How to Properly Plant Chili Peppers so You Can Enjoy Spicy Food to Your Heart's Content!
Chili plants seem to be a must-have spice for the Indonesian people. This is because many enjoy food with a spicy flavor. Therefore, when chili prices soar, many people complain. To anticipate disappointment, we can learn how to properly plant chili so that we can have our own small chili garden.
Can chili really be planted in a small yard at home? Is it not necessary to have special land like a rice field? The answer is of course yes. You can pay attention to the following explanation on how to properly plant chili.
Come on, let's get started!
1. Preparing Chili Seeds
Regardless of whether the chili is planted by individuals or farmers with dozens of hectares of land, the selection of chili seeds cannot be arbitrary. The seeds that will be planted must be superior seeds that can be cared for until they grow with thick foliage.
There are two ways you can obtain chili seeds. The first is to buy them at a store. They are usually provided in small plastic bags. This method is effective for those who do not have much free time or even want to plant a lot of chili.
If you only want to plant chili in a small pot with two to three plants, you can use the second method, which is to take seeds directly from the chili fruit. The way is to cut the chili and remove the seeds. Choose fresh and large chilies to ensure good results later.
2. Sowing the Seeds
After obtaining the desired chili seeds in the quantity adjusted to the planting medium, the next thing you need to do is to sow them. Sow properly so that the chili grows well.
You can prepare polybags and then prepare soil that has been mixed with fertilizer in a ratio of 3:1. Let the soil in the polybag sit for about a week, placing it in a location protected from rain and direct sunlight.
After a week, plant the chili seeds that have been soaked in warm water for three hours. This soaking is intended to help the chili seeds break open from their skin so they can grow well.
Make sure they do not get direct sunlight, okay? The polybag should only be placed in direct sunlight after the seeds have grown to about 1 cm.
3. Starting to Plant Chili
After the seeds have grown for about a month, transfer them to a larger space, such as a bigger polybag or a wider pot. Don't forget to fertilize regularly so that the soil remains loose.
This is certainly related to how to properly plant chili so that the plants can grow lush. Fertilizer and water are the sources of food for the plants to develop well.
4. Fertilizing for Fertility
Fertilization continues throughout the life of the plant, of course. The nutrients contained in the fertilizer will be processed by the plant along with water and sunlight to help it grow and produce abundant chilies.
This will later serve as a benchmark for whether you have applied the correct method of planting chili. Because, if fertilization is often neglected, the plants may dwarf and the fruit produced may not meet expectations.
5. Caring for Chili Plants
When the chili plants have grown tall, care for the plants must continue. Fertilizing, watering, and spraying pesticides must be done so that the plants can last. This proper method of planting chili also includes weeding out wild grasses that usually grow around the plants and can absorb nutrients from the chili plants.
6. Harvesting: The Growth Period of Chili
Chili plants usually bear fruit and are ready to be harvested after 3 months of growth. Typically, one chili plant can be harvested up to 18 times during its lifetime. It's quite nice to enjoy the fruits of your own chili planting so you don't have to buy them at the market, right?
That’s how to properly plant chili in your yard. You don’t need a large space; using pots is also fine. The important thing is, even if it’s just one plant, if cared for well, it can produce a lot of chilies. It’s quite enough to be used as a cooking spice. So, when chili prices rise, we don’t need to worry anymore.
Author: Nisa Maulan Shofa
