Sweet and chillie pepper plus melon spacing?

[Snadger]

Growing sweet and chillie peppers in a raised bed in the greenhouse. Bed is about two foot wide. What is the best spacing and how high do each grow?

I am also growing melons vertically in the same bed but no idea of spacing for those either?

[Alison]

Depends very much on the variety, I usually go for pretty similar spacing to toms but there are some very small neat chillis and likewise some which can get pretty tall and need support. Re melons, I've only every grown those in tubs and that was in 10" pots (I think) and they will grow far further than you'd want and so you are usually best to pinch them out when a few fruits have formed (the number will vary depending on how big the fruits are).

[Hazel at the Hill]

Not sure if this helps, Snager, but Hessyan says 18" apart each way for sweet peppers, so I guess you could put them in 2 deep - but it doesn;t say anything about tall or compact varieties.. .

[SarzWix]

Hmmm, they reckon you can fit 3 in a growbag, so whatever spacing that is should theoretically be ok?
Size of peppers depends on variety, but usually the sweet pepper plants will get bigger than chilli pepper plants.

[Alice]

Hello Snadger, I think it's all down to varieties. Some get bigger than others, but none are enormous. A big pepper might need a 9" pot. Chillies could do fine in anything from 5 to 9 inch pots. Height might be 9 inches to 2 feet. And the spread is not enormous - less than the height.
My Hotwax have chilles 4" long but the plant is only 12" high.
You can see the fruits on the plants here and the pepers when I cut them
earlier this month - none of the plants were more than 15" high, but will probably get a big bigger. Hope this helps.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Hello Snadger, I think it's all down to varieties. Some get bigger than others, but none are enormous. A big pepper might need a 9" pot. Chillies could do fine in anything from 5 to 9 inch pots. Height might be 9 inches to 2 feet. And the spread is not enormous - less than the height.
My Hotwax have chilles 4" long but the plant is only 12" high.
You can see the fruits on the plants here and the pepers when I cut them
earlier this month - none of the plants were more than 15" high, but will probably get a big bigger. Hope this helps.

They are fantastic Alice! When did you start them off if they are fruiting now??

[noidea]

Alice..... you're peppers are inspiring!!! I keep looking at mines and hoping they get like that!!!

Does anyone know how big an apache chilli gets? Mines are thriving and starting to form what looks like wee round flower buds but they are only about 9 inches tall.... fairly bushy and sturdy though.

C

[Alice]

I planted the peppers in January Hazel - itchy fingers and all that. But I do have very sunny windowsills and time to footer about moving them out of the sun when they are flowering and misting them over daily.
I've been eating them since first week in May. Had to cut them as they were starting to redden.
I left these ones on the plant to ripen at the end of the year last year. This years were grown from the seeds. I was pleased with the squash too.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Fantastic and inspirational! Thank you for letting us see those, Alice - and if our produce is even approaching that quality you'll hear our whoops of joy all the way up there!

[SarzWix]

D'you know, it's really difficult to find any information about plant sizes?! All the sites seem to go on about is how big the fruits are!! Anyway, after a serious hunt, it turns out that the best info is on the Thompson & Morgan seed website, they seem to advise between 18 & 24 inches between plants, depending on the size of plant/fruit. Might be an idea to look up your varieties on there?

[Alice]

Thanks Hazel. And go for it.

[Snadger]

Thanks everyone, and especially Alice!

I have about six foot of glass above the raised beds so I may knock up a shelf half way up which I can put pots on with the hot chillies in!

Sweet peppers below, hot peppers above!

[Flummery]

I'm doing something similar Snadger. I have a slatted staging at the end of my greenhouse (opposite the door) and I'm putting peppers and aubergines both on and below it. Using up space is the order of the day!