow them all.
Very imformative, while being very simply put!
ps. I was`nt aware that there was such a wide range of organic seeds.