2 is pushing it. I tend to overcrowd a bit, and even I will only put 1 per 5 gallon bucket. You don't need 2 though. I usually only grow 1 and it does fine.......self pollinating.

Thanks for the info! I read a couple times on various gardening blogs/sites that Bell Peppers like to "hold hands"- meaning they do better if some of the leaves are touching- so maybe I missunderstood that- maybe that was advice if you had to grow more one plant, not saying you should grow more than one plant

I disagree that planting 2 or more is a good thing. I've been growing peppers for quite a few years and last year bought some transplants with a few that had 2 in each cell. Rather than culling the weaker ones, I decided to let them grow as is. Even in the GROUND, I noticed the peppers off those were much small than the ones that I planted singularly.

Regarding container size, most people will tell you that 5 gal is sufficient for peppers, but I've noticed a tad bigger would probably be best(7-10 gal), especially if you have a long growing season.

Kevin

No huge surprise there; when you have multiple starts in a cell, you get a lot of root encirclement/entanglement that never really 'fixes' unless you separate the starts and the other plant's roots decay to get out of the way....