How to Grow Hot Peppers & Make Super Fresh Salsa
Growing your own hot peppers is a fun summer project. Whether you want to impress your family with your signature super-hot salsa or prefer a milder version, growing your own peppers makes the recipe way more flavourful. We’ve got a nice, long growing season here in Powell River, so we can grow quite a few varieties of hot peppers.
Growing Hot Peppers
Hot peppers aren’t too difficult to grow, but they do have some particular needs in order to produce well. If you can create the environment they like, and give them consistent care, they’ll deliver with beautiful peppers later in the summer.
Light Needs
Peppers need lots of sunshine, at least 6 hours a day. They’ll do best in a south-facing location, and if you have a greenhouse, even better. Keep an eye on the temperatures, though; they’ll grow best with daytime temperatures from 20-28ºC. If it gets much hotter then that, make sure they have excellent ventilation.
Fertilizer & Watering
Peppers use a ton of nutrients, and they also need quite a bit of calcium. You’ll want to add bonemeal when you transplant peppers. For best results, fertilize your peppers every other week. Choose a fertilizer that has a slightly lower nitrogen number, the first number in the NPK formula. Too much nitrogen will make your plant produce lots of foliage and very few peppers!
Keep the soil around your pepper plants moist, but not wet. Running you soaker hose under a layer of mulch makes watering easy and helps retain moisture in the soil. If your peppers are in pots, make sure you don’t let the soil dry out, they need consistent moisture.
Pepper Support
Peppers do need support to help them stay upright when they get larger. A tomato cage or a few bamboo stakes should do the trick.
Pepper Pests
Peppers can be prone to infestations of aphids, white flys, tomato hornworms, slugs, snails, pepper maggots, spider mites, and thrips. Keep a keen eye on your plants and check the undersides of leaves regularly. If you spot evidence of pests, tackle the problem as soon as possible. Neem oil or insecticidal soap will usually handle the problem. For pests like slugs, snails, and hornworms, picking them off by hand is likely your best bet.
Harvesting Hot Peppers
Your peppers are ready when they’ve reached their mature colour. They should pop off the vine quite easily if you angle the fruit upward. The most important part of harvesting and handling hot peppers is, naturally, to wear gloves! Don’t get that capsaicin on your hands and then anywhere near your face—ouch!
Hot Tip: Save some seeds from your favourite peppers to grow again next year!
Super Fresh No-Cook Salsa
This salsa is fast to whip up and doesn’t require any cooking. It’s super refreshing on those hot summer days, and it keeps well for up to a week in the fridge. You can play around with this salsa recipe and experiment with different types or amounts of veggies to find a flavour mix that you love.
Ingredients
12 Roma tomatoes (drain off seeds and excess juice)
1 large yellow or white onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
3-4 hot peppers with seeds & veins removed (Jalapenos, Serranos, or any variety you’re growing)
2 red bell peppers
1 green bell pepper
1 bunch cilantro (you can swap parsley in if you don’t like cilantro)
2 carrots, chopped fine (adds a nice crunch)
Juice of 1 lime (adds a refreshing citrus flavour, and can tame the spiciness a bit if it ends up a bit too hot)
Salt & pepper to taste
If you like your salsa chunky, you can chop the ingredients by hand and combine them in a bowl. If you like a finer-textured salsa, add your ingredients into your food processor and blend until you reach the desired texture. The flavours are even better the next day!
Serve salsa with chips, put it in your tacos, or use it as salad dressing, and enjoy!