Your Pepper Plants Arrived: What to Do in the First 48 Hours
The short version: Open the box the day it lands. A few dropped lower leaves and some drooping are transit stress, not damage. Water only if the root ball is dry, keep it out of direct sun for the first day or two, and if anything arrives genuinely wrecked, photograph it and contact us. The guarantee has you covered.
Open the box the day it lands
Don't leave it sealed until the weekend. Your plant just spent a few days riding in the dark, and peppers don't like sitting in the dark. Open the box carefully, get all the packaging off, and let the plant stand up straight again. If you're worried about damaging it on the way out, we have an unboxing video that walks through it step by step.
What's inside depends on what you ordered. We don't ship plants in containers. Every plant travels with its root ball wrapped in a moisture-retaining bag — seedlings arrive 4 to 8 inches tall, Established Plants bigger. The bag is a good ride and a bad home: let the plant decompress for a bit, then container it up (or plant it) within a day or two.
The exception: a beat-up box
If the box arrives crushed, punctured, or soaked, don't open it yet. Photograph it first, from multiple angles, damage included. Then open it carefully and photograph the contents. Those photos protect you if there's a claim to file or a reship to arrange.
Then contact us within a week of delivery. UPS isn't perfect. We'll make it right.
About the loose leaves in the box
A live plant that rides for days in a dark box will usually shed a few leaves, most often the lower ones. That's transit stress, not damage. Drooping and a couple of bent leaves are the same story. Don't panic, and don't overcorrect.
Older leaves toward the bottom of the stalk drop as new growth comes in anyway, shipping label or not. Once the plant is back in light with fresh soil and water, it recovers and pushes new growth.
Water it if it's dry. Only if it's dry.
Watering on arrival isn't automatic. Check first. If the root ball or soil feels dry, water slowly until it's evenly moist. If it's still damp, leave it alone. Overwatering kills more indoor peppers than anything else, and right now your plant is an indoor pepper.
Wherever it ends up living needs drainage holes. Peppers hate wet feet, and a container that can't drain will rot the roots.
Bright light first. Direct sun later.
Your plant grew up indoors under controlled light, so full sun on day one is a shock, not a favor. For the first day or two, set it somewhere bright but out of direct, blasting sun. A bright window or an artificial light is exactly right.
From there, ease it into stronger light over a few days. If it's headed outside, harden it off over about a week and watch the leaves as you go. White, bleached, papery patches mean too much sun too fast. Pull it into shade and slow down.
When to worry, when not to
Not worth worrying about: dropped lower leaves, drooping, bent leaves, a generally sulky first couple of days. That's travel. It passes.
Worth a message: a crushed or snapped plant, or one that arrives in a condition that makes it non-viable. That isn't transit stress. Photograph it and contact us within a week.
One more thing to skip: fertilizer. Hold off for the first 2 weeks after potting up — let the roots settle before you start feeding.
The guarantee, in plain words
Every plant is covered from the moment it ships until 30 days after it arrives. If it shows up dead or non-viable, we reship at no cost, no questions asked. Contact us within one week of delivery with photos. If it survives arrival but doesn't make it to 30 days, contact us and choose: a 75% refund on the affected plants, or 110% store credit toward a future order.
There are no standard returns, because shipping a living plant back helps nobody. We grow these plants. We share the risk with you.
Once the first 48 hours are behind you, the longer game (containers, feeding, hardening off in full) is covered in our Knowledge section at austinpeppers.com/knowledge.