From deliciously sweet to mouth-burning hot, peppers come in all kinds of varieties.

Sweet Peppers
The most common kind of peppers, sweet peppers come in many types, but all are known for their mild flavor. Bell peppers are the most recognizable, and are named—you guessed it—for the bell shape of their fruit. Pimento peppers are another type of sweet pepper—the kind used to make that red stuffing inside green olives.

Mildly Hot Peppers
Mildly hot peppers are the first level of peppers registered on the Scoville Ratings, a scale devised to measure the spicy heat of a chili pepper. While these peppers are officially considered hot, they are more often described as having a little bite to them. Peppers that fall into this category include poblano, Anaheim, paprika and pepperoncini.

Hot Peppers
Like heat? Hot peppers are the hottest peppers registered on the Scoville Ratings. These are the peppers that will bring tears to your eyes and make you break out into a sweat. Thai chili and habañeros are some examples of hot peppers.

Medium Hot Peppers
If mildly hot peppers are too meek for your taste buds, but hot peppers are over the top, then medium hot peppers might be just right. Jalapeño, red Fresno and Hungarian wax peppers fall into this category.

For those growing outdoors in most areas, the best time to plant peppers is after the fear of frost has passed (which can be as late as mid-May or early June, depending on where you’re located) and when daytime temperatures reach 70–90° F throughout the crop’s season.

Like tomatoes, peppers absolutely love the sun—the hotter the better when it comes to keeping these plants happy. Their growth can slow down if temperatures dip below 55° F on any given day, and it might take a few days afterward for them to start growing normally again.

When can you start enjoying stuffed peppers? In general, you can transplant peppers 3–4 weeks after germination (sprouting). Sweet and mildly hot peppers should be ready to harvest in another 6–8 weeks, while you can expect a long wait of 9–10 weeks for the hot pepper varieties.

Your Tower Garden comes with everything you need to get started growing peppers.

Step 1: Locate the slab of rockwool cubes and place in the seed starter tray.
Step 2: Thoroughly wet the rockwool cubes by completely submerging the slab for 30 minutes in Tower Garden Mineral Blend nutrient solution. (Please reference the Tower Garden Instruction Manual for more information.) This will stabilize the pH of your cubes. After 30 minutes, thoroughly flush cubes with fresh water. Important: Because the rockwool repels water, you can’t get away with just spraying it. You really need to soak it!
Step 3: Drain all excess water from the seed starter tray.
Step 4: Sow 4 seeds per cube.
Step 5: Lightly cover the seeds in the cube with coarse vermiculite, which will help retain the right amount of moisture, and gently sprinkle a little water over each hole to wet the vermiculite.
Step 6: After seeding, put a little water into the bottom of the container. If possible, use filtered water without chlorine. Do not close the lid.
Step 7: Place seed starter tray outside in semi-shade (a bench or table will do nicely) until the seeds have germinated. Always keep about 1/8"–1 /4" of fresh water in the bottom of the tray.
Step 8: Once the seeds have germinated (about 7–14 days), IMMEDIATELY place outside in full sun for 7–14 days to increase their hardiness.
Step 9: Make sure your sprouted seeds have 1/4" of fresh water in the bottom of the tray each morning so your seedlings won’t dry out during the day. Add Tower Garden fertilizer solution every other morning in place of fresh water.
Step 10: Approximately 3–4 weeks after germination, or when the plants have 4–6 true leaves, your seedlings should be ready to transplant into the Tower Garden! This crop is very sensitive to frost, so make sure you don’t transplant seedlings into the Tower until the fear of frost has passed. It’s best to wait until nighttime temperatures remain steadily above 50° F.

Generally, you can transplant your seedlings into your Tower Garden 3–4 weeks after they germinate. The exact time frame depends on the date of the last frost in your area. Peppers hate frost!

If you’re growing outdoors and using a Submersible Heater and a frost blanket, you can start transplanting 3 weeks before the suggested planting date. Just make sure you heat the water in the Tower Garden Mineral Blend reservoir to a minimum of 70° F until daytime temperatures rise to that level.

Step 1: Gently separate the plugs in the rockwool slab. Do your best to break as few roots as possible.
Step 2: Your assembled Tower Garden should already have a net pot in each planting port. Place each cube with its newly planted seedling into one of these net pots. Guide any hanging roots from the net pot into the growing pot.
Step 3: Be SURE the bottom of the plug is secure against the bottom of the net pot. This aligns the plant for optimal irrigation inside the Tower Garden and keeps it from getting too dry.
Step 4: Sow 4 seeds per cube.

Tower Gardens are wonderfully free of some of the bothers of traditional gardening: there’s no weeding, tilling, kneeling, or getting dirty!

Just a few basic maintenance steps will keep your plants healthy and happy.

Because your Tower Garden doesn’t use any dirt, your plants are totally dependent on Tower Garden Mineral Blend to get their nutritional needs met (kind of like a baby and a bottle).

Maintain the recommended Mineral Blend levels at all times to allow your plants maximum uptake of the nutrients they need to grow.

With a “young” Tower Garden, check the Mineral Blend levels twice a week to learn how quickly your plants are utilizing the tonic solution. Later, as your plants grow larger and the roots have reached the reservoir, you’ll probably need to refill the tonic solution every 2–3 days.

It’s well documented that healthy plants are less desirable to insects! A plant that is stressed in some way—whether from lack of water or nutrients, or from heat, wind or cold stress—becomes an easy target for pests and disease. Dehydration, starvation, heat, wind,and cold can all cause a plant to wilt. Therefore, the number-one rule for keeping plants healthy is to prevent wilting!

● Always maintain a cool temperature within the reservoir. Tower Garden Mineral Blend should never feel warmer than the temperature of your skin.
● On a very windy or extremely hot day if growing outdoors, turn the irrigation timer to run constantly for the most stressful hours of the day. Just remember to turn the timer back to its normal cycling times!

Tower Garden Tip: If your Tower Garden has to be partly shaded due to your surroundings, it is better to have afternoon shade, when the day is the hottest!

When it comes to your Tower Garden, clean is good. You don’t have to pass the white-glove test, but keeping your Tower Garden debris-free discourages plant pathogens.

● Keep your Tower Garden in as clean an area as possible.
● Remove most mature, yellowing or brittle leaves from the base of the plant.
● Keep loose plant debris and insect debris clear from the top of the reservoir tank, and place the compost of discarded plant clippings well away from your actively growing Tower Garden.

You should expect to be harvesting your delicious peppers about 65–85 days after transplanting them into your Tower Garden. Keep these things in mind when harvesting:

● Most peppers change color from green to red, yellow, purple or orange when they’re ripe. As the color of the fruit changes, so does the flavor.
● Keep in mind that peppers don’t continue to ripen once you remove them from the plant, so leave them attached until they’re as ripe as you want them.
● It’s perfectly fine to harvest peppers before they reach full maturity. In fact, the immature fruit of some varieties is actually more flavorful.
● Make sure to use a knife or shears to remove the peppers from the plant so you don’t cause injury to the rest of the plant.
● To harvest, make a cut above the cap of the pepper, leaving a portion on the stem still attached.