Pepper
Capsicum annuum
Spring and fall transplant crops; slower off the mark than tomato and needs a longer start indoors.
When to plant
Pepper is planted more than once a year here. Both windows are shown below and labelled; they are two separate plantings, not one long one, and the months between them are not part of either.
- Transplant · MarchOpens in 24 weeks
March 20, 2027 – April 30, 2027
UF/IFAS North Florida planting dates: late March to April. The guide writes this as "late March" rather than as a date; the 20th is this platform's reading of it and the boundary is soft.
- Transplant · JulyOpens in 38 weeks
July 1, 2027 – August 31, 2027
UF/IFAS North Florida planting dates: July to August.
- Harvest · SeptemberOpen now
September 4, 2026 – November 14, 2026
Derived, not published as a window by the guide: the July to August planting plus the guide's 65–75 days to harvest from transplanting.
- Harvest · MayOpens in 33 weeks
May 24, 2027 – July 14, 2027
Derived, not published as a window by the guide: the late March to April planting plus the guide's 65–75 days to harvest from transplanting.
Growing it
- Days to maturity
- 65–75
- Sun
- Full Sun
Peppers are set out as transplants and take noticeably longer to raise than tomatoes, so seed goes in earlier relative to the last frost. Like tomato they set poorly in midsummer heat and pick up again in autumn. Fruit exposed on a stripped plant will sunscald in a Panhandle August.
From the guide: UF/IFAS gives the North Florida planting dates for this crop as late March to April, and again July to August. It gives 90–100 days from seed to harvest, or 65–75 from transplants, 9–15 inches apart in rows 15 inches apart, sown ¼–½ in. deep. On the crop itself it says: Transplants are often more successful than seeds. Mulching is especially beneficial. Will often produce into summer. The days-to-maturity figure on this entry is the one measured from transplanting, because that is what its planting window marks.
Where these dates come from: the North Florida column of the UF/IFAS Extension Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide (SP 103/VH021), which defines North Florida as everything above State Road 40. Walton County is well inside it, and the Central and South Florida columns of the same table give different months. The guide is written for home and market gardens, so its spacing and days-to-harvest figures are a starting point for a field planting rather than a commercial schedule, and days to harvest varies by variety.
Common problems
- Bacterial leaf spot
- Pepper weevil
- Aphids
- Thrips
- Blossom-end rot
- Phytophthora blight