Growing chili peppers on a windowsill: planting tips and growing conditions

If you don't have extra space in your home for houseplants, but want some useful and beautiful exotic plants, we recommend considering ornamental vegetable crops. homemade chili pepper Anyone can grow a garden on a windowsill. To do this, you need to learn the proper plant care and carefully monitor its condition. Knowing propagation methods will help you avoid fatal mistakes.

Description of the culture

Hot pepper is a perennial plant in the nightshade family. With proper care, it can bear fruit for five, and in some cases, up to ten years. Varieties with moderate-sized bushes—about 30 cm—and small but numerous conical, round, or elongated fruits are suitable for indoor cultivation. This plant loves light and heat, and is sensitive to microclimate.

The crown of this ornamental hot pepper can be green or purple, and the fruit changes as it ripens, from white or green to dark red. Unripe peppercorns can be yellow, orange, or purple. Uneven ripening makes the plant even more decorative and colorful. The flavor of ripe hot peppers grown in a pot is extremely pungent.

Pepper cultivation

To grow chili peppers at home and get a good harvest, it's best to use first-generation seeds from a reputable producer. Second-generation and subsequent seeds grown at home may fail to germinate, or the resulting plants may not meet expectations.

Young branches 7-10 cm long, without flowers or fruit, and with a single leaf or bud, are suitable for cuttings. It's best to soak the prepared cuttings in a growth stimulant solution for 24 hours and then plant them in small cups filled with moist soil.

Planting dates

To grow chili peppers on a windowsill, you don't necessarily need to adhere to seasonal planting dates. However, to ensure the young plants receive the best light, it's best to time the periods of active growth and first fruiting to spring and summer. To achieve this, you can germinate the seeds as early as late January or February to obtain seedlings in March. If you're looking for a quick harvest, it's best to consider the variety's characteristics.

Selecting a variety

Pepper varieties for home cultivation, in addition to their different appearance, differ in ripening time and pollination method – some require hand pollination.

1. Early-ripening varieties yield their first harvest as early as June if planted in February. These include Ogonyok and Tabasco.
2. Mid-season varieties – Holly Fish, Queen of Spades – are best planted no later than mid-March.
3. Late varieties can be sown towards the end of March. Confetti, Salute, and Kolokolchik bear fruit in the fall.

Preparing the container and soil

To plant and grow peppers on the windowsillTo plant peppers, you need to prepare the soil and a set of containers. As the plant grows, it will need to be repotted several times. This is due to the peculiarities of the pepper's root system—it's extensive and doesn't extend deep into the soil. The pot should be a couple of centimeters wider than the root ball, so it's recommended to alternate between pots with diameters of 7, 15, and 20 centimeters. A mature plant requires a pot with a capacity of approximately 5-6 liters.

You can use ready-made soil for vegetables and nightshades, or you can make your own mixture. It's important that it's not too rich or heavy. One simple recommended composition is:

• two parts peat;
• one part sand, perlite, vermiculite or other similar filler;
• a mandatory drainage layer of 3 cm thickness.

It's highly undesirable to use outdoor soil for growing peppers on a windowsill, as it may be contaminated with fungi and pests. It's also best to disinfect store-bought soil using one of the following methods:

• water generously with a solution of potassium permanganate or biofungicide;
• warm in the oven.

Preparing seeds for planting in the ground

Growing from seeds is the easiest way to obtain seedlings. Seeds can be pre-germinated or planted directly into the soil. If you grow the seeds yourself, you should first prepare them:

• inspect, discard small and damaged ones;
• soak in salted water and remove any that float to the surface, then rinse;
• soak in a solution of potassium permanganate for disinfection.

If the seeds were purchased from a reputable store and their appearance is pristine, you can skip the above steps. The seed material was selected and sanitized by the manufacturer.

To germinate, place hot pepper seeds between layers of damp cloth, napkin, or cotton pad. Since the amount of water absorbed by such material is small, wrap it in plastic wrap or a bag to prevent evaporation. Place the package or container with the seeds in a dark, warm place for one to two days and monitor its condition—open it periodically to ventilate it, and prevent mold from forming.

Planting seeds for seedlings

For seedlings, place the seeds in moistened soil to a depth of about 1 cm, with the roots facing down if they're sprouted. It's best to leave at least two centimeters between the seeds, otherwise it will be difficult to transplant them after germination. Peat cups or pellets can be used directly. Then sprinkle the soil, spray with a spray bottle, and cover with plastic wrap, leaving a small air space.

The container with the future seedlings should be placed in a warm place (22-26°C) and opened briefly daily for ventilation. This should be long enough to remove condensation from the film. Watering should be very moderate, using settled, room-temperature water. To avoid soil compaction and excessive moisture, it's best to mist the surface of the bed with a spray bottle.

Growing seedlings

The first shoots will appear in about a week to a week and a half, but if unsprouted seeds were planted, they will take longer—sometimes up to three weeks—to germinate. After this, the film should be removed and the plantings moved to a well-lit area. For active growth and development of seedlings, and then adult plants, the following conditions must be met:

• the air temperature should be 20-22 °C;
• Growing peppers in winter will be difficult without supplemental lighting due to short daylight hours and cloudy weather. Additional lighting can be provided by a grow light, a fluorescent lamp, or a cool-spectrum LED lamp. Avoid using incandescent lamps for seedlings, as they scorch and dry out the plants, and their spectrum is unsuitable for them. Daylight hours, especially for young plants, should be at least 12 hours, and 16-18 hours is ideal.

After two or three true leaves appear, the seedlings are transplanted into cups, one bush at a time. During the first transplant, the roots are pricked out—cut back by a third of their length. This stimulates growth and expansion of the root system. After pricking out, the plants are repotted in well-moistened soil and protected from direct sunlight for the first few days. After this, as each bush grows, repot it so that the roots are not crowded in the pot.

Care instructions

To ensure your hot pepper plant grows strong, beautiful, and produces a good harvest, you need to monitor the microclimate on your windowsill.

• During the heating season, you should take care of the air humidity near the plants - install a humidifier, cover the radiators with wet towels, and spray the pepper bushes with non-chlorinated water at room temperature from a spray bottle.
• Watering should be moderate but regular. Don't allow the top layer of soil to dry out; it should always remain moist and loose. After each watering, drain any excess water from the tray to prevent root rot. The water should be settled and at room temperature.
• Indoor hot peppers do not tolerate drafts.
• To harden off the plants, you can briefly move them to a cooler room—for example, a heated balcony. A daily temperature fluctuation is also beneficial, but not below 18°C ​​at night.
• To make the bush more luxuriant, you can pinch the top.

• You shouldn't plant two bushes in one pot - they will suppress each other.
• To ensure more abundant flowering, remove the first flower. To speed up ripening, pick the first ripening pepper.
• It's a good idea to shake the pot of flowering peppers to help pollen fall onto the pistil and encourage more ovaries to form. This is especially important for exotic varieties that are unable to self-pollinate.

Collection of fruits and seeds

The peppers should be harvested as they ripen. Depending on the variety and the time of planting, this can be early or midsummer, fall, or even winter for one to two months. You can pick the peppers by gently twisting them so that the stem breaks off close to the fruit, but it's better to cut them with a knife or scissors to avoid damaging the branches. If you want to harvest seeds from the plant, select the largest and most beautiful fruit and let it ripen longer—until the tip darkens. Then cut it open, remove the seeds, and let it dry.

Winter care

Indoor pepper plants may lose some of their leaves by winter. In this case, they should be prepared for winter by trimming the branches by a third and placing them in a well-lit, but not too warm, location. Rotate the plant periodically to ensure uniform growth in all directions. Watering should also be reduced—the top layer of soil shouldn't be too wet during winter.

Fertilizers

To make the pepper bush grow well To ensure a healthy and abundant fruiting, it requires additional nutrients—nitrogen, fluorine, and potassium. These should be diluted according to the instructions and applied once a week during watering. Nitrogen-containing fertilizers promote vegetative growth and foliage development. Fluorine and potassium are more beneficial during flowering and fruit set. During the ripening period of edible fruits, over-fertilization is not recommended.

Hot peppers are ornamental plants with a neat, lush crown and a long fruiting period. Growing them for consistently high yields requires care, especially at the beginning. Caring for them is not difficult, but all activities—watering, humidification, and fertilizing—should be regular and moderate.