Black pepper

Black pepper

 Botanical Name :- Piper nigrum

Family :- Piperaceae

Origin :- Western Ghats of South India

Useful plant part :- Fruits / Berry

• Black pepper is a "king of spices".
• Black pepper is also known as "black gold" in trade.
• Black pepper has shallow root system.
• Black pepper inflorescence is a catkin.
• Alcoholic extract of black pepper was found to be highly toxic.

Climate :-

1. Black pepper is a tropical plant.
2. Black pepper requires warm and humid climate for commercial production.
3. Black pepper crop tolerates temperature between 10°C to 40°C.
4. Black pepper requires an optimum temperature 25°C to 35°C.
5. Black pepper distributed annual rainfall of 125 to 200 cm "or" 1250 to 2000 mm.

Soil :-

Black pepper can be grown in a wide range of soils such as Clay loam, Red loam, Sandy loam and lateritic soils.

• Black pepper required pH :- 4.5 - 6.0

Selection of site :-

Well drain, level land hill slopes are suitable for growing black pepper.

• Spacing of black pepper :- 2.5 x 2.5 m

Harvesting :-

pepper vines start yielding usually from the 3rd or 4th year. It takes 6 - 8 month from flowering to ripening stage.

Harvesting is done from November to February.

Yield :-

Old pepper vines 800 - 1000 kg of black pepper per ha.

Varieties :-

More than 75 cultivars of pepper are being cultivated in India. Majority of the cultivated types of pepper are monoecious.

Improved varieties of black pepper :-

Name of hybrid / variety	Percentage	Percentage yield / vine (kg)
Panniyur-1	F1 hybrid Uthirankotha × Cheriyakaniakadan	2.5
Panniyur-2 Krishna	Open pollinated seedling of Balankottah	4.5
Panniyur-3 Shima	F1 hybrid of Uthirankotah × Cheriyakaniakadan	4.4
Panniyur-4	Selection of Kuthravally II	2.3
Panniyur-5	Open pollinated progeny of perum kodi	2.75
Sreekara	Selection from Kanmundu (KS14)	4.8
Subhakara	Selection from Kariamunda (KS 27)	4.2
Panchami	Selection from Aimpiriyan Coll. 856	5.2
pournami	Selection from Ottaplackal type Coll. No. 812	4.7