Take care
Extremely hot: wear gloves when handling or cutting the fruit, wash your hands before touching your face or eyes, and keep it away from children.
Ghost Pepper
Capsicum chinense
Start ghost pepper indoors 8 weeks before your last spring frost, then plant out 2 weeks after your last spring frost. Space plants 24 in (61 cm) apart.
Photo: Chella p, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
When to plant
Timed from your frost dates, so it holds wherever you garden. Give yours and every step below becomes a date.
Optimal Indoor Start
From seedRecommended- Start indoors8 weeks before your last spring frost
- Begin hardening off1 week after your last spring frost
- Plant out2 weeks after your last spring frost
- First harvestabout 120 days after planting out
Optimal Transplant
From seed- Plant out2 weeks after your last spring frost
- First harvestabout 120 days after planting out
Growing ghost pepper
- Spacing in the row
- 24 in (61 cm)
- Between rows
- 36 in (91 cm)
- Planting depth
- 1/4 inch
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Soil
- Well-drained, fertile loam
- Germination
- 7-21 days at 25-30°C
- Harvest season
- Summer, Early Fall
- Mature height
- 18-36 inches
- Support
- Stake
- Life cycle
- Annual
Sow seeds 0.6 cm deep (1/4 inch) in warm soil with consistent moisture.
Watering. Maintain consistent soil moisture; avoid waterlogging. Deep watering is preferred.
Neighbours
The companion chart →Grows well beside
Basil
Carrot
Onion
Tomato
Nasturtium
Spinach
OreganoKeep apart from
Cabbage
Fennel
Kohlrabi
BroccoliFeeding
- Seedlings
- Balanced liquid fertilizer (e.g., 5-5-5) at half strength once true leaves appear.
- Growing
- Balanced liquid fertilizer (e.g., 5-5-5) every 2-4 weeks.
- Flowering and fruiting
- High potassium/phosphorus fertilizer (e.g., 5-10-10 or 2-3-1) to promote fruiting.
- How often
- Every 3-4 weeks from transplant through fruiting. Its long season needs steady, moderate feeding; go easy on nitrogen once flowering starts, or the plant grows leaves instead of pods.
- Note
- Avoid high nitrogen post-flowering to prevent leafy growth at expense of fruit.
Your ghost pepper, planned to the day.
Canopy turns these timings into dates from your own frost data, places every plant at its spacing on your garden map, and tracks it all the way to harvest.