Not only does the Pepper have certain preferences regarding how much water it receives, but it also cares deeply about how you provide that water. In fact, if you don't use the proper watering technique, you risk harming your tomatoes. The best way to water Pepper is to apply the water directly to the soil in a slow and gentle manner. You should not pour all of the water into the soil at once, and you should not do overhead watering for your Pepper. Although you should water slowly, you should also water deeply to ensure that all of the soil in which your Pepper grows is sufficiently moist.

If you find that you have overwatered your Pepper and you are concerned about the associated risk of disease, you should intervene immediately. Often the best approach for an overwatered Pepper is to uproot it from its current growing location. Once the plant is out of the ground, you can allow its roots to dry a bit before planting it in a new growing location. Ensure that the new growing location has soil with good drainage. If you grow in pots, you may also want to move your plant to a pot with more or larger drainage holes. In the case of underwatering, all you will need to do is increase the frequency with which you supply water to your plant.

Overall, Pepper requires a significant amount of water throughout the growing season. To meet that high water need, you'll need to water early and often throughout the spring and summer. During the earlier parts of the growing season, you should water your Pepper about once or twice per week. As the season progresses, you should increase your watering frequency. You may need to water it twice per day or more during summer, depending on the weather. After your Pepper have gone through their major seasonal growth phases, you can reduce the frequency of your watering to about once per week until the end of the growing season.

Since Pepper are incredibly popular, with many professional and amateur gardeners growing them successfully, we have a pretty clear idea of how to care for these plants. That understanding includes specific knowledge about the precise volume of water an average Pepper should receive. Generally, Pepper will require about 1 - 1.5 inches of water per week. That volume should be dispersed evenly through your weekly watering. As the weather gets warmer, you may need to supply more water, but in most cases, two inches per week is a good baseline amount.

Underwatering and overwatering can both occur as problems for your Pepper, and both these problems can manifest with similar symptoms. For example, foliage discoloration and wilting can both result from either overwatering or underwatering. When your Pepper is underwatered, its leaves will be curling and drooping at the beginning. You will see a bunch of leaves turn less vigorous. Underwatering is also likely to cause stunted growth and poor overall development as both the flowers and this plant require a high amount of water. Overwatering is more likely to lead to disease, including rot. Overwatering may also lead to unpleasant smells rising from your plant's soil. The symptoms of underwatering will show up quicker than overwatering. Overwatering can also be evident in soil conditions. Mainly, if you notice a lot of standing water or waterlogged soils, overwatering is likely to occur.

As alluded to above, your Pepper's water needs will repeatedly change throughout the seasons. During most of spring and summer, you should water your Pepper about once every week. As the heat of summer arrives, you should plan to increase your watering frequency to once or twice per day. In the late summer and fall, towards the end of the harvest period, you can reduce your watering frequency to about once per week. After harvest has ended, you can cease watering as your Pepper has reached the end of its life cycle and will require no further soil moisture.

The maintenance schedule of Pepper will require you to alter the amount of water you provide depending on the plant's current growth stage. Early on, especially if you grow your Pepper from seeds, you'll need to provide water often enough to maintain consistent soil moisture, which encourages root development. When the plant becomes old enough to produce flowers, it will likely need even more water. During the fruit development growth stage, your Pepper will likely need the most water out of any growth period, at times requiring water more than twice per day. Following that phase, the water needs of Pepper will decline significantly.

Whether you grow Pepper indoors or outdoors can also play a role in how you water them. Pepper that grows outdoors may receive water from natural rainfall, which will reduce the amount of supplemental water you should supply. However, it is incredibly rare for rainfall to adequately replace your watering entirely. Plants that grow indoors, along with any Pepper that grows in a container, will need to be watered more frequently than those that grow in the ground outdoors. If you choose this route, please make sure that the plant gets enough water by checking the soil moisture within your pot often to keep your Pepper healthy.

You may or may not need to fertilize your Pepper, depending on the soil conditions in your garden. If you are able to get a good harvest from your Pepper crop, that is a good indication that fertilizer isn't necessary. However, the best way to determine whether or not you need to fertilize is by having the soil tested. You can test soil yourself using a kit, or you can send the soil out to a lab to be analyzed. Once you have an understanding of the nutrient levels in your soil, it will be easier to determine whether or not additional fertilizer is required.

Mix a layer of organic fertilizer into the soil at least a week prior to planting, and use another dressing on top of the soil during the spring to provide an extra boost to young plants. In most cases, just one to two applications of fertilizer during a growing season should be sufficient for a good harvest of Pepper.

Fertilizing a Pepper after the majority of the vegetables have been harvested will be a waste of your fertilizer and your energy, since this crop needs to be replanted every year. Also avoid fertilizing Pepper if you are already gardening in a location that has nutrient-rich soil. Since Pepper does not require a lot of fertilizer to grow well and yield plenty of vegetables with good size and flavor, there is no need to fertilize in many cases. Only fertilize your Pepper if your soil test indicates that one or more nutrients is lacking in your garden soil.

The best option for Pepper is a natural organic fertilizer, but slow-release granular fertilizers also work well. A low-nitrogen fertilizer is best, since too much nitrogen can cause excessive foliage production that takes away from the plant's ability to produce strong root vegetables. Use a formula with lower nitrogen such as 5-10-10 to make sure that the plant develops a good harvest.

Organic mulch is also recommended for growing healthy Pepper. A layer of mulch made from leaves, straw, grass clippings, or other organic matter helps phosphorus to prevent weeds, keep the soil moist, regulate soil temperature, and release a slow but steady supply of nutrients into the soil as the mulch breaks down.

Spread organic fertilizer such as manure or compost in a thick layer across the bed prior to planting, then mix or till the amendment into the soil. Additional organic fertilizer can be added on top of the soil after planting, in a layer about two to four inches thick. After adding any type of fertilizer, be sure to water thoroughly. When using chemical fertilizers, be sure to follow all manufacturer's directions to achieve the best results and avoid adding too much fertilizer to the garden. All types of fertilizer should be applied to the soil around the plant but not in contact with the plant itself, since contact with fertilizer can burn the plant's tissues.

The most typical scenario that occurs when Pepper is overfertilized is that the plant receives too much nitrogen, which is out of balance with other nutrients. Pepper is grown for its roots and not for its leaves, but nitrogen mainly supports the healthy development of foliage. For that reason, giving a Pepper plant too much nitrogen can cause it to develop a lot of foliage at the expense of the tubers that gardeners want. Phosporus is the nutrient that helps to promote root development, so it is important that Pepper be given plenty of phosphorus in addition to other required nutrients in order to yield plenty of vegetables.

Exact needs vary, but a minimum of 6 to 8 hours per day is a good rule of thumb for Pepper to grow and produce fruit.

Pepper requires full sun, meaning that it should be grown in a location that gets direct sunlight that isn’t blocked by obstacles such as trees, fences, or buildings. In general, the faster the plant grows, the more hours of sunlight it will need. Morning sun is best for photosynthesis.

Pepper should not need to be protected from the sun in most climates. Those who live in a desert or near the equator may find that the sun is too harsh for the types of plants they want to grow, but this is the exception.

All plants need sunlight to convert into energy. Plants that have a short growing season need even more light and energy than those that grow slowly, as they need to complete all their processes to grow and produce fruit within just a few months.

The first symptoms of insufficient sunlight in Pepper are pale and yellow leaves that are not able to generate enough chlorophyll to keep their healthy green color. The leaves may eventually fall off, and new growth is small and weak. The plant may become leggy and sparse as it stretches toward the available light.

Finally, without enough light the plant will not be able to produce large, high-quality edible leaves or fruit. Pepper needs to devote a lot of energy into growing leaves and fruits, so if there isn’t enough light available for it to convert, the harvest will suffer.

Pepper can get sunburned from intense sunlight, especially when coupled with high temperatures and not having enough water. Afternoon sun tends to be most likely to burn plants. Scalded leaves develop faded patches of light brown to white on the areas at the top of the plant that are exposed to the most sun. They are especially vulnerable to this right after being transplanted from a shadier location to being in full sun. Transitioning plants gradually or providing them with a barrier while they are adjusting can help prevent sunscald in young plants.

In many cases, Pepper develops leaves that are large enough to protect fruits from the strongest rays of the sun. However, if intense sunlight is in contact with fruits, they can also be damaged. Avoid over-pruning those protective leaves so that the fruits don’t get burned.

Pepper may become unbalanced if it gets significantly more light on one side than the other. Ideally, you can plant your Pepper in a location away from obstacles that might block light, and where the distribution of sunlight is even on all sides.

Be careful about planting tall species next to those that grow closer to the ground. It may not be obvious when the crops are first planted, but over time the taller plants may begin to block the amount of sunlight that can reach the shorter plants.

Morning sun helps to dry dew and precipitation, which helps prevent infection from diseases that can develop when water sits on the plant. If you are watering or irrigating your Pepper, this should be done in the morning.

Pepper can often survive just fine with minimal pruning that removes dead, damaged, and diseased branches and stems. However, there are other, more involved forms of pruning that will allow your Pepper to not only survive but thrive and be as productive as possible. This style of pruning, involves pruning both before and after this plant's bloom period and will help your Pepper start the fruit development process, and also helps those fruits mature more efficiently once they appear on the plant. During the early parts of the season, you should perform structural pruning to help your Pepper develop with a strong structure that is well-capable of supporting fruits. After the bloom period, when the fruits begin to set, you should remove all but the fruit-bearing stems of this plat. Following this pruning method is what you should do if you want to receive the best pepper harvest from your Pepper.

There are two times of year when you should prune your Pepper, to encourage better health and fruit production. The first pruning period occurs just after the bloom time. At this time, you should use our pruning cuts to remove smaller stems that do not contribute to the plant’s main structure or compete too closely with other stronger stems. Your Pepper should also be at least a foot tall before you perform this pruning. The second pruning time comes later in the season after the fruits have appeared on the plant but before they are fully mature. For this second pruning, you should focus on removing any non-fruit-bearing stem, to focus all growing energy on stems that do hold fruits.

Pepper tends to be relatively delicate plants compared to other fruit-bearing species. As such, you should use caution when you prune, lest you cause unintended damage to otherwise healthy stems. The best tool to use to prune your Pepper is a pair of clean and sharp hand-held pruning shears. Whether you are performing early-season, or late season pruning, you should follow each stem you intend to remove back to where it meets a larger stem or the main stem. Make your pruning cut as close to the larger stem as you can, to remove the smaller stem entirely and prevent it from regrowing. During the early part of the season, you should use your pruning cuts to create the strongest form for your Pepper. Removing stems that do not contribute to the plant's main structure, or any leaves that appear wilted, will make your Pepper better-suited to supporting heavy fruits later in the season. The second form of pruning should occur after the bloom period when the fruit development process is just beginning. At this time, you should cut off any flowers or excess leaves as well as any stems that do not hold fruits. This type of pruning gives your Pepper the chance to focus all of its energy towards fruit development.

After you perform the frist main pruning of the season, in which you should remove most or all of the nonessential stems, you should water and fertilize your plant to help it recover from your pruning cuts and put forth new growth more quickly. Following the second main pruning of the season, you should allow the fruits on your Pepper to fully mature. Fertilization can also be helpful following this pruning, as many of the leaves you remove will hold stored growth energy. A feeding of fertilizer can more than make up for removing that energy store, and will help yoru plant direct energy towards fruit development rather than sustaining leaves. Once the peppers are fully mature, you can harvest them and use them as you please in your kitchen. After harvest, your Pepper will have reached the end of its life cycle. With that being the case, you are not free to cut down your Pepper at its base. This will remove the entirety of your Pepper’s above ground structure, which will wither and die as the cold weather approaches. Clearing out your Pepper also cleans your garden bed and gives you the opportunity to plant something else in its place.

You should plant your Pepper seeds during the late winter. During this season, and most of the early spring, your plant will be in a seedling stage and won’t need much, if any pruning. During spring, before the blooms have arrived, you can perform your first main pruning that should emphasize a stong form and remove any unnecessary stems from your Pepper. After that, you won’t need to do much pruning throughout the rest of spring, except to remove damaged stems and leaves. Your second main pruning will take place after the bloom period while the plant is developing its fruits. Pepper take about 60 to 120 days to grow from seed to a harvest-able form regularly, rather than offer fruits in the same month every year, meaning that you'll need to observe your plant's growth phase to determine when to perform the second pruning of the year.

While Pepper is a perennial species, when they live in their native growing range, but many gardeners will need to grow these plants as annuals, if their regional climate includes cold winter temperatures, which Pepper cannot survive. That means that your Pepper will likely complete its life cycle in a single growing season. During the spring, at the beginning of this life cycle, you should focus on creating the ideal fruit-bearing form with your pruning efforts. Once your plant matures and reaches a fruit-bearing stage, your sole goal is to support those fruits by encouraging the plant to devote the majority of its growing energy towards stems that hold fruits. At this point, all non-fruit-bearing stems are of little value. Following the harvest, your Pepper will finish its life cycle and require no further pruning.

Pruning Pepper is a relatively straightforward task, but there are a few tips that will help you meet success. First, you should always use sears that are sharp and sterile, which helps you make clean cuts and reduce the spread of disease. During your pruning that takes place after the bloom period, you may need to remove flowers and fruits that are small or stunted compared to others on the plant, as this will direct energy towards the most viable and worthwhile peppers that grow on your plant. You should also pay attention to how you remove the peppers during harvest time. Often, it is best to use your pruning shears again for this job and make a clean cut right where the stem of the fruit meets the rest of the plant.