We Grow Hot Peppers On The Windowsill

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Photo: Photo by: belchonock / Rusmediabank.ru

How pleasant it is on a cold winter evening to settle in the kitchen with a plate of hot aromatic borscht! And if you add rye croutons and a small hot pepper-light to this borscht, it will be just a fairy tale! But in the hypermarkets in the winter, no matter how much I bought, the pepper is tasteless, more like grass, so in recent years I have grown the pepper myself. By the way, with the current huge selection of varieties with multi-colored fruits of various shapes, pepper will become not only an addition to the table, but also an excellent decoration for the windowsill!

What do you need to grow hot peppers?

To grow hot peppers, not so much is required: the presence of a windowsill facing the sunny side (the sun is needed for at least 3-4 hours), a pot, you can either ordinary, or you can also decorative, good soil (I buy in the store), drainage (pebbles, expanded clay or ordinary charcoal can be used as drainage), seeds, preferably self-pollinated, and a fluorescent lamp, since on short winter days the pepper will need backlighting for 2-3 hours a day.

Choosing seeds

When choosing seeds, attention should be paid to 2 things: the rate of ripening and the method of pollination. We need self-pollinated and early maturing varieties, it is better to refrain from buying the rest. You can take mid-season and plant a little of both.

Choosing (preparing) the soil and pots

In shops now the choice of soil is simply huge. We need to pay attention to light substrates, necessarily saturated with nutrients (organic fertilizers). There is even a special mixture for growing vegetables on sale. By the way, if you plan to use flower soil for pepper, then be sure to add wood ash to it at the rate of 200 gr. for 5 liters of soil. This is necessary to regulate the acidity of the soil.

By the way, you can prepare the soil yourself. To do this, we take ordinary land from the site and add humus and sand to it in a ratio of 2 parts of land to 1 part of humus and sand.

Now the pots. The optimal volume is from 3 to 5 liters, no more is needed. If the pepper is small and undersized (see the description of the seeds), then a 1-2 liter pot is enough. It is advisable to buy ceramic pots, since in such dishes the microclimate is better and there are no sharp jumps in temperature.

Preparing for boarding and landing

Pour expanded clay (or any other drainage) at the bottom of the pot, then carefully fill it with prepared or purchased soil, not reaching the edge of the pot about 5-7 cm. Then, as the pepper grows, the soil is poured to the top of the pot.

The seeds are immersed in a warm solution of red potassium permanganate (not pale, but not very saturated) for 2-3 hours. After this time, we throw away the seeds that remain on the surface of the water, the rest are suitable for planting.

In principle, there is nothing difficult in landing. In the pot we make a hole 1-2 centimeters deep, water it lightly, put 1-2 seeds there and carefully cover it with soil.

Plant care

There is nothing difficult in caring for a pepper bush. Watering is moderate, rare in winter, more often in spring, as the soil dries up with settled water at room temperature. The main thing is not to overmoisten, otherwise the plant may disappear. Every day, 1 time, the pepper must be rotated around its axis by 180 degrees, otherwise one side, which has more light, will develop better, and the other - worse. In addition, the feather will begin to slope towards the light and the bush will be crooked.

When the height of the sprout is 20-25 cm, you will need to pinch the central shoot. This will stimulate the growth of lateral shoots and accelerate the appearance of flowers and fruits. In spring and summer, peppers are fed every 2 weeks with any mineral fertilizer, diluting it strictly according to the instructions.

Remember to shake the bush periodically for better pollination (even if the variety is self-pollinating). By the way, one plant can be grown for several years, like a perennial. But for this in the fall, it is imperative to cut off old shoots, updating the bush.