How to Grow Jalapeno Peppers
A jalapeno pepper is a mildly hot chili that is used in many cuisines and is commonly enjoyed in salsas, salads and guacamole. The pepper seeds are typically started indoors and grow into three-foot tall plants when they mature. If you grow your own jalapenos, you'll have the benefit of saving money on your grocery bill and enjoying healthier produce that is not tainted with pesticides.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- Jalapeno seeds
- Plate
- Growing container
- Seed starting soil
- Plastic wrap, optional
- Garden heat mat, optional
- Fluorescent light
- Large pots, with depth of 8"
- 5-gallon pots
- Soil
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1
Place your jalapeno seeds on a plate and inspect them for quality. Remove any specimens that are discolored or smaller than the rest because these seeds have less chance of germinating.
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2
Fill your growing container with seed-starting soil about 3/4 full. Push your finger in the dirt about 1/8 of an inch down in each individual cell. Drop a seed in each indentation and then cover the seeds with a light layer of soil. Your jalapeno seeds should never be more than 1/4 inch down from the surface because they do not have the ability to push past a thicker layer of soil.
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3
Water your seeds so that the soil is moist but not drenched. Continue to monitor this water level to keep it the same throughout the growth process.
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4
Place the growing container's lid over the seeds to keep them warm. If your container does not have a lid, stretch plastic wrap over the top and poke a few holes on the top for air circulation. Place a garden heat mat underneath your container or position your container on top of a warm spot such as the refrigerator. Jalapeno seeds thrive in humid, warm conditions.
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5
Watch for your jalapeno plants to emerge from the soil in three to five weeks, depending on the variety. Remove the container's lid or the plastic wrap and then position a fluorescent light about two inches over the top of the tallest seedlings so that they continue to grow.
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6
Wait for your jalapenos to develop at least four leaves and then transfer to large pots that have a depth of at least eight inches. Fill each pot about 3/4 full of soil. Remove each young seedling from the cells and plant it in the pot at the depth it was growing in the cell. Water the soil to get it moist.
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7
Take the jalapeno pepper pots outside for about an hour each day about two weeks prior to moving them permanently outdoors. Make sure that your area's last potential frost has passed before moving your plants.
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8
Move the pots outdoors in full sun.
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9
Transplant each pepper plant into a 5-gallon size pot when they have developed a good root system and achieved about one foot in height.
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10
Fertilize with a formulation made for peppers at half-strength every two weeks.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Peppers grow best in a soil that contains peat and perlite because these materials allow for good air circulation and water drainage.
It is best to plant jalapeno peppers indoors six to eight weeks before you plan to move them outside.
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Comments
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So, our pepper plants produced an amazing amout this year! They were in a pot and we decided to put them in the garden, and they just took off! We're in TX, so the high (105) heat at the end of summer gave them a beating. They were wilting and it seemed like we couldn't give them enough water, and they stopped producing for about 2 months. Now that the weather is cooler and wetter, they've perked right up and have started yeilding peppers again. A tip for Aydan...you can put them in a ziplock baggie and freeze them just as they are. They lose a little crispness, but still just as hot. :)
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I just brought all 5 of my plants inside 2 of them are still producing and 3 of them haven't started yet. ( Very short summer in the northwest US this year). Will see how they do. Also have some Habenero plants that I started in June and are only about 3-4 inches so far! They seem to want to keep growing so will try to keep them growing too.
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I use a dehydrater to preserve an abundant crop of jalapenos. Clean and slice them lengthwise, with or without the seeds, depending on how hot you want them to be, and then grind them into Jalapeno Pepper Dust with the use of a food processor. Store the pepper dust in an airtight container, like a fruit jar, and fill your favorite shaker as needed. This product adds incredible flavor to almost anything! Be sure and wear gloves to process your peppers. You can preserve a very large amount of peppers of any sort in this manner, and it stores well for a very long time.
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My Jalapenos are thriving! - even though I was told by a whole bunch of people (and websites!) that they are tricky to grow. I've kept my plants indoors - the U.K. is prone to cold spells (which the peppers don't like). I think, though, that when I grow more next year I shall try some in the garden once the weather warms a little. My plants are fruiting so well that I'm having to investigate ways to preserve them by pickling and the like because I'm reaping such a large amount from each plant. I read that the use of a watercolour-type paint brush applied to the flowers (to encourage cross-pollination) encouraged a greater fruit yield so I attempted to stimulate growth by "dabbing" a brush into each flower of each of my plants - I believe , however, that the plants would have successfully provided fruit without my co-ersion. All my plants were grown in a pot and subsequently watered from beneath (I.E. Standing the pot on a dinner plate and watering daily by pouring water into the dinner plate). I'm aware of the fact that my mates are going to think that I'm a complete bellend for posting this but they need to embrace the"Power of the Pepper"! - You ALL love spicy food and you KNOW it!
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I use for cooking vegetable, seafood, meat, chicken..
