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Whatever the gardeners of our country grow on their plots. Among the cultures familiar to our eyes, you can meet exotic guests from distant lands. These guests include red capsicum. This Mexican pod is related to the potato, tomato, and eggplant. It is more closely related to our bell pepper. It differs from it only in a burning spicy taste. Due to the benefits hidden in it, capsicum is steadily gaining popularity in our country. Let’s take a closer look at this Mexican guest.
Benefits of red pepper
Capsicum red pepper, like other members of the nightshade family, is very rich in vitamins and minerals. The following stand out in its composition:
- vitamins C, E, K, B;
- iron;
- potassium;
- calcium;
- sulfur;
- essential oils and others.
The most important element that is part of its spicy fruits is capsaicin. It is this substance that gives the pepper a sharp, even burning taste. Accordingly, the more it is in pepper, the sharper it will be. Cansaicin is able to enhance the body’s immune defenses, fight against various infections. But its most important property is its destructive effect on cancer cells.
Due to its composition, red capsicum will help with:
- cardiovascular diseases;
- women’s problems with the menstrual cycle – here it is important to start adding red pepper to food before the start of the menstrual cycle;
- overweight;
- insomnia;
- depression and other disorders in the body.
The use of hot fruits of capsicum should be moderate. If used in excess, they will do more harm than good.
Characteristics of varieties
Red bitter capsicum has a lot of varieties. They differ from each other in different shapes and sharpness. Experienced gardeners and gardeners in our country highlight the following varieties.
Babie summer
This is an excellent variety of hot capsicum, which is suitable for growing on the site, and for growing on the windowsill. The variety got its name for the September ripening of its burning fruits. About 100 days will pass from the moment of emergence of seedlings. Its decorative bushes up to 40 cm high are strewn with small dark green leaves. The fruits of hot pepper are located singly or in pairs in the axils of the leaves. The bush looks very impressive during fruiting – strewn with small rounded fruits-berries. The color of peppers of this variety changes during ripening from green to bright red. The weight of mature peppers will not exceed 25 grams. From one bush it will be possible to collect up to 1 kg of fruit.
A distinctive feature of this variety of hot capsicum is its shade tolerance. It will easily grow and bear fruit even where daylight is in the range of 30 to 40%. In addition, the Indian Summer variety is resistant to various garden viruses.
Medusa
This variety is distinguished by its early maturity. Medusa Hot Pepper will ripen in just 72 days from germination. Its bush is quite compact and will not exceed 32 cm in height and 22 cm in width. Due to its size, it is perfect for growing in a flower pot.
On each bush of this variety, from 30 to 50 hot peppers can form. Due to the similarity of the fruiting bush with the head of the Gorgon Medusa, this variety got its name. The shape of the peppers is long and thin. Their length will be about 5,5 cm, and the diameter will not exceed 1,5 cm. Until fully ripe, Medusa peppers have time to change their color several times: from green to yellow and orange. The ripe fruit is colored red.
Plants of the Medusa variety are extremely demanding on soil moisture. They can not stand its drying, as well as dry air. To ensure the required level of humidity, it is even recommended to spray them.
Twinkle
Spark is one of the most popular varieties for growing both on the windowsill and on the site. This mid-early, compact-growing perennial variety is a hybrid of chili and cayenne peppers. The burning fruits of the Ogonyok variety reach their technical ripeness in 120 days, and the biological ripeness in 140 days from the emergence of seedlings.
Each pepper weighs about 40 grams and has an elongated slightly curved shape. The green color of the immature fruit changes to bright red as it ripens. Ripe peppers of the Ogonyok variety are quite sharp, with a characteristic peppery aroma.
Variety Ogonyok has good immunity to bacteriosis. This is a very heat-loving variety of hot pepper, so its yield will be higher when grown in greenhouses – about 4 kg per square meter.
Recommendations for growing
Capsicum red peppers are perhaps the only representatives of the nightshade family that can successfully grow at home.
When grown at home, hot capsicum does not require a special soil composition. For it, you can use both universal soil and soil prepared independently. To do this, you need to take leafy soil, humus, sand and peat in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 2. The prepared soil or universal substrate must be decontaminated before planting the seeds. To do this, use boiling water or a solution of potassium permanganate.
For planting, you need to use a 2 liter pot. At 1/3 it is filled with drainage, and at 2/3 with earth. Expanded clay or charcoal is suitable as drainage. Pre-soaked hot pepper seeds are planted in holes up to 1 cm deep and covered with earth. No more than 3 seeds can be planted in one pot. After planting, the pot with hot pepper seeds is covered with polyethylene and placed in a warm, bright place. When the first shoots appear, the film should be removed. Further care includes:
- Regular watering. For this, only warm settled water is used. Plants should be watered only as needed, when the topsoil dries out. Hot peppers will not tolerate stagnant moisture.
- Feeding. For home cultivation, you can use complex mineral fertilizers. It is recommended to fertilize during flowering and fruit set.
Despite the fact that hot peppers can bear fruit quite well at home, they show the best results when grown in a greenhouse. Residents of the southern regions can grow it even in open ground.
Growing hot peppers in the garden is no different from growing bell peppers. Like its sweet counterpart, hot capsicum loves sandy and medium loamy soils with a neutral level of acidity and is especially picky about light and heat.
Seedlings of hot red pepper begin to prepare from February – March. If the seeds are purchased, then they can be planted without soaking. It is still recommended to soak your seeds from the last harvest. For this, a nutrient solution or any growth stimulant is perfect. The depth of sowing seeds and the distance between them should be about 1 cm. The optimum temperature for germination will be 25-27 degrees.
After the emergence of seedlings, it is necessary to remove weak shoots, leaving only one strong one. Good results are shown by planting seeds in peat pots.
As soon as 2-3 pairs of leaves are formed in young plants, they should be transplanted to a permanent place. When they reach a height of 20 cm, you need to pinch off the top of the plants. If this is not done, it will grow upwards and will not form side shoots. In total, the plant should have up to 5 strong shoots. The rest, as a rule, the lower ones, must be removed.
Regular watering and fertilizing 1-2 times a month is the key to a rich harvest of this crop.
The video will tell you more about growing capsicum in a greenhouse:
