Growing Hot Pepper
REQUIREMENTS:
--Potting soil (if you are in the San Francisco Bay area, buy "Supersoil" brand)
--Salad take-out plastic container with clear plastic dome.
--Soil thermometer or Taylor brand indoor-outdoor thermometer.
--Pepper seeds.
--Distilled water.
--Miracle-Grow "Bloom Booster" or Peters Professional "Super Blossom"
Make a "Seed starter solution" of either the Miracle-Grow or Peters
Professional, mixing one tablespoon in a gallon of distilled water.
Also, do not use bleach on your pepper seeds and never refrigerate your seeds to
start them!
Start with the salad take-out plastic container and punch some drain-holes for
water with a fork in the bottom. Fill container with potting soil and sprinkle
with the starter-fertilizer solution to settle soil. Plant seeds, spacing 1/2"
apart, and cover with no more than 1/8" of potting soil. Water with the Seed
starter solution, and use the solution instead of tap water, whenever the
containers need to be re-watered. Do not use tap water or well-water on very
young seedlings., because the chlorine or minerals may damage the seedlings.
If you want to use other containers, buy some 8 inch-diameter plastic pots and
fill with potting soil.
Once seedlings are a few inches tall, transplant seedlings into their own
individual 3" or 4" pots, and let plants grow to 6-8" tall.
Work about a teaspoon of bonemeal into the potting soil of the 3-4" pots before
you transplant the seedlings into them.
And once transplanted into their own individual pot, start watering with an
organic fertilizer, like Alaska "All Purpose Sprayable Plant Food" or Fish
fertilizer. Do not continue to use the Miracle-grow or Peters Professional once
the seedlings are up.
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NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ever use peat pots, peat pellets, or potting soil that is
mostly peat.
Everyone always asks "Why??" ---We don't know---It may be that the peat is too
acidic, or that there is something naturally in peat that inhibits pepper seed
germination? All we know, is that whenever anyone has had problems with pepper
seed germination, when the seeds have been proven to have good germination when
tested on top of moist cotton--part of the problem has always been peat pellets,
or potting soil that was mostly peat.
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TOP TEN THINGS TO DO - WHEN STARTING PEPPER SEEDS:
1.) Never ever, ever, ever use peat pellets, peat pots, or potting soil that is
mostly peat.
2.) Always give 80-85°F daytime soil temp., and room temp. at night. Do not
refrigerate!
3.) Always use a soil thermometer or Taylor brand indoor-outdoor thermometer.
4.) Always use an organic fertilizer on older seedlings.
5.) Never plant seeds more than 1/4 inch deep.
6.) Always let the soil surface dry very slightly before re-watering.
7.) Always use the Seed starting solution on slower-germinating kinds, like the
Tepin.
8.) Never use table salt.
9.) Never use bleach.
10.) Don't give up!--a lot of hot peppers take almost a month to germinate (see
below).
Plant pepper seeds, spacing them 1/2" (one cm.) apart in each direction and no
more than 1/4" (6 mm) deep.
Keep containers 80-85°F (30°C) during the day and 60-70°F (20°C) at night.
Make a hole in the clear plastic top for the thermometer to go through. For a
few hours each day, take the cover off the container in the afternoon to let air
in. This will help control "damping off" fungus, which is a disease which
attacks the seedlings and makes them topple over.
To water without disturbing the seedlings, with the holes punched in the bottom
of the container, you can water or rewater by letting the container sit in a
bowl of water and soak up the water through the bottom holes. Make sure that the
soil level is above the level of the water when the container is soaking up
water.
KEEPING THEM WARM: There are at least two inexpensive methods to provide the
80-85°F (25-30°C.) soil temperatures that pepper seeds love for germination---
1.) The heating pad method from the pharmacy. Purchase one that can get wet and
put it under the flats or pots that your pepper seeds have been sown in. We DO
NOT recommend the commercial seedling heating mats, because they do not get the
soil temp. high enough. Also, we do not recommend soil heating cables, because
you have to put them into sand beds, and can't just put them directly underneath
pots.
2.) The light bulb in the cardboard box method. You need a cardboard box
approximately 2 x3 x3 feet (0.6 x 1 x 1 meter), a ceramic light socket, lamp
cord long enough to go from a wall socket and where you will have your
germination box set up, an electrical plug, a 40 watt utility light. Place box
on its side and bolt ceramic socket to the inside of the box about half-way up
on either the left or right side. Keep light on during the day, but turn off at
night to allow seedlings to return to room temperature. A 40 watt light will
keep the inside of the box at 80-85°F (25-30°C.).
GERMINATION SPEED--Regular sweet peppers are very quick to germinate, usually
6-8 days.
HOT PEPPERS always take longer, a minimum of 15 days, but up to 100 days!
--Habaneros always take a minimum of 18-25 days.
--East Indian, Malaysian and Thai hot peppers always take 20-55 days.
--Bird peppers like Pequin and Tepin (the world's hottest) are always the
longest: 21-100 days. Daytime heat of 80-85°F and fertilizers will cut the time
down to 25-30 days.
Once seedlings appear, remove cover completely and put in a sunny place.
Transplant seedlings into individual 3" (8 cm) diameter pots with potting soil
as soon as they can be handled, and let grow in those containers until strong.
Plant young plants outside when night time temperatures consistently are above
50°F (10°C).
DROOPY SEEDLINGS? Do the seedlings come up, and then suddenly droop and die?
That's called "damping off" fungus, which grows on the soil surface when it is
kept too wet, and when there's not adequate air circulation. Keep the potting
soil on the dry-side, always give good air circulation, and always let the very
top surface of the soil dry out before re-watering the seedlings.
FERTILIZERS: The potassium nitrate solution, while helping speed pepper seed
germination, also is a fertilizer adding two of the three most important
nutrients that peppers love, potassium and nitrogen. While seedlings, we only
recommend using diluted fish fertilizer (available in a bottle at the garden
store). The fish fertilizer can be fed frequently, and never burns. We usually
feed our plants every 3 weeks during the growing season.
Habaneros, especially, will need calcium many times during the growing season,
in the form of bonemeal, an few Tablespoon per plant. Scatter the bonemeal
around each plant, and water in. You can tell when you need calcium if the
plants stop growing and if young leaves start to pucker---they are running out
of calcium to build new leaves.
BONEMEAL is available at any hardware store, and is usually used for roses, and
give each plant a sprinkle of bone meal every two weeks during the growing
season. We use 4 pounds for 100 plants each time we fertilize.
SPACING IN THE GARDEN: Sweet peppers are usually dwarf, so can be packing in at
about 1.5 feet apart. Most hot peppers need about 2-3 feet and the sprawling
Manzanos or Rocotos (Capsicum pubescens) need 3-4 feet, but in Florida, Hawaii
and Coastal Southern California they are perennial vine-like plants that can be
trellised like grapes. The Manzanos when 3-4 years old, and when they are
trellised, will produce hundreds of pounds of fruit per plant.
CONTAINER PLANTS. All peppers are perennials and can be grown in 2-3-5 gallon
containers of potting soil year-round. Just bring in the plants when the nights
drop below 50°F., and put them back outside when the nights are consistently
above 50°F .
TIME TO PRODUCE---Once your pepper plants are out in the garden, how long will
it take them to produce? Green, unripe fruit is generally produced in 55-75 days
after setting plants out into the garden, and red-ripe fruit is 90-150 days.
There are exceptions to that rule, like the Chimayo hot pepper from the high
mountains of New Mexico, that starts flowering as a seedling, and will produce
fruit in 30 days!
YOUR PLANT MAKES FLOWERS BUT NO FRUIT? Most hot peppers and some sweet peppers
require insect pollination to form fruit. If the proper insect is absent, or if
the local insects are not attracted to your pepper flowers, you may see the
plants flower and never set fruit. This is especially true for the blue-flowered
Capsicum pubescens, the Manzanos or Rocotos, or hot peppers grown in a
greenhouse.
Pollen is produced on the stamens, and usually ripens between noon and 3 PM
every day. Take a moistened water-color paint brush, and pick up some pollen on
your brush and transfer it to the other flower centers. You can get close to
100% fruit set with hand pollination.
HOW MANY FRUIT will each pepper plant produce? The yields vary according to
variety, but here's some examples of high yielders that we've measured, number
of fruit per plant:
Centinel Sweet-------------78
Corbaci Sweet--------------92
Cherry Large Hot-------50-100
Elephant's Trunk-----------50
Espanhola-----------------100
Fresno--------------------100
Tabasco---------------400-500
White Bullet™ Habañero--1,000
Tepín-------------1,000-1,500
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Pepper Seed Cleaning.
NEVER EVER DRY your peppers pods before you removing the seeds, if you want to
have the best quality seeds for planting. The moisture that is inside the pepper
pod, especially the thicker podded varieties like Guajillo, Ancho, etc. as the
pod dries, can damage the seed quality.
USE FRESH-RIPE FRUIT FOR SEED, and take the seeds out of the fully-ripe fresh
pods. Dry the seeds in the sun for a few days, taking them indoors at night. Or
dry the seeds near a heater on a paper plate. If you have several varieties,
write the names of each pepper on the paper plates.
If you are working with hot pepper, always wear rubber gloves! If you are
working with only a few peppers, just take a sharp knife and cut them in half,
and scrape out the seeds. I usually take a wide-mesh screen to remove any flesh
that may still be attached to the seeds (about 1/4") and push the seeds through
the screen, usually leaving any of the pepper flesh behind.
If you are working with a lot of peppers, use a blender. The rule-of-thumb is
that it takes 50-200 pounds of fresh peppers to make one pound of cleaned seeds.
Cut off the stems (calyx) and cut the peppers in half. Add peppers to fill the
blender about 1/3 full, and then add water until the blender is 3/4 full. Blend
just a few seconds to break up the pods. When you stop the blender, the pepper
pulp will float along with the immature seeds, and the viable seeds for future
planting will sink.
Drain off the floating pulp and use it for salsa, freeze it, etc. Add more water
to make any remaining pulp float, and skim that off, than then pour the seeds
into a strainer, and then dump onto a paper plate for drying. Make the layer of
seeds on the plate only 1-2 seeds deep, and put out in the sun to dry, and stir
every hour.
If you are cutting or blending a lot of hot peppers, buy a 3M 8210 N95
respirator at the hardware store, because it will save your lungs for your old
age. Don't rely on one of those woosie paint masks. For peppers you need the
NIOSH approved one with the sponge rubber around the nose.
Pepper Seed Storage:
Most peppers will only keep their viability at room temperature for 1-3 years.
The exception is the Capsicum pubescens group of Manzano and Rocoto peppers
which have black seeds and thicker seed coats, and can last 4-6 years.
There's several ways to keep your pepper seeds longer--but first I'll list the
fastest ways to kill your peppers seeds:
TOP 3 FASTEST WAYS TO KILL PEPPER SEED GERMINATION:
1.) Store them at room temp. in any of the following places:
(a.) Anywhere near the floor and 3 feet off the floor (where moisture
condenses).
(b.) In an unheated building or outside (shed, etc.)---no moisture control.
(c.) In a cupboard or drawer, that doesn't get good air circulation.
2.) Store them refrigerated or frozen, and open the container before the seeds
reach room temp. and when they are still cold (moisture condenses on seeds).
3.) Store them in plastic or a glass jar, and don't have a way to tell if there
is moisture still in the seed, like indicator silica gel.
Jars and plastic zip lock (I personally like the Hefty Freezer brand) are great
but you need to put a slip of newspaper in with the seed. If you pull out the
newspaper, and if it is not crispy-dry, you need to dump out both the newspaper
and the seeds out onto a paper plate to dry in the sun, to drive off excess
moisture.
Label and date your seed stocks. Properly dried seeds in jars or Freezer zip
locks even at room temperature will probably give an extra year to your seed's
life, and refrigeration may keep your seeds for 5 years or more.
REMEMBER--All peppers are perennials, and make nice house-plants if grown in
potting soil in 2-3 gallon plastic pots, and taken indoors when the nights drop
into the 40s. Move plants outdoors when nights go back into the 50s. Plants will
live for several years that way, most will stop growing in the winter and lose
most of their leaves, but will leaf back out in spring. |
