The pepper, which belongs to the Solanaceae family, integrates the category of sunshine vegetables that we like to taste in all regions of France. It brings a colorful touch to many summer dishes. Good news, it can be grown in the vegetable garden or in pots, even without much gardening experience, as long as it benefits from generous sunshine. Here’s how to sow and then maintain your pepper plants to enjoy your own harvest throughout the summer.
Sow your peppers
Pepper seeds (Potatoes) are sown hot, that is to say imperatively at high temperature. In other words, if we cannot offer them a sufficiently warm place which is absolutely essential to obtain a germinationit is better to buy directly from the garden center its pepper plants for transplanting.
It is in the month of mars that peppers can be sown under cover, namely:
- Either in a hot greenhouse,
- Either under frame or under bell,
- Or on a heating mat.
These solutions make it possible to maintain the seeds between 25 and 27°C.
We sow in a loose substrate, light, rich in potash like potting soil but on condition that it does not contain fresh manure. In addition to the high heat that must be maintained, care must be taken to keep the soil moist.
The gardener must be patient because the emergence is slow. After three to four months, the young plants finally measure 15 to 18 cm in height. They can therefore be transplanted that is in the ground in the vegetable garden, or in trayprovided that all risk of frost is avoided, the slightest cold snap can be fatal to them.
Growing peppers
The pepper needs a deep ground, costs et humus and must be installed under the sun. Planting in the ground is done as follows:
- Dig a hole every 50 cm and make sure to space the rows of peppers 60 cm apart,
- Place decomposed compost at the bottom of each hole,
- Install one pepper plant per hole,
- Backfill and tamp the soil,
- Water copiously.
Make sure the soil does not dry out afterwards.
In our latitudes where winters are generally quite marked and frosts possible at least until the end of the ice saints, the pepper is grown as an annual plant. This means that each year the seedlings are to be renewed, or new plants in pots are to be replanted.
Note that the rotation des cultures is more than recommended. So peppers are not grown in the same place only once every 4 years. This alternation is required because the pepper depletes the soil in nutrients and promotes the installation of parasites.
Maintaining peppers in the garden
We recommend buying the seedlings ready to be transplanted if you don’t have special equipment because the sowing of peppers is delicate and only succeeds in the optimal conditions that not all gardeners can guarantee. It is much easier to cultivate plants sold in pots, to be transplanted immediately either in the ground either in a pot at least 30 cm deep. Thereafter, we take care not to neglect the maintenance of our pepper culture.
Water
Watering is very important for the success of its pepper culture. They must be regular and fairly abundant. The soil must always remain very cool so that the plants do not suffer no water stresswhich could be fatal to them.
Mulch
It is recommended to install a mulch at the base of the peppers to limit the drying out of the soil which must always remain moist.
Trellis
As the plants grow, it is useful to trellis with wire, for example. Trellising helps support the stems which, under the weight of the fruit, risk breaking.
Fertiliser
We have seen that it is necessary to bring a decomposed compost when planting, especially if the garden soil is poor. In addition, fertilization is recommended when the first peppers appear. Then use a tomato fertilizer.
Cut
Between June and early September, pruning is useful only in regions with a cool climate. It consists of top the stems (i.e. cut them at their end) when the plant has 10 to 15 small fruits. This avoids the formation of new peppers and therefore their excess, it makes it possible to obtain larger fruits which will ripen perfectly.
Pests and diseases
The gastropods (slugs, snails) like tender leaves. To protect your crop, all you need to do is set up slug traps.
L’red spider is a mite that readily attacks peppers as soon as the environment is dry and hot. The signs to spot are the webs on the foliage as well as grayish spots. Subsequently, the leaves dry up and fall off. All parts infested with spider mites should be pruned and burned. It is also necessary to treat with an insecticide based on Pyrethrum, nettle manure or even with black soap sprays.
Good associations
We do not hesitate to install our pepper plants next to basil, eggplant and tomato. Worries (Calendula officinalis), whose flowers are edible, also find their place between the feet.
Harvest your own peppers
It takes 5 to 6 months after sowing to harvest peppers from the garden. Flowering takes place between May and August depending on the planting period and the climate. Thus, we then see the young fruits appear during the last days of June.
In regions with a mild climate, the green pepper is ready for picking a month later, at the end of July. If it is not harvested, it gradually takes on color over the summer. In any case, care must be taken to ensure that all the peppers are harvested before the onset of frost because they can’t stand the cold.
The pepper (Potatoes) is a variety of sweet pepper and it is also called pepper in many parts of the world. Yet it is different from the one that stings the tongue and warms the cheeks! The pepper is a fruit that is eaten raw or cooked, and its pleasant flavor is more or less sweet depending on its degree of maturity. It changes from green to yellow or orange and then to red. So it’s just a question of maturity. This king of ratatouille is in any case very popular with young and old alike, whatever its color.