Among garden crops, one can often find amazing breeding works. One of such unusual plants is pepper-tree Octopus New Year's F1. What are its features, and how to grow a variety in an open, closed ground or room, we will consider in this material.

Description and characteristics of the variety

Hybrid pepper Octopus is part of the breeding series of the same name, released by the Russian agricultural company "Sedek". Under this name, 3 hybrids of tomatoes were also created. The name of the variety is explained by the fact that the plant with its shoots, like the tentacles of a marine animal octopus, is able to braid any support, trellis or wall.

Hybrid pepper-tree Octopus New Year's reckon among the medium-late varieties. Fruit ripening occurs 120–130 days after emergence.

The plant is suitable for growing in residential conditions - on the balcony, loggia. It is also cultivated in a greenhouse. In warm climates, they are planted in gardens and front gardens. It requires mandatory garters to the trellis or supports.

Productivity

Subject to the required conditions for temperature and light conditions, as well as with proper agricultural technology, 300 to 500 peppers are tied on one bush.

Did you know? The sharpest pepper in the world is called Scorpio Trinidad. To determine the degree of its burning, scientists had to work in gas masks, two rubber gloves and suits.

Description of the bushes

Tall bushes form in the plant, which when grown in greenhouse conditions can grow 3–5 m high. They are characterized by a high growth rate — they reach their maximum size in just six months.

Fruit Description

Fruits form in the shape of bells. Their average weight is 20–25 g, length is 3-4 cm. The skin is bright red, shiny, dense.

Video: Pepper-tree F1 Octopus New Year

Taste qualities

The taste of the fruits is medium sharp. The pulp has a slight hotness, and the seeds have a rich sharpness. The fruits are suitable for fresh consumption, as a seasoning for dishes, especially meat, for cooking adjika, ketchup, pickling, for adding to winter sunsets, for example, in canned tomatoes, cucumbers. You can marinate them with the stalks.

Pros and cons of growing

• Growing pepper-tree Octopus New Year has several advantages:
• the owner can not only receive healthy and tasty fruits, but also decorate housing;
• the plant can be grown in various conditions: in open and protected ground, in room conditions;
• bushes resist most diseases and harmful insects.

• The minuses include:
• the inability to grow from their own seeds, since it is a hybrid;
• mandatory formation and garter procedures;
• Decrease in decorativeness and productivity when growing in the shade at room conditions.

Features and rules for growing varieties

Planting pepper in greenhouse conditions and in the open air is carried out by the seedling method. First, you need to purchase seed, prepare containers for planting, buy or prepare soil substrate.

Seed selection and processing

Since seeds of a hybrid variety are suitable only for planting, they do not need to be treated. The manufacturer has already taken care of this. Seeds are sold packaged in paper bags of 0.05 g (6-8 seeds). After opening, they can be immediately planted in the ground. But it is better to germinate, for which the seed is wrapped in a damp cloth dipped in an aqueous solution of wood ash (2 tbsp. / 1 ​​l of boiling water, leave for 2 days), and placed in a warm place.

Important! Since pepper does not tolerate transplantation, it is better to plant it in separate containers from the beginning to eliminate the need for picking.

Land preparation

For planting seedlings, you can purchase ready-made soil in a specialized store designed for this purpose, or prepare the substrate yourself.

Here are a few options:

1. Sawdust soaked in boiling water.
2. A mixture of garden soil (1 bucket), humus (1 bucket), sand (1/3 bucket), wood ash (1/2 l).

The soil that is prepared with your own hands must be disinfected with one of the proposed methods:

1. Water with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate.
2. Pour boiling water.
3. Soak in the oven at a temperature of +80 ... + 90 ° С for 20–40 minutes.
4. Put in a steam bath for 40 minutes.
5. Put in the microwave for maximum mode for 10 minutes.

The disinfected substrate is kept for a couple of weeks so that it is colonized with beneficial bacteria. Immediately before planting, moisturize well.

It is also possible to treat with any fungicide containing copper.

The substrate is filled in containers for growing seedlings. It can be peat pots, cassettes, plastic glasses. You can use trays, boxes, plastic containers.

Seeding Rules

Sowing is carried out in late February - early March. They deepen the pepper seeds no deeper than 1 cm. In the substrate, make holes in which the seeds are placed, and fill them with soil. Capacities are covered with a film or glass. After sowing, they are placed in a warm place where they maintain the temperature + 25 ... + 30 ° С.

Shelter is removed after the appearance of the first shoots. Seedlings are periodically moistened and fed. When grown in one container, a pick is required, which is produced when 2 real leaves are formed in the sprouts.

Important! Hot pepper must be planted at a significant distance from the sweet, so that when pollinated, the fruits of the latter do not begin to bitter.

2 weeks before planting in the soil should begin hardening seedlings. First, the sprouts are kept with an open window, then they are taken out to fresh air, starting from 40 minutes a day. Gradually, this time is increased to 6-8 hours. At this time, it is imperative to shade the sprouts from sunlight. Immediately before landing, they are left to spend the night on the street.

Seedlings are planted in the greenhouse in May. In regions with a warm climate, when pepper is cultivated in the garden or in the front garden, the sprouts are transferred to the soil in late May - early June.

When landing, make holes at a distance of 40 cm from each other and make humus, 1 tbsp. superphosphate, 1 tbsp. wood ash. Before placing the sprouts in the pits, they are well watered. Young peppers are planted without destroying the earthen lump.

Pepper Tree Care Features

When growing in protected ground, Novogodny Sprut needs a lot of light, warmth and intense top dressing. Only in this case is it possible to achieve the declared level of productivity. Mandatory care procedures also include watering, hilling, loosening, and forming a bush.

Watering and feeding

Watering pepper is recommended 1 time in 3 days, under the root. To moisturize, use warm water.

When feeding, adhere to the rule - do not overfeed plants with nitrogen. Otherwise, there is a risk of cessation of flowering and fruiting.

When grown in open ground, you can feed pepper-tree with chicken droppings (2 times per season) and dust with wood ash (3-4 times).

It is possible to use the following fertilizer application:

• 14 days after planting, an aqueous solution of mullein is introduced into the soil;
• during flowering - an aqueous solution of wood ash;
• after 20 days - potassium and calcium fertilizers.

Hilling and loosening the soil

Pepper does not need hilling. Most gardeners argue that the procedure is harmful to the culture, as it rotts the roots because of it.

Since the root system of the pepper is soft, fragile and superficial, loosening is carried out with caution. Loosen the soil in the near-stem circle and row spacing after each watering, and when grown in open ground and after rains.

To reduce the amount of loosening and maintain the level of soil moisture, it is mulched. As mulch use rotted grass, humus, straw, peat.

Rules for the formation of a bush, tree

Tall bushes of the New Year's Octopus are subject to mandatory garter to the support. Otherwise, the tree may break under the weight of the fruit.

For growth and development, it is necessary to form a bush - manually tear off stepsons and extra leaves until the first fork. Pasynkovka produced on a day when there is no sun and rainfall.

When grown indoors, at the end of the growing season, the tree is cut by 1/3. It is also possible to produce forming pruning, giving the crown the shape of a ball. During flowering, pinching the lateral shoots is done until the first ovary. In the future, pinch all the vertical shoots.

Transfer

Transplantation is required for those plants that are grown indoors. Since pepper is a perennial plant, it needs to be replanted so that it grows and develops better. The procedure is carried out in spring using the transshipment method: a substrate is poured into a pot larger than the previous one, a tree with an undamaged earth lump is placed in it, the soil is poured, not reaching the edge of the container 2-3 cm. After planting, the soil is abundantly watered .

Pest and Disease Control

New Year's pepper tree Octopus is capable of stubbornly resisting the diseases and pest attacks that harass plants from the nightshade family. However, with errors made during planting and care, aphids can attack it. This sucking insect during mass settlement can quickly destroy all plantings.

It settles on the lower leaf plate, feeds on plant juices. To combat, first use folk remedies - spraying with soapy water, a mixture of tobacco dust decoction (brew according to the instructions on the package), with a decoction of ground black pepper (1 tbsp. / 1 ​​liter of water, boil for 10 minutes). In case of mass damage, they resort to chemical spraying with insecticides, for example, the Strela drug.

Another insect that poses a threat to pepper tree is the spider mite. This small sucking insect of red or black color can be found on the lower leaf plates. It feeds on the plant's juices, as a result of which the bush withers and dries. Against a tick use "Nitrofen", colloidal sulfur, acaricides: "Fufanon", "Actellik", "Karbofos".

Hybrid value

Hybrid Octopus New Year is appreciated for having:

• high decorativeness;
• unusual shape of peppers;
• high level of productivity;
• disease resistance;
• universality of application in cooking.

Indoor cultivation recommendations

Hot peppers are often cultivated on window sills, loggias, and closed balconies.

In order for the plant to yield, it is necessary to adhere to the following recommendations:

1. Since pepper is a photophilous plant, it is necessary to organize additional artificial illumination for it. Otherwise, the foliage will fall.
2. The room should maintain a favorable temperature for growing plants - + 20 ... + 25 ° C.
3. The tree needs to be fed regularly. Suitable liquid mineral fertilizers, organics (aqueous solutions of mullein, chicken droppings), wood ash. They are introduced during the growing season before the onset of the fruiting phase.
4. In the spring, when the plant needs nitrogen, mustard seeds can be planted in the pot. After the sprouts appear, dig them up - they will saturate the earth with the necessary elements.
5. If the apartment is too warm, you need to water the pepper daily. In winter, watering is reduced.
6. Humidify the plant with warm, settled water. Watering with cold water causes the roots to rot.
7. Watering should be accompanied by light loosening to prevent the formation of a hard crust on the surface of the soil.
8. Like many houseplants, a pepper tree needs to be sprayed. Produced using a spray gun, placing it at a distance of 15 cm from pepper.
9. In spring and summer, pepper can be carried in a container to fresh air, where it can grow until the fall and the onset of cold weather.
10. The plant can be grown for a couple of years in room conditions, and then it is better to plant in open ground or a greenhouse.

Did you know? Hot peppers are used to produce tear gas. The substance capsaicin contained in it is also used to coat the bottom of ships to protect it from mollusks.

New Year's pepper tree Octopus attracts attention not only with sharp peppercorns, but also with decorativeness - a plant with an unusual shape of bright fruits on a background of green foliage will decorate any home in the autumn and winter. It can also be planted in the front garden, complementing the floral arrangement.