Lots of people like growing pepper plants in their gardens. It can be pretty satisfying to watch the plants grow and you’re going to love being able to harvest peppers to use in your cooking.
If you’ve just started raising pepper plants this year, then you might need a bit of help. Some people wind up noticing that their pepper plants aren’t doing so great.
If the growth of your pepper plants appears to be stunted, then you might be doing something wrong. There are a few things that could be causing the pepper plants to not grow properly that you’ll need to check out.
Read the information below to learn how to prevent stunted pepper plants. It’ll help you to turn things around so that your pepper plants can grow strong.
1 – Ensure That the Pepper Plants Are Getting Enough Light
One of the more common issues that cause pepper plants to stop growing involves light. If the pepper plants aren’t getting enough sunlight, then they might stop growing or they will only grow a little bit.
Pepper plants originally come from places that are very warm and they’re used to getting quite a bit of sunlight. If you have them in a shady part of your garden, then they might not be getting enough sunlight during the day to thrive.
Before you plant peppers in your garden, it’s going to be wise to look at the sunlight requirements. Try to find a good spot in your garden that will help the pepper plants to grow and do well.
If you’re raising pepper plants indoors, then you should be using a grow light. You’ll want to ensure that you have a grow light that is strong enough to help the pepper plants grow.
When using a grow light for indoor pepper plants, it’s recommended to give the plants at least fourteen hours of light per day. If you do this, then you should be able to alleviate any stunted growth issues.
2 – Don’t Water Your Pepper Plants More Than You Should
Watering issues can cause pepper plants to stop growing properly as well. It’s possible that you might have gone overboard when watering your pepper plants.
When you water a pepper plant too much, it’s going to cause many problems. It can stunt the growth of the plant and it could lead to root rot if you aren’t careful.
Try to give your pepper plants a good even watering without giving the plants too much water. Typically, you’ll be watering your pepper plants once per week, but they might need to be watered more often than that during particularly hot periods of time.
It’d be better to let the soil dry out than it would be to make the soil soggy. Always be mindful that too much water is bad for your pepper plants.
3 – Transplant Shock
Transplant shock can cause pepper plants to stop growing for a time. When you transplant your pepper plant seedlings into larger pots, they might stop growing for a day or so.
Sometimes you’ll notice that the plants will grow but they will grow at a slower rate. This is actually normal and you can’t really avoid transplant shock entirely.
The pepper plants will recover from transplant shock after a few days have passed. You shouldn’t give your pepper plants fertilizer or anything such as that after transplanting because it could backfire.
Pepper plants that have been transplanted outside can go through a shock as well. Sunlight is harsh when compared to the grow lights that you might have been using indoors.
Sometimes transplant shock fertilizer can be useful when trying to help pepper plants acclimate to the outdoors. Even if you don’t use fertilizer, the pepper plants should acclimate to the outdoors within a week and will start growing again.
4 – Compressed Soil
Compressed soil can negatively impact your pepper plants and keep them from growing. The pepper plants are going to do better when placed in soil that has been aerated properly.
When you’re taking care of pepper plants in pots, it’s going to be possible to pack the potting mix too tightly. This can create compression that will make it hard for the pepper plants to do what they need to do.
The soil does need to be packed down when you’re working in potted plants, but you need to avoid doing it too tightly. When ground soil becomes compacted, you can turn things around by loosening the soil with a hoe or a garden spade.
Just try to gently loosen the soil and don’t try to till the land. It shouldn’t be too hard to get good results and make the soil better for the pepper plants.
5 – You Might Need a Bigger Pot
In some cases, you might need to transfer your pepper plant to a bigger pot. A pepper plant could stop growing because it has outgrown the pot that you have it in.
Some types of pepper plants can grow to be very big. In fact, there are pepper plants out there that can grow as tall as eight feet.
Knowing this, it makes sense that your pepper plant is going to need a new pot eventually. Keep an eye on your pepper plants so that you will know when it’s time to transplant them to larger containers.
6 – Issues with Weeds
Issues with weeds have the potential to stunt the growth of pepper plants as well. Weeds make it tougher for plants to get nutrients because they are forced to compete with the weeds.
You should take the time to weed the garden area where your pepper plants are located. If you do this regularly, then you should be able to avoid any problems that might pop up due to excessive weeds.
Generally, weeds will only be a huge issue if you allow them to get out of control. You’re going to need to control weeds no matter what type of plant you’re growing.
7 – Pest Issues
Pest issues should also be looked into because of how bad they can be for pepper plants. There are many pests that will bother pepper plants.
Aphids, spider mites, thrips, and caterpillars are all known to cause issues for pepper plants. Your pepper plant could stop growing if it is dealing with a pest infestation.
Thankfully, you can get rid of pests by using the right treatments. It might be necessary to treat your pepper plants with some type of insecticidal spray or soap in some instances.
Try to take care of pest issues before they have the chance to get worse. Some pest infestations have the potential to kill your plants and you certainly don’t want that to happen.
8 – Diseases
Diseases can cause pepper plants to stop growing. There are several diseases that pepper plants are susceptible to.
Sadly, if your pepper plant is diseased, then you’re likely going to have to discard it. Diseases can spread from plant to plant, and you’re probably going to need to get rid of an infected plant before it has a chance to spread the disease to the other plants.
The best thing that you can do is to try to avoid diseases. Keep your garden area clean, prune your pepper plants to keep the leaves away from the soil, and only water the plants at the base.
If you do your best to care for your pepper plants properly, then you shouldn’t have to deal with diseases too often. Remember that diseases can be spread by certain pests as well and that you’ll want to treat for pests to mitigate the chances of disease.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.
Before you go: Now is the perfect time to start tracking your gardening progress, and I created a garden journal to do exactly that. Click the image below to see it in action and to get your own copy.
