Indoor pepper: tips from an experienced practitioner

Hot pepper is an unpretentious plant, beautiful and useful, which can be grown in an apartment and in the open field, transplanted into a flower pot for the winter. The main decoration of hot pepper is its fruit. Some types of pepper bear fruit, changing the color of the fruit from green, yellow and purple to red, which is a sign of a ripe fruit.

Peppers differ from each other not only in color, but also in the shape of the fruit: elongated, round, in the form of a pumpkin, etc.

Now a little about my collection of peppers, which grow successfully both in the apartment and in the open field. Since September, they are all transplanted into flower pots and delight with their unique beauty for a long time.

• Pepper Rainbow. Spectacular, chic pepper: small round peppers with a slightly elongated "nose" are full of different colors as they ripen.
• Pepper Quintisho... Wild variety. A very rare variety. Small shrub: dark, as if leathery, leaves, small flowers, yellow fruit sticking up vertically. The taste is good, the pungency is average. When ripe, the pepper bush is strewn with bright yellow, sticking up, lanterns.
• Pepper Ripe sweet cherry. An original, chic pepper reminiscent of ripe cherries.
• Tabasco pepper. The classic variety from which the famous sauce is made. Orange-red fruits up to 5 cm long, sticking up, collected in bunches. This pepper makes a good sauce due to its soft and juicy pulp.
• Bell pepper. Ripe peppers resembling a bell flower, reaching biological ripeness, are colored red. Pepper in "petals" tastes almost sweet, and bitter to the core. Two in one. Ideal for meat dishes.
• Pepper Mushroom Yellow. A very interesting and rare variety with yellow-orange fruits of an unusual shape, resembling a mushroom, about 4-5 cm in diameter. Great for stuffing. Blooms profusely and bears fruit.
• Pepper Zest Baggio. The fruit is dark brown in color and has a slight raisin aroma. No Mexican chef is complete without this delicacy. Dried pepper pods provide a flavor base for a variety of sauces in Mexican cuisine. It is mainly used dried, appreciated for its "smoked" flavor.
• Pepper Peter's finger. A rare and productive variety! A yellow-fruited variety that resembles male nature. Fruits are about 10 cm long.
• Pepper Saint Lucia. An excellent variety. Weakly sharp, with excellent taste, medium-sized fruits, the size of large cherries. Appearance, like a peeled orange, in slices. The variety is fruitful.
• Pepper Aji Brazilian pumpkin. A variety of stunning beauty. The plant is hung with small glossy "pumpkins", rather sharp and thick-walled. Fruit size is about 3 cm in diameter. Ripe fruits have a beautiful “tomato” scarlet color.
• Pepper Medusa Gorgon. This pepper variety is interesting for the location and shape of the fruits on the bush, which resemble the tentacles of a jellyfish. A compact bush, peppercorns have a pungent taste and are used in culinary dishes and preparations. Ripe fruits turn bright red.
• PepperVariegated Troll... Sprawling, plentiful, with surprisingly variegated leaves.
• Pepper Black Pearl... The world's first black leaf chic pepper. The leaves are green at first, later black, shiny. The fruits resemble slightly elongated peas in shape, also black in color. Ripening, they acquire a dark red color.
• Pepper Purple bullet. Dark green leaves, purple fruits, when ripe, they turn red, and during this period the bush with peppers becomes unusually beautiful.
• Pepper Salute. The shortest pepper (15 cm high) with yellow-orange peppers sticking up. The peppers are rather large relative to the bush, which gives the bush a unique look.
• Pepper Mini Mini from Brazil... An extremely rare variety. The seeds were originally harvested in Brazil in the wild.Very sharp fruits, about two match heads in size, sticking up, and small leaves, which give the bush some airiness and lightness. The pulp of the fruit is juicy, "spreadable".
• Pepper Tepin. Wild small-fruited pepper with explosive fruit. "Cowboy berry", these fruits were eaten by cowboys, sitting on duty, so as not to fall asleep. The leaves are small, centimeter-sized red fruits. This variety, like Mini, is irresistible on windowsills.

Indoor pepper is propagated by seeds, which must first be soaked in water for better germination. Seeds for planting should be taken from ripe fruits. The soil for planting should be loose, well filled with humus. You can sow pepper seeds at any time of the year. Not only in spring, but even in autumn, before winter. Seedlings do not stretch out from poor lighting, they only freeze, developing roots, and with an increase in daylight hours they willingly start growing. The main thing when planting before winter: you do not need to stimulate the growth of pepper, you should not additionally feed it. You need to water so much that it just does not dry out. Do not overdry the soil!

Subsequently, when your indoor pepper sprouts reach 5 cm in height, it is best to plant them in separate pots, otherwise the plants will be very weak and will not be able to bear fruit well. Transplant the peppers in the future into pots of the right size or into the ground by transferring them so as not to damage the roots.

Indoor peppers are very economical. When salting and pickling vegetables, one or two pods of indoor pepper is enough for a three-liter jar of marinade or pickles. The number of peppers depends on the pungency of each type.

Pepper needs a lot of light and several hours of morning sun every day. The optimum temperature for it is from 10 ° C to 21 ° C.

During the growth period, water it abundantly, as the soil dries out in the pot, if it is hot in the apartment, every day. But do not let the soil dry out, especially if the plant is in full sun. When the fruits begin to set, watering should be done more often. During the growing season, feed the pepper with liquid mineral fertilizer once a week. Stop feeding after the fruit appears.

It is advisable to spray indoor pepper from a spray bottle from a distance of 15 cm at least once a week. Spraying promotes fruit set.

In the fall, when the fruiting period ends, the plants are cut by 1/3, while watering is reduced, but again, preventing the soil from drying out in pots. And the plants are left in this state until spring, and in the spring they are placed closer to the light, they are fed vigorously, and then the pepper begins to bloom and bear fruit again. If you create good conditions for the growth and development of plants in winter, then your pepper will delight you throughout the year. According to reports, hot peppers are able to bear fruit in one place for 5 years.

A pepper bush transplanted from open ground must be fed in the fall (including those peppers that grew exclusively in a pot), and in winter it is better to stop feeding. Watering in moderation, as needed. Exception - if the apartment is hot and the pepper is on the windowsill, under which the battery is located, then watering should be increased, not forgetting to loosen the ground. Pepper is a moisture-loving plant.

Top dressing should be started in mid-January, with an increase in daylight hours and plant activity. Growing peppers can be transferred to glazed balconies and loggias as early as mid-May. During the dormant period, if necessary, you can trim the crown, making it compact, in the shape of a ball, which will give the bush a more decorative look in the future.

Closer to spring, plants require nitrogen. And since the fruits are eaten, you can sparsely sow mustard seeds in a pot of pepper. Then carefully "dig up" the grown mustard, it will loosen the soil in the pot and fill it with the necessary nitrogen, which is necessary for plant growth.Once every two weeks, fertilizing is carried out with fertilizers with a higher content of phosphorus than nitrogen, which promotes flowering and fruit setting. Wood ash will not be superfluous. Pepper is also responsive to organic fertilizing. Feeding should be done only after good watering, so as not to burn the roots with fertilizers.

Indoor pepper, in addition to beauty and use in cooking, also performs a cleansing and bactericidal function: it has been noticed where indoor pepper grows, many pathogenic microbes die.

Dried fruits of peppers (without seeds) can be grinded through a meat grinder and you get a wonderful natural seasoning. Hot peppers have been found to lower blood pressure. The substance capsoicin, which makes the pepper spicy, has a beneficial effect on the blood vessels - it activates the nerve endings of their inner walls. For example, in the southwestern regions of China, whose population constantly consumes hot peppers, hypertensive patients are 20% less than in the northeastern regions, where it is not included in the diet. Adding hot peppers to food helps burn fat. Tinctures of pepper are rubbed in for rheumatism, they also stimulate the appetite and promote digestion, if only there are no contraindications!

Those who decide to grow pepper in a pot should know that pepper will help in the fight against pests (aphids, mites). Capsoicin contained in pepper is a good remedy for such unwanted guests. Pass the fruits of hot peppers through a meat grinder, fill with warm water 1:10 for a day. Strain, add 1 tsp to 1 liter of water. grated soap and sprinkle the plant three times, every 5 days.

Indoor pepper is especially beautiful in winter, when its green leaves contrast with red fruits and yellow fruits against the background of a winter landscape outside the window.

Indoor pepper is a unique plant! Plant it - you will not regret it!