Bell peppers refer to the fruits produced by plants in the nightshade family. Bell peppers occur naturally in various colors such as green, orange, red and yellow. These peppers, commonly known as sweet peppers, contain high levels of antioxidants and vitamin c.
Bell peppers can thrive well in indoor conditions and can live for 2-4 years. However, this life span is often dependent on the sweet pepper’s variety, growth conditions, and level of care you give them.
Adding bell peppers to your diet can offer you numerous health benefits as this plant helps prevent visual impairments and anemia. If you wish to enjoy these health benefits, it is always best to grow your bell pepper plants.
Growing your bell peppers help you choose what fertilizers/pesticides come in contact with your plants. It also gives you control over harvesting time to ensure you get sweet peppers rich in nutrients.
Farming this capsicum plant isn’t difficult. However, environmental temperature is a significant factor that can affect its growth and development. If you live in a region that experiences seasonal weather, your bell peppers probably won’t survive the harsh winter season when left outside.
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How Long Can Bell Pepper Plants Live in an Indoor Environment?
Bell peppers are perennial crops and can live indoors for several years as long as you provide quality growth conditions. Most bell peppers can survive for more than one season, whereas others can live for 3+ years.
Bell peppers can thrive indoors as long as you keep them healthy and conduct routine care practices such as pruning and watering. Pruning potted bell pepper plants is essential because it causes the plant to enter a regenerative state and produce new leaves, flowers, and branches.
Additionally, once your bell peppers start to develop fruits, it is always best to pick them while they are green. This procedure encourages your plant to continue growing, bear more sweet pepper fruits and live longer.
Bell peppers tend to consume nutrients quickly, and many pests can reach your plants even if they are inside the house leading to poor health and shorter lifespans. Depending on how nutritious your soil is, you may need to provide phosphorous and, to a lesser extent, nitrogen fertilizers. Natural fertilizer such as wood ash can help boost your bell peppers’ lifespan by offering lime and potassium, which improve plant health. When it comes to bell pepper pests, you can use Neem oil, soapy spray, pesticides, and fungicides to eliminate them.
Can You Bring Pepper Plants Inside?
The short answer is Yes. Bell peppers thrive in an indoor environment as they would in a backyard garden, as long as you provide the necessary conditions and care.
When moving your bell peppers into the house, you must always minimize root disturbance during transplantation.
Agricultural gurus advise potential sweet pepper growers to plant and grow them in 10-12 inch deep pots with adequate drainage holes. Such containers can hold up to 2 pepper plants and help you avoid transplantation shock when you move the plants indoors.
If you have planted your bell peppers in your backyard, worry not; you can still move them into the house and still have a bountiful harvest. However, you need to ensure your plants are healthy and hardened enough to survive the transplantation.
How to Move Bell Pepper Plants Indoors
Correctly transplanting and caring for your bell peppers helps them to survive and flourish in an indoor environment. Here is a guide on how to bring your sweet peppers into the house.
1. Start By Preparing For The Transplantation
After identifying appropriate plant pots, find fresh potting soil or use a soil-less growth medium that will provide support and nutrients to your bell peppers. Garden soil isn’t the best as it is full of insects that may start roaming your home once you bring the pots inside.
Before you transplant the bell, also ensure you check the soil’s temperature. It should be ideally 70oF or 21.1oC.
2. Transplant The Bell Pepper Plants Into The Pots
Transplantation should ideally occur during the evening when the garden’s soil is warm. When you transplant bell peppers during the day, they will likely wilt and won’t survive the procedure.
Start by thoroughly watering the bell peppers before you start the transplantation process. This technique helps to prevent drying out of the plant’s fragile roots. After this process, dig a hole in the pots and ensure you have a cylindrical pit that can fit your sweet pepper’s entire root ball (the root plus the soil around it).
Afterward, use a transplanting garden trowel to dig a few inches from the bell pepper’s base. Carefully loosen up the root ball in a circular manner without tearing the fragile root system.
Once you work around the pepper plant, lift it out of the ground using the trowel and delicately lower it into the hole you dug in the pot. Once the bell peppers are in their containers, fill up any soil gaps near the potted plant and water the peppers adequately.
Always ensure you water pepper plants whenever you feel the top two inches of soil are dry, particularly during the first week after transplantation.
For better transplantation results, kindly add a 3-4 inch layer of mulch to help your bell peppers to promote moisture and heat retention. Allow the potted plants to stay in the outside environment for up to 2 days, and then you can move them indoors.
3. Provide a Conducive Indoor Environment
Once your green peppers are indoors, you need to provide specific growth conditions. First, you need to place the peppers in an area where they can access sunlight daily.
You can store the plats under a sunroof or on a windowsill. Ensure the room’s temperature is 70-80oF or 21-27oC and soak the peppers’ soil every few days.
Secondly, you need to monitor the pH levels and ensure they are between 5.5 and 7.4. Thirdly, when your bell peppers start to flower, you will also need to pollinate them by using a cotton swab to collect pollen and pollinate the stigma of the female pepper plants. It would help if you also pruned your bell peppers when necessary.
By following the tips mentioned above, your green peppers can grow well and live longer in an indoor environment.
