If you are growing chilli’s for the first time then one common question is how many chilli plants can I have per pot? Read on to find out this and more.
The question really comes down to how big is your pot? And how much space do you have? You certainly can grow more than one chilli per pot and if you have a large pot of say 30 litres then you would be able to get three separate chilli plants to grow in there with no problem.
Simply growing and actually thriving are two different things however. If you want to get the absolute maximum out of every plant then you need to grow them in single pots.
This doesn’t mean that this is the most efficient way to grow chillis in terms of space though. Growing two chillis to a pot will make better use of limited space. Even if each individual plant doesn’t grow as big or produce as many chillis as a plant grown on its own would the fact that you have double the number of plants makes up for this.
That is as long as the pot is big enough. Try and squeeze multiple plants into a tiny pot and there might be so much competition for root space that neither plant manages to do much of anything.
This is where the balancing act comes in if you are trying to get the absolute maximum out of your growing space. The only real way to find out what works best for you is to experiment, grow some plants two to a pot, some three and some on their own.
Then you can see what gives you the best yield for your area.
How much space do chillis need?
Ideally, you want to leave 12-36 inches between each chilli plant. there is such a variation here because there is such a variation in chilli plants.
You need to find out how big your plant is expected to grow before deciding how far apart to plant them.