Final pot sizes for peppers and melons

[Martin H]

I've never grown peppers before.

They are coming up to flower, but I noticed the leaves were looking a little yellow. They are only in 1 litre pots so I assumed they needed more root space. But knocking one out of its pot I found that they are a long way from rootbound, in fact the roots are only just now making it to the edge and bottom of the existing pots. So I've given them a bit of a feed and left them alone for now.

My question is, what final pot size will they eventually need this season?



I have the same question for my melons (Sweet Granite). I've just moved them up to 3 litre pots, is this the final size or will they want something bigger before long?

[Jay-ell]

Can't answer your question but mine are in 15 cm pots at the moment and I thinking of finishing them in Morrison buckets which are about 10 litres.

My melons I'll be putting two into a trough 50x25x25 cm - no idea if this is enough or not, ask me next year


ps what size pots are yours in?

[Martin H]

My melons I'll be putting two into a trough 50x25x25 cm - no idea if this is enough or not, ask me next year


ps what size pots are yours in?

My melons just went into 3 litre pots. I'm assuming they will eventually want big buckets (12 litres) like my cucumbers but would like save compost if something smaller will do.

[Jungle Jane]

I've had best results with 2 Sweet pepper plants in a half filled potato sack,so about 20 litres for 2 plants. I've used smaller pots & got smaller peppers. I think they're shallow rooted compared to tomatoes,beans & corn but like to spread out wide in comparison. That's how the root seems when I pull them out at the end of the season.

[More basil]

Re the peppers: as I understand it, you make a choice regarding early yield versus potentially higher yield. A small pot will give an earlier yield. A larger makes for a bigger plant and hopefully more fruit. In a good summer. Last year, I couldn't bear to get rid of the smaller chilli seedlings I didn't have space for in my planters. So I kept them in their one litre pots, totally neglected and out in the open air, watering when I remembered. To my surprise, I got a nice small early harvest from these while waiting for the bigger plants to catch up in the blowaway.

[Martin H]

Re the peppers: as I understand it, you make a choice regarding early yield versus potentially higher yield. A small pot will give an earlier yield. A larger makes for a bigger plant and hopefully more fruit.

Thanks for this. Maybe I'll pot on some of them but leave some others alone.

[Scarlet]

I pot all my peppers and chillies into morrissons flower buckets - unless they have a space in the GH border. This year, they have had a really slow start

[Penellype]

I grow peppers in 2 litre pots on my windowsill - the peppers are small and a lot of fruit fall off shortly after setting, but they do produce a crop. Last year in my friend's greenhouse I grew 3 plants in much bigger pots - probably 10 litre (I haven't one to look at here). These produced much bigger plants with loads of large fruit comparable in size to what you would buy in a supermarket.

[Penellype]

I pot all my peppers and chillies into morrissons flower buckets - unless they have a space in the GH border. This year, they have had a really slow start

Mine are slow too Scarlet, particularly the plants I sowed early (January), which have been really pathetic. The February sown plants are much bigger and flowering whereas the January ones are still only about 5 inches high, with buds but no flowers yet. Last year the January sown ones had open flowers in April and I didn't need to sow any more in February.

[Jungle Jane]

Mine are slow growing too,I only have one plant with 7 flowers & lots of new buds,the others are just leaves on a stem,they were all sowed at the same time,treated the same (except lately,with this weather,the one with flowers is getting pampered indoors). Also it's the only pepper thats been potted on so far,the others were still tiny,maybe by potting on (more compost) it could've helped it's growth,I do feed them too once a month,so that pot having more compost,can hold more feed. I'll probably pot on a lot of plants today.

[Jay-ell]

It's reassuring to know that mine aren't the only slow ones. I sowed mine in feb and a couple are showing buds

[jacob]

Bigger pots, bigger crop. For the peppers I might keep them in something quite small until they start flowering, then pot them taking a green early crop. For the melons, as big as possible as soon as possible.

That said, you're peppers are well on from mine, so maybe my opinion isn't worth much!

[cristalfiona]

Mine will be going in MFBs next week as their final pot sizes - melons in the larger size, peppers in the smaller size. I will warn you though that this is my first year growing melons and I have no idea if this is right.

Also my plants are all still quite small so I wouldn't normally pot them on yet - they are going into these pots as I'm on holiday the following week and I need pots big enough to sort out a water storage system for them all.