Jalapeno Chili Variety
Jalapeño is one of the most popular chilli varieties. Jalapeños were named after the city of Jalapa. Today this city in Mexico is called “Xalapa de Enríquez”. In 1982, the Jalapeno was the first chili to enter space 1 2. An astronaut took several pods as a snack to eat it in the space shuttle.
Jalapeno chili plants are easy to grow. Their chilli peppers can already be harvested green. Whether green or red, they can be used in many recipes. The crunchy pods have a pleasant spiciness. The slightly sour paprika taste is perfect for sauces, salads and stuffed chilli peppers.
As a houseplant it develops well in a flower pot. After the last frost in mid-May, chili plants can be planted in the garden. Like most chilies, this plant likes a lot of sun. At least eight hours of direct sunlight is enough for a chili pepper to grow normally. More tricky vegetables are formed indoors when supported by plant lamps.
Jalapeños is a Capsicum annuum variety. Capsicum is the genus of the Chilis. Annuum actually means annual. With good care also Annuum varieties thrive for several years. In the genus Capsicum annuum we find the largest variety of chili plants. From very mild to very hot. Best suited for beginners and professional chili growers.
Within the Jalapeños there are many varieties. Their peppers are between 2,500 and 10,000 Scoville units. Accordingly, the degree of intensity is 5 for mild TAM Jalapeño, Early Jalapeño has degree of sharpness 6 and Hot Jalapeño: degree of sharpness 7. Often the sharpness of the chilli peppers also varies on a plant. On average, a degree of sharpness of 6 applies, which corresponds to almost 10,000 Scoville units (SHU).
Jalapeños are ideal to be freshly prepared in the kitchen. The hot paprika aroma is delicious on pizza, burgers and for dips. Grilled, stuffed with cheese, or just sliced in salads. Jalapeños marinated in oil are beautifully mild. Sour, pickled in vinegar, they are available all year round from experienced traders. You will usually find them in Asia shops, Turkish vegetable merchants or in chili shops. The most fun, however, is to process your own harvest. Fresh chilli peppers from self-controlled cultivation are outstanding.
You will need jalapeños, vinegar, water and salt.
First you use a toothpick to prick the chillies. This will make it easier to absorb the brine in which you then add your chillies. Soak the chillies overnight. You can weigh the fruits down with a kitchen sieve so that they do not float on top. The next day, remove the stalks and cut the vegetables into slices. Drain well.
Bring vinegar and salt to the boiling point. The broth can be seasoned with pepper, mustard seeds, garlic and herbs. Now pour the chili slices into the simmering vinegar water and let it sit for 5 minutes. Place in a bowl and allow to cool down. If you like, you can also pour the pickled Jalapenos hot into preserving jars, making them more durable.
Slice fresh chilies. Pour them into a bottle with a wide neck. With virgin olive oil that is in the bottle, or a screw glass, fill it up to the edge. You can season it with horseradish, garlic and mustard seeds. Homemade Jalapeno olive oil is easily protected from the sun by wrapping the bottle in aluminium foil. This protects vitamins and aromas. Allow it to brew for at least 3 days in a cool place. Read more here: Make your own chili oil.
Ingredients: green chillies, onions, vegetable stock, olive oil, dried tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, bay leaves and lime juice. Cut the ingredients into small pieces and heat them in a pot. Puree with a hand blender.
Season to taste with spices. Leave the bay leaves whole and take them out at the end of the cooking time. If you like, you can add vinegar and sugar. Fits perfectly with tacos, tortilla and as a dip when grilling.
Remove the heads of pickled or fresh jalapeños. With a knife or better a corer, the seed can easily be hollowed out. Mix cream cheese with spices. We recommend onions and chorizo salami in the cream cheese mixture. If you like cheese, you can also add grated Gauda or Feta.
Fill fresh jalapeño peppers with the mixed mixture. Cook under indirect heat on the grill for 20 - 30 minutes. In the oven, the cooking time may vary depending on the size of the chilies and filling. After 20 minutes you should check it with a pointed knife, which you stick into the wall, whether the filled Chilies are already cooked.
Also delicious is a layer of bacon. The high proportion of bacon takes some of the heat off the chili. Bacon and barbecue are a good match anyway.
Smoked jalapeños are a specialty in Mexico. The pungent, smoky aroma gives the dishes an unusually delicious taste. Chipotle is usually available as a powder, sometimes whole dried pods. It goes well with hot sauces and chili con carne.
Jalapeño pods are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, which support health. The spicy species also help you keep your weight under control. Not only does the green chili taste good on nachos and tacos, it is also healthy.
Vitamin C is important for a healthy body. It helps it to keep the immune system going and it has a positive effect on the aging process. Jalapeños of this important vitamin contain about 110 mg vitamin C. But also the vital vitamins A, B, E and K are contained in the pods.
Minerals are important nutrients for strong bones, a healthy nervous system and the formation of red blood cells. The fruits contain potassium, iron, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, zinc and manganese.
Antioxidants help neutralize free radicals. Basically, the fresher the chilli, the more antioxidants it contains.
This chili from Mexico is available in many varieties. All varieties have a typical jalapeno shape in common. A thick, short chili with a round tip runs out. The thick fleshy pods are often 5 to 10 cm long. The diameter at the upper end is 2.5 to 4 cm. Plants of this variety grow to between one and one and a half meters in size.
Jalapeno - Early, Purple, Craig’s Grande, NuMex, Hungarian Black and Jaloro are just a few of the well-known varieties. In addition, there are F1 hybrids, which are often particularly productive: Conchos, El Jefe and Jalafuego, just to name a few.
Early Jalapeno can tolerate somewhat cooler temperatures. In the chili season we harvest the first fruits mostly from this frugal chili variety.
The chili season starts early in the New Year. So the chilies can be grown indoor from January to May. If there is not enough space, chilies are grown about six weeks before the ice saints. After the ice saints in the middle of May there is usually no more frost. You should start your chili breeding in April at the latest.
There are inexpensive mini greenhouse sets in the DIY store. Consisting of a bowl with transparent lid and source tabs. Coconut source tablets have proven themselves for growing. Practical are long and narrow cultivation sets which are placed on sunny windowsills.
Soak chili seeds in lukewarm water overnight. Place the source tabs in the greenhouse and pour water over them. Soft rainwater is preferred. The next day, sow one seed at a time one centimetres deep into the coconut bales. Cover with coconut soil.
Now you only have to wait up to three weeks. Check moisture regularly. If the growing substrate dries out, your chili seeds will no longer germinate. To avoid mold, you should ventilate the nursery daily. Look forward to the moment when a tender green hatches.
The germination temperature of Jalapeno is about 25 °C. Below 22 degrees germination is inhibited. Temperatures clearly above 28 °C have a bad effect on the germination rate.
After the first real leaves have formed next to the cotyledons, you can transplant the young plant into larger pots. The roots now need more space. If the flower pot is too small, chillies will remain small. Depending on the size, it is usual to repot chili plants two to three times.
Chillies develop abundantly in about 16 hours of sunlight. Indoors this is hardly possible on most windows. Plant lamps are a good purchase here. Neon plant tubes need little electricity and are cheap to buy. LED plant lights are more expensive, but have a high efficiency. Bring the light as close as possible to your plants without burning them.
In the middle of May it can also go on the balcony or in the garden. But be careful: your Jalapeno plants have not yet formed sun protection in your home. This is why plants will only slowly get used to the sun in the shade.
Wind can blow over your plants in the beginning. A fan that runs once a day or plants slowly get used to a place sheltered from the wind can help in advance. Chili growers call this process “Hardening-Off”. Prepare your jalapeños for the strains of nature before planting them outside.
Peppers like warm environment . The highest harvests are achieved at a permanent 30°C. The ideal place in the garden for a paprika is the raised bed and the herb spiral. Here the sun warms the soil more. If you have a garden greenhouse or tomato house, you can soon look forward to many hot chilies.
You can start fertilizing when the first four leaves have formed. All tomato fertilizers are suitable for fertilizing chillies. Follow the dosage instructions on the fertilizer. These vary depending on whether the fertilizer is natural, mineral or long-term. The NPK value is an important factor.
Some use fertilizers with an NPK value of up to 10-10-10. We ourselves use a special, gentle fertilizer that is suitable for herbs and tomatoes as well as chili plants. This fertilizer has a low NPK of 3-2-6, contains guano and is free of chemical additives.
Coffee grounds are recommended as fertilizer. It contains about 4-8 percent nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Coffee grounds are mixed with soil and fertilise the soil for 6 weeks. Hobby gardeners appreciate that snails are kept away. A sustainable soil improvement occurs.
About 80 days after flowering, the fruit has reached a size of 7 cm. Jalapeno can be harvested green, red, black or purple depending on the variety. The typical taste is most pronounced when the green pods begin to ripen slowly.
Observe the area around the stalk as the colour change begins here. Not all chillies ripen at the same time. It is best to pick some of the most beautiful jalapeños every day. The easiest way is to cut the chillies with a pair of pruning shears.
The Mexican pods have a pleasant sharpness. But be careful: the sharpness of the pods can also vary from plant to plant. Always try carefully first.
Only with the greatest of luck would chillies survive a light frost. In autumn you should prepare to spend the winter in the house. A winter garden or a windowsill to the south would be ideal. A sensible purchase for wintering in the house is plant light. If there is enough light, you will also be supplied with fresh chillies in winter.
|Plant size||100 - 150 cm|
|Maturing time||80 days|
|Germination period||8 - 21 days|
|Germination temperature||22 - 28 °C|
|Planting distance min.||60 cm|