If your pepper plants are looking a little rough right now, you’re not doing anything wrong — you’re just gardening on the Gulf Coast in August. Beverly Welch and Angela Chandler of The Garden Academy talk through what’s really happening to peppers in the heat of summer, and the simple, low-effort things that keep them alive, protected, and ready to explode with a second harvest once temperatures ease up in the fall.
Sweet Peppers vs. Hot Peppers: Know Which Season Is Theirs
Here on the Gulf Coast, sweet peppers are actually cool-season performers. They do their best work in spring and fall, and they need help getting through the hottest stretch of summer. Beverly’s trick: plant them on the east side of your okra, where the taller plants throw a little afternoon shade their way.
Hot peppers are a different story entirely. As Beverly put it, “in the heat of the summer when it’s really hot, these hot peppers are superstars. This is their time.”
Meet Spicy Slice: A Gulf Coast Favorite
One variety that’s earned a permanent spot in the Arbor Gate garden is the Spicy Slice jalapeño. It’s productive, versatile, and forgiving of the heat — Angela called it one of her favorite jalapeños for exactly that reason.
What makes it especially useful is that it performs well at any size you pick it. Smaller peppers are perfect for pickling, eating fresh, or grilling. Let them grow larger, and they’re substantial enough to stuff. Beverly, who planted Spicy Slice for the first time this year on Angela’s recommendation, described just how productive it’s been: she visits the plant roughly every three days and comes away with a full bowl each time.
Heat level varies pepper to pepper on the same plant, too — some mild, some with real kick — which Beverly’s husband Max discovered firsthand. That range is part of what makes the variety so useful in the kitchen, whether you want something mellow or something that “lights him up.”
Pickled Spicy Slice peppers are also easier than most people expect. No special canning skills required — just a few minutes and you’ll have a batch ready to enjoy.
The Real Enemy of Summer Peppers: Sunscald
Heat and humidity are hard enough on peppers on their own, but sunscald is the issue that catches most gardeners off guard. It happens when fruit that’s normally shaded by foliage gets suddenly exposed to direct sun — often because the plant has shed leaves under stress, or because a gardener has pruned back more foliage than the plant can spare.
A few ways to protect against it:
- Go easy on pruning. Let the plant’s own foliage act as a natural shade cover for the fruit underneath.
- Provide extra shade where you can, especially during the hottest part of the day.
- Use a plant-safe sun protectant like IV Organics, which Beverly describes as sunscreen for plants. A light spray gives fruit a faint frosty coating and real protection from scald — no need to soak the plant, and there’s nothing toxic to humans in the formula. Simply rinse it off when you’re ready to harvest.
EM-1: A Probiotic for Soil and Plants
Another product that gets real use in the Arbor Gate garden through summer is EM-1, an effective-microorganism inoculant that Beverly describes as a probiotic for the soil. Used as a drench, it gives stressed plants a boost of energy to push through the hottest months. Sprayed on foliage, its microbes help colonize leaf surfaces and guard against certain disease issues.
One thing worth knowing: EM-1 is a living product, so it shouldn’t be stored somewhere hot, like a garage. Keeping it indoors — a utility room works well — preserves its effectiveness. It’s also made right here in Texas.
Angela’s Summer Tonic for Tomatoes and Peppers
To help tomatoes and peppers push through the hardest stretch of summer and start producing again as temperatures cool, Angela relies on a simple homemade tonic built around liquid seaweed.
The basic recipe: liquid seaweed as the base, with an optional capful of SUPERthrive (a B-vitamin supplement) added in. You don’t need much — a capful is enough for a gallon of water. Spray the foliage every two weeks until it’s dripping.
Angela compares the effect to what electrolytes do for an overheated person: the minerals in the tonic help the plant recover from heat stress the same way. Gardeners who stick with this routine through summer are typically rewarded with a strong second harvest of sweet peppers as September arrives, right alongside a continued strong crop of hot peppers.
Spicy Slice has proven especially resilient in the Arbor Gate garden. Last year’s exceptionally hot, dry fall didn’t slow it down — the plant kept producing all the way through December, and it shrugged off the first frost of the season without any damage. It eventually took a hard freeze to bring it down.
Everything You Need Is in Tomball
Sunscald protection, EM-1, liquid seaweed, SUPERthrive, and the Spicy Slice jalapeño itself are all available at The Arbor Gate. And healthy plants weather summer stress far better than struggling ones — which starts with what’s under the surface. Our 1-2-3 Complete System — Soil Complete, Food Complete, and Compost Complete — is one system built for containers, raised beds, and in-ground planting alike. Food Complete in particular works with your soil’s biology rather than forcing growth, which matters enormously when plants are already under heat stress. Learn more about the 1-2-3 Complete System.
Since 1996, The Arbor Gate has been the Gulf Coast’s home for organic gardening products, native Texas plants, and real, hands-on advice — the kind you can only get from people who are growing the same things in the same climate you are. Stop by and let us know what’s thriving — or struggling — in your garden this summer.
📍 The Arbor Gate, Tomball, Texas 🌐 arborgate.com 📸 Instagram: @arborgate
