Peppers
Habanero
The hottest pod in the bed; easier here than you think.
- Indoors
- 6 to 8 wk (Jan, again May)
- Outside
- Mid Mar to mid Apr, again Jul 1-25
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun; the hotter the corner the better
- Water
- Deep weekly soak; drought drops flowers and pods
- Harvest
- Jun green; Oct to Nov orange
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, in the early morning, and never let it wilt; a dry spell makes a habanero shed the flowers it spent weeks setting. Mulch deep and keep the schedule even.
- Sow
- 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, cut the weaker at the soil line when true leaves show. Spring bench in January; a second bench in May for the fall bed.
- Start inside
- Heat mat at 80 to 90F; the slowest pepper on the bench, so give it the full 6 to 8 weeks. Under the lights 14 to 16 hours. Out mid-March to mid-April in 65F soil, hottest corner; fall transplants July 1 to 25.
- Feed
- Compost at planting and one side-dress at fruit set, with the nitrogen light or it grows leaves, not pods. Hold all feeding through the July-August heat; feed the fall bed lightly once set resumes.
- Ready
- Green June pods are already dangerously hot; the full punch comes with the orange. Pods left to hang ripen orange from midsummer on, and the fall crop carries the finish late October into November, ahead of the frost. One plant gives dozens. Cut, do not pull, and gloves at picking are not a suggestion.
- Trouble
- Flowers drop through the gap and after any missed soak: normal, they reset with September's cool nights. Aphids curling the new growth: a hard water spray. The short-season worry, pods stalled green by a cool fall, does not happen here.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily all summer, twice a day in a heat wave, until it runs from the drainage holes; a wilted bag habanero sheds flowers, so afternoon shade is part of the deal.
- Feed
- Dilute liquid feed on the watering calendar, leached weekly with plain water; hold the feed when days top 90F.
- Sow
- One plant per 5 gallon bag at the minimum; bags warm fast, which this pepper loves, if the shade and water rules hold.
The top of the garden's heat range, and easier here than in short-season gardens: habanero wants a long warm run, and this is where it gets one.
Growing
Sow on the January bench with the other peppers and give the family's slowest grower the full 6 to 8 weeks on the mat; it is a genuinely tropical plant that wants the long warm run this garden has. Transplants go out mid-March to mid-April in 65F soil, in the hottest corner of the bed, and the plant loads before the mid-June gap like every pepper here. The May bench transplants July 1 to 25. Short-season gardens lose the orange finish to cool falls; here the long fall carries it into late October and November, with the gap the only honest fight left.
Varieties
Texas A&M bred one habanero, the deliberately mild TAM Mild Habanero, and no current Texas hot list names a true-hot strain; standard orange habanero seed is the packet, and any strain labeled plainly habanero behaves the same.
In the kitchen
One or two pods carry a pot of jerk marinade or a batch of mango hot sauce, and a single pod charred into a pot of salsa moves it to the top of the range. Gloves at the cutting board are not a suggestion.