The color and shape of the plant's fruits are very different, regardless of the care provided. Decorative peppers have many varieties, and each of them gives the vegetable certain characteristics. The shape of the product can be elongated, round or oval, flattened or not.
Decorative peppers come in a wide variety of varieties and colors.
Description of the plant
The name of the ornamental pepper is capsicum. Caring for and growing peppers is carried out at home or in the open ground. The scope of application of the grown product is wide: food product, medicinal product. Decorative peppers have a pungent taste and belong to the nightshade family. Decorative peppers are used in preparing dishes, spices or medicinal infusions.
The place of origin is concentrated in America and Asia. The composition of nightshades includes many useful substances and vitamins. In Russia decorative pepper raised like indoor plant without the goal of obtaining edible fruits. Appearance The plant is beautiful and colorful, which explains its popularity and love among housewives.
Decorative pepper has several varieties:
- small;
- large;
- blunt-nosed;
- pointed;
- cylindrical;
- pear-shaped;
- short;
- long.
Pepper fruits can grow upward, or they can slope downward. Small nightshade grows at home in pots, or in on a large scale: in the greenhouse, and on the site. Although such cultivation is not very common. Indoor flower is still widespread due to its attractive appearance and long service life.
A beautiful appearance requires effort and time to get a houseplant at home.
The fruiting period of a houseplant at home is four years, if you provide it with proper care.
To obtain beautiful plant, the bush needs to be formed
Houseplant care
Care and cultivation of miracle peppers is carried out in a temperature regime that does not exceed twenty-five degrees. The room in which you grow peppers should be ventilated. The little nightshade miracle loves light and sunlight, for this reason the plant is often taken outside to allow it to sunbathe.
It is necessary to provide the plant with abundant, but not excessive watering. To keep the plant beautiful and healthy, it should be provided with additional light. Sufficient in autumn and spring temperature conditions is fifteen degrees if the plant is cared for in a bright room.
When the first shoots form on a flower, you need to pinch it. This is a mandatory measure for caring for nightshade. It prevents it from growing chaotically and forms a beautiful, healthy bush.
Pruning is also an important measure; it is carried out after the plant has finished flowering. Fertilizer is added to peppers one to two times a week.
IN winter period Over time, the flower does not need fertilizer; if additional lighting is used, the plant is fertilized once every four weeks.
If you replant a flower once a year, you can preserve the plant for a long period of time and provide it with a longer period of fruiting. If you regularly spray the plant, you can avoid falling leaves and fruits, which often occur due to lack of moisture.
To obtain peppers, the flowers must be pollinated independently.
Abundant fruiting is ensured through pollination, which you will have to do yourself. It bears fruit without this measure, but it helps increase the volume of the fruit.
Plant care is based on:
- Selection of planting material and its preparation for sowing.
- Soil cultivation.
- Sowing seeds.
- Growing and care.
- Watering, loosening the soil, fertilizing.
- Trimming and pinching.
Pepper is sowed by seeds and cuttings. Planting by cuttings is carried out in summer and winter. This is the most suitable time period for planting. Shoots are cut for cuttings. and planted in prepared soil.
Plant care is ensured properly if watering, lighting and fertilizer are provided regularly and in a timely manner. Pepper loves light, so it should often be exposed to sunlight.
If the plant is planted in a pot, it can be illuminated using lamps that will provide the plant with additional light. Fertilizers are added once a week or once a month. Depending on the climate.
Pepper has a complex of useful substances and a beautiful appearance, which pleases the breeder if he, in turn, has provided proper care. planting material. Ornamental chilies require little care through a consistent natural care process.
Housewives always try to rationally design kitchen space. This also applies to those located in this room.
It is advisable to choose one that is both beautiful and necessary.
The best option for the kitchen is decorative. It looks very aesthetically pleasing, especially when the fruits appear. These same fruits are used in cooking as a very hot seasoning.
In addition, in winter it will serve as a pleasant reminder of the warm green summer.
Botanical description
The plant, which is commonly called, does not belong to the pepper family. This culture belongs to the nightshade family and has the second name “capsicum”.
The culture is widespread on all continents. Can grow in open ground and in a flower pot in room conditions.
Decorative indoor pepper- a plant that can grow and bear fruit in an apartment for up to 4-5 years. Propagated by seeds and. Height - 20-55 cm. Branched crown. The leaves are sharp, long or elongated, oval, ovate. Color varies from light to dark green. It can bloom singly or in bunches; the flowers are often white. 
Did you know? Capsicum means "bag" in Latin. Apparently, peppers are named after the shape of the fruit.
The fruits may have different colour: yellow, orange, red, purple. Moreover, different colors of fruits can occur even if they appeared on the same plant, depending on ripening. Also, peppers are different in shape (with a sharp or blunt end, spherical, oval) and size (small, medium, large - maximum 5 cm). It all depends on the variety.
Flowering and fruiting are not separated in time. The bush can simultaneously contain flowers, unripe fruits, and ripe peppers. Fruits, as a rule, very abundantly.
The alkaloid capsaicin gives the fruits bitterness, pungency and spiciness.
Important! The stems and leaves of ornamental peppers are poisonous.
Popular types
Domestic species decorative set. They differ in crown, leaves, color and shape of fruits, fruiting time, care features, etc.
Annual
Annuals varieties are also called indoor paprika, vegetable pepper, sweet pepper (although some varieties are quite hot). They differ in that after shedding or picking the fruits, the plant may dry out. Not all yearlings face such a fate. In indoor conditions, some species can bear fruit for more than one year. 
The bushes are low, compact, 35-55 cm high. The fruits are varied in shape and color depending on the variety.
Common varieties:
- "Tepin";
- "Redskin";
- "Siberian Prince";
- "Cherry Bomb";
- "Golden Baby" and others.
Shrubby
Shrubs varieties are very well suited for indoor conditions: window sill, loggia, balcony, etc. This perennials. They grow successfully and bear fruit for 5-6 years.
The variety is interesting in shape, but its yield is average. You can only collect about 20 peppercorns in an apartment. “Lemon Lollipop” and “White Crystal” are grown more often; they are traditionally productive. 
The taste of pepper is sweetish, there is very little heat in it.
This is a fairly tall species. It grows up to 80 cm, so it is often placed in an apartment not on a windowsill, but on the floor on a loggia or balcony.
Chinese
Chinese variety is less common. This plant is up to 50 cm high, like other species. Its leaves are ovate, light green, slightly wrinkled. The flowers are white with a greenish tint.
The fruits are varied in shape, sometimes even taking the shape of a lantern. Chinese pepper probably has the hottest and hottest fruits.
The disadvantage is that this species has relatively slow growth. 
Common varieties:
- "Santa Lucia";
- "The Devil's Tongue"
- "Devil's Yellow"
pubescent
Pepper pubescent(or fluffy) is grown more in open ground because it is very tall (up to 3-4 m). Only certain varieties are suitable for growing in an apartment, for example, “Rokoto” (it is not so tall).
In this species, the entire bush is densely covered with pubescence. And not only stems and leaves, but even...
It has a pungent taste and is consumed raw. 
Best conditions for pepper
Regarding the capriciousness and unpretentiousness of pepper and caring for it at home, the opinions of lovers of ornamental fruit plants are divided. Some believe that caring for the crop is not difficult, others note that the plant is capricious and difficult to care for.
Important! During the flowering period, peppers need to be shaken periodically to increase yield.
Let's take a closer look at the conditions of detention and features of care.
Humidity and temperature
House pepper is a heat-loving plant. It will grow well in spring and summer at temperatures around 25°C. In winter, the temperature should be lower: 15-18°C will be normal for him. In addition, it loves differences in night and day temperatures, so in summer it is better to keep it on a loggia or balcony. 
Air humidity is required to be moderate. Pepper loves to swim (more on that later).
Lighting
When caring for decorative peppers in a pot, it is imperative to monitor the lighting. For good development and fruiting, the plant should be placed on a southern, southwestern or western windowsill.
The culture is very photophilous; in spring and autumn it needs up to 3-4 hours of open sunlight. Just not more than 4 hours, otherwise burns may appear on the fruits and leaves. In summer you need to shade it, because the sun is very active. If the lighting is not enough, then you need to use artificial lighting.
If there is a lack of lighting, it is sparse and has few leaves; besides, there will not be a good harvest. 
Growing substrate
For cultivation, a light neutral type is used. You can buy it ready-made in a specialized store, or you can make the mixture yourself.
For pepper, a mixture of turf soil, leaf humus and sand in a ratio of 2:2:1 is suitable.
Did you know? In botany, capsicum fruits are defined as berries.
Planting seeds and cuttings
Most often the plant is grown from seeds, but cuttings are also possible.
Growing from seeds
To grow peppers from seeds, you need to purchase seeds, prepare a container and soil, plant the seeds, wait for them to sprout and provide them with proper care.
Peppers should be planted in February.
There are two approaches to growing peppers from seeds. They differ in that one uses a seedless and non-transplanting method, while the second uses growing seedlings and subsequent transplanting.
1st method:
- Indoor peppers are not grown as seedlings and are not transplanted from one pot to another as they grow. You immediately need to select a container in which to grow mature plant. Its volume should be 4-6 liters.
- Before planting seeds in a pot, add soil, ensuring good soil.
- Soak the seeds for 1 hour in water and place in a damp cloth for a day.
- Plant the seeds and cover them with 2-4 mm of soil. Moisten well with a spray bottle and cover with film until germination.
- Be sure to place the pot in a warm place. After germination, with the appearance of four leaves, pinch to form a crown.
2nd method:
- Prepare a small container, about 200 ml, for planting seeds.
- Make drainage and pour earthen mixture into the pot. Having placed the prepared seeds, cover them with soil to a depth of 2-4 mm.
- To prepare the seeds, they must be soaked in water for 1 hour and left in damp gauze for one day.
- Moisten the soil well, cover with cling film and place in a warm place for germination.
- Pepper shoots appear in 2-3 weeks.
- With the appearance of two pairs of leaves, the pepper requires replanting, picking and pinching.
- Capacity for further cultivation should be about 4-6 liters, with good drainage.
- A sprout with a large earthen lump is planted into it by transshipment and watered abundantly.
- The top is pinched.
More often they choose the second method, but, as practice has shown, the first is no worse. Whatever method of seed germination - 1st or 2nd - you choose, then caring for the pepper is the same.
How to propagate a plant from cuttings
Peppers can be propagated by cuttings in spring and summer. To do this they cut side shoots and place them in a container with a sand-earth mixture for rooting.
Water generously at first, then as the soil dries.
The container must have good drainage. This is necessary both for the cutting and for the rooted plant, because it will continue to grow here. There is no need to replant a rooted cutting.
In order for the cutting to take root faster, it must be pinched. 
Cultivation care
Caring for the “Ogonyok” pepper that grows on your windowsill is special.
Before this, we did not mention the Ogonyok variety. But the fact is that ordinary housewives call any variety of indoor decorative pepper that way.
How to water
Peppers should be watered generously in spring and summer as the soil dries out. In addition, be sure to “bathe” the plant, spraying it 1-2 times a week, on hot days - every other day.
Watering should be done with water at room temperature.
Important! Plants placed on window sills with radiators under them need more frequent watering.
In autumn, reduce, in winter - minimize, water moderately.
Homeland of the plant. South and Central America.
Description.The genus consists of 700 annual or perennial shrubs with erect, branched stems that become lignified with age and are covered with light brown bark. The leaves of decorative pepper or capsicum are oval or lanceolate, simple, dark green, up to 10 cm long. During the summer, small, white, star-shaped, single flowers appear on the tips of the shoots, in the axils of the leaves. The plant acquires its main attractiveness with the appearance of fruits - yellow, orange or red. At the same time, the plant may contain buds, flowers and ripened fruits. The variegated forms of pepper look very attractive.
Height. Decorative indoor pepper, when grown indoors, this plant reaches a height of 30 - 60 cm.
Decorative pepper in a pot care
Temperature conditions . In spring and summer, the temperature is close to room temperature - from 18 to 22 ° C. If you lower the temperature during the fruiting period to 16 ° C, the pepper will slow down its development and remain attractive longer. During the rest period, the temperature should be 13 - 16 ° C, but not lower than this range.
Decorative pepper at home - lighting. Abundant flowering and, accordingly, fruiting depends on the amount sunlight. Plants should be kept in a place where they will receive direct sunlight in the morning and evening; shade from the sun during hot daylight hours in spring and summer. In autumn and winter, maximum possible lighting.
Growing ornamental peppers.Homemade decorative peppers are undemanding and at the same time very decorative. In the warm season, you can take the plant outside under protection from direct sun, strong wind and rain. The stems of young peppers are regularly pinched to produce a denser, branching plant. Using pruning, you can give the plant the desired shape, but modern varieties remain compact even without pruning.
Substrate.Nutritious soil with a high content of organic matter in the form of peat, leaf humus and rotted manure. The substrate must have good drainage - add coarse river sand to the mixture.
How to fertilize ornamental peppers. From spring to autumn, feed with fertilizers specially designed for peppers or tomatoes - they contain an increased amount of phosphorus. During the dormant period, do not feed. Purpose.Decorative hot pepper is a very impressive indoor plant that decorates itself with white flowers, green, yellow, orange, red and even black fruits. Flowering time. Summer. Air humidity. Tolerates the atmosphere well residential premises. Spray plants in the morning only if the air becomes too dry. Provide the plant with a well-ventilated area with good air circulation. Soil moisture. Watering should be regular and abundant during the period of active growth. Excess moisture accumulated in the pan after watering should be removed after a few minutes. The soil should be evenly moist throughout the growing season. In autumn, watering is reduced and in the winter months the soil is dried to half its depth. Transfer. If necessary, replanting is carried out in the spring, before flowering, approximately every 2 years. Reproduction. It reproduces successfully using seeds sown in the spring. The seedlings are placed in a warm place with a temperature of about 20 ° C under a cover made of a transparent plastic cap. Germination occurs within 2 months. Sometimes propagated using stem cuttings.
Hot pepper - unpretentious plant, beautiful and useful, which can be grown in an apartment or in open ground, transplanted into a flower pot for the winter. The main decoration of hot pepper is its fruit. Some types of peppers bear fruit, changing the color of the fruit from green, yellow and purple to red, which is a sign of ripe fruit.
Peppers differ from each other not only in color, but also in the shape of the fruit: elongated, round, pumpkin-shaped, etc.
Now a little about my collection of peppers, which grow successfully both in the apartment and in the open ground. Since September they have all been transplanted to flower pots and please their unique beauty During a long time.
- Pepper Rainbow. A spectacular, chic pepper: round, small, with a slightly elongated “nose”, the peppers are full of different colors as they ripen.
- Pepper Quintisho. Wild variety. A very rare variety. A small shrub: dark, leathery leaves, small flowers, vertically protruding yellow fruits. The taste is good, the spiciness is average. When ripe, the pepper bush is strewn with bright yellow lanterns sticking up.
- Pepper Ripe cherry. An original, chic pepper, reminiscent of ripe cherries.
- Tabasco pepper. The classic variety from which the famous sauce is made. Orange-red fruits up to 5 cm long, sticking up, collected in bunches. This pepper makes a good sauce due to its soft and juicy flesh.
- Pepper Bell. Ripe pepper fruits, reminiscent of a bell flower, are colored red when they reach biological ripeness. The pepper in the “petals” tastes almost sweet, but towards the core it tastes bitter. Two in one. Perfect option for meat dishes.
- Mushroom Yellow Pepper. A very interesting and rare variety with yellow-orange fruits unusual shape, resembling a mushroom, approximately 4–5 cm in diameter. Great for stuffing. Blooms and bears fruit profusely.
- Pepper Zest Baggio. The fruits are dark brown in color and have a slight raisin aroma. Not a single Mexican cook can do without this delicacy. Dried peppers provide a flavor base for various sauces in Mexican cuisine. It is used mainly in dried form and is valued for its “smoked” flavor.
- Pepper Peter's Finger. Rare and productive variety! A yellow-fruited variety that resembles male nature. The fruits are about 10 cm long.
- Saint Lucia pepper. Excellent variety. Slightly pungent, with excellent taste, the fruits are medium-sized, the size of large cherries. Appearance: like a peeled orange, sliced. The variety is productive.
- Pepper Aji Brazilian pumpkin. A variety of stunning beauty. The plant is covered with small glossy “pumpkins”, quite sharp and thick-walled. The fruit size is about 3 cm in diameter. Ripe fruits have a beautiful “tomato” scarlet color.
- Pepper Medusa Gorgon. This variety of pepper is interesting because of the location and shape of the fruits on the bush, reminiscent of the tentacles of a jellyfish. A compact bush, peppercorns have a pungent taste and are used in culinary dishes and preparations. Ripe fruits are bright red.
- Pepper Variegated Troll. Spreading, abundantly fruiting, with surprisingly variegated leaves.
- Pepper Black Pearl. The world's first black-leafed chic pepper. The leaves are green at first, later black and shiny. The fruits are shaped like slightly elongated peas, also black. When ripe, they acquire a dark red color.
- Pepper Purple Bullet. Dark green leaves, purple fruits, when ripe, they turn red, and during this period the bush with peppers becomes unusually beautiful.
- Pepper Salute. The shortest pepper (15 cm in height) with yellow-orange peppers sticking up. Relative to the bush, the peppers are quite large, which gives the bush a unique look.
- PepperMini Mini from Brazil. An extremely rare variety. The seeds were originally collected in Brazil, in wildlife. Very sharp fruits about the size of two match heads sticking up and small leaves, which gives the bush some airiness and lightness. The fruit pulp is juicy and spreadable.
- Pepper Tepin. Wild small-fruited pepper with fruits with explosive pungency. “Cowboy berry”, these fruits were eaten by cowboys while on duty so as not to fall asleep. The leaves are small, centimeter fruits are red. This variety, like Mini, is irresistible on window sills.
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Indoor peppers are propagated by seeds, which must first be soaked in water for better germination. Seeds for planting should be taken from ripened fruits. The soil for planting should be loose and well filled with humus. You can sow pepper seeds at any time of the year. Not only in spring, but even in autumn, before winter. The seedlings do not stretch out due to poor lighting, they only freeze, developing roots, and with increasing daylight hours they readily begin to grow. The main thing when planting before winter: do not stimulate the growth of pepper, do not feed it additionally. You need to water it enough so that it just doesn’t dry out. Do not overdry the soil!
Subsequently, when the sprouts of your indoor pepper reach 5 cm in height, it is best to plant them in separate pots, otherwise the plants will be very weak and will not be able to bear fruit well. In the future, replant the peppers into pots of the required size or into the ground using the transshipment method, so as not to damage the roots.
Potted pepper is very economical. When salting and pickling vegetables, one or two pods of indoor pepper are enough for three liter jar marinade or pickles. The number of peppers depends on the severity of each type.
Peppers require plenty of light and several hours of morning sun each day. The optimal temperature for it is from 10°C to 21°C.
During the growth period, water it abundantly, as the soil in the pot dries out, if the apartment is hot - every day. But do not let the soil dry out, especially if the plant is in bright sun. When the fruits begin to set, you need to water more often. During the growing season, feed the peppers with liquid once a week. mineral fertilizer. Stop fertilizing after the fruit appears.
It is advisable to spray indoor peppers with a spray bottle from a distance of 15 cm at least once a week. Spraying promotes fruit set.
In the fall, when the fruiting period ends, the plants are cut back by 1/3, while watering is reduced, but again, not allowing the soil in the pots to dry out. And they leave the plants in this state until spring, and in the spring they are placed closer to the light, fed heavily, and then the pepper begins to bloom and bear fruit again. If you create good conditions for the growth and development of plants in winter, then your pepper will delight you throughout the year. According to available data, hot peppers can bear fruit in one place for 5 years.
Transplanted from open ground the pepper bush needs to be fed in the fall (including those peppers that grew exclusively in a pot), and in the winter better feeding stop. Watering is moderate, as needed. An exception is that if the apartment is hot and the pepper is on the windowsill, under which there is a radiator, then watering should be increased, not forgetting to loosen the soil. Pepper is a moisture-loving plant.
Feeding should begin in mid-January, with increasing daylight hours and plant activity. On glazed balconies and loggia growing peppers can be transferred as early as mid-May. During the dormant period, if necessary, you can trim the crown, making it compact, in the shape of a ball, which will give the bush a more decorative appearance in the future.
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As spring approaches, plants require nitrogen. And because The fruits are eaten; you can sow mustard seeds sparsely in a pot of pepper. Then carefully “dig up” the grown mustard; it will loosen the soil in the pot and fill it with the necessary nitrogen, which is necessary for plant growth. Once every two weeks, fertilizing is done with fertilizers containing more phosphorus than nitrogen, which promotes flowering and fruit set. It will not be superfluous wood ash. Pepper is also responsive to organic feeding. You should feed only after good watering, so as not to burn the roots with fertilizers.
Indoor pepper, in addition to its beauty and use in cooking, also performs a cleansing and bactericidal function: it has been noted that where indoor pepper grows, many pathogenic microbes die.
Dried pepper fruits (without seeds) can be ground through a meat grinder and you will get a wonderful natural seasoning. Hot peppers have been found to lower blood pressure. The substance capsoicin, which gives pepper its spiciness, has a beneficial effect on blood vessels - it activates the nerve endings of their inner walls. For example, in the southwestern regions of China, where the population constantly consumes hot peppers, there are 20% fewer hypertensive patients than in the northeastern regions, where it is not included in the diet. Addition hot pepper in food helps burn fat. Pepper tinctures are rubbed in for rheumatism; they also stimulate appetite and promote digestion, unless there are contraindications!
Those who decide to grow peppers in a pot should know that peppers will help fight pests (aphids, mites). Capsoicin contained in peppers - good remedy from such unwanted “guests”. Pass the hot pepper fruits through a meat grinder, pour warm water 1:10 for a day. After straining, add 1 tsp per 1 liter of water. grated soap and spray the plant three times, every 5 days.
Indoor peppers are especially beautiful in winter, when their green leaves contrast with the red and yellow fruits against the backdrop of the winter landscape outside the window.
Indoor pepper is a unique plant! Plant it - you won’t regret it!
“Ural Gardener” No. 5 – 2013