Peppers
Poblano / ancho
Green = poblano, dried red = ancho.
- 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; even water the whole way
- Harvest
- Jun green; Oct to Nov red
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, in the early morning, and stubbornly even: poblanos read a missed soak on their longest-hanging pods first, and water swings mean blossom end rot. Mulch and keep the schedule.
- 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. Under the lights 14 to 16 hours; one of the slower peppers, so give it the full bench. Out mid-March to mid-April in 65F soil; fall transplants out July 1 to 25.
- Feed
- Compost at planting and one side-dress at fruit set, then off the nitrogen. Stop feeding in the July-August heat; restart lightly with the fall bed once September nights cool.
- Ready
- Big, dark green pods roast well from June. The drying crop is the fall planting: pods set after the September nights cool have time to ripen mahogany red before the mid-November frost, and fully colored pods dry into anchos.
- Trouble
- Tall, top-heavy plants flop under a load of pods: stake early. Sunken dark tip: blossom end rot from uneven water, so soak deeply and evenly. Flowers drop through the gap: normal, and set restarts with the cool nights.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily through summer, twice a day in a heat wave, water until it drains from the holes; a stake in the bag early saves the loaded branches.
- Feed
- Dilute liquid feed on the watering calendar, leached weekly with plain water; hold feed when days top 90F.
- Sow
- One plant per 5 gallon bag at the minimum, staked; the fall bag crop is the ancho crop.
Two peppers from one plant: green poblanos off the spring crop for the grill, anchos dried from the fall crop's ripened-red pods.
Growing
One of the slower peppers, so it gets the full January bench on the heat mat. Transplant from mid-March to mid-April into 65F soil, stake early, and pick the big green pods from June. For anchos, plant the fall crop: a July 1 to 25 transplant sets fruit in the cool of September, and those pods ripen red into October and early November. Pods that reach full color before frost dry cleanest, so the fall crop is the drying crop.
Varieties
No Texas source names a poblano variety, so the entry stays generic; the canning-salsa guides classify the dried ancho with the mild chiles.
In the kitchen
Green: blistered over a flame, peeled, and folded into rajas or stuffed as chiles rellenos. Dried red: ancho, the backbone of cooked salsas and red chile sauce.