If you like to cook spicy food, you’d probably be dreaming of having your own garden grown with all kinds of chili peppers. However, chili peppers are tricky to grow. The first time you grow may not be successful because you don’t know the right way to plant it. This is why you should read chili peppers growing books. These books provide the information you need to know for growing and harvesting chili peppers. The following are the top 3 chili pepper growing books for gardeners.
- The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener’s Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking
The Complete Chile Pepper Book by Dave DeWitt and Paul W. Bosland is a large book that attempts to cover all kinds of information on chili peppers. There are short description accompanied with color photos on more than 100 varieties of ornamental chilis and chilies grown for cooking. Some of the descriptions include Scoville rating, which is the measurement for the heat intensity of the chili pepper. It is a resourceful book you can look up if you are trying to decide which chili pepper plant to purchase for your backyard garden.
If you buy seeds from MIT, you will be able to find descriptions on some of the varieties of chilies they are selling. This is because the author work with The Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico. Even as an advanced chili grower, you will be able to benefit from the information in the book. You will learn about methods of growing and planning your chili garden. You will also learn how to diagnose different diseases and ailments that particularly attack the chili pepper plants.
In addition, the book also offer information on the different ways to use dried and fresh chili. For example, it offers tips on how to blend fresh chilies to make chili juice. It provides some useful information on the benefits of using chili juice. You can find information on how to smoke, dry, and pickle chilies. There are also many free recipes on chili dishes included in the book.
- Chilis: How to Grow, Harvest, and Cook with Your Favorite Hot Peppers, with 200 Varieties and 50 Spicy Recipes
Chilis by Eva Robild, and Kerstin Rosengren offers a comprehensive guide on growing chilis from germinating the seed to harvesting the chili peppers. There are descriptions on 5 species and more than 200 varieties of chili peppers. The 5 species of peppers it covers are spanish, berry style, havana/scotch, tabasco, and rocoto peppers. It is a book you want to reference if you are shopping for chili plants or choosing chili seeds for your garden. The book talks about how to make your own hybrid chili variety.
You’ll find information on alternative ways to sow seeds that people don’t know and not just the ordinary method of germination in the seedling tray. It has step by step information on repotting your pepper plant including what pot to use, how much soil to fill, what fertilizer to use and how to plant the young chili plant in it. It offers a handy list of fertilizers you can add to the soil for boosting your pepper plant.
The book also cover information on all kinds of pests and fungi that infest the chili pepper plant and the solutions on how to deal with them. Along with the information is a few photos on the pests. In the book, there are 50 free recipes that you can cook with the hot peppers you harvest from your garden. Overall, the book is a good read for people who are cultivating their first pepper gardens.
- Growing Chilies – A Beginners Guide To Growing, Using, and Surviving Chilies: Everything You Need To Know To Successfully Grow Chilies At Home (Inspiring Gardening Ideas)
Growing Chilies by Jason Johns is a resourceful book that include a complete information on chili. It starts with a brief history of chilies on how the native American first cultivated them many thousands of years ago. There are descritpions on different types of capsicum cultivars from capsicum annum to capsicum pubescens. It discusses popular chili varieties and you can also find a list of chilies ranking by their heat level. This book has information on growing chilies in container and hydroponic.
When you first started in chili growing, you can look at this book for what equipment that is needed. It also has some resources on where you can buy the chili seeds. There is also information on the parts of the world that is suitable for growing chilis. It has basic information on germination, transplanting, watering, pruning, and harvesting chilies. You also learn how to save chili seeds so that you can use them to regrow new chili plants.
