The time from transplanting to the first harvest varies with the type and cultivar grown. In the United States Boswell et al. (1964) give the time to the green mature stage of sweet peppers as 58-82 days, with many of them about 78 days.

Hot chilli peppers are given as 100-115 days, with up to 150 days to the red ripe stage. ‘Tabasco’ is said to be a very late-maturing cultivar, but no time is given. Gollifer (1973) in an experiment on Indian chillies in the British Solomon Islands gives the time to first harvesting as 17 weeks after sowing the seeds, continued at fortnightly intervals for a period of 24 weeks.

On lighter sandier soils they suggest a dressing of 840- 1120 kg per hectare of a 5 : 8 : 8 or 5 : 10 : 10 fertilizer before transplanting, with a top dressing of nitrogen at fruit setting, to which is added 56 kg of muriate or sulphate of potash.

At Dala in the British Solomon Islands, Gollifer (1973) obtained mean yields of 3134 kg per hectare of dried chillies from the Indian cultivar `Majhaillupalama’ after a harvesting period of 27 weeks from 93 kg/hectare of potassium, which was a significant 76 per cent increase over the control yield.

You want to enjoy and admire the landscape of nature but you are not used to rough accommodation. But don’t lose hope as you can still admire the wonderful views of nature at the comfort of your home. This can only be made possible if you have a sunroom enclosure in your home. You and your family members can surely have a good time and at the same time have worthy conversations right at the sunroom. Sunrooms are usually available in different designs, types, and colors. Different manufactures and contractors also offer sunrooms and each promising to offer the best. But since you only want the best for your home, it is your responsibility to know the banes and boons of a sunroom and the cost you need to shell out when planning to build this kind of room. There is also a do-it-yourself sunroom kit that allows you to construct your own sunroom hence giving a personal touch to it. The DIY sunroom kit also gives you the chance to cut down the expenses of building a sunroom such as the labor cost.

Damping-off, caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn. and Pylhium spp., is of frequent occurrence in nurseries. The seed may rot or the seedlings may be killed before they emerge from the soil.

Small yellowish spots appear on the ripe fruit, which increase in size during damp weather and become sunken and soft. Dempsey and Brantley (1953) state that it may be overlooked and only appear after the fruit has been held for several hours. According to Sastri (1950), the same fungus can cause a die- back of the plants in India. It is important to plant disease-free seeds. Control is the same as for anthracnose.

Blue mould or downy mildew of tobacco, Pef6n ospora tabacina Adam, also attacks capsicum and occasionally causes serious losses in nurseries in the south-eastern United States. The leaves show pale spots which later become covered with a pale-blue coating of fungal spores. Spraying with ferbam or zineb is recommended by Boswell et al. (1964).

Capsicums are attacked by a large number of viruses, including tobacco mosaic, tobacco etch, cucumber mosaic, potato x virus and potato y virus. The plant may be attacked by more than one virus. The usual symptoms are a yellow mottling and curling of the leaves. Viruses may also cause a yellow spotting of the fruits with.dark-green raised spots, and yields may be greatly reduced.

Considerable difficulties are encountered in attempting to determine the level of trade in chillies and capsicums. Apart from the common shortcomings in the export statistics of many of the major exporting countries, the trade in small volumes of these commodities from numerous other minor exporters is rarely reported, and even in some of the major importing countries in the Western hemisphere import statistics are frequently deficient.

These exporters mainly supplied moderately pungent capsicums rather than the more pungent chillies. Their main flow of trade was to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which was the hub of the Asian market, and to the British Straits Settlements (now Malaysia), in which Singapore played an important role as an entrepOt.

Japan, Thailand and Indonesia maintained their position is as substantial producers and exporters during much of the post-war period.. Production in Thailand and Japan, however, appears tobave decreased since the mid-1960s, partly resulting from greater emphasis being given; to other crops.

Production in Burma, as monitored by export figures, appears to have decreased dramatically since the 1950s. This was probably associated with the general decline in Burmese agricultural production during this period and also with the loss,of the Sri Lankan market.

American paprika is grown commercially almost entirely in small areas in southern California (since 1931) and south-east Arizona; it was formerly grown in South Carolina, until 1946 when increasing competition from imported paprika made production unprofitable. Although the production of paprika in the USA is a relatively new industry, it now supplies about 40 per cent of US requirements, more than that supplied by any individual foreign country.

Prior to drying, the washed fruits are mechanically cut into 1 cm wide strips. Drying is accomplished on tray- or band-driers by a countercurrent hot-air flow system which passes through the layer of cut fruits. Steam-heated radiators are commonly employed as heat sources in these driers; one being positioned at the exit-end of the drier and the second in the centre.

The freshly harvested fruits are piled, if possible, on a hillside facing south for a period of 24 hours, and then they are dried either in the sun or by artificial methods. In the traditional method of sun-drying, the whole fruits are spread out on drying floors, cane-trays or mats laic! over well-drained ground and are exposed to the sun for 1 to 4 days until they are soft and wrinkled.

You might have seen pictures of the old food pyramid on posters in your doctor’s surgery or in magazines but you might not have seen the new food pyramid yet.

The old food pyramid stacks four food groups on top of one another. The largest food group is at the base and this is bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. Next, up you have fruit and vegetables. The second from the top is dairy, meat, fish, eggs, nuts, and beans and right at the top, with the smallest space, is fats and oils. You can use this food pyramid to tell at a glance how much of each type of food you should be eating.

The new food pyramid uses vertical rainbow colored stripes to indicate the different food groups and it tells you how many cups or ounces per day you should have rather than how many servings like on the old food pyramid. Most people would not know how much a “serving” should be, so this does simplify things.

Is it Important to Follow the Food Pyramid?

In the northern temperate countries the fruits are hot cultivars of C. annuum, with the exception of ‘Tabasco’ grown in Louisiana, which is a cultivar of C. frutescens. Hot forms of C. annuum are also grown in elsewhere in the tropics. In South America they can be C. baccatum var. pendulum and C. chinense at the lower altitudes; the latter also occurs in the Caribbean; and C. pubescens at higher altitudes in the Andes; it also occurs in the mountains of southern Mexico and Central America.

At this time the spice was widely spread and used throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. Capsicums were soon spread throughout the tropics and warm temperate regions of the old World. Capsicum is also known as chilli (usually spelt ‘chili’ in the United States), paprika, pimiento, and sweet, red, cayenne or bird pepper, depending upon the type and the way in which it is used.

It should not be confused with black and white pepper from Piper nigrum, long pepper from Piper longum, Jamaica pepper, pimento or allspice from Pimento, dioica, or Melegueta or Guinea pepper from Aframomum melegueta.

Many times, lawns are neglected during the colder seasons. If it is neglected, it will show during the warmer months. Even though the lawn may look like it is dormant, how it is taken care of will make a different in the overall health. Taking care of a lawn during colder months is not difficult and the regimen will vary depending on the type of lawn you have.

Before you begin your lawn care, it is important to know what type of grass you have: cool or warm season. Common cool season grasses include bluegrass, fescues, ryegrass and bentgrass. Warm season grasses include Bermuda, zoysiagrass, Saint-Augustine and buffalograss. Different types of grasses will require different treatments.

To prevent lawn disease during colder months, remove leaves from the yard. If they are left on the lawn, it will prevent the sunlight and air from getting into the grass and encourage disease. The leaves need to be either raked or mulched with a mower. It is also important to remove any other debris on the lawn, including toys, logs and equipment. All of these can smother the grass.

It appears that Bucholtz (1816) was the first to realize that the pungent constituents could be extracted by macerating the pods with organic solvents, and in the following year Braconnot (1817) observed that the pungent principles could form salts with alkalis.

The use of water-immiscible solvents in the manufacture of paprika oleoresin gives a product with a relatively large amount of colouring matter but little pungent material, whereas extraction of chillies with a water-miscible solvent provides ‘capsicum oleoresin’ containing a rela- tively high capsaicin content (up to 14 per cent) but little colouring matter.

Extraction of chillies and capsicums with a water-,immiscible solvent provides oleoresins which can be regarded as a solution of capsaicin in fatty oil; the latter can comprise some 90 per cent of the oleoresin. The fruits of most Capsicum species contain significant amounts of vitamins B, C, E and protovitamin A (carotene) when in the fresh state.

However, the later study of Korean capsicums by Lee (1971) has suggested that the situation is more complex, and that the relative abundance of pungent material in the dissepiments and pericarp can differ among cultivars and also according to the stage of maturity at harvest.

Nevertheless, problems are apparent with many of the published methods owing to the fact that they fail to determine the relative abundance of the individual capsaicinoids and to make corrections for their differing pungency levels. Interested readers are referred to the critical reviews of Maga (1975) and Salzer (1975a) which discuss the merits and limitations of some of the different approaches taken for pungency assessment.

There is no firm correlation between size and pungency level for fruits with capsaicin contents in the 0.1- 0.6 per cent range. In devising a useful classification system, less attention should probably be given to ascribing precise botanical classifications, while greater weight should be given to properties in respect to product applications. The primary criterion should be the pungency level, expressed in Scoville units or the capsaicin content; and in the case of capsicums there is a good case for including the colour value as a second criterion, as in the United States Federal specification.