Last edited on January 27, 2021. View history
Scotch Bonnet Pepper
A variety of Capsicum chinense
How to sow Scotch bonnet pepper: Direct seed (and transplant after hardening off) or seedlings
Sun requirement for Scotch bonnet pepper: Plant in Full Sun
Scotch Bonnet Peppers are a hot pepper cultivar shaped like a hat. They have a rating of 100,000–350,000 Scoville units, making them much spicier than jalapenos. Scotch Bonnets are sweeter and stouter than habaneros and used in Caribbean cuisine. Sweet varieties are known as Cachucha Peppers. The fruit is green when young and red when ripe. Scotch Bonnets are often harvested when yellow-orange. Plants grown with less water will produce hotter peppers.
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- plantings
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- seed packets
Scotch bonnet pepper facts
Lifespan
Height
120cmRow Spacing
60cmGrown for
fruit harvested 3 timesCrop cycle
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Scotch bonnet pepper, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 15°C and a shortest growing cycle of 120 days at its best temperature, about 960 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Scotch bonnet pepper will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow Scotch bonnet peppers
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Photos
Photos
Scotch bonnet pepper plantings
Video
Where Scotch bonnet peppers grow
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What people are saying about Scotch bonnet peppers
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Who's planted Scotch bonnet peppers
- Batchelor Pots · Auckland, NZ
- stuartbrown Greenhouse · Waddesdon UK
Batchelor
Scotch bonnet pepper harvests
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Batchelor harvested 20.
over 6 years ago
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Batchelor harvested 15 .
over 6 years ago
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Batchelor harvested 3 .
almost 7 years ago
Batchelor harvested 20.
View all Scotch bonnet pepper harvests
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 120 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Capsicum chinense Jacq.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Solanaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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