How to Cultivate a Jalapeno Plant
A taste toward the spicy often means planting jalapeno peppers in a home garden. When you enjoy a variety of peppers, include at least one jalapeno pepper plant alongside the green and banana pepper plants and you can harvest a variety as the growing season progresses. Cultivate a jalapeno plant in a sunny location and add the spicy peppers you harvest to many different culinary creations. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Garden spade
- Aged compost
- Rake
- Shovel
- Jalapeno plants
- Pepper cages (similar to tomato cages)
Instructions
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Prepare the sunny growing location after the daytime temperatures rise to about 70 degrees and the nighttime temperatures stay above 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Cultivate the soil with the garden spade down to a depth of about 6 inches. Add up to 4 inches of aged compost to the top of the soil and mix the two mediums well with the spade. Rake the surface of the planting area smooth to finish soil preparation.
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Dig holes for the jalapeno plants. Use the shovel to dig holes 12 to 24 inches apart in rows that are about 36 inches apart. Make the holes deep enough to plant the jalapenos at the same depth as they are growing in their temporary containers.
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Remove the plants from the plastic containers carefully and transfer each jalapeno plant to a prepared hole. Add soil to cover the roots and firm the soil gently with your hands.
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Surround each plant with a pepper cage, pushing the tines of the cage into the soil. The pepper cages will protect the plants and provide support as they grow.
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Water each jalapeno immediately after you finish planting them. Saturate the soil evenly with water. Keep the soil evenly moist, but do not allow the peppers to stand in waterlogged soil. Strive to provide 1 inch of irrigation each week, from either rain or supplemental watering.
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Mulch and fertilize the jalapeno plants simultaneously by adding 1 to 2 inches of additional compost around each plant about one month after planting. The compost will reduce weeds and provide nutrients.
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Pull weeds as they appear to keep them from encroaching on the pepper plants. Removing weeds manually prevents damage to the shallow jalapeno roots.
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Harvest jalapeno peppers when they grow to at least 4 inches long. Mature jalapenos are bright green. The initial green color gradually changes to a deeper green and eventually red. Red jalapenos are slightly milder than green ones. Pull the peppers off gently with your fingers.
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References
- Photo Credit Hemera Technologies/Photos.com/Getty Images
