Peppercorn Plant

is a tropical plant cultivated for its black, white and red peppercorns. 

The three colors of peppercorn are simply different stages of the same peppercorn. Black peppercorns are the dried immature fruit or drupes of the peppercorn plant while white pepper is made from the inner portion of the mature fruit.

The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing up to 4 meters in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground.

       The leaves are alternate, entire, 5 to 10 centimeters long and 3 to 6 centimeters across.

      The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes 4 to 8 centimeters long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening up to 7 to 15 centimeters as the fruit matures.

      The fruit of the black pepper is called a drupe and when dried is known as a peppercorn.

Pepper can be grown in soil that is neither too dry nor susceptible to flooding, moist, well-drained and rich in organic matter (the vines do not do too well over an altitude of 900 m above sea level).

Propagation

Growing black pepper plants are actually vines most often propagated through vegetative cuttings and interspersed among shade crop trees, such as coffee. Conditions for growing black pepper plants require high temps, heavy and frequent rainfall, and well-draining soil.

**You can propagate from vegetative cuttings

**You can propagate from seeds, just know that it will be a few years before you get a harvest of peppercorns. Soak the seeds for 1-2 days to promote germination. Sow the seeds in a 5 gallon container with a sturdy trellis pushed up against one of the container’s sides. Sow in equal parts potting soil and peat moss. Keep the soil very warm (75-85 degrees F) and give the seeds lots of moisture.

Peppercorns take up to 45 days to germinate!

Planting Instructions:

Black pepper requires rich soil, plenty of water, humid conditions, and partial shade. Plant seeds indoors ½" deep. For proper germination the seeds must be kept damp and remain at 50% humidity or higher and 75 to 85 degrees fahrenheit. After seeds have germinated, keep soil moist and from drying out. Transplant in larger pots as seedling grows.

 The plants are propagated by cuttings about 40 to 50 centimeters (16 to 20 in) long, tied up to neighboring trees or climbing frames at distances of about 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) apart; trees with rough bark are favoured over those with smooth bark, as the pepper plants climb rough bark more readily. Competing plants are cleared away, leaving only sufficient trees to provide shade and permit free ventilation. The roots are covered in leaf mulch and manure, and the shoots are trimmed twice a year. On dry soils the young plants require watering every other day during the dry season for the first three years.

Fruit

     The plants bear fruit from the fourth or fifth year, and typically continue to bear fruit for seven years. The cuttings are usually cultivars, selected both for yield and quality of fruit.

     A single stem will bear 20 to 30 fruiting spikes. The harvest begins as soon as one or two fruits at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is fully mature, and still hard; if allowed to ripen completely, the fruit lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected and spread out to dry in the sun, then the peppercorns are stripped off the spikes.

Black pepper (unripe drupes)

Black pepper is a flowering vine, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. When dried, the fruit is known as a peppercorn. When fresh and fully mature, it is approximately 5 millimetres in diameter, dark red, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the ground pepper derived from them, may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as

Black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit),

Green pepper (dried unripe fruit)

White pepper (ripe fruit seeds).

Black pepper

1-Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The drupes are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand and then sun-dried without the boiling process.

Once the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in many medicinal and beauty products. Pepper oil is also used as an ayurvedic massage oil and used in certain beauty and herbal treatments.

White pepper

2-White pepper(darker-coloured skin of the pepper fruit removed)

White pepper consists of the seed of the pepper plant alone, with the darker-coloured skin of the pepper fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the pepper softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Sometimes alternative processes are used for removing the outer pepper from the seed, including removing the outer layer through mechanical, chemical or biological methods.

 White pepper has a slightly different flavour from black pepper, due to the lack of certain compounds present in the outer fruit layer of the drupe, but not found in the seed.

Green pepper

3-Green pepper (unripe drupes)

Green pepper, like black, is made from the unripe drupes. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a way that retains the green colour, such as treatment with sulphur dioxide, canning or freeze-drying.

       Pickled peppercorns, also green, are unripe drupes preserved in brine or vinegar.

      Fresh, unpreserved green pepper drupes, largely unknown in the West, are used in some Asian cuisines, particularly Khmer cuisine.Their flavour has been described as spicy and fresh, with a bright aroma. They decay quickly if not dried or preserved.

Red pepper

4-Red pepper (ripe drupes)

Red pepper usually consists of ripe red pepper drupes preserved in brine and vinegar. Ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper.

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