Pepper

[guyshown]

Has any one grown pepper- black peppers is what i mean actually they are sold in the market green?

[lung]

not me....

... but i have a info

thaipepper

how to

[sbk]

guyshown, my mother-in-law grows black pepper. It is a vining plant that attaches itself to the tree-- it is climbing--it must have support. She lets hers dry on the vine before harvesting. It is quite labor intensive to harvest but seems easy enough to grow once the plant gets going. We live in a high humidity, fairly high rainfall area.

Here is a little bit of information about the plant

At the store you will find black pepper and white pepper, which actually come from the same plant. Black pepper is the dried, immature fruit (a drupe). White pepper is made from the inner portion of mature fruits; the outer covering is removed by retting the fruits in gunny sacks in slow-running water to permit the bacteria to loosen the outer pericarp. White pepper is slightly different in flavor, but its main selling point is that it is light and can be used for special occasions as a contrast to dark-colored foods. Actually, black pepper has light flecks (particles of the inner fruit) mixed in with the darker particles of the outer pericarp.

Black pepper is produced on vines. The plant is propagated from vegetative cuttings, and it is often interplanted with shade trees, especially tree crops such as coffee (Coffea). This plant requires high temperatures (28-35 degrees C), heavy and well-distributed rainfall (>2500 mm over 8-10 months), and a well-drained soil with much humus and high water-holding capacity (not too acid). The best places for growing pepper are now India, Sarawak in Indonesia, and Brazil.

[guyshown]

sbk-Thanks for the info - do you know at what stage of the growth do the get the green peppers bunches like you see in the Thai markets and cooking. Also how per a kilo is phrik thai sell for in the market. Is any one growing phrik thai in northeast or issan area?

Once again thanks for the help

[sbk]

dried about 200 b/ kilo down in Koh Phangan.

green, no idea

I'm not sure about the stage, but I do know that it is green first before it turns red and then starts to dry.

[guyshown]

SBK thanks for the info

[sbk]

What little I have Like I said, my mother-in-law grows it around her house, I get it from her (no charge thank goodness )

However, I must say, she does grow hers up dead tree stumps, and her soil is quite good, her veggies do quite well too.

[teletiger]

Sounds like something that can be inter-cropped in a rubber plantation.

Regards

BTB. A 2002 export quote was $2500 per tonne

[RamdomChances]

I was just looking at some of the stats for pepper from here :-

http://www.oae.go.th/statistic/yearbook/2003/indexe.html

It's under others

It shows the 2003 value at 680 kg/rai with a farm price of 79 bhat, that works out at a whopping 53,730 bhat/rai. Which is a pretty amazing fig, anyone got any ideas on the costs to grow ?

RC

[guyshown]

I was just looking at some of the stats for pepper from here :-

http://www.oae.go.th/statistic/yearbook/2003/indexe.html

It's under others

It shows the 2003 value at 680 kg/rai with a farm price of 79 bhat, that works out at a whopping 53,730 bhat/rai. Which is a pretty amazing fig, anyone got any ideas on the costs to grow ?

RC

Random Chances Thanks for the input! I was wondering if I could use my rubber trees as a trellis?

[sbk]

Not sure about that, they might require more sun than they could get inside a rubber plantation. My mother-in-laws are out in full sun and she gets quite a good harvest off of her 2 or so vines. Enough for her, me, and some sales.

[teletiger]

Not sure about that, they might require more sun than they could get inside a rubber plantation. My mother-in-laws are out in full sun and she gets quite a good harvest off of her 2 or so vines. Enough for her, me, and some sales.

My neighbour has intercropped pepper with his mak (?) palms. (red seeds). He says the pepper needs some shade.

Regards

[guyshown]

I bet your right about not enough sun inside of the rubber plantation. Alot more sun gets in a Palm Plantation than a Rubber Plantation. I have heard of people inner mixing Peppercorn with Palm trees. Does any one know if it takes a lot of fertilizers?? how about water during the dry season in Issan how will it do?

[chownah]

I bet your right about not enough sun inside of the rubber plantation. Alot more sun gets in a Palm Plantation than a Rubber Plantation. I have heard of people inner mixing Peppercorn with Palm trees. Does any one know if it takes a lot of fertilizers?? how about water during the dry season in Issan how will it do?

Post #2 has a link which talks about how to grow pepper.

[teletiger]

When intensively farmed (5,000 plants per hectare) yields can go up to 8 TONS per hectare. I presume that some sort of trellis work is used, with shading cloth and irrigation. That's 800 plants per rai. (1x2 mtr I presume?) With that intensity you'd need a regular spraying programme. They take a few years to fruit. I'll enquire with my neighbour about fruiting time with cuttings.

Regards

[Maizefarmer]

I was just looking at some of the stats for pepper from here :-

http://www.oae.go.th/statistic/yearbook/2003/indexe.html

It's under others

It shows the 2003 value at 680 kg/rai with a farm price of 79 bhat, that works out at a whopping 53,730 bhat/rai. Which is a pretty amazing fig, anyone got any ideas on the costs to grow ?

RC

Yup - big price, but that reflects a) the volume - do you know just how much dried seed goes into 1ton of the stuff - its about 2cubic metres!! and , production costs are high - its a labour intensive crop which is "fussy" (i.e. on a commercial scale it requires a lot of care and monitering of conditions).

But hack it and it'll reward you.

Tim