Growing, Harvesting and Drying Hot Cayenne Peppers: Red Pepper Flakes for Pasta!

Growing, Harvesting and Drying Hot Cayenne Peppers: Red Pepper Flakes for Pasta!

A pepper that is very easy to grow is the hot 'Cayenne' pepper. There is a sweet version with no heat. I grow the hot cayenne specifically for making red pepper flakes for my pastas. I live in Maryland Zone 7 and transplant my plants late May into my earth beds and container gardens. I typically harvest the peppers in late August or early September when they are a brilliant red and start drying a bit on the plant. I believe harvesting them this way improves their flavor!

The Finished Product - Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Peppers need warm days and nights to really start growing. If you plant them too early, frost will kill them and if you put them in past the frost date but when it is still cool... they will just sit. They prefer 60+ degree nights and 80 degrees days to really start growing. Warmer night bring faster growth. Late May is a good time to get them in ground in my area. I recommend using transplants you either start yourself indoors about 8 weeks before they would go into the ground or you can by transplants locally.

Cayenne Peppers Oven Dried and Ready to be Crushed 

If you don't have room to grow them in the ground you can grow them in containers. I recommend a 5 gallon container but they can also be grown in 2 1/2 gallon containers like in the video. The key to healthy container peppers is never letting the soil fully dry out and liquid feedings about every two weeks with a balance fertilizer or one with a lower nitrogen number. Too much nitrogen gets you a lot of leaf growth.