Gardening makes you happy and is becoming more and more popular. No wonder, as a matter of principle, home-grown fruit tastes better than the supermarket offerings. With a home-grown pepperoni, you can also be sure that there are no chemicals involved. With these instructions you will soon be proud to successfully harvest your first pepperoni.
How can I grow hot peppers myself?
To grow hot peppers successfully, first sow 2-3 seeds per source pot in garden soil and keep them moist and warm. As soon as the second pair of leaves appear, place the plants in a pot with algae substrate or in the vegetable bed and choose a sunny location.
Cuttings or seeds
First you have to decide whether you want to buy a pre-grown plant from a specialist retailer (these will be available from February) or wait patiently until the seeds you have sown yourself begin to germinate. You can buy the latter either online or in a specialist shop. The advantage of growing with seeds is the much more extensive selection. Lesser known varieties are also available. Alternatively, you can also get the seeds from dry fruits. Make sure that the peppers are already fully ripe, as seeds from green fruits often do not germinate. This is how you proceed with the collection of seeds:
- Cut the pod lengthwise
- Removing seeds
- dry on kitchen paper in a warm place (not in the blazing sun)
- Wrap seeds in paper to absorb any remaining moisture
- fill into a container
- store away from light
The sowing
First sow a hot pepper in spring pots. Fill this with conventional garden soil and press two to three seeds into the substrate. January is perfect for sowing. However, if you keep the soil constantly moist, for example by placing the spring pots in a bowl of water and placing them in a warm place, germination will be successful all year round.
Pricking
Make sure that the pepperoni shoots neither dry out nor die due to waterlogging, the plant will grow quickly. If the ground frost finally disappears after the ice saints in mid-May, there will be the best conditions outside for repotting the peppers. By the way, a sure sign is the formation of the second pair of leaves after the cotyledons. Dig up the young plant very carefully and remove it using wooden tweezers. In the new pot, a layer of algae substrate supports root formation.
In the pot or in the vegetable patch?
Last but not least, the only question that remains is whether you want to continue cultivating your peppers as a container plant or in the ground. Keep in mind that a hot pepper can be wintered better in a pot due to its mobility and the choice of location is also easier. The latter can also be regulated with a greenhouse that you use for soil farming.
