THE CHINESE HERB GARDEN - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 134

Transplanting outdoors. As soon as the seedlings are reasonably large and sturdy,
harden off to prepare them for transplanting outside. In the ground, space them 18 to 24
inches apart in rows 24 to 36 inches apart. Before putting the plants in place, dig a hole
for each one 6 inches deeper than the plants will be set. Fill with compost plus a half
cup of balanced fertilizer. Then fill the hole with regular garden soil.
Growing needs. Keep well watered. Fertilize when the blossoms first appear and when
peppers are about an inch long. They respond well to compost and a side-dressing of
5-10-10. You may find you need to add extra nitrogen occasionally, but if you overfer-
tilize, especially with too much nitrogen, you'll get beautiful foliage but little fruit.
How to Harvest
You can pick hot peppers at almost any stage of their growth. Their color indicates their
age; for most varieties yellow or green is early, orange is getting mature, red is mature.
For drying, allow peppers to reach maturity. Once they reach maturity, pick them and
the plants will continue to bear fruit for months.
CAUTION!
Don't rub your eyes before washing your hands when you have handled hot peppers; the capsicum, a
volatile oil that makes them “hot,” can irritate tender tissue. Cutting hot peppers may irritate skin; if your
skin is sensitive, wear rubber gloves.
Varieties
Most hot peppers turn red, though some, like 'Hungarian Wax', start out bright yellow
rather than green. You can make your own hot pepper sauce with the tabasco pepper
( Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco ); the jalapeño, one of the hottest, will bring tears to
your eyes. All hot varieties are delicious and only experience will enable you to differ-
entiate among them. You can grow peppers that are hot or hotter, so try several varieties
and then settle down to the ones that suit you best.
You'll find at least one variety listed in almost every catalog, except the ones that
offer only Asian seeds. Look through several to get a wider selection. The smaller vari-
eties are the ones grown in China and are the most decorative to dry.
Varieties to look for: Chi-Chien, Hybrid Golden Hot, Goat Horn.