The jalapeño pepper is a chili-type cultivar of the capsicum annuum species, which includes sweet bell, habanero, and cayenne peppers, among others.

On the Scoville scale, jalapeños are rated at 4,000. While many people believe the Jalapeño to be a “hot” pepper, its heat is really on the lesser side of the spectrum when compared to other, more potent peppers. Jalapeño peppers are often plucked when still green. The fruits will mature to red, orange, or yellow if left on the plant.

In this article, I’ll explain how Jalapeño peppers grow and how they are different from other pepper varieties.

Germination

Seed germination is the first step of the pepper plant’s life cycle. Jalapeño pepper plants, like other pepper cultivars, should be started indoors six to eight weeks before your area’s last frost date. Growing jalapeños from seed require a temperature range of 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. You may use a seedling heat mat to provide this heated atmosphere.

Jalapeño pepper seed germination is sluggish. The seeds might take two to three weeks to grow.

Sprouting

After 1 to 2 weeks, the seeds will develop little white sprouts. The sprouts will show that the seeds were planted correctly and at the correct temperature.

First true leaves

The first leaves will emerge from the seeds 4 to 5 weeks after sowing. These help assess the growth progress of the seedling.

Third true leaves

The plant will grow a second set of leaves, known as the third true leaves. This means the plant is ready to be transplanted. Before taking the plant outdoors, slowly move it to a window to harden it up.

Vegetation Growth

Plants must manufacture their own sustenance to complete the flowering stage of development. This process is called photosynthesis. The photosynthetic process begins as soon as the leaves sprout.

You may relocate your jalapeño plants outdoors when they have hardened off and there is no danger of frost anymore. Ideally, the temperature will remain above 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

The plant above ground will grow quicker and faster as the root system of the jalapeño increases. Watering, fertilizing (if the soil does not contain fertilizer), and transplanting are all required at this time of fast development.

For good leaf growth, young jalapeño plants need a lot of nitrogen as they mature. A shortage of nitrogen may result in slowed growth or fading leaves that finally fall off.

This stage of the jalapeño plant is critical for producing robust crops. It needs enough light and nutrients to develop as effectively as possible.

Flowering

The flower is the plant’s sexually reproductive organ. To attract pollinators, flower petals are often large, highly colored, and intensely perfumed.

After 2 to 4 weeks of being outside, jalapeño plants should begin to blossom. The plant will produce white or yellow flowers throughout the summer months if exposed to direct sunshine following the growth period. These flowers will develop on the tops of the branches.

Once your jalapeño plants start flowering, they don’t need nearly as much nitrogen anymore. This is the time to switch to a more phosphorus-rich fertilizer combination.

Pollination

Pollination is required for the pepper plant’s life cycle to continue.

Jalapeños self pollinate, which means they do not rely on other plants (or flowers) to complete the pollination process. Some of the flowers will pollinate when pollen drops directly from the anthers to the stigma. While other flowers will rely on wind and insects to complete the pollination process.

Fruiting

Jalapeño plant flowers, as you may know, transform into peppers. If a flower is fertilized successfully, it will shed its petals and begin to create fruit and seeds.

Ripening

Jalapeño peppers turn from bright green to dark green. As the fruits mature, they will turn to other colors, like red or yellow. They’ll be spicier after they’re fully grown, so avoid the temptation to pluck them before they’re ready. The pepper’s skin, on the other hand, may become leathery with time.

Peppers should never be pulled from the plant. Cut peppers using a sharp knife or pruning shears, leaving a short stem connected to the pepper.

They may not be as popular as tomatoes or peppers, but carrots (Daucus carota) are a staple in many gardens as they are easy to grow. They are known and loved for their sweet flavor and the crunch that make them so satisfying to bite into. Although they are typically known as the orange root vegetable the Bug’s Bunny eats, they come in all sorts of colors.

Compared to other vegetables, they require little attention and need little space in the vegetable garden because of their small footprint.

Overall, they are relatively straightforward to raise. Carrots are content as long as they receive full sun, are planted in loose, well-draining soil, and aren’t overfertilized.

If you are interested in planting them, but you are unsure where to start, you’re in the right place. The following gardening tips will help you produce a plentiful harvest in no time!

Soil Prep

Like other root crops, prepping the garden soil before planting carrots is one of the most critical steps in the whole season. The ground needs to be free of rocks and other large debris and well-tilled to ensure they can easily grow down through the soil.

Well-drained sandy or loamy soil is ideal. Heavy soils will slow their maturation or cause fully-grown carrots to be short and stubby instead of longer and thinner. Heavy soils also increase the chance of physical deformities that occur during the growing season.

To loosen the soil adequately before planting, dig down to at least 12 inches deep, working it well by hand or with a tiller to break up any clods or hardpans. After you have worked it well once, you should go over it again a second time.

If your soils aren’t conducive to growing (heavy clay or rocky), build a raised garden and fill it with a well-draining potting mix. They grow well in raised gardens because of the loose soil.

Regardless of where you plant them, do not amend the soil with anything high in nitrogen, such as manure or nitrogen-heavy fertilizers. High nitrogen causes the carrots to fork when growing and develop an overabundance of little side hairs.

Planting the Seeds

Since the edible portion of carrots is the roots themselves, we do not recommend that you start the seeds inside. Instead, sow directly into the soil once conditions are suitable outside. Trying to transplant seedlings from containers into the ground results in damage.

As cool-season vegetables, they need cooler temperatures to germinate and grow and often mature before the heat of the summer. Hot summer days can make the carrots tough or fibrous.

Timing

Seeds can be planted in early spring for a summer harvest or planted later in the growing season for a fall harvest.

If you’d like a continuous crop, sow new seeds every two weeks through late spring or early summer in hot climates or the end of summer in temperature regions.

Spring: Plan to sow your seeds in the early spring, ahead of other warm-season vegetables. Seeds can be sown after the threat of frost has passed or 2-3 weeks before the last frost if using row covers. The minimum soil temperature should be 50℉, but seeds germinate best at soil temperatures above 70℉.

Fall: Wait until mid to late summer, so the carrot plants germinate and are actively growing as the summer temperatures are falling. Aim to plant seeds approximately ten weeks before the first typical frost fall in your area.

Spacing

Plant seeds in rows spaced one to two feet apart, with about 1 inch of distance between the seeds within the row. Sow seeds in troughs approximately one-half inch deep and cover lightly with soil.

Sowing

Sow seeds by hand, or use a seed sower or seed tape to help space them out evenly. The seeds are small and tricky to work with; if need be, you can plant them closer together than the recommended spacing distance and then thin the plants after germination.

After sowing the seeds, germination may take two to three weeks. This is slightly longer than many other garden vegetables that sprout within ten to fourteen days and will be slower in colder soil temperatures.

Carrots have a hard seed coat, making it essential to water the soil often, keeping the soil moist to soften the seed coat and encourage germination.

Regular watering also prevents a crust from forming on the surface, impeding the seedlings from breaking through the soil. Some gardeners cover the soil with a thin layer of vermiculite to help prevent crusting.

Thinning

When the carrot tops have 3 to 4 true leaves (typically when they reach 2 inches high) gently thin the seedlings to 2 inches apart. Instead of pulling them out and potentially damaging nearby carrots, you can use clean, sterilized scissors or gardening shears to cut off the tops.

After thinning to the recommended spacing, go ahead and eat the thinned baby carrots if they are big enough!

Care Tips

The following care tips are essential to creating a plentiful harvest.

• Sunlight: Carrots grow best in full-sun locations in the garden, where they receive a minimum of six hours of sunlight daily. They will tolerate partial shade (especially when daytime temperatures are at the hottest), but you may see a reduction in growth and yield.

• Watering: Keep the soil moist, especially when the temperature rises, without waterlogging the roots. Consistent moisture helps produce the best flavor. Water at least one inch (about ½ gallon per square foot) per week when they are young, then two inches as the roots grow and mature.

• Fertilizing: Carrots are light feeders, needing only a single dose of high phosphorus and high potassium fertilizer (such as 0-10-10 or 5-15-15) about a month after germination. Apply at about half the recommended rate on the label, watering the fertilizer into the soil well. Avoid overfertilizing as it causes them to split, and do not use high nitrogen fertilizer since nitrogen promotes foliage growth. Root vegetable plants need more potassium and phosphorus compared to nitrogen.

• Weeding: Constantly remove weeds when they pop up near your carrots, especially when they are young and establishing. Weeds compete with neighboring plants for water, sunlight, and soil nutrients. Their roots can also damage developing carrots, depending on the type of weed and their root system.

• Pest and Disease Management: Most varieties have little pest or disease problems but periodically scout for pests such as rust flies, flea beetles, and wireworms and diseases such as leaf blight and black root rot. If discovered, treat quickly to prevent significant damage to any plant that is affected.

Harvesting

Carrots mature relatively quickly, taking about 2 to 4 months, depending upon the variety grown and local growing conditions.

When Should They be Harvested?

The guidelines for when to harvest are pretty loose. Once they reach the size of your little finger, you can harvest them. Or you can allow them to stay in the ground and grow to a larger, mature size.

How Do You Harvest?

There are two different ways to harvest:

• Using your hand, grab at the base of the carrot top, just above the flesh. Gently pull them straight up out of the ground. You may need to wiggle them back and forth slightly as you pull.
• Instead of pulling plants by hand, you can also use a garden fork to dig around the taproots to remove them from the ground.

After harvesting, brush off as much loose dirt as possible to keep the soil outside instead of bringing it into your house.

FAQ

Q. How do you store freshly harvested carrots?

Immediately after harvesting them, cut the tops down to about one-half inch and under running water scrub off any remaining dirt. Allow them to air-dry. Then, seal them in zip-top plastic bags and store them in the vegetable crisper drawer of your refrigerator. For long-term storage, place them in tubs of moist sand or dry sawdust and keep them in a cool, dry area.

Q. Can you leave them in the ground over winter?

Yes, you can leave mature carrots in the soil for temporary storage if pests aren’t a concern and the ground will not freeze. You can also cover the garden bed with straw or leaves for insulation.

Q. Can you grow them in containers?

Yes, you can, but they need a little more attention and care than when grown in the ground. Make sure containers are deep enough to accommodate the variety chosen and have drainage holes in the bottom. During the hot summer months, keep the potting soil evenly moist without overwatering, which causes the carrots to rot.

Q. How do you make seed tapes for planting?

Making your seed tape is an inexpensive, effective way to properly space seeds when sowing them into the ground soil and allows you to customize the varieties based on your preference.

Mix a paste of flour and water until it is the consistency of syrup. Take a length of toilet paper or white streamer and place dots of the paste every inch from end to end slightly off-center. Then stick one or two seeds to each dot and fold the paper over cover the seeds.

The aromatic garlic is the perfect addition to every meal, but it also comes packed with tons of nutrients and a variety of medicinal properties.

Garlic is rich in important nutrients, such as flavonoids, oligosaccharides, amino acids, allicin and high levels of sulfur, while raw garlic also contains approximately 0.1 percent essential oil. Some of the main components of this oil include allyl propyl disulfide, diallyl disulfide, and diallyl trisulfide. A clove (approximately three grams) of raw garlic contains about:

• 4.5 calories
• 1 gram carbohydrates
• 0.2 gram protein
• gram fiber
• milligram manganese (3 percent DV)
• 0.9 milligram vitamin C (2 percent DV)
• 5.4 milligrams calcium (1 percent DV)
• 0.4 microgram selenium (1 percent DV)

Garlic is rich in antibacterial and antiviral compounds that prevent common colds and flu. Moreover, it is one of the most powerful heart-healthy foods. It regulates blood pressure, lowers high cholesterol levels, and keeps the arteries clean, preventing atherosclerosis.

Research has shown that garlic lowers fasting blood glucose, so it is beneficial in the case of type II diabetes.

Additionally, it contains antioxidants that may prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia, boosts athletic performance, and the sulfur compounds in garlic protect against organ damage from heavy metal toxicity.

According to a review published in Cancer Prevention Research, Allium vegetables, especially garlic and onions, and their bioactive sulfur compounds have effects at each stage of cancer formation and affect many biological processes that modify cancer risk.

That is why it has been used for centuries, and if you decide to grow it at home, you will reap all its benefits whenever you want.

Yet, don’t be afraid, as garlic is very easy to plant and grow. It can be planted in fall or spring, and it does well in cold climates and areas where water does not collect at the bottom of the soil, to prevent rot and disease infestation. Additionally, the small garlic plants take little space in the garden.

To boost the yield, plant it in a fertile, well-drained, and moist soil with a pH of 6.5-7, and you can set out a bed or plant it directly in the garden.

Make sure it is away from sage, peas, parsley, and asparagus, as they compete with it for nutrients. On the other hand, carrots, potatoes, spinach, and eggplants are great companion plants for it.

Follow these steps to grow garlic at home:

• Choose a sunny spot in the garden, and rid of stones and dirt from the topsoil
• Make a compost tea mixed with a few tablespoons of 5-10-10 NPK fertilizer and work it nicely into the soil
• Break a garlic up into cloves, and bury it with the pointed ends facing upward, a few inches into the ground
• Leave 4-6 inches space between the cloves, and the rows of beds can be spaced by 2-3 inches
• Cover with about 1-2 inches of clear soil and put down 5-6 inches of mulch materials
• Carefully water only when the topsoil is completely dry
• Twice a month, add a teaspoon of low-decomposing compost, and a high-nitrogen fertilizer once monthly
• To prevent its slow growth, cut off any flowers or weed stalks that bloom with the plants
• In about three months, you should have 5 to 6 leaves sprouted already, ready to be harvested and enjoyed!