To deal with the increasingly high price of chili in the market, you can start growing your chili in your yard, or pots and polybags.
Planting and caring for chili is easy and difficult, but what's wrong with trying, right?
- Prepare the seedling media Before planting it, prepare the media for sowing chili seeds first. The recommended media for seeding is a mixture of soil, manure or compost, and burnt husks in a ratio of 3:2:1.
- Prepare the seeds For seeds, you can use chilies that have good quality, with full, solid, and ripe fruit. Before sowing, soak the seeds in lukewarm water, about 45-50 degrees Celsius for an hour. Select seeds that settle to the bottom. This method is also used to accelerate seed growth. Meanwhile, so that plants are protected from fungal attacks, seeds should also be soaked in a solution of Previcur N fungicide at a dose of 1-2 cc per liter of water for one time. After that, the seeds are drained and air-dried on newsprint so that they do not stick to hands during the seeding process.
- Seeding Seeds are sown one by one in a seedling container that has been filled with seedling media and covered with fine seedling media using a sieve. To retain moisture, the nursery is covered with plastic or burlap sacks or banana leaves. During the seeding process, do watering with a spray system so that the seeds are not exposed to too much water. After 5-7 days, when the seeds start to germinate, open the nursery cover and immediately dry in the sun with a barrier such as a parent, or UV-resistant plastic. After 20-30 days or 4-5 leaves, the seedlings can be transferred into large pots or polybags.
- Planting and planting media For those of you who use pots or polybags, you can mix soil and manure in a ratio of 1:1. If the soil is too dense, you can add roasted husks with a ratio of soil, manure, or compost and burnt husks, 3:2:1. The recommended size of a large pot or polybag is 40 x 50 cm. Planting or transferring seeds from small polybags to large polybags should be done in the afternoon so that the seedlings have sufficient time to adapt at night. The seeds that are planted are those that are 20-30 days old or have 4-5 leaves. Before the seeds are planted or transferred, first doused with water until the media is saturated. Next, the seeds are removed from the nursery carefully and planted in large pots/polybags. The media is kept from breaking.
- Maintenance Maintenance is one of the keys to success in growing cayenne pepper. Maintenance must be carried out in a disciplined manner, including watering, weeding, and fertilizing. Watering is done every day in the morning or evening if there is no rain. Weeding is done once every 2 weeks by removing weeds in and around pots or polybags. If the side shoots and some of the leaves have grown to a height of 15-25 cm from the soil surface, immediately pruned or glued. Pruning aims to avoid splashing water that sticks to the plant parts, the stems become sturdy and strong, the growth of the top of the plant is more perfect, and air circulation is better. The installation of stakes is carried out as early as possible using strong materials, such as wood, bamboo, or other materials. The stake will function as a plant buffer.
- Fertilization Chemical fertilizers are given after the plants are one month old. The fertilizer given is NPK. To make watering, each pot or polybag must be watered with a fertilizer solution of approximately 200 ml, once every 10 days. As additional fertilizer, rice washing water, meat or fish washing water, liquid fertilizer (animal urine), and vegetable fertilizers such as Titania leaves can also be given. First, filter the rice washing water or meat and fish washing water before using it. Meanwhile, the livestock urine used is fermented and is widely sold in the market.
- Pest control A serious challenge in chili cultivation is pest and disease attack or OPT. Pests that attack cayenne pepper include earthworms, armyworms, fruit caterpillars, whitefly, aphids, thrips, and mites. Diseases that attack a lot include a yellow virus, anthracnose fruit rot, fusarium wilt, bacterial wilt, leaf spot, and sprouting. Pest and disease control is carried out by applying the principles of integrated pest control (IPM), namely conducting healthy cultivation starting with the selection of resistant varieties, seeds that are free of pest attacks, seed treatment, seedling media sterilization, watering, land sanitation, and regular fertilization, and regular observations every morning and evening. If pests are found, mechanical control is immediately carried out, namely by taking pests and getting rid of them. Then sprayed with pesticides and Abati or biopesticides, namely natural pesticides such as citronella oil with a dose of 1-3 cc/liter of water added with a little detergent. Pesticides and other herbs are usually made from soursop leaves, mini leaves, yam leaves, spinach thorns, flower spikes, tobacco, and others.
- Harvesting and post-harvesting Cayenne pepper is harvested at the age of about 80-90 days after planting (DAT), depending on the variety and the height of the place where it is grown. Harvesting should be done in sunny weather. Cayenne pepper can be harvested once a week. If cultivation is done properly, cayenne pepper can produce up to two to three years.