Care and feeding of your Chilhuacle pepper
February 5, 2019 3:51 PM Subscribe
I have identified my mystery mole pepper- it's a Chilhuacle negro! Great! Only the wiki page for the pepper is in Italian, and most other pages about it are in Spanish. I know it's a Mexican mole pepper, and mine seems to have become a perennial. How do I care for it so that I can get good sized peppers this summer and fall?
Here are some pictures of my plant. It's in a good pepper sized urn, and a few weeks ago I cut off most of the sucker stems. There are a few sucker stems left, but they have peppers of decent but small size on them and I'm waiting til I pick them.
Should I be fertilizing the pepper now even though it's cold? Is my usual Maxsea the right type of fertilizer? Should I cut off all the small peppers now so that the plant will grow better come summer? Should I cut off the two remaining sucker stems now? Should I mulch it more? less? Is there some special care tips for mole peppers in specific or peppers in general that I just don't know because I've only grown tomatoes before?
I'm reading my various San Francisco gardening books, but most of them have information concerning annual pepper growing, not a plant that has refused to die and looks like It'll live for a decade if I'll let it.
Basically, what should I be doing now, and what should I be doing come Spring and Summer so that my perennial pepper produces.
Here are some pictures of my plant. It's in a good pepper sized urn, and a few weeks ago I cut off most of the sucker stems. There are a few sucker stems left, but they have peppers of decent but small size on them and I'm waiting til I pick them.
Should I be fertilizing the pepper now even though it's cold? Is my usual Maxsea the right type of fertilizer? Should I cut off all the small peppers now so that the plant will grow better come summer? Should I cut off the two remaining sucker stems now? Should I mulch it more? less? Is there some special care tips for mole peppers in specific or peppers in general that I just don't know because I've only grown tomatoes before?
I'm reading my various San Francisco gardening books, but most of them have information concerning annual pepper growing, not a plant that has refused to die and looks like It'll live for a decade if I'll let it.
Basically, what should I be doing now, and what should I be doing come Spring and Summer so that my perennial pepper produces.
Best answer: There's no reason a pepper plant can't be over-wintered. It'll be happiest at a nice room temperature though.
Feeding-wise, they need plenty of phosphorus to produce fruit. A fertiliser that just supplies a lot of nitrogen will result in lots of green growth, but not much in the way of actual peppers. Treat a pepper much like a tomato.
Keep the small peppers on.
posted by pipeski at 4:49 PM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Feeding-wise, they need plenty of phosphorus to produce fruit. A fertiliser that just supplies a lot of nitrogen will result in lots of green growth, but not much in the way of actual peppers. Treat a pepper much like a tomato.
Keep the small peppers on.
posted by pipeski at 4:49 PM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I mean that looks good to me. Give it some slow release fertilizer and maybe some seaweed tonic, and a deep water at the base, and it will pretty much take care of itself. Near the end of winter give it a good trim to promote new growth in spring and summer.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:56 PM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:56 PM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Rust Moranis at 4:34 PM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]