How To Grow Hot Pepper

How To Grow Hot Peppers 

Yuh want pepper?!! You got it!!! Trini favorite grown vegetable, comsuming them freshly picked of the plant or blended to make delicious hot sauce. One plant can provide all the peppers the average family need. Pepper contain capsaicin, which is used in a variety of medicines to treat arthritis, cancer, inflammation, pain and a variety of other ailments. Peppers are also high in vitamin A, B and C.

Varities 

There are a vaities of peppers grown in T&T:

•  Moruga Scorpion Pepper
• 7-Pot Pepper
• Douglah
• Naga Morich 
• Bhut Jolokia 

Planting

Hot peppers can be grown in a variety of containers or on beds. The blog will illustrate how to grow peppers on beds. For guide to growing hot peppers in containers see guide on Container Planting.

1.  Transplant seedlings when they are 3-4 weeks old late in the afternoon
2. Ensure the hole is large enough to hold the seedling’s root plug. Mix two handfuls of well-rotted manure with the soil in each planting hole
3. Into each planting hole place one seedling and ensure it is firmly positioned.

Spacing

If several hot pepper are grown together space seedlings 90 to 120 cm apart within rows and 150 cm to 180 cm between rows.

Fertilizing 

At Transplanting, apply

• 1 Tablespoon High Phosphorus Fertilizer e.g 12:24:12 dissolved in 1 litre of water.
• This volume will fertilize 10 plants.
• Apply once either to roots or leaves (foliar).
  

In the Growing Stage, apply

• High Nitrogen fertilizer e.g. 20:10:10
• 30 g (2 tbsp) per plant.
  

At Flowering, apply

• High Potassium fertilizer e.g. 12:12:17+2 plus Trace Elements.
• 60 g (4 tbsp) per plant.
• Every 2 weeks for the lifetime of the crop

Pest and Control

Pests and Diseases left unchecked can hinder a plant’s ability to produce food for us. These problems can be managed with good cultural practices, biological agents, and chemicals. 

Cultural Practice 

• Don’t plant hot pepper in the same place year after year.
• Assess problems before applying any treatment.
• Use environmentally friendly chemicals.
• Alternate suitable chemicals to avoid pests becoming accustomed to them.

Harvesting 

• Hot peppers may be harvested whenever needed but it is only when they are mature that you will get their full flavour.
• Peppers are mature when their walls have thickened, they have reached their correct size and their colour begins to change.
• They may be harvested mature green and allowed to ripen in storage.
• Mature peppers easily snap off the plant.
• The two-fingered method is recommended to pick hot peppers.
• Remove the entire fruit along with it’s stem so as to encourage the plant to continue flowering.