Indoor pepper, whose photo showcases the beauty of this plant, can be used to prepare a variety of dishes. It’s used to make spicy sauces and as an additive during canning. Hot pepper pods are an excellent appetite stimulant. They are especially delicious in hot borscht, fresh from the windowsill and straight to your plate!
Additionally, indoor pepper is a medicinal plant. A healing tincture can be prepared from it, which helps with digestive disorders, radiculitis, and neuralgia. If the pepper tincture is applied externally, it is necessary to avoid burns.
Contraindications for the use of hot pepper include liver and pancreas diseases. Be careful, excessive consumption of pepper can lead to impaired function of these organs.
Growing Indoor Peppers
Before planting, you need to prepare a nutrient-rich soil with the addition of compost and humus. In addition, it is advisable to have river sand, leafy soil, and loose top peat. Seeds are sown randomly and then sprinkled with a small layer of sifted earth.
The first shoots usually appear on the 15th day. Be sure to pinch the top of the shoot so that the plant does not stretch. As for picking, it is usually carried out 30 days after sowing the seeds.
Indoor pepper, the care of which consists in applying organic fertilizers, needs good lighting and regular feeding with a weak solution of mullein and chicken manure.
Pepper blooms with small white flowers, giving it a decorative and showy appearance. Don’t forget about abundant watering and loosening the soil.
It should be noted that the setting of fruits occurs without artificial pollination. After harvesting, the indoor pepper needs what is called rejuvenation. To do this, it must be transplanted into new soil without damaging the root system.
Common Mistakes When Growing Peppers
Overwatering peppers, as well as watering with cold water, can lead to root rot. Peppers are heat-loving plants, they need watering with settled water at room temperature. Well, if the pot is located in the area of the heating system and the soil dries out quickly, then they are watered more often, even daily if necessary. Under normal conditions – twice a week. Near heaters, it is also advisable to install an open container of water for evaporation.
If you grow pepper seedlings thickly and then pick them out, do not think of pinching the central root, as many people advise – peppers are sensitive to such a procedure. Of course, the plant will not die, but it will take a very long time to recover from such an execution and may not bloom.
Often, with the appearance of pests on peppers, the owners get scared and throw away the plant. Aphids and spider mites can appear in the summer from the garden or simply be brought in through an open window, and can also move from other indoor plants. But for pepper, this is absolutely not scary. It itself is the strongest repellant of sucking insects. Grind the hot peppers and pour them with warm water. After a day, add grated soap, or better yet, “Green soap”. Spray the plant three times.
Spider mites also often attack peppers. This is also a growing mistake that manifests itself in a dry climate. It is enough to regularly spray the plant, increase the humidity. If there are too many mites and emergency measures are needed, then use Fitoverm – it is of plant origin and is safe for home use.
After transferring plants from a summer greenhouse or loggia to a house, pepper often begins to shed leaves. This is a sign of a lack of light. If you do not install lighting and do not expect it to bloom in February, then the plant can be radically pruned. Shoots are cut by about a third and abundant watering is immediately stopped. But overdrying the soil in pots should not be allowed, it should always remain slightly moist.