This article discusses jalapeno plant care and touches on all aspects of growing and caring for jalapeno chilies.
The jalapeno pepper is one of the easiest and fastest-growing peppers that you can have in your home.
It is also one of the mildly hot peppers, with approximately 2,000 to 8,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), hence its popularity in salsa, salads, and Mexican food.
The jalapeno plant stages are seedling (0 to 3 weeks), adolescent (3 to 4 weeks), growth (4 to 8 weeks), maturation (2 to 4 months), flowering/blooming, and fruiting. This pepper grows to a height of about 2 to 2.5 feet and 1 to 1.5 feet wide.
Other names for jalapeno peppers include Huachinango, Chipotle chilies (smoked Jalapeno peppers), Chile Gordo, and Cuaresmeno.
Growing Jalapeno indoors
Growing jalapenos in pots is easy. If you choose to start your jalapeno pepper plant from seeds, it’s good to start the process in late winter.
First, purchase a packet of jalapeno pepper seeds from a certified vendor or your local nursery and germinate the seeds.
Plant 2 to 3 jalapeno seeds at a depth of about ½ cm in seed trays filled with a pre-moistured seed starter soil and cover lightly with soil. You should do this indoors about eight to ten weeks before your last frost date.
This gives the plants enough time to grow and mature before the end of the growing season, helping maximize yields.
Depending on the age and condition of the seeds and the soil condition, your jalapeno seeds will germinate in approximately 2 to 3 weeks.
Once they have sprouted, place the seedling trays in a sunny spot and use grow lights whenever necessary to give your jalapeno seedlings at least 12 to 16 hours of sunlight daily.
Transplant your seedlings into slightly larger pots 2 to 3 weeks after sprouting. Leave them to grow for a few more weeks, then transfer them to the final pots.
Caring for Jalapenos indoors
1. Use a suitable potting mix
Jalapeno peppers do best in well-drained, neutral-pH, sandy-loamy soil enriched with organic matter. The soil/potting mix must also be warm, rich in plant nutrients, and free of herbicides and contaminants.
Therefore, if you choose a ready-made potting mix, check that it’s a properly draining, balanced organic potting mix with perlite for improved drainage.
Alternatively, you can prepare a homemade potting mix for your jalapenos.
To do this, you need to purchase some fine-grade fir bark (usually marketed as fine orchid bark) at your local garden center and mix it with regular potting soil. The bark lessens soil compaction and promotes air circulation while the soil retains moisture.
In addition to this, add other elements like vermiculite or perlite to aid in soil aeration and drainage, crushed eggshells or limestone to neutralize the bark's acidity, and calcium and compost material to provide your jalapeno plants with essential nutrients such as potassium and nitrogen.
Pro Tip: Make sure the bark is of fine grade such that the seedlings emerge easily and there is unrestricted airflow.
2. Expose your jalapeno pepper plants to enough light
Jalapenos are tropical native plants and, therefore, are well suited to hot weather/ places that receive full sun.
Although jalapeno peppers can tolerate partial shade conditions, providing your seedlings with at least 12 hours of direct sunlight a day is paramount.
The maturing jalapeno plants require at least 8-10 hours of sunlight daily.
However, too much direct sunlight on jalapenos might lead to air temperatures above 90 degrees Celsius, which isn’t suitable for your jalapenos. The leaves may provide an excellent fruit cover, but the possibility of a sunscalded jalapeno pepper plant is high.
Once scorched, the fruits become woody and, eventually, split and crack, leading to dry and sunken areas. The split areas allow the passage of fungi and bacteria into the peppers.
So, if you experience too hot summers, cover your jalapenos with shade cloth or grow them with tall tomato plants or pole beans to protect them from the sun.
You can also use organic mulch around the plants. This prevents the ground from overheating, protecting your jalapenos from heat damage.
You can also fertilize your jalapenos heavily in the spring so that the plant produces fruits before the hot summer kicks in.
3. Water your jalapenos
How often you water your potted jalapeno plants is determined by the weather conditions and the pot size. Jalapeno plants need lots of water; hence, you should always keep the potting mix/soil moist.
That’s why we recommend you water your jalapenos whenever the top of the soil/ potting mix feels dry and water daily during summer's hot days.
However, when the weather cools down, you should water your jalapenos every two to three days.
Jalapenos hate mushy spaces, so be careful not to overwater them. This might lead to problems such as droopy-yellow leaves and stunted growth.
Too much water also lowers the soil/potting mix temperature, making it difficult for jalapenos to grow and produce fruits. It can also lead to fungal infections and root rot.
Even though it's advisable to keep the soil/ potting mix moist, exposing your jalapenos to a few dry spells and allowing them to wilt slightly before watering doesn't hurt.
This might help the jalapeno plant produce hotter peppers with higher heat levels and more flavor.
4. Apply fertilizer
With a high-quality potting mix or soil, your jalapenos don’t need fertilizer up to about two weeks after planting. After that, they need feeding, or their growth will start to slow down.
Start feeding your jalapenos with a timed slow-release fertilizer during watering, following the directions on the leaflet and according to the size of the pot.
Do this until the plants start to flower.
As soon as your jalapenos begin to flower, change the fertilizer to a high-potassium blend (most tomato fertilizers have this characteristic)
If you grow your jalapenos organically and once the plants start to flower, use a combination of bone and kelp meal, fish emulsion, and green sand (the best plant food for chilies) to achieve similar effects to those of high-potassium fertilizer.
Increase the feedings as the plants become bigger and keep feeding for about two weeks before harvesting.
5. Prune your jalapenos
Pruning is one of the most important maintenance practices in jalapeno plant care. First, identify your cutting points, such as dead or diseased plant parts, a cut just above the leaf node on a stem, or a cut close to the stem.
Then, use a sterilized knife or pruning shear to carefully make the cuts without damaging your plants. Sterilization helps prevent the spread of pests and diseases to healthy plant parts.
Correct trimming of jalapenos improves plant health, increases yield, and improves branching. After you are through, collect the trimmings in a trash can and dispose of them to avoid the spread of pests and diseases.
Caution: When pruning your jalapeno plants, use rubber gloves. The capsaicin in peppers can get on your hands and cause irritation or harm to your eyes upon contact.
6. Plant Other Crops Next to Jalapeno Chili (companion planting)
Companion planting is a simple organic way of boosting your plants by growing other crops next to what you are growing.
Companion planting has several benefits, including attracting beneficial insects while eliminating harmful ones, improving flavor, and attracting natural predators.
So, consider planting crops such as marigolds and chamomile to improve the overall health of your jalapenos or basil to improve the flavor of the peppers.
You can also grow vegetables such as cucumbers, eggplant, carrots, and asparagus with jalapenos. Tomatoes are also good companion plants to jalapeno as they share similar growing conditions.
Some beneficial herbs, including oregano, dill, parsley, garlic, chives, and cilantro, go well with jalapeno peppers.
However, there are crops that you should never plant next to jalapeno peppers. These include beans, peas, and any crop in the brassica family, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, and Brussels sprouts.
7. Protect your plants from pests and diseases
Aphids
Aphids attack the jalapeno chili early in the season, and they suck sap from the young tender shoots resulting in distorted leaves and shoots.
Indoor-grown jalapenos are more susceptible to aphid attack.
To control aphids, either rub them with your fingers (which works when the pest population is low) or spray the plants with an insecticide when the pest population is high.
If the infestation is severe, you should consider getting rid of the whole plant so that you don’t risk spreading the aphids to other plants.
Alternatively, look for ways to get rid of aphids naturally, as this is both effective and environmentally friendly.
Whiteflies
Whiteflies are tiny insects with broad wings that fly when the plant is disturbed.
These white bugs suck sap from the plant’s leaves, causing the leaves to wilt, turn yellow and drop. Whiteflies also secrete honeydew on the leaves, resulting in black sooty mold.
Although it’s difficult to control whiteflies, spraying the plants with a vegetable insecticide and practicing good cultural practices such as pruning and weeding can help keep these pests off your plants.
Powdery mildew
This disease is caused by the fungus Leveillula taurica. Powdery mildew affects the leaves of a pepper plant during warm and wet conditions.
Although this disease commonly affects the older leaves (just before or at fruit set), it can also develop at any stage of crop development.
Symptoms of powdery mildew in jalapenos include white, patchy, powdery growth on the lower side of the leaves. Over time, the patch enlarges and covers the entire leaf surface.
Eventually, the infected leaves drop, leaving the pods exposed to the sun.
To control powdery mildew, spray the plants with a Sulphur and potassium bicarbonate-based fungicide.
Damping-off
Several factors, including high salt concentrations, poor seed quality, severe nutrient deficiencies, improper planting depth, and soggy soils, cause jalapenos to dampen off.
Fungi such as Fusarium, pythium, and Rhizoctonia also cause this problem.
Seedlings fail to emerge (pre-emergence damping-off), small seedlings collapse (post-emergence damping-off), or seedlings are stunted (root rot and collar rot).
Symptoms of this problem include seedlings failing to emerge, the collapse of already-emerged seedlings, and seedlings have stunted growth.
Plant vigorous transplants or high-quality seeds to control damping-off. Use well-drained soil. Also, ensure good aeration to reduce surface moisture. Spray the plants with a copper-based fungicide.
Harvest mature jalapeno peppers
When your jalapenos are deep green, firm to the touch, corky (small white lines on the pepper’s skin), and 3 to 5 inches long, they are ready for harvesting.
Picking your jalapeno when it’s deep green gives you crunchy, crispy peppers perfect for pickling. But you can still harvest your peppers when they have ripened (red), especially for use in salsa, as they are hotter and sweeter.
Harvesting jalapenos is easy.
Once you have identified the ripe peppers according to your preference, hold the branch with one hand and pull the peppers upwards using the other hand. Alternatively, use a pruning shear or scissors to avoid tearing or twisting.
After harvesting your jalapenos, you can eat them fresh, pickle them, share them with friends, or store them frozen or dehydrated.
Bonus Tip: Common Problems in Jalapeno Plant Care
Jalapenos not hot
There are several reasons why your jalapenos are not hot. These include insufficient light, variety, improper soil/potting mix, and poor cultivation practices like fertilizing with too much nitrogen and water.
Jalapeno flowers/blossoms falling off.
Your jalapeno flowers could be falling off due to a sudden shift from hot spell to cool temperatures, exposure to hot and dry wind, or too much or too little soil moisture.
Other reasons the flowers are falling off include too much or too little nitrogen in the soil, poor pollination, too little potassium or phosphorus in the soil, bugs, and wilts.
Jalapeno pepper not blooming
Incorrect temperature (too hot or too cold) is the leading cause of jalapeno pepper not blooming.
Other causes of your jalapeno not blooming are too much nitrogen, insufficient light, and calcium deficiency.
Yellow leaves on jalapeno pepper plant
Too little water and a lack of soil nutrients are the main causes of yellow leaves on the jalapeno chili plant. Diseases such as phytophthora blight, bacterial leaf spots, and wilt also contribute to this problem.
Moreover, pests such as aphids and mites feed on the sap from the plant’s leaves, and the affected leaves start yellowing.
Wilting and dying jalapenos
There are several reasons for a jalapeno plant wilting and dying, but the main ones are lack of water, exposure to too hot sun, and fungal infections such as wilts.
Conclusion
As you can see, jalapeno plant care is easy. You need to ensure that your jalapenos have the appropriate growing conditions.
For example, you should expose your jalapeno seedlings to at least 12 hours of sunlight and maturing ones to at least 8 hours of sunlight a day, trim, properly water, feed, and harvest, among other things.
You have also seen the common problems in growing jalapenos, such as wilting plants, yellowing leaves, and jalapeno blooms falling off, and how to correct them.
So, all the information you need on growing and caring for the jalapeno pepper plant is at your fingertips. It’s now your time to grow and enjoy healthy jalapenos.
Any thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published on May 21, 2021, and has been updated for accuracy, grammar, readability, and comprehensiveness.