How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Pimiento Peppers

Pimientos are not one variety; rather, they’re a collection of many red-colored types with similar flavors, shapes, and textures. These peppers resemble red bell peppers but are sweeter and more flavorful. One plant produces six to twelve peppers, meaning you’ll only need a few for a consistent harvest. I like growing this type instead of bell peppers, as they add a savory sweetness to pasta sauces, stuffed pepper recipes, and salads. 

Their savory flavor is why they stuff olives and cheese after the pickling process. Find these concoctions in your grocery store, or try growing your pimientos to make them yourself! Pimientos also go by pimentos, so look for either in your search for seeds, plants, or food products. 

What Is It?

Pimiento is a perennial variety that forms large, heart-shaped fruits. Their substantial size stands out in vegetable and ornamental gardens; you may use this species for decoration or its edible fruits. It goes by Capsicum anuum botanically, as it’s a close relative of bell peppers, jalapeños, and serranos. 

Many types of pimientos exist. ‘Sheepnose Pimento’ forms ruffled red peppers half the size of other kinds. Their succulent flesh has a similar texture to tomatoes. Some ‘Pimiento’ seeds sprout large, squat fruits, while others grow skinny, short, or round. Read the labels closely to determine their characteristics, and select the one you prefer to eat. 

Native Area

Most pimientos originate from Europe. They’re descendants of South American chiles that traders brought across the ocean to European countries. Plant breeders received them and mixed varieties to form many peppers with new attributes.

Nowadays, pimientos grow in the Americas, Eurasia, and Australia. As pickled olives with pimientos are immensely popular, there is a worldwide demand for farmers to select this variety. Grow it yourself to taste its fresh chiles—they’re hard to find in the produce section!

Characteristics

Annual plants reach two to three feet tall, although perennial ones reach four feet. They’re stocky plants with thick stems; you’ll easily tell them apart from thin-stem kinds like ‘Santaka’ or ‘Shishito.’ White flowers sprout off the thick stems in summer and grow delicious red pimientos after pollination. 

Some retailers confuse cherry peppers with pimientos. Pimientos are rarely spicy unless they ripen dark red on the vine. Mature fruits range between 0-500 Scoville units. Cherry peppers are often spicy, small, and juicy, with a much higher Scoville rating of 2,500-5,000. They taste good too but offer a much spicier flavoring when you use them in recipes.

Planting

Peppers appreciate fertile, free-draining soil. They need consistent moisture during the growing season to stay strong and perky. Although they technically are drought tolerant, infrequent watering reduces crop yields. Plan to grow them in full sun with good airflow.

This type’s roots grow deeper and wider than most peppers, meaning you’ll want to give new plants an 18-24” distance from others. Give pimientos space, and they’ll fill it with strappy green foliage and bright red chiles. Grow these types from seeds or starts, although they’re difficult to find as potted plants in nurseries. Seeds are readily available online and at local retailers.

Growing from Seed

Start peppers indoors or outdoors depending on your growing zone. If your area is frost-free in zone nine or above, you may start seeds outdoors in early spring. All other growers should give peppers a head start on the growing season and germinate them indoors in winter before transplanting outside. 

Start seeds by sowing them a quarter inch deep in the soil. If sowing indoors, use 5” square pots or similar containers. Indoor growers should sow pimiento seeds a month or two before their last average frost date. This gives seedlings ample time to sprout stems and new growth, preparing them for outdoor weather. 

These seeds appreciate warm soil temperatures—their germination temperature is between 70-90°F (21-32°C). Heat mats provide warmth from below in homes without enough heat. Seedlings also require six to eight hours of bright light daily. Window sills with direct sunlight work well. Otherwise, you may want to use grow lights to add supplemental brightness. 

Keep seedlings moist but not soggy, watering them when their soil dries on top. Bone-dry soils hurt peppers, while moist, regularly draining ones boost their growth. Wait to water if the dirt is already wet, then water well when the top inch or two of the soil is dry. 

Transplanting

Once frost has passed, you’re ready to transplant your seedlings! Wait until nighttime temperatures are consistently above 55°F (13°C) to move them outside. Avoid transplanting seedlings from inside conditions straight into garden beds or containers. Give them a week or two outside under dappled shade for a hardening-off period. Start with one hour per day and gradually move up to an entire day of exposure to the elements. This process helps them adapt well to your garden conditions.

After two weeks, prepare your growing site. Pimientos thrive in borders, raised beds, containers, or sunny in-ground sites. Ensure your containers have at least an 18” depth for your pepper roots to spread. Deep pots allow tall plants to anchor themselves in their soil. 

Dig a hole twice as wide and as deep as your pepper’s rootball. Add some compost into the hole, then mix some more with the soil you dug out. Compost mingles with your soil, inoculating it with beneficial bacteria, fungi, and tiny insect critters. These live organisms help your peppers by delivering nutrients with moisture, keeping them alive during stressful days. 

Prepare your peppers for transplanting by loosening them from their pots. Rough the roots with your hands, freeing them from their square container-like shape. Untangle the bottom roots, allowing all sides of the rootball to have splaying root tendrils. This helps your peppers form new roots to access your garden’s nutrients. Avoid removing more than a fourth of the roots, as this doubly shocks your plants during transplanting. 

Once the roots are in the hole, backfill the space with the compost-soil mixture until level with the surrounding soil. Water well, then closely watch your plants while they acclimate to their new homes. They’ll adapt after a week or two, rebounding with new growth.

How to Grow

Pimientos love summers, as they bask under direct sunlight to thrive under the sun’s intense heat. They’re taller than most other varieties, so they appreciate some caging or staking for support. Give peppers proper nutrition, good soil, and ample water—they’ll produce fist-sized fruits all summer.

Light

Pimiento varieties appreciate direct sunlight for six to eight hours a day. They need full sun, especially in sites with cool summers. In northern zones four and below, place peppers in front of a southern-facing wall on a hill. A site like this traps heat from the day, giving peppers an extra boost where growing seasons have mild climates. 

Other warm zones may experience the opposite extreme, with drought, heatwaves, and low rainfall common in southern states. Where there’s direct sunlight for more than eight hours a day, give your peppers afternoon shade during the hottest hours. This helps them steadily grow despite overwhelmingly hot temperatures.

Water

Pimientos love water! They suck it up out of the soil to fill their juicy fruits with moisture. Water keeps pepper cells strong and turgid, ensuring their walls resist pest or disease threats. Give peppers regular water during the growing season for best results. 

What does regular water mean? You’ll want to irrigate your garden beds once the top inch or two of soil is dry. This may be once a week or every day, depending on how hot and dry your summers are. Use the finger test to know when to apply irrigation. Stick your finger (or a stick) into the dirt, then lift it out. See how wet it is the deeper you go—if it’s dry most of the way down, your pimientos need water.

Soil

Good soils also protect peppers from moisture problems. Drainage allows moisture to pass through the soil, meaning it won’t pool or collect in any areas. Pooling water drowns pimiento roots, leading to rot and other fungal diseases. Keep peppers healthy and use fertile, well-draining soil with plenty of perlite or vermiculite for drainage and water retention. 

Organic compost adds drainage to soils over time. The decaying matter creates pockets in soils with air. These air pockets help pepper roots when they reach them by providing space and carbon dioxide. Add compost to your beds, containers, and borders twice a year or more often if possible. Compost injects fertilizer and microbes into your plants and protects soils from extreme temperatures and water evaporation. 

Fertilizing

Some soils are low in nutrients. Ones that lack compost or organic matter might also be low in key plant nutrients. Use a soil test to know exactly which ones to amend with fertilizer. 

A good practice is to add a regular dose of organic tomato fertilizer to compost and blend that mixture with your existing soil. This helps the compost work quickly to create excess nutrients for your pimientos to grab ahold of. Avoid using nitrogen-heavy fertilizers as they cause excess leafy growth at the expense of flowers and chiles. 

Maintenance

A little care goes a long way when growing pimientos. They like leaning on a stake or tomato cage because it supports the stems when they sprout large chiles. The fruits may weigh down your plant and break its tender, green stems. A simple bamboo stake does the trick—stick it in the ground and lean your peppers against it. Some garden twine will keep the plant upright. 

Frost and winter snow threaten ripening peppers. You may harvest them green or red and store them inside. Two other options exist to extend your season: hard pruning and using a row cover. 

Row covers are like mini-greenhouses; they provide warmth and shelter from extreme elements. Use metal U posts and UV-resistant greenhouse plastic to drape the posts. Situate the cover over your beds, and open the flaps during the daytime to let air pass through. 

Hard prune peppers at summer’s end, before fall frosts threaten to turn them mushy. Select branches without ripening peppers and prune them off. Remove any flowers and small fruit that may not have a chance to ripen. Leave green chiles on the stems, and they’ll ripen quickly during the last warm days of summer.

Propagation

Keep growing peppers for decades to come with these three propagation methods. Peppers make beautiful houseplants if you have lots of sunny windows. They also produce ample seeds each year that germinate new, disease-resistant plants. Select the method that works best for you and your growing site. 

Cuttings

Take pimiento cuttings off of healthy plants throughout your growing season. Strip six-inch stem cuttings of their lower leaves and place them in containers with potting soil. Tender cuttings lack roots to keep them strong and need dappled shade while they acclimate. Add a humidity dome for extra measure, as it protects tender cuttings from moisture loss. 

Keep their soil moist, and they’ll root in two to four weeks. Successful cuttings start growing new leaves, flowers, and fruit. Watch for new growth, and wait to transplant freshly rooted cuttings until they strongly resist when you nudge them. 

Potted Houseplant

Once you’ve taken cuttings, you’re ready to bring some inside for the winter! Rooted cuttings make fashionable houseplants where there’s sufficient light. Use grow lights to keep plants alive during the winter, keeping them on for at least eight hours daily. 

Water your houseplants when their soil dries, and cut off any yellow or brown leaves. With enough light, they may continue producing chiles throughout the winter! Watch for indoor pests like spider mites, scales, and aphids. Light-starved plants are prime targets for diseases and pests.

Seed Saving

Saving seeds is another foolproof way of keeping a steady chile supply. Seeds also ensure you have a backup plan in case your houseplants or cuttings die during the winter. You can sow a few seeds and sprout new plants for the next season.

Save seeds by first letting a few pimientos ripen on the vine. Leave them until they turn bright red, then harvest them. Collect the seeds from inside and let them dry on your kitchen countertop. Store dry seeds in containers in a cool, dark place until you need them.

Harvesting and Storage

Pimientos grow off thick, green stems. Picking them by hand damages stems and may cause your plants to topple over. Use a pruner to slice chiles above their tops, leaving a little green stem to keep the peppers airtight. Harvest red peppers for the best flavor and sweetness. Green pimientos work well as green bell peppers in recipes, although they’re more bitter than red ones. 

Yellow Leaves

Peppers yellow their leaves normally in response to a few different stressors. Frost and cold temperatures cause yellowing, and pimientos have plenty of yellowing the day after nighttime freezes. Protect tender plants from cold with a row cover, or take cuttings to bring your varieties inside.

Some yellow leaves are normal during spring and fall on the bottom of your plants as they cycle their old growth for new growth. If there are lots of yellowing leaves, it could be root rot from overwatering. Cut back on irrigation if your soil is wet. You’ll want it to be like a wrung-out sponge and not a soggy bog.

When you bring cuttings indoors, they may drop a few yellow leaves as they acclimate to your home. Monitor them closely—if yellowing leaves continue for over two weeks, you’ll want to try moving your pepper houseplant to a brighter area and water it only when the soil dries. 

Pests

If you see aphids, a simple hose trick knocks them off. All you have to do is get a hose and strongly spray at the aphids. After a week or two of daily spraying, the aphids should disappear from your plants. This trick works well for spider mites as well since they hate moist conditions.

Keep whiteflies away early in your season with a row cover or mesh netting. This prevents adults from settling on your pepper plants while they’re vulnerable. Once flowers pop out of your pimiento plants, you’ll want to remove the coverings to allow pollinators to reach the blossoms.

Keep pepper weevils away by removing any ripening or rotting fruit. Soft fruits attract this pest, as the larvae burrow into the chiles and cause decay and destruction. Rotate crops every two to three years to keep pepper weevil infestations low. 

Diseases

Although not a disease, blossom-end rot is a common physiological condition in tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. If your fruits ripen and swell but turn black and mushy on the bottom, they may have blossom-end rot. Prevent this condition by keeping soils moist but not soggy and ensuring your plants have enough calcium. Test your soil and amend it ahead of the season, and provide consistent water to prevent this condition.

Root rot is another disease that affects peppers; however, it’s usually caused by fungi in the soil. When pepper roots sit in soggy dirt, they can’t breathe and drown. Fungi attack them and spread up through the plant until it dies. Keep root rots away by letting the soil dry in between waterings. Avoid planting peppers before your last average frost date, as cool, wet climates routinely cause root rot.

Tobacco mosaic virus is another common disease afflicting peppers, tomatoes, tobacco, and a whole range of other crops. It spreads from infected plants and can linger in tobacco products. Avoid smoking or using tobacco near your garden, as these practices lead to increased tobacco mosaic virus infections.