|
Black Pepper Piper nigrum |
|
|
|
Plant Characteristics |
|
Fruit Characteristics |
|
Height |
Vine up to 30 feet |
|
Flower |
Bears spikes of small white
flowers |
|
Spacing |
3-30 feet |
|
Fruit |
Has round fruit that turnred
when ripe |
|
Description |
Evergreen, woody
climber from India and Sri Lanka. |
|
Bloom
time |
Mid summer |
|
Leaves |
Has glossy,
dark green, veined, heart shaped leaves |
|
Comments |
|
|
|
|
Culture |
|
Soil |
Likes well drained fertile
soil. Water regularly. Do not overwater. Loves high humidity. |
|
Light |
Full sun to light shade |
|
Indoor
|
Can be grown indoors. If
grown in greenhouse keep above 50F and it may bear fruit. |
|
Zone |
10a-11 Very frost tender
keep above 40F. Hardy to 32F |
|
Comments |
Pepper can be grown in a wide range of soils but
it thrives well on red laterite soils. Lands with a sloping terrain and light textured soils are ideal for pepper cultivation
because they permit easy percolation of excess water. Pepper being a plant of humid tropics, it requires adequate rainfall
and humidity. The required temperature range lies between 50F and 100F. An annual rainfall of 50 80 is ideal and a humidity
of 80%. |
|
|
|
Processing
Allow unblemished fruit
to ripen; clean and dry seeds. The spikes are collected in bags or baskets and dried in the sun on mats or on the ground.
The black pepper is the unripe, dried fruit of the pepper plant. White pepper consists of the ripened fruits from which the
pulpy pericarp has been removed. Green pepper is early-harvested pepper, far from ripening, that is processed in a way to
exclude fermentation. This is achieved by pickling the freshly harvested pepper corns in salt or vinegar.
The same kind of pickling
procedure can also be applied to ripe pepper fruits; in that case, their color is retained, and one arrives at red pepper.
It combines the spicy, mature flavor of black pepper with the fresh notes of green pepper. Dried red peppercorns must not
be confused with pink pepper, which stems from an entirely different plant (Brazilian pepper) and has little peppery quality.
