Why should Peppers and Chillies be potted?

tomhumf

I'm growing some peppers and Chillies for the polytunnel. All my seed packs and most guides seem to suggest keeping them in pots. What's the reason for this? It seems most other veg like the ground and I can't imagine farmed peppers are grown in loads of pots? 

I would prefer to plant into the ground in the tunnel after frost and hardening off, but maybe there's some good reasons against this. Thanks.

bertrand-mabel

We sow them indoors  and then plant out the seedlings into our polytunnel.

Had great success doing it this way.

Obelixx

You can choose according to what you have available.  Not all greenhouses have soil beds.   My polytunnel is 8m long by 4m wide and has a central path of 1.2m wide weed membrane and then soil beds either side except one corner where I have my potting bench and shelves for seed trays.  

I grow all my tomatoes, chillies and cucumbers in the ground in the polytunnel.  I've given up on peppers as the yield is small and I'd rather have tomatoes which I can eat fresh, cook, dry or make into passata to see us thru winter.   OH and I have just finished the annual piling on of compost from our heaps in readiness for planting out this year's tomatoes when they're a wee bit bigger.