Production of rooted cuttings

Normally runner shoots from high yielding and healthy vines are kept coiled on wooden pegs fixed at the base of the wine to prevent the shoots from coming in contact with soil and striking roots.

The runner shoots are separated from the vine in Feb to March,

After trimming the leaves, cuttings of 2 to 3 nodes are planted either in the nursery beds are polythene bags filled with fertile soils.

Adequate shade is to be provided and irrigated frequently. The cuttings will strike roots and will become ready for planting May to June

RAPID MULTIPLICATION

A technique developed in Sri lanka has become popular in India. In this method a trench of 0.75 mts deep and 0.30 mts wide having convenient length is made. The trenches are filled with rooting medium

Split halves of bamboo with septa or split halves of PVC pipes having 1.25 to 1.50 mts length and 8 to 10 cms diameter provided with plastic septa at 30cms intervals are fixed with 45 degrees angle on a strong support.

The bamboos can be arrange touching one another. Rooted cuttings are planted in the trench @ one cutting each for one bamboo or PVC pipe split.

The lower portion of the bamboo are filled with a rooting medium and the growing portion is tied to the bamboo or PVC pipe split in a such a way as to keep the nodes press to the rooting medium. The tying could be done with dried banana sheath fiber.

The vines are irrigated regularly.

As the vines grow filling up the bamboo or PVC pipe splits with rooting medium are to be continued regularly.

Add the nutrient solution for rapid growth. Urea 1kg, SSP 0.75 kg, MOP 0.50kg , MGSO4 0.25kg in 250 lts of water. The solution is applied @ 0.25 lts for vine.

When the vine reaches the top the terminal bud is nipped off and the vine is crushed at about three nodes above the base, to activate the auxiliary buds.
After about 10 days each vine is cut at the crushed point and removed from the rooting medium and each one is separated.

The nodal cutting with the bunch of roots intact is planted in poly bags should be kept filled with pot mixture.
Care should be taken to keep above the soil. The poly bags should kept in a cool humid place or should be covered with thin polythene sheet to retain high humidity.

The buds start developing in about three weeks when the poly bags can be removed and kept in shade.

By this method multiplication is quite rapid

Shade and Shade regulation:

In India and Sri Lanka, pepper is grown under shade. However , the shade should be partial only. Intense or thick shade will results in poor flowering and fruiting, besides favouring the incidence of Pollu-Flea beetle..

Therefore, the shade is regulated by lopping the branches of standards. The standards are pruned to a height of 6 mt during April May

Training and Pruning of Pepper vines

As the cuttings grow, the shoots are tied to the standard at 30 cm interval, as often as possible.
The vines are trained up the support to give one main shoot and two lateral orthotropic shoots.

These are pruned regularly to encourage the development of lateral fruiting branches,

but theses lateral branches should not be tied to the support, as this would discourage the bushy side growth.

How the pruning is done

 The

vines are first pruned back to 15-20 cm from the ground level, when they developed to 8-9 nodes length.

 Second

pruning is done, when a further 9-10 nodes have been produced, to a height of 3-4 nodes of the previous cut.

 In

this way vines are pruned 79 times until they reach the top of the support about 3m high

When this is achieved, the terminal growth of vine is arrested by frequent pinchings.

The lower portion of the vine is kept clean and unbranched at least a meter from the ground level

Manuring

Pepper is a perennial vine and is maintained on the same piece of land for over 20 years. Soil fertility and consequent decline in yields.

Hence, judicious and regular manuring is very essential to get good yields, particularly when pepper is raised as a pure crop.

Ten kg of FYM or compost, 100 g N, 40 g P205 and 140 g K2O per vine per year are to be applied to vines of three years and above in two split doses in April-May and August September.

During the of planting 1/3 of the above dose and in the second year 2/3 of the above dose may be applied.

Manures and fertilizers are applied around the vines at a distance of 30 cm and forked into the soil.

Lime may be applied @ 500 g per vine during April in alternate years, preferably after the receipt of summer showers.

In case of mixed cropping, with areca nut and coconut, fertilizers and manures applied to the main crop are shared by pepper vines also.

Intercultural practices

Pepper is raised as a rainfed crop. Therefore the land should be properly cultivated to conserve moisture in the soil. Wedding must be regular.

Two diggings are given, one during MayJune and the other in October November and finally earthed up.

Growing cover crops like Calapogonium mucanoides, Mimosa invisa are recommended in pepper gardens, particularly on slopes

Harvesting

The pepper vines are allowed to bear fruits from the third year of planting.

The Vines flower from May June.

Harvesting to done from November to February in the plain and January to March in the hills The fruits takes 6-8 months from flowering to ripening stage

Harvesting of pepper is carried out according to the kind of pepper to be prepared i.e. white or black.
For the preparation of white pepper, the berries are harvested at an advanced stage of ripeness (when they turn red) To get black pepper, the berries are gathered at younger stage, when they are still green

Whole spikes are harvested.

Spikes are harvested at weekly or 10 days interval,

over a period of 2-3 months.

Yield

An adult vine yields annually 0.5 1.0 kg of dried berries under Indian conditions, depending upon the variety, management and area of cultivation.

 Pepper

vines attain full bearing stage in the 7th or 8th year after planting and 19th 20th year may be considered as the best period.

Sterile black pepper shoot

Pepper with unripe fruits

Pepper plant growing on a support tree

Flowering pepper

Unripe Pepper fruits and leaf

Pepper Flower

After 25 years, the yields begin to decline, and replanting has to be done thereafter.

The average yield of commercial black pepper varies from 110 to 335 kg per hectare at the age of 10thyear.

Processing of peppers

Two main products are made out of pepper Black -- white pepper. The methods of processing the two differ.

Almost all the produce in India is processed into black pepper

only a very limited quantity is converted into white pepper

Black pepper is used directly as a spice

Also for the extraction of pepper oleoresin and oil

white pepper is exclusively used as dried spices and medicinally.

Black pepper

It consists of fully developed, but unripe, dried berries of pepper. The harvested spikes are sun dried for 7-10 days on cement floor or mats, until the outer skin becomes, tough, black, shrink and wrinkled.

Drying is carried till the moisture content gets reduced to 10-15%.

Then the dried berries are separated from the spikes by beating, or rubbing between the hands or trampling them under the feet.

 The

out turn of dried black pepper from green berries varies from 26 to 36% depending upon the variety

White Pepper

This consists of dried ripe fruits without pericarp (skin). It is prepared by removing the outer-skin along with the pulp before drying.

White pepper is prepared by one of the two methods (i) Water steeping technique

(ii) Steaming or boiling technique.

Water steeping technique

It is a traditional and a slow method.

It involves five steps

(a) Steeping

Spikes with fully ripe berried are filled in gunny bags and are steeped in flowing water for about 7-8 days.

During this steeping process, the skin gets loosened from the seed

(b) Depulping

At the end, the berries are taken out and the skin with the pulp is removed either by rubbing between the hands or by trampling under the feet.

(c) Washing

These depulped seeds are then washed and cleaned with fresh water repeatedly (3-4 times)

(d) Drying

The cleaned seeds are sun dried for 3-5 days on cement floors or mats, till they become white and the moisture content gets reduced to 10-15%.

(e) Polishing

The dried sees are now dull white in colour, They are further cleaned by winnowing and polished by rubbing with a cloth.

The percentage of recovery of white pepper is about 25% or ripe berries.

(ii) Steaming or boiling technique

This is an improved and quick method developed at CFTRI, Mysore,

This involves 4 steps

Boiling:

Freshly harvested spikes (berries) are boiled for about 15 minutes

Depulping :

The boiled berries are then depulped mechanically

Bleaching:

The depulped berries are washed thoroughly to remove the pulp, if any, adhering to the berries and then bleached with bleaching powder.

Sundrying :

The bleached berries are sundried for 2-3 days

The main use of pepper is as a spice in culinary preparations, and in flavoring processed foods.
In developed countries, Pepper is used mainly for processing meat. whole fruits of black pepper are added pickles.

Black pepper is mostly used for its characteristic aroma, and pungency. The aromatic odour of pepper is due to an essential oil, while the pungency is due to oleoresin.

Pepper consists of an alkaloid- Piperine

Piperine stimulates the flow of saliva and gastric juices and has a cooling effect.

In India, pepper is traditionally used in medicine in several ways

ESSENTIAL OILS

Possible Uses: Aching muscles, arthritis, chilblains, constipation, muscle cramps, poor circulation, sluggish digestion.

Constituents: Myrcene, Sabinene, Terpenene.

Limonene,

Pinene, Beta-

Phellandrene, Linalol,

caryophyllene,

Beta-bisabolene,
Pinocarveol,

Alpha, Terpineol, Camphene, Alpha,