How to Grow Pepper for High Yields? A Detailed Guide to Flowering and Fruiting Times
Pepper is an edible and medicinal woody climbing vine, grown extensively in the southern regions of China, with excellent prospects and returns.So how do you grow pepper well? How long until flowering, fruiting and high yields?
I. Basic Information About Pepper
1. Distribution of Pepper Origins
Pepper is native to Southeast Asia and is also known as white pepper, black pepper, meilüzhi, pilei and so on. It grows in tropical regions with an annual rainfall of 2500 mm and is currently cultivated in Taiwan, China, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, among other provinces and regions of China.
2. The Value of Pepper
The active compounds in pepper have the effect of removing fishy odors, cutting through greasiness, aiding digestion and stimulating appetite. They also have a certain preservative and antibacterial effect and can neutralize the toxins of fish, shrimp and meat, so pepper is often used in cooking dishes such as organ meats and seafood. Medicinally, pepper has the effects of warming the middle, directing qi downward, dispelling phlegm and removing toxins, and provides a certain auxiliary effect in treating cold-phlegm food stagnation, cold pain in the epigastrium and abdomen, nausea, vomiting of clear fluids, diarrhea, cold dysentery, abnormal vaginal discharge in women and epilepsy.
3. The Price of Pepper
Currently, the price of edible white pepper of ordinary grade is 50-55 yuan/jin, imported pepper is 45-50 yuan/jin, and black pepper of ordinary grade is 28-35 yuan/jin. In the Yulin market, medicinal 6-liang black pepper is priced at 17-18 yuan/kg, while in the Bozhou market, Hainan black pepper of ordinary grade is 18-19 yuan/kg and white pepper of ordinary grade is 33-35 yuan/kg.
II. How Do You Grow Pepper Well?
Growing pepper is actually not very difficult. Generally speaking, once you master the following points, achieving high yields is relatively easy.
1. Use excellent pepper cuttings for planting. Such plants grow fast, fruit early and live long. Then plant them on gentle slopes, well-drained flat land and soil with good permeability, and set up a drainage system to handle drainage during periods of heavy rain.
2. Pepper is best planted in spring and autumn, preferably on cloudy days or in the afternoon on sunny days. Do not plant when soil moisture is too high. After planting, water promptly to ensure the survival rate of the pepper seedlings. The planting density should be determined according to the actual conditions of the pepper plantation.
3. When fertilizing young pepper, focus on water-soluble fertilizer rich in nitrogen, combined with organic fertilizer and a small amount of chemical fertilizer. It is best to apply frequently and lightly, with more applications during the peak growing season. During the normal growing period of pepper, apply water-soluble fertilizer once every 20-30 days. In winter, quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer is generally not suitable. In addition, for pepper trees in the fruiting stage, fertilize 4-5 times per fruiting cycle.
4. Pepper trees generally should retain 6-8 vines and be pruned 4-5 times. Excess buds and vines should be removed promptly, and overly dense, old, weak and diseased branches should be cut away in time. When new vines grow 3-4 nodes, tie the vines once every 10-15 days. In addition, medium and small pepper plants must have their flowers removed; in low-humidity areas, retain spring and summer flowers and remove all others.
III. How Long Until Pepper Flowers, Fruits and Reaches High Yield?
1. Pepper cultivation in China generally uses excellent cuttings for planting, or high-quality seedlings are purchased directly for planting, so plants typically flower and bear fruit 2-3 years after planting. Thereafter, June to October each year is its flowering period, and it can also produce red ripe fruits.
2. Pepper generally enters the high-yield period 5-6 years after planting. The average yield per mu is 100-150 kg, and a well-managed pepper plantation can produce 250-300 kg/mu. So calculated at a market price of 40 yuan/kg, the output value per mu is more than 4000 yuan.
The above is all the information about pepper cultivation. Although current pepper sales volumes and market prospects are considerable, growers should still invest rationally and analyze the market well before deciding to expand planting.