Every second person now has tomatoes or herbs in their garden. How about a pepperoni? With species-appropriate planting, you can expect a rich harvest in late summer. Here you will find valuable tips on how to proceed.
Pepperoni can only be grown in pots for several years
The Cultivation
First of all, decide whether you are going to buy a pepperoni from a specialist shop that has already been grown, or whether you want to grow the plant from seed right from the start. You will receive cuttings from the tree nursery around February. You can also buy seeds everywhere. Alternatively, remove the seeds from an older, dry pepperoni pod. While you can immediately plant a cutting in the garden soil, you must germinate the seeds in a spring pot. With enough water and enough sunlight, the first shoots form after a short time. Ideally, start growing from seed in January.
It depends on the species
Note that there are annual and perennial pepperoni varieties. You can confidently cultivate annual specimens in the vegetable patch. For perennial plants, you should consider keeping them in pots. Hot peppers do not tolerate frost and must be overwintered indoors. A bucket makes transport easier, otherwise you'll have to dig up the plant before the first frost and plant it in a winter pot.
The right time
Hot peppers do not tolerate temperatures below 5°C. When planting, you are on the safe side if you wait until there is no more threat of night frost. A common deadline is May 15, when the Ice Saints have passed.
The floor
Hot peppers are relatively undemanding. With the right soil, however, you promote growth and ultimately also the yield when the fruit is later harvested. The optimal soil condition is characterized by the following criteria:
- permeable so that no waterlogging forms
- nutrient-rich garden soil
- definitely not pre-fertilized soil
- constantly moist soil
- enriched with horn meal or compost
- slightly acidic to neutral (pH 0.3-4.6)
The site
Pepperoni plants are actually very undemanding. However, they place certain requirements on the location:
- bright and sunny
- no draft
- warm (definitely over 10°C)
- sheltered from the wind
- rainproof
- it doesn't matter whether it's in a bucket or on the ground
- small greenhouses (77.12€) also offer protection and store additional heat
Protection from weeds
A mulch film helps to prevent annoying weed growth around the peppers. In addition, this offers the advantage that the earth beneath it heats up, which is good for the growth of your peppers. When laying out, proceed as follows:
- 1. Clear the area of weeds
- 2. Loosen the soil
- 3. Lay out the foil
- 4. Score slits in the film
- 5. Place plants in the slots
Plant peppers in the ground
During the final planting, you must be careful not to plant your peppers too deep or too shallow in the ground. Orient yourself to the depth that you have already used in the cultivation pot. If you want to grow several peppers at the same time, we recommend a planting distance of 40 to 50 cm between the individual plants. If you lay them out in rows, you should keep a distance of 50 to 60 cm between the respective rows. By the way, if you mix several varieties in the bed, it will look very nice later when your peppers are fruiting. The different species also get along very well in motley designs.
tips
A support helps to prevent the initially fragile shoots from breaking in strong winds. A simple stick (e.g. bamboo) can be used for this purpose, on which your pepperoni can climb up.