Local Pepper Seeds (Rodo| Bawa| Sombo)

How To Start Pepper Farming: Step By Step Guide

1). Soil Requirement:

Pepper thrives well in a warm climate. It requires well-drained silt or clay loam and favourable climatic condition.

Pepper grows well on highly nutritious soil with optimum soil moisture. It doesn’t also thrive in waterlogged and alkaline soils.

2). Nursery Preparation:

The soil used for raising nursery should be fertile, well-drained and free of diseases and pests.

Make seedbeds with topsoil mixed with compost (30 x 45 x 8 cm) on nursery beds or trays and leave an upper space of about 20 cm for watering while using trays.

Beds should be about 1 meter long with an inter-row space of about 1 meter also.

3). Sowing:

Water the beds about 14 hours before sowing.

Next make drills of 5 to 10 cm apart across the bed and sow about 100 seeds per drill. Cover lightly, then thin the seedlings to one per 2.5 centimetres of drill 15 to 20 days after sowing.

Alternatively, holes can be made at 4 x 4 cm apart on the bed and 3–4 seeds dropped in each hole.

The seedlings are later reduced to one per hole.

Similarly, seeds can also be drilled or planted in specific spacing (4 cm x 4 cm) in the tray.

4). Disease And Insect Control:

The seedlings should be sprayed regularly with insecticides for the control of insects and diseases before they are transplanted.

5). Harvesting:

Peppers are usually harvested red or as it starts to turn red, except for bird peppers which can also be harvested green because it may be consumed green for some special delicacies. Harvesting can be done once or twice a week.