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Capsicum
Also called New World Peppers, Chili Peppers, Chilies, Peppers, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Capsicum is a genus of about five cultivated species, including sweet bell peppers and chili peppers, grown worldwide for their fruit. The key to growing them is warm, sunny conditions with evenly moist, well-drained soil.
Capsicum () is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae, native to the Americas, cultivated worldwide for their edible fruit, which are generally known as "peppers" or "capsicum". Chili peppers grow on five species of Capsicum. Sweet or bell peppers and many chili peppers are Capsicum annuum, making it the most cultivated species in the genus.
Ideal growing conditions for peppers include a sunny position with warm, loamy soil, ideally 21 to 29 °C (70 to 84 °F), that is moist but not waterlogged. Extremely moist soils can cause seedlings to "damp-off" and reduce germination.
The plants will tolerate (but do not like) temperatures down to 12 °C (54 °F) and they are sensitive to cold. For flowering, Capsicum is a non-photoperiod-sensitive crop. The flowers can self-pollinate. However, at extremely high temperature, 30 to 38 °C (86 to 100 °F), pollen loses viability, and flowers are much less likely to result in fruit.
Capsicum fruits can be eaten raw or cooked. Those used in cooking are generally varieties of the C. annuum and C. frutescens species, though a few others are used, as well. They are suitable for stuffing with fillings such as cheese, meat, or rice.
Cayenne pepper · Almapaprika · Cayenne pepper · Locoto · Aji · Spur Pepper · Rocoto · Florina pepper
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Capsicum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
