PEPPERS
Like the eggplant require much heat in starting and should be given the warmest position in the hotbed—about the central sash, towards the front—so that they may not be overtopped by other, taller growing plants, for the pepper grows but slowly for the first few weeks of its existence.
The seed germinates slowly, taking from two to three weeks to appear; it may be sown thinly in drills, or broadcasted, covering sufficiently to conceal the seed and placing paper over the plot to prevent drying out. If started in flats in the house the plants may be transplanted into other flats when they have made one pair of true leaves; if not crowded in the hotbed they may be allowed to remain where they are or be transplanted into fresh rows, setting them a couple of inches apart each way.
They should not be planted out in the open ground until the soil and nights are warm as a check at this time will mean late fruiting and failure to ripen. Make the rows from twenty-four to thirty inches apart and set the plants eighteen inches apart in the row. Before planting spade a forkful of old manure or henhouse droppings into each hill for the pepper is a heavy feeder and requires good soil.
Protect the plants on cold nights if frost threatens and keep the ground well cultivated.
If the peppers are to be grown in the north such varieties as mature their fruits early should be selected. Crimson Giant is about the earliest; the plants are large and bear abundantly. The Upright New Sweet Pepper is also early, a good bearer and its habit of fruiting—holding the fruit erect instead of drooping—makes it very easy to gather; it is a medium-size pepper, just right for stuffing for mangoes and a desirable size to pickle for winter use in salads; if the top and bottom are removed it leaves a broad ring which is very lovely when filled with salad and garnished with parsley and well-blanched endive; the parts removed may be used as pickles or added to mixed or chopped pickles.
Magnum Dulce is an excellent sort for baking when stuffed with meat or force-meat or fried. Pimento is a new salad pepper very attractive in shape and form but does not do so well in the north as some of the older sorts; however, some seasons it can be successfully grown and a few plants set out will be well worth taking pains with. In the warmer sections and in favorable seasons at the north one can grow the fiery Tabasco Pepper from which the Tabasco sauce of commerce is made and so prepare one's supply of this expensive relish; it requires early planting and great attention to heat and sunshine to succeed.
The little Celestial Peppers are so very attractive when grown in pots that florists offer them along with other greenhouse stuff; they can just as well be grown in one's own hotbed or house and make welcome gifts to the young housekeeper or the city dweller who does not have the advantage of a country garden to furnish condiments and relishes. The little plants can be grown in pots from the start or small plants in the garden can be taken up and potted and will hold their tiny scarlet fruit all winter, producing more as the first is removed. For the sunny kitchen or dining room window nothing is prettier or more ornamental than a window box filled with these little red peppers, parsley and endive.
Cayenne peppers can be grown for the making of pepper vinegar; the seeds are used for this, being separated from the husk when dry and put into quart bottles filled with white wine vinegar; in a few weeks the vinegar will be ready for use. The hulls may be saved and put in cans of mixed pickles, a few hulls adding a piquant hotness; they may also be added to pickled onions and to cauliflower.
As peppers are extremely sensitive to frost every effort should be made to bring them along rapidly so that they may mature their fruit in season; light application of nitrate will assist and the use of poultry droppings in preparing the bed will be of use; in dry weather a wetting with water from the laundry will do much good. If it is possible to pipe or carry water with hose to the garden a shallow trench may be made along the pepper rows and water turned in as required. Protecting with papers or other covering on frosty nights may save a crop but the covering should not rest on the plants as the frost will likely strike through; hay or corn fodder would be likely to give better protection.