Agricultural Story #26

Hello Steem-Agro community!
My Agricultural story for the week is on Planting of pepper.
Source

Pepper also known as Capsicum annuum🌶️ (botanical name) is one of the spices that can never lack in the food that we prepare at home.
It comes with varieties depending on what it will be used to cook.
Thus we have;

• Cayenne (hot); long and thin reddish pepper.
• Jalapeno (hot); flavoursome pepper(locally: atebe ñte okpo)
• Bell (mild); sweet pepper also called California wonder pepper.
• Padron chile (mixed); also called Spanish pepper
• Purple bell pepper(mild); This mild pepper has purple colour, and it is very rare.
  Source

How to nurse the pepper seeds

Pepper seeds can be nursed in a polythene bag or sack. It can also be nursed in a tray or bowl.
The following are some steps that I took to nurse my pepper this year.

• I purchased a desired fresh pepper(jalapeno variety) from the market.

• I carefully opened the peppers to reveal the seeds. I did this with care, using nylon hand gloves to ensure that the Capsicum oil does not drop in my hand and cause discomfort.
  
  opened ️ to pick the seeds

• I chose a loamy soil and put it in an aluminum bowl. And also distributed the seeds in the soil 1/4 deep.
  tiny holes were made at the bottom of the bowl to drain some water

• After which I sprinkled the soil with water to moisten it.(with that a nursery was prepared for my Capsicum to germinate).
  after planting the seeds

• This was kept under shade. And watering was done regularly until it germinated.

Germination

The seed germinated between 8-10 days.
When they first sprout, they came with two leaves which are narrow and pointed. These first two leaves are called cotyledons or simply "seed leaves"
8-10 days of planting

The other leaves that sprout after these ones are called "true leaves" and they take the form of regular pepper leaves only that they are smaller.

Transplanting

Unfortunately, before transplanting, few seedlings withered and died due to water logged in the bowl. There was nobody at home on the day of heavy rain to take the bowl away from direct drops of water.

after few days of transplanting to a sand filled bag

After a few weeks(i.e 15 days after germination), I transplanted my pepper seedlings into a sack that I have filled with loamy soil.
I continued to water and nourish my pepper with banana 🍌 peels as it's organic manure.

I am hoping to share the continuous progress of these two surviving pepper plants with you in due course.

My invitation goes to the following friends to participate in the contest;
@ntyprince, @okere-blessing and @etette.

© All images are from @rubee2as1 except otherwise indicated