Peppers
Jalapeno
Pick green or red; spring and fall plants.
- Indoors
- 6 to 8 wk (Jan, again May)
- Outside
- Mid Mar to mid Apr, again Jul 1-25
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Deep weekly soak; even water, or pods rot at the tip
- Harvest
- Jun, then Oct to Nov
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, wetting the soil several inches down, in the early morning, and kept even: water swings show up as blossom end rot on the pods. A slightly lean run late in the season concentrates the heat.
- Sow
- 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, cut the weaker at the soil line when true leaves show. Start the spring bench in January and a second bench in May for the fall bed.
- Start inside
- Heat mat at 80 to 90F sprouts them in a week to two; a January room is too cold to skip it. Under the lights 14 to 16 hours. Out from mid-March to mid-April once soil hits 65F; the fall bench transplants July 1 to 25.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost worked in at planting carries the bed; side-dress once at fruit set, then ease off the nitrogen. Hold all feeding through the July-August heat, and feed the fall bed lightly once set resumes.
- Ready
- Pick firm and green at full size, or let them turn red and a little sweeter on the plant. Cut with shears; the branches are brittle. The fall crop sets from mid-September and carries to frost.
- Trouble
- Flowers drop in a heat wave: normal through the gap, they set again once nights cool. Aphids curling the new leaves: a hard water spray. Brown spots spreading on leaves and pods: bacterial leaf spot, strip affected leaves and keep water off the foliage.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily through the summer, twice a day in a heat wave, water until it runs from the drainage holes; give the bag afternoon shade or 30 to 50 percent shade cloth.
- Feed
- Dilute liquid feed on the watering calendar, leached weekly with plain water; alkaline tap water builds salts fast. Hold feed when days top 90F.
- Sow
- One plant per 5 gallon bag at the minimum; a bigger bag is kinder in Texas heat.
The garden's workhorse heat, double-cropped in Killeen: green pods off the spring plants in June, then a July-planted fall crop that picks into November.
Growing
Peppers want soil of at least 65F at set-out, so spring transplants go in from mid-March to mid-April off the January heat-mat bench. The trick here is a plant loaded with fruit before mid-June: nights averaging above 75F and days above 90F stop fruit set, and the plant holds what it has through summer. For the fall, a May-started bench transplants July 1 to 25, and set resumes as September's nights cool. Read corking, the tan stretch marks, as a pod at full size, not a flaw.
Varieties
The state sheet carries plain Jalapeno on its short Texas hot list, and names one strain besides: TAM Mild Jalapeno, a mild one, if heat is a concern. Beyond those, pick seed on days to maturity and heat rating.
In the kitchen
Green for pico de gallo, roasted into cooked salsa, or quick-pickled escabeche with carrot and onion. The red ones are hotter and sweeter; smoked low and slow until leathery, they are chipotles.