Black Pepper

ack pepper(Piper nigrum L.), the king of spices, belongs to the family Piperaceae.
It is obtained from the perennial climbing vine, Piper nigrum which is indigenous to the
tropical forests of Western Ghats of South India. It is one of the important and earliest
known spices produced and exported from India. India accounts for 54% of the total
area under pepper in the world but its share of production is only 26.6 %.
It is a climbing evergreen plant and grows to a height of 10 m or more. The vines branch
Black Pepper Cultivation Guidence
horizontally from the modes and do not attain length, but the fully-grown vines completely cover the standard presenting the appearance of bush. The leaves are broadly lanceolate, but wide variations occur in leaf shape and are arranged alternately. The inflorescence is a catkin produced at the nodes opposite to the upper leaves. Flowers are very minute. Monoecious or dioecious or hermophrodite forms occur in different varieties. The fruit is a single seeded berry, which has a thin,soft pericarp surriounding the seed. It takes approximately six months to mature after flowering. Sometimes, spike shedding occurs to the extent of 14 to 65 % causing considerable loss. Spraying of IAA 50 ppm or planofix 50 ppm and orzinc 0.5 % at the time of berry setting stage reduces spike shedding.