Wondering when to plant hot pepper seeds?
We generally like to sow pepper seeds indoors about 8 weeks before the last frost date. However, if you're planting hot peppers, you can plant them earlier, up to 12+ weeks indoors before your last expected frost date. This is because hot peppers, especially the hottest peppers seeds take a long time to germinate (7-21+ days) and they also need a long growing season to produce a lot of pods. So the month depends on your growing region, here in Colorado we like to start our hot pepper seeds in mid-March.
Learn more about things you can plant to get your March gardening started!
Not all hot peppers are created equal though, some hot peppers like most Jalapeños are fast growers so you can get a harvest out of them much sooner than the super hots like the Carolina Reaper or Ghost Peppers. For example, the very hot Lemon Spice Jalapeño can be harvested around just 65 days from planting, and it has a nice kick with 30,000 Scovilles (much hotter than regular 5,000 Scoville Jalapenos). The Orange Spice Jalapeño is even hotter at 80,000 Scovilles, and is also a good short season pepper with pods coming in around 65 days.
Find the fastest growing peppers for lots more options for short season gardens or impatient gardeners. 😉
Also keep in mind that peppers are long lived perennials – many gardeners keep them growing indoors year-round, bringing them inside in the winter, and back outside in the summer months. If you live in a climate with no frosts, you can keep some varieties of pepper plants growing for years! So if you wanted to start your peppers indoors in December, go for it! Just make sure you have enough room and lighting to grow the plants – it's best to bump them up to larger pots so they can get a good root system growing – you don't want root-bound peppers.
Learn more about how long pepper plants live »
(Hint: not all Capsicum species are created equal, some species can live and produce a lot longer than others. We find that Hatch Chile varieties, for example, produce the best the first year so we treat them as an annual.)
In conclusion, what month to plant hot pepper seeds is really up to you and your climate. In Colorado we mostly start our pepper seeds in mid-March to have a nice 6-8 weeks before transplanting outside. But we also have a couple peppers that we grow all winter long, and we started a couple Habanero seeds in January so we have a couple young plants under lights currently.
So try sowing them when you're ready, and see how it works for you!
Find our top 12 tips for Growing Peppers from Seed »
Happy growing!
