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Growing garden crops on apartment windowsills is becoming very popular today. Increasingly, on the windows of apartment buildings you can see tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, and peppers growing in pots. Flowers, previously considered exclusively garden flowers, can now also be seen in home interiors. Such are, for example, chrysanthemums and tulips.
Breeders, trying to meet demand, are breeding dwarf varieties of plants that can fit in the narrow space of a window sill and are less demanding on lighting than their garden counterparts.
The downside of almost all garden crops at home is that you cannot reap a large harvest from them. There is not enough space. The exception is the varieties of bitter pepper, which bear quite a lot of fruit on one bush, but are used in very small quantities.
Most often these varieties are now called decorative for their truly beautiful appearance.
Today, decorative varietal peppers can come in a wide variety of colors, ranging from purple to red.It also happens that some varieties have colored not only fruits, but also leaves.
For example, pepper varieties "Black Pearl" has dark purple leaves. Moreover, before the fruits ripen, the leaves of this variety are the usual green color, while the peppers themselves are almost black. When ripe, the peppers turn red and the foliage turns purple.
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Because of their unique, very decorative appearance, dwarf varieties of peppers are often classified as ornamental. Unfortunately, there may be inedible varieties in this category. However, the information here varies. Perhaps the saying “no medicine, no poison, just dose” applies to these varieties of peppers.
The general principle applies to pepper; The smaller the pepper, the hotter it is. It may very well be that the “inedible” characteristic stems from the too high heat of a particular pepper variety.
“Goldfinger” is most often mentioned as inedible, but in some places you can find a statement that this variety is also edible.
The Filius Blue variety is also in doubt.
Many varieties indoor peppers originally bred as ornamental, without concern for their edibility. When choosing a “dual-use” variety of homemade pepper, it would be better to pay attention to dwarf varieties, originally bred for culinary use. It is unlikely that there will be many people who want to test the statement about the dose on their own body.
The positive aspects of growing hot pepper in an apartment also include its ability to disinfect the room in which it is located and repel aphids and whiteflies.
The principles of growing ornamental and garden peppers are the same.Many gardeners simply dig up a couple of dwarf bushes in the fall and replant them in pots. It is for this reason that division varieties of hot peppers for decorative and dining purposes is quite conventional.
Varieties such as “Medusa”, “Ryabinushka”, “Salute”, “Ogonyok”, “Inflorescence”, being dining rooms, can simultaneously serve as room decoration. The varieties are perennial. These varieties will be annuals in harsh conditions, where they may not withstand winter, but not in a warm apartment. Having grown a tree once, you can admire it for five years. Another advantage of the varieties is that they are of domestic selection, have been known for a long time and were bred as table plants. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about their edibility.
Even without fruits, thanks to the small white flowers, the tree has a very elegant decorative appearance. The flowers are self-pollinating and do not require pollinating insects.
Varieties of peppers for growing on a windowsill
Variety Indian Summer
Shade-tolerant variety of bitter pepper. Early ripening. The bush looks very decorative with fruits of different colors depending on the stage of ripening. The variety is recommended not only for the garden, but also for growing in pots on a windowsill or on a balcony in summer. The shape of the fruit can also vary from spherical to trunk-shaped. Leaves up to seven centimeters in size. The bush is evergreen, very branched, up to forty centimeters high.
Seeds for seedlings are sown in late February - early March. They are transplanted into a permanent pot or open bed at the end of May. When planting in open ground, the bushes are planted at a distance of thirty centimeters from each other.The variety is distinguished by extended fruiting. The harvest is harvested from July to October. Used for canning and as a seasoning for dishes.
Variety Ryabinushka
Mid-early low-growing variety. Branched bush. The peppers are round in shape and very hot. Trees scattered one at a time in the foliage give the plant a very decorative appearance. The color of the fruit is purple or orange. The diameter of the peppers is two to two and a half centimeters, weighing from three to five grams. This variety is not only decorative, but also edible. It is used in cooking, canning and in the alcoholic beverage industry.
Variety Salute
A mid-season variety suitable for growing in an open garden bed, in a greenhouse, on a balcony, or in a pot on a window. The height of the bush is only twenty centimeters. The plant is branched, does not require the formation of a crown, and has a decorative appearance. The harvest can be harvested four months after sowing the seeds.
The fruits are cone-shaped, collected in bunches. May have a smooth or ribbed surface. They can be picked either dark green or light orange. Fruit weight is six grams.
If this variety is planned for planting in open ground, then the seeds for seedlings are sown at the end of February. The harvest is harvested in July.
Variety Medusa F1
A very original and new hybrid variety. Bushes up to forty centimeters high are strewn with quite long, up to seven centimeters, peppers, growing in bunches and giving the impression of jellyfish tentacles. The bush does not need to be formed. The harvest is unfriendly, so the bush contains fruits of different colors. Harvest from July to September.
The variety is great for growing in an apartment and on the balcony. Grows well in garden beds. Used in cooking and preservation. For long-term storage, peppers can be dried.
The disadvantage of this variety is that it is a first generation hybrid. There is no point in getting seeds from it.
Variety Queen of Spades
The variety looks exclusively decorative and grows well in low light conditions. The height of the bush is up to thirty centimeters. The plant is spherical in shape, medium leafy. The variety is mid-season. Cone-shaped fruits stick out upward. The color of the fruit gives pepper an additional decorative effect: purple at the stage of technical ripeness and red at maturity. The variety bears fruit from July to October.
Agricultural technology in the apartment
To grow hot peppers on a windowsill, you first need fertile soil. Often this is a mixture of humus, compost, leaf soil, peat and sand. A possible soil option is a mixture of peat and humus.
If you don’t want to bother, you can buy a ready-made mixture for peppers, eggplants and tomatoes.
The seeds are sown on nutrient soil and lightly sprinkled with sifted soil on top, in a one-centimeter layer. Points of view differ on how exactly to sow hot peppers.
Some sow seeds in a common container and later select the strongest plants. The possibility of such selection is an advantage of this method. This method is also convenient because before the shoots appear, you can cover the entire box with film. However, a cassette with cups for seedlings will be no worse.
Others believe that it is better to immediately sow the seeds in separate pots, since pepper does not tolerate picking well. When growing seedlings in this way, young plants are transplanted into a larger pot using the transfer method.
The optimal time for planting pepper is from the last days of February and the first ten days in March. After sowing, the seedlings are covered with film or glass and placed in a warm place until seedlings emerge.
The first shoots appear after two weeks. At the stage of the third - fourth leaf, the seedlings are planted in permanent pots with a volume of one to one and a half liters. Indoor pepper does not require large pots. After the sprout reaches a height of twenty centimeters, the top must be pinched. This stimulates branching of the tree.
Due to the abundant fruiting and small volume of the earthen lump in the pot, it is necessary to regularly feed the plants with mullein and bird droppings. Solutions of these fertilizers should be weak.
Pepper also needs regular loosening of the soil and watering.
After the next harvest, the pepper tree is rejuvenated. In the case of pepper, this happens not in the same way as with other garden plants (strong pruning of branches in order to awaken dormant buds), but by transplanting the plant into a pot with fresh fertile soil.
When starting to grow peppers indoors, hobbyists often make mistakes that can cause the tree to get sick or die.
The most common mistakes when growing hot peppers indoors
Excessive watering
As a heat-loving crop, the roots of pepper can rot if it is watered with cold water or if the soil clod is over-wetted. At the same time, it is also impossible to leave the soil completely dry. Water the pepper with settled water at room temperature.
In apartments, central heating radiators are often located under the window sills. Because of them, the soil in pots standing on the windows dries out very quickly. If the pepper is located close to the radiator, it needs to be watered more often than usual. You need to look at the situation, but you may need to water it every two days. Under normal conditions, indoor peppers are watered twice a week.
Pinching the central root
Many people advise pinching the central root of the young plant when picking seedlings. This is akin to advice to cut off the wings of a bird so that it does not fly.
Peppers tolerate this procedure very painfully. The plant will survive, but will be sick for a long time. It may even refuse to bloom.
Insect pests
It happens that aphids or spider mites try to attack the pepper. They can appear when blown through a window by the wind. Often, owners of hot peppers are frightened by this phenomenon and throw away the plants. In fact, you can destroy pests using the pepper itself, which is a strong repeller for these insects. It is enough to grind the seeds and internal veins and fill them with warm water for a day. Then add grated soap and spray the plants three times.
The appearance of spider mites can be prevented by maintaining high air humidity. To do this, it is enough to regularly spray the plants or place a container of water next to the pots. If the tick has already appeared, has managed to multiply and the situation is serious, you can use biologically based insecticides. For example, fitoverm.
The leaves are falling
This phenomenon is typical for those peppers that are transferred in the fall from open ground or a greenhouse to a pot on the windowsill.The tree, accustomed to the abundance of sunlight, begins to shed its leaves, complaining of a lack of light. If you do not want to install additional lighting and get a harvest in February, you can trim the pepper.
Cut the shoots by a third. Watering at this time is also reduced, but the earthen ball is kept slightly moist.
Harvest twice a year
Fans of indoor hot peppers, watching their growth, found a way to harvest the first harvest in May.
For this hot pepper seeds they are sown for seedlings in the fall, creating unfavorable conditions for them so that they do not have time to bloom before the New Year (the Western version is just “Christmas pepper”) and do not deplete their strength in the shortest days. After December 21, the plants are moved to a window with maximum sun exposure: south or east.
The pepper will bloom quickly and by the end of May you can get up to a dozen fruits that are uncharacteristically large for a particular variety. After harvesting, the tree quickly sends out new shoots and blooms a second time. By the end of September, the second harvest can be harvested.
After this, you don’t have to throw away the pepper, but leave it for the winter. In January, cut off old shoots, replant the plant in fresh substrate and place the pot on a south or east window. Pepper will give a third harvest.
There are many varieties of decorative hot peppers that can be grown in apartments and on balconies. So much so that your eyes widen. Moreover, all varieties are universal in terms of growing location. Varieties of decorative peppers are suitable for the windowsill, for balcony, for open ground (in the southern regions), for greenhouses.
