Growing Chillies in Pots: A Simple Guide for Rooftops and Balconies

In July 2023 a kilogram of green chillies reached as much as Tk 700 in Dhaka's markets, Prothom Alo reported at the end of that month. Farmers blamed drought in May and June and then heavy rain, and imports from India were slow and expensive. Among the remedies experts suggested was a simple one: grow chillies around the house and on the roof.

This guide, first published by The Agro News in March 2025, shows how. It covers the varieties and seasons, the pot, soil and spot, the steps from seedling to harvest, watering and feeding, pests and diseases, and where to get help, drawing on Bangladeshi research and extension bodies and on university extension services.

Hardly a meal in Bangladesh is cooked without chilli. Banglapedia, the national encyclopaedia, notes that in rural areas green chilli is commonly eaten with panta bhat, that both green and dry chillies season curries, and that dry chilli goes into curry powder, sauces and pickles. Chilli is also a good source of vitamins and phosphorus, the encyclopaedia says.

The country grows a great deal of it. According to the Agricultural Information Service (AIS), cited by Prothom Alo in July 2023, Bangladesh produced 592,000 tonnes of green chilli in the 2021-22 fiscal year, up from 576,000 tonnes the year before. Yet supply swings with the weather. The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) told the paper that chilli is grown widely in winter and summer, but cultivation falls in the rainy season, which is when shortages tend to bite.

In the 2023 crisis the government began permitting imports on 25 June, but by 24 July only 2,893 tonnes had arrived against permits for 60,125 tonnes, DAE figures showed. Experts quoted by Prothom Alo called for better market management, home and rooftop cultivation, and varieties that tolerate rain and drought.

City gardeners were already doing it. In January 2025 Prothom Alo profiled two urban gardeners: a banker in Dhanmondi whose rooftop held about 43 kinds of vegetables, green chilli and capsicum among them, and a primary school teacher in Narayanganj whose whole rooftop had been a garden since 2016.

Chilli peppers are the fruits of plants of the genus Capsicum, in the nightshade family Solanaceae, the same family as tomato, aubergine and potato. Botanically the fruits are berries. Their heat comes from capsaicin and related compounds. Banglapedia describes the Bangladeshi chilli as the pod of a bushy plant, Capsicum frutescens, native to Mexico.

Portuguese and Spanish traders are thought to have carried chillies from the Americas to Africa and Asia in the 16th century. Bengal took to the crop so well that, according to Banglapedia, chilli was exported from Bengal on a very large scale until the beginning of the 20th century, and it was among the spices that drew the East India Company to eastern India.

The plants are small, about 20 to 60 centimetres tall depending on the variety, which is why they suit pots and small spaces. They are perennial if protected from cold, they like warm, loamy soil that is moist but not waterlogged, and their flowers can pollinate themselves, so a single pot can set fruit without a partner plant.

Banglapedia lists many local varieties grown in Bangladesh, among them Balijuri, Bona, Bain, Saita, Suryamukhi, Paba, Halda, Dhani, Shikarpuri and Patnai. As a winter crop chilli is grown mostly in Cumilla, Noakhali, Chandpur, Faridpur, Barishal, Patuakhali and Bogura, and the average yield of green chilli is 5 to 6 tonnes per hectare, the encyclopaedia says.

Chilli can be grown all year round, and the original report noted that plants set around winter give better yields. That matches the pattern DAE described to Prothom Alo in 2023: green chilli is grown on a large scale in winter and summer, and much less in the monsoon.

For high-yielding varieties, DAE said BARI Morich-4 and BARI Morich-3 are grown in winter and BARI Morich-3 in summer. In the rainy season BARI Morich-2 is grown, because it is somewhat tolerant of rain. These varieties come from the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI).

BARI's spice work is centred on the Spices Research Centre at Raynagar in Shibganj, Bogura, set up in 1996 on 70 acres, with regional stations in Magura, Cumilla and Gazipur, The Business Standard reported in December 2024. In April 2023 the centre's figures, reported by Amar Sangbad, showed four chilli varieties and two ornamental chilli varieties among the 51 spice varieties it had released.

A senior scientific officer at the centre told Prothom Alo in July 2023 that research was under way on chilli varieties for the rainy season, and that heat-tolerant varieties were also being considered. For a home gardener the practical point is to ask which variety suits the season of planting.

Almost any container will do if it is big enough for the grown plant, holds soil without spilling, drains well and has never held anything toxic, says the container gardening factsheet of Clemson University's Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) in the United States. Clay, wood, plastic and metal all work. Most plants need containers at least 6 to 8 inches deep for good rooting, the factsheet says.

Drainage matters most. The original report advised small holes in the bottom of the pot so that water never collects, and Clemson's extension specialists say the same: there must be holes in the bottom so that roots do not stand in water.

Light is the next need. Vegetables grown for their fruit generally need at least five hours of full, direct sun a day and do better with eight to ten, according to the same factsheet. The original report put it simply: choose a place with plenty of light and air.

For soil, the original recommended loam, and Banglapedia says chilli grows in all kinds of loam. Clemson's pepper factsheet recommends well-drained loamy or sandy loam soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5. Heavy clay garden soil is a poor choice for pots: it holds too much water, leaves too little air for the roots and shrinks from the sides when dry. The container factsheet suggests a light, porous mix and a soil test where possible.

Bangladeshi rooftop gardeners often use materials close at hand. The Narayanganj teacher in Prothom Alo's January 2025 report said she mixed one part soil, one part cow dung, one part rotted garden leaves and one part kitchen compost for her vegetable pots. That is one gardener's practice, not an official formula.

The original report described two ways to start: buy good seedlings from a nursery, or raise them from seed. Banglapedia notes that chilli is usually raised in a seedbed first and then transplanted. Clemson's pepper factsheet says seed is started six to eight weeks before planting out.

• Choose a sturdy, healthy seedling from a nursery, or seed from a reliable source. Clemson notes that many disease problems can be avoided by using certified disease-free seed and transplants.
• If you raise seed from dried chillies, as the original report suggested, soak the seed for about six hours, let it dry well and sow it in the pot soil. Chilli seed germinates only when it is warm, close to 21 degrees Celsius.
• Fill a clean pot to within about half an inch of the top with the slightly damp mix.
• Set the seedling in the pot, firm the soil gently and water it in carefully so that soil is not washed away.
• Label the pot with the variety and planting date.
• If the plant will need a stake, put it in while the plant is small to avoid damaging the roots later.

Pots dry out fast, especially on a concrete roof in full sun. Clemson's container factsheet says daily or even twice-daily watering may be needed. Check the soil at least once a day, and twice on hot, dry or windy days, by feeling whether it is damp. Water until it runs out of the drainage holes, but never leave the soil soggy or water standing on top. The original report said the same.

Too much water is as harmful as too little: in cool weather container plants can suffer root rot if kept too wet. Clay pots and small pots dry out faster. On a hot roof, grouping pots lets the leaves shade the soil, and raising them on pallets keeps them off the hot cement.

Even moisture is most important when the fruit is setting and growing. Clemson's pepper factsheet links blossom end rot, a dark sunken patch at the tip of the fruit, to an interrupted water supply that stops calcium reaching the fruit. Keeping the soil evenly moist, but not saturated, helps prevent it.

On feeding, one correction to the original report is needed. It listed cow dung and urea as organic manures. Cow dung is an organic manure, but urea is a manufactured chemical fertiliser: Banglapedia describes it as the main nitrogen fertiliser used in Bangladesh, made in the state-run factories of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, while animal manure, compost and green manure are the organic fertilisers used in the country.

The original report favoured organic growing for chillies at home, with rotted kitchen vegetable peelings as manure instead of chemical fertiliser, and weeding and other care done by hand. The Narayanganj gardener in Prothom Alo's report described a similar practice: separate containers of rotting vegetable peels, fruit peels and mustard oil cake, applied to the plants every seven to ten days as they needed it.

Pots have little soil to buffer a mistake. Clemson's container factsheet says a mix with fertiliser added feeds plants for eight to ten weeks, and warns never to exceed the recommended rate of any fertiliser, because container plants lack a large volume of soil to protect them from fertiliser burn. A plant with lots of leaves but few flowers and fruit is a sign of too much nitrogen. This guide gives no chemical doses for pots: for the amount of any chemical fertiliser, ask the upazila agriculture officer of DAE.

Heat affects fruit set. At extremely high temperatures, 30 to 38 degrees Celsius, chilli pollen loses its viability and flowers are much less likely to set fruit; the ideal range for growth is about 21 to 29 degrees Celsius, and the plants can tolerate temperatures down to 12 degrees Celsius.

Clemson's pepper factsheet says peppers are usually ready about 70 to 85 days after transplanting, or 100 to 120 days when grown from seed. Hot peppers can be picked green or left to colour on the plant. The stems are brittle, so cut the fruit off rather than pulling it, to avoid breaking branches.

When to pick also affects how much you get. Fruits picked green and unripe encourage more flowers and so more fruit, while fruits left on the plant become hotter and take their ripe colour at the cost of a smaller harvest. Water-stressed plants usually produce hotter fruit.

The original report said that with proper care one chilli plant can produce at least 50 to 80 chillies over two flushes. That is the report's own estimate; the real number depends on variety, season and care.

The original report noted that root rot, leaf rot, leaf curl and various bacterial diseases appear when chilli is grown in large quantities in the field, and are less common in pots. Clemson agrees that containers can help overcome soilborne diseases, nematodes and poor soil, but pots are not immune, so plants should be inspected regularly.

Leaf curl is the problem most chilli growers in South Asia know. One major cause is chilli leaf curl virus, a begomovirus spread by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Its main symptoms are upward curling, puckering and bunching of the leaves, which also become smaller; badly affected plants give fewer, smaller and deformed fruits. Losses typically range from 20 to 50 per cent and can be far worse when thrips or mites also attack. Removing infected plants and growing resistant varieties are among the ways it is managed.

Sap-sucking insects are the other common enemies: chillies are vulnerable to aphids, red spider mite and whitefly, and Clemson adds thrips and caterpillars, which can be picked off by hand in small gardens. BARI's Spices Research Centre has developed integrated management methods for chilli's sucking insects and mites and for the chilli fruit borer, as well as control of Choanephora disease, according to the centre's list reported by Amar Sangbad in April 2023.

Aphids themselves can make leaves curl. The University of California's Statewide Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program says some aphid species inject a toxin that curls leaves. It advises checking plants at least twice a week when they are growing fast, knocking aphids off with a strong stream of water and, if numbers stay high, using insecticidal soaps or oils, which spare more of the insects that eat aphids. These should not be used on water-stressed plants or above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

The original report also warned that ants often attack potted chillies, and suggested sprinkling a little soap powder on the plant. The University of California's IPM experts offer a different reading: ants on plants are usually drawn by the sweet honeydew of aphids, scales, mealybugs or whiteflies, and they protect those pests from their natural enemies. Managing the aphids is therefore the key. Where ants nest in a potted plant, the program suggests soaking the pot for 20 minutes or more in a solution of 1 to 2 tablespoons of insecticidal soap per quart of water. That advice concerns products sold as insecticidal soap, not household soap powder.

Among diseases, Clemson names bacterial wilt and bacterial leaf spot as the most troublesome in home gardens, along with others such as anthracnose fruit rot. It also advises against using tobacco products near peppers, because tobacco mosaic virus spreads easily from tobacco.

For any pest or disease that does not clear with simple measures, or before using any chemical, the first stop is the upazila agriculture office of the Department of Agricultural Extension, whose officers can identify the problem and advise on the right product and dose. Chemical pesticides should be used only according to the label.

For varieties and spice technology, BARI's Spices Research Centre in Bogura and its regional stations are the national specialists. Staff there told The Business Standard in December 2024 that more and more educated people were coming to the centre for advice.

Photo: Netha Hussain / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: The Agro News, Prothom Alo, The Business Standard Bangla, Amar Sangbad, Banglapedia, Clemson University Cooperative Extension Home and Garden Information Center, University of California Statewide IPM Program, Wikipedia