Planting peppers in 5 gallon buckets
Hot peppers do fairly well in containers. 5-Gallon buckets make excellent cheap containers to grow peppers. (If using a used bucket, be sure it never contained harsh chemicals, such as paint or automotive grease)
1) Drill some holes in the bottom and lower part of the sides for drainage. A ¼” drill bit works well.
2) Fill with standard garden or potting soil. Do not use filler such as rocks or styrofoam at the bottom. The pepper plant will need all the soil in the bucket.
3) Water the bucket thoroughly until water is coming out of the drainage holes
4) Plant your pepper! Set the soil level of the pepper slightly below the soil level of the bucket.
5)Add some mulch. For this purpose, natural mulch such as shredded leaves (avoid magnolia leaves) works best instead of typical wood mulch bought at big-box stores, but you can use wood chips if that’s what you have. This helps keep the soil from drying out too quickly, and releases nutrients as it degrades.
6) Be sure the plant gets full sun - 6 hours as an absolute minimum. The more sun, the better. Water deeply, but less often.
7) At the end of the season, pull the plant out (you may need to use garden shears to clip some of the larger root branches to get the plant out). Mix in a few handfuls of compost. Then, your bucket will be ready for another pepper next season!
