How to Care for Caribbean Red Hot Pepper Plants
- 1). Cultivate garden soil to a depth of 8 inches with a shovel, breaking up clods and clumps and removing weeds and rocks as you go. The planting site should be in full sun. Dig rows with a hoe, 4 inches deep, spacing the rows 24 to 30 inches apart.
- 2). Set Caribbean red hot pepper plants in the rows, 18 inches apart. Cover their roots with soil and tamp it down firmly to ensure good contact. Water thoroughly after planting.
- 3). Mix 2 tbsp. of all-purpose 10-10-10 plant fertilizer in a gallon of water and pour a cup of the solution over the root zone of each pepper plant.
- 4). Weed and cultivate soil around and between pepper plants every few weeks through the growing season. Water whenever the top 2 inches of soil are dry to the touch, particularly during blossoming and as peppers develop. Water at the base of the plants, without splashing on their leaves, if possible. If you notice blossoms beginning to rot at their ends, you may be watering too often.
- 5). Put on gloves and harvest Caribbean red hot peppers when they are plump and green, or fully ripe and red. The gloves are necessary to protect your hands from the irritating oils in the peppers.
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