Back in March my son and I thought it would be fun to grow our own hot peppers. So way back then we planted jalapeño seeds in the little jiffy starter packs and put it under the plastic dome. To our surprise, they actually popped up! A few weeks later we put them in the ground over in a corner where nothing else was having success.
A lot has happened in our garden since then. Corn came and went. Eggplant grew up next to it and matured. The tomato forest grew next to it. We were over run with summer squash. And all the while our little jalapeño plants just kept on growing, and we waited for some sign that we’d get hot peppers.
Spring gave way to summer. And the little plants just quietly grew. We kept watering the 4-5 plants who made it past the transplant and watched them grow bit-by-bit stronger. All the while, Paul and I would ask… is this thing ever going to flower?
We’re pretty patient gardeners. And so we were more curious than anything. When would this thing mature?
Right before we left for our summer vacation all of the pretty little flowers gave way to this beauty. A baby. But we were still hopeful that our plants would grow even bigger and that we’d get a lot more peppers!
A couple weeks back, I could tell we were on our way to a bumper crop. Now fully mature, our jalapeño plants got to about 3.5 feet tall and had fruit all over the place. It was just a matter of time.
Today, 180+ days after we planted the seeds, we have our first basket of beautiful jalapeños. Well worth the wait.
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