Grow the blazing fire red! Eat the super spicy pepper!
Misha: This time we’re going to try growing chili peppers.
Hachibee: Wow! Just looking at them is making my mouth tingle!
Misha: I’m looking forward to making peperoncino pasta, pizza, and super spicy kimchi with the chili peppers we grow.
Hachibee: I prefer sweet things. But the vivid red color of chili peppers is beautiful just to look at.
Misha: That’s right. I’d love for you to see the fruit growing. Let’s get started!
Chili pepper “almost weekly” cultivation report
3/17 Planting
Misha: These are chili seeds.
Hachibee: It’s the stuff that sometimes falls out when you cut fresh chili peppers. It looks strangely familiar!
3/24 Not yet sprouted
Hachibee: It’s kind of refreshing to see sprouts coming from the seeds, or rather the little particles, inside those chili peppers.
3/31 No germination
Hachibee: I wonder if buds will really come out?
4/14 No buds
Hachibee: Chili peppers go at their own pace.
Misha: Contrary to the image of it being super spicy, it’s actually quite laid back.
4/21 The buds begin to open
Hachibee: Yes! I can see it, I can see the sprouts! It’s been a month since the seeds were planted! Chili peppers are such lazy people.
4/28 The leaves start to grow
Hachibee: But the shape of the leaves…as you’d expect from something so spicy, even the leaves are as sharp as blades.
5/5 The leaves grow and the stems begin to grow.
Hachibee: Oops, it’s suddenly starting to grow!
5/12 Leaves become wider
Hachibee: The shape of the leaves has changed quite a bit. They’ve suddenly become quite voluminous!
Misha: It’s fun to watch it change shape.
5/19 The leaves begin to spread
Hachibee: Before you know it, the leaves have spread out and are covering the ground.
Misha: I bet they’re soaking up all the warm spring sunlight.
5/26 The stem grows and thickens
Hachibee: I suddenly felt like it had become much more solid!
6/2 The stem grows further
Hachibee: Oops, now it seems to have suddenly decided to grow higher and higher!
6/9 The stems grow rapidly
Hachibee: They seem so full of energy! It’s like we’re all cheering in the air.
6/16 The leaves are large and grow voluminously.
Hachibee: More and more leaves are coming out from the top.
Misha: It just keeps looking up, growing and adding more leaves. It’s like an ambitious wise man.
6/23 More leaves
Hachibee: Wow! Seen from the side, it looks like a forest. When did it get so many leaves?!
6/30 Leaves mature
Hachibee: When the plants reached a height of about 50 to 60 cm, all of the chili pepper plants suddenly stopped growing, as if they had been given a command.
Misha: And when you look at it from above, almost none of the leaves, which should have been thick like a forest, are overlapping toward the sun. It’s absorbing the sunlight efficiently, as if it were computer-controlled. Chili peppers are scary.
7/7 Buds appear
Hachibee: Oh! Buds!
7/14 Bloom
Hachibee: It’s blooming!! Wow, chili pepper flowers are white. I thought they were red.
Misha: It’s a small, dainty flower that tends to hang down a little. It’s hard to imagine that such hot peppers could be made from this flower.
7/21 Fruit begins to form
Hachibee: When did this happen?!
7/28 Fruits start to appear one after another
Hachibee: Just as the flowers had finished blooming, fruit suddenly began to sprout, pointing upwards like a sword stabbing into the sky!
Misha: Chili peppers have a unique way of growing. They don’t hang down, but grow upwards, ignoring gravity.
8/4 The fruit begins to change color
Hachibee: The chili peppers, which were dark green, are gradually turning yellow.
8/11 Fruits grow
Hachibee: And before you know it, there’s fruit everywhere! Before you know it…
8/18 The fruit gradually changes color
Hachibee: You can’t tell unless you look closely, but the fruit is starting to discolor from the tip.
8/25 Starts to turn red
Hachibee: It’s finally turning red like a red pepper… but that’s just the tip of the fruit. The middle is yellow and the base is green. It looks just like a traffic light!
9/1 The fruit ripens red.
Hachibee: Wow! Finally, this red color appeared.
Misha: What a beautiful red color. And the shine is nice too.
9/8 The fruits start turning red one after another.
Hachibee: It’s like the red flames are spreading rapidly.
Misha: On the other hand, there are still flowers that will bloom in the future. Chili peppers produce new flowers and fruits one after another.
9/15 Fruit is fully ripe
Hachibee: It feels like the top group has already reached the finish line! I guess it’s as early as six months after planting the seeds to complete the harvest.
9/22 The fruits ripen red one after another
Hachibee: At first they all turned red at once, but then the green berries started turning red one by one. It’s nice that we can harvest them for quite a long time.
Misha: Yes, and the buds are still forming and the flowers are still blooming.
9/29 Flowers in full bloom
Hachibee: The fruit has been growing for quite some time now, but it seems like the flowers are blooming most profusely now!
Misha: Happiness always comes a little late, and chilli peppers are a perfect example of this.
10/6 The fruit color has changed from blue to red in many places.
Hachibee: It’s easy to see that each chili pepper blooms, produces fruit, and ripens red at different times. Chili peppers are pretty free-spirited.
Misha: It seems so (laughs). Look, it’s already October but the flowers are still blooming.
10/13 The leaves turn yellow
Hachibee: The flowers are still blooming, but it seems like the stems and leaves are slowly turning yellow.
Misha: Looking at it this way, I think you could say that chili peppers are a plant that has a very long active period.
10/20 Insect-eaten
Hachibee: Got me! But then I realized that this was the only spot in the entire chili pepper field that had been eaten by insects.
Misha: The bug ran away after it had taken a bite of about half of it. I guess the spicy food is too spicy for bugs after all. It never came back to eat it again.
10/27 The fruit dries up
Hachibee: They’re starting to get wrinkled!
Misha: The red fruits can be harvested at any time, but usually chili peppers are picked and dried for a few days, but even if you leave them like this without harvesting them, they will dry naturally in the sun.
11/3 The leaves start to fall from the bottom
Hachibee: The leaves are starting to fall. It’s dusk.
Misha: It’s almost time for the wind to get cooler. The flowers have stopped blooming.
11/10 The leaves are yellow and the fruit is deep red
Hachibee: It’s turned a beautiful deep red color. And it looks spicy!
11/17 Only stems are left
Hachibee: The lower part of the stem is already starting to look like a bamboo forest.
Misha: But even at this stage, the fact that green fruits are still forming shows the chili peppers’ indomitable fighting spirit.
11/24 The leaves begin to wither
Hachibee: It looks like the life is finally fading even from the top leaves.
Misha: Even now, there are still chili peppers that are about to ripen. Chili peppers are so tenacious.
12/1 The leaves are withering
Hachibee: It’s almost time to call it a day. But the chilli peppers themselves never turn brown, and stay a fiery red.
12/8 Fruit discoloration stops
Hachibee: It looks like the energy supply from the stem has stopped. The fruit has also stopped changing. Time flies!
12/15 Leaves are wrinkled
Hachibee: The stems have become quite thin.
Misha: You’ve sent all your energy into the red chili pepper.
12/22 Almost entirely fruit
Hachibee: Even at this point, the reality is that it’s still alive and well, like a different world. The contrast is amazing.
12/29 Leaves and stems wither and fall off ~ Harvest
Hachibee: It’s completely dead. But the life of the pepper is still alive in the seeds inside the fruit.
Misha: When I opened the fruit, a ton of seeds came out. In fact, the chili peppers have a very long run from September to December, with their pretty white flowers and burning torch-like chili peppers. I really enjoyed it.
~A word! Tips for growing chili peppers~
Difficulty of cultivation：★★☆☆☆
It takes a leisurely month for the seeds to sprout
and six months for the flowers to bloom and produce fruit.
You need to be patient and have an open mind to be patient with them
After that, the fruit will appear one by one until late autumn,
and you can harvest them.
