Peppers
Shishito
Blister-fry small; prolific in both windows.
- 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; give it the sunniest corner
- Water
- Deep weekly soak; never let it bake dry
- Harvest
- Jun, then Oct to Nov, small green
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, in the early morning, and never let it bake dry; one parched afternoon costs a whole flush of pods. Mulch holds the schedule through a dry spell.
- 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 at 2 to 3 inches while the walls are thin, from June and again from October; steady picking drives the next flush. Any that hide and redden stay usable, only past their prime. Cut, do not pull.
- Trouble
- Brown spots spreading on leaves and pods: bacterial leaf spot, strip affected leaves and water the soil, not the plant. Aphids on new growth: a hard water spray. Flowers drop through the gap: normal, they set again when nights cool.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in summer, twice a day in a heat wave, until it runs from the holes; a bag dries faster than a bed, and a parched afternoon costs a flush.
- 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; a bag shishito by the kitchen door is the best picking station in the garden.
A one-plant appetizer program, twice over: small green pods picked from the spring plants in June, then a fall crop that blisters into November.
Growing
The same double crop as every pepper here: January bench, out from mid-March to mid-April in 65F soil, first small pods picked from June. Give it the sunniest corner and pick at two to three inches; steady harvest is what drives the next flush. The May bench transplants July 1 to 25, and after the gap the fall plant flushes hard through October and into early November. Pods that hide long enough to redden are still good, just no longer the point.
Varieties
One Texas seed house lists a named shishito, Takara, bred mild with the same occasional-hot pod; seed sold plainly as shishito is the standard everywhere else, and the plants behave alike.
In the kitchen
Dry pan or a slick of oil, high heat, flaky salt when the skins char and collapse. A plate of blistered shishitos buys the cook twenty minutes while the salsa comes together, and the occasional hot pod keeps eaters on their toes.