Peppers
Padron
Pick thumb-size and relentlessly, spring and fall.
- 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
- Water
- Deep weekly soak; steady water drives the flush
- Harvest
- Jun, then Oct to Nov, thumb size
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, in the early morning; steady water drives the flushes that picking depends on. Let it swing dry and you trade picking weeks for recovery time.
- 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, sprouts in a week to two; do not skip the mat on a January sowing. Under the lights 14 to 16 hours. Out mid-March to mid-April in 65F soil; fall transplants go out July 1 to 25.
- Feed
- Compost worked in at planting; a light side-dress at fruit set keeps the flushes coming without pushing leaf. No feeding in the July-August heat; the fall bed gets a light feed when set resumes.
- Ready
- Pick relentlessly at 1 to 2 inches, from June and again from October; steady picking drives the next flush. Anything that hides past three inches turns fiery. Cut, do not pull.
- Trouble
- Pods left past three inches turn genuinely hot and stall the plant: pick often. Aphids on new growth: a hard water spray. Brown leaf spots spreading: bacterial leaf spot, strip affected leaves and keep water off the foliage.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily through the summer flushes, twice a day in a heat wave, water until it drains from the holes; afternoon shade or 30 to 50 percent shade cloth keeps the root zone alive.
- Feed
- Dilute liquid feed on the watering calendar with a weekly plain-water leach; hold the feed when days top 90F.
- Sow
- One plant per 5 gallon bag at the minimum; keep picking or the bag plant stalls out.
The blistering tapas pepper, double-cropped here like every chile: thumb-size pods off the spring plants in June, then a fall flush that runs to frost.
Growing
The standard pepper schedule here, doubled: a January bench transplants mid-March to mid-April and picks thumb-size pods from June, and a May bench transplants July 1 to 25 for the fall flush. Fruit set stops in the gap like every pepper here; hold the plant through summer with mulch and steady water, and it starts flushing again when September's nights cool. Pick at one to two inches without mercy, since pods left past three build real heat and slow the plant down.
Varieties
No Texas source names a padron strain; seed sold plainly as Padron is what the trade carries, and the plants behave alike.
In the kitchen
Hot oil, blister, flaky salt, and a bowl for the stems, plate after plate while the flush lasts. A pod that runs hot gets minced into tonight's salsa instead of wasted.