How to Grow Cayenne

If you'd like to grow a pepper that has a little bite without burning your face off, Cayenne peppers are probably the way to go. They have a medium heat and are used in many Cajun and Mexican dishes. Here are a few steps to growing your own supply of this versatile and hot, but not too hot, pepper.

Instructions

1. Start the seeds indoors. Cayenne peppers are extremely fragile and very susceptible to excessively hot or cold weather. Seeds should be started in light, well-drained soil, and kept in a warm sunny spot in the house or in a greenhouse (the room should be at least 60 degrees) until they begin to sprout in about 16 to 20 days.

2. Ready the plants for the outdoors. While the plants are still seedlings, they should be moved to flats and kept 2 to 3 inches apart, or planted in individual pots. Before they can be planted outdoors at about six to eight weeks from the time of sowing, they should be gradually hardened (this is the process of acclimating the plants to outdoor conditions).

3. Prepare the garden. Cayenne peppers like well-fertilized soil (although you want to avoid too much nitrogen), so be sure to fertilize before you plant. They also like full sun and moist soil, but not saturated. Soil that is either too dry or too wet may cause yellowing of the plants' leaves.

4. Put the plants in the garden. After the danger of frost is gone you may plant your peppers. When transplanting your pepper plants from the pot or flat into the garden, you should keep them 18 to 24 inches apart in a row, and also keep the rows 18 to 24 inches apart. Also, remember to keep the garden bed free of weeds.

5. Pick your peppers. In about 70 to 80 days, you should have some cayenne peppers ready for harvesting. Cayenne peppers are at maturation when they are about 4 to 6 inches long and they break easily from the stem. It is recommended, however, that you cut the peppers rather than pull them off as it causes less damage to the plant. The plant should yield peppers until the autumn frost.