Red and green pepper grown in a flowerpot

Pepper is one of the most used spices all over the world. Do you want a proof? Here it is. You can always find it on any dining table right next to a salt shaker. Pepper is not exotic or expensive and you can grow it at home if you wish. It’s nothing complicated. Pepper comes from India, where it has been cultivated for more than three thousand years. Once it reached Europe it has quickly became very popular and gradually spread all over the world.

Pepper, a climbing plant

Yes indeed. Under ideal conditions pepper can reach 15 meters. But you don’t have to worry. You can easily tame it and grow it the way you want it. It will not take over your apartment. You may be surprised but the pepper plant actually looks very nice and decorative. Pepper does not like direct sun, but it loves heat. So, if you decide to grow it at home make sure the temperature does not drop below 18 °C. Soil and air should be moist and you should use a sprinkler if you can.

Photo: Pixabay

Growing pepper at home

First, you need to prepare the soil and you do that by mixing two parts of peat moss, one part of potting soil and one part of sand. Once done, you can plant. From now on you must keep the plant constantly moist. The substrate must never dry out completely! It is recommended to fertilize the plant starting in spring and ending at the end of summer. You can fertilize twice a week. Once the plant has grown enough, you must provide it with some support to let it climb and grow.

Different colours of pepper

You probably think that to get different colours of pepper you need to plant different types of plants. But that is not true. The colour of pepper berries actually depends on how ripe they are. Berries should be harvested when they are 3 to 5 mm in size. In the beginning they are green and later they turn red. When fully ripe, they get the typical black colour. The good news is that you can harvest pepper at any stage of the ripening process, immediately pour boiling water over harvested pepper and then let it dry. However, green pepper berries have a rather short shelf life, so it is better to wait until berries are red or later.

Preview photo: Pixabay