Antonino Adragna - How to Grow Chili Peppers In Pots: (Make Your Hottest Dreams Come True!)

How to Grow Chili Peppers in Pots

Antonino Adragna

Translated by E.S. Dempsey

How to Grow Chili Peppers in Pots

Written By Antonino Adragna

Copyright 2020 Antonino Adragna

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by E.S. Dempsey

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How To Grow Chili Peppers in Pots

Make your hottest dreams come true!

By Antonino Adragna

Translated by E.S. Dempsey

Copyright 2020 Antonino Adragna

Introduction Why chilies?

T he chili is a plant that conquers. Those who have been cultivating it for decades (like me) never stop loving it partly because chili peppers generously reciprocate the attention given to them, thanking their lovers with abundant harvests of beautiful fruits. Chilies, with their wonderful spiciness, give our cuisine an unparalleled flavor.

Those who love gardening know how beautiful it is to plant a seed and follow its growth until the plant fully develops, blooms, bears fruit and then finishes its life cycle.

Its easy to grow a chili pepper and even those who are approaching the fantastic world of plant cultivation for the first time will receive great satisfaction. Youll never tire of looking proudly at your chili plant, sitting in the center of a large pot on your balcony. Youll watch it grow until it turns into a green bush, and at some point during the hot season, when the sun comes up, your plant will appear dotted with numerous small starry flowers.

Is a green thumb needed to grow chilies? Not necessarily, but it certainly helps! Have you ever wondered what a green thumb consists of? In my experience, a green thumb is simply love. Love and respect for living beings of chlorophyll.

Do not believe that you can treat plants as objects: they sense your feelings and relate to them. You reap what you sow is the wise old saying.

If you provide the sun exposure that the chili pepper eagerly consumes, as well as the abundant watering that it needs, in late summer you will get a plentiful harvest of perfect and hot fruits, to be dried, or preserved in oil, or eaten raw (with caution).

Hot chilies are used in kitchens all over the world, but also in the pharmaceutical industry. They are also ingredients in other products, such as pepper spray, used in many parts of the world as a tool of self-defense

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PART I

THE CHILI PEPPER

Beneficial properties of chili peppers

Y ou have certainly read about the many beneficial substances that are contained in the chili pepper.

Many research studies have highlighted the numerous virtues of chili peppers. It is clearly a beneficial fruit, rich in biologically active elements used in phytotherapy, even more than most other garden fruits.

The beneficial results are mainly due to the vasodilator effect of capsaicin, the molecule that makes chilies hot.

It has also been established that the fruit contains vitamins A, B, C, E and K, as well as mineral salts such as potassium and calcium. Ounce for ounce, vitamin C is four times more abundant in chili peppers than in oranges. The chili also contains flavonoids and a carotenoid called capsanthin, from which it gets its red color.

These molecules are very good for your health, useful for preventing cellular aging, thanks to their antioxidant effects.

Having said that, due to the high amount of heat, you wont be able to rely on the beneficial properties of the chili pepper to make it a single therapy. You will need to use it very sparingly and in small quantities.

Capsaicin and capsaicinoids, as we will see in the next section, bring numerous benefits to humans. At low doses they are able to inhibit the growth of different forms of cancer and they have been shown to be good analgesics, useful in the treatment of arthritis and in pain therapy. They also reduce appetite and therefore facilitate weight loss.

Capsaicin is therefore a gift that Nature gives us, but it is not free from side effects, of which its good to be aware. In high quantities, this alkaloid is irritating to the mucous membrane that lines the stomach. Irritation can, if prolonged over time, lead to inflammation. In that case capsaicin ceases to be a blessing and becomes a problem.

Chili peppers must be avoided in cases of gastritis, ulcer, hemorrhoids and cystitis. Prepubescent children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should also avoid chilies.

Alkaloids in the chili pepper

Solanine

T he chili plant belongs to the Solanaceae family; its close relatives are tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and tobacco. But this family also includes the poisonous jimson weed, belladonna and mandrake.