This weekend, in addition to the kitchen, we are going to DIY and set our greenhouse and start to cultivate chili peppers also this year 😉 .
As you may remember from the previous post, in which we described the varieties we grew last summer, we love chilli and we love having different species to choose the one that best suits a particular dish. In Valle d’Aosta we grew them outdoors only during summer months, more or less from May to late September, but this period is not sufficient for full maturation of some species of chili 🙁 . Hence the need to cultivate them inside, starting in this period we will have some nice plants ready to be transplanted around mid-May… Thus gaining precious months of time, which will allow us to collect the peppers in July and August: the best months because the fruits are more tasty and spicy, thanks to the abundance of sun!
The seeds of peppers germinate well at temperatures approaching 30 C. To maintain this temperature, we built a small greenhouse. The wooden structure is lined with polystyrene, to isolate it, and aluminum, not to disperse the light. At the top there are the neon lights that are similar to sunlight; on the bottom, hidden in the sand, there is a heating cable that allows the required temperature. Finishing touches include two fans for air exchange with the outside, not to let the plants without carbon dioxide).
Once set the greenhouse, we started the seed treatments: 24h in a bath of salted water to speed germination; followed by 12h in chamomile tea, to avoid the formation of mold. The seeds were then gently placed into a box of sand and gel balls, which keep the seeds moist. Now we just have to wait a few days and we will see the first sprout 😉 .
We planted 10 species of pepper; some already tasted last year, as habanero chocolate, others are new and never tasted before. We’ll describe them in future posts.
If you also want to cultivate chiles, we recommend to have a look at the site peperonciniamoci.it, their forums and their guides have been fundamental to the success of a good cultivation.