Days to Maturity: 75 from transplant
AAS Winner 1988
Here's your edible ornamental for this season (and many more to come, once you fall in love with it): Super Chili, winner of an All-America Selection and still unsurpassed for charming little pointed peppers in 3 colors, all packed with heat. Fill your baskets and flowerpots with it, and save a few to decorate the annual flowerbed, too. This little powerhouse will keep nibbling pests away from the blooms while offering you a great source of fresh or dried spice.
Super Chili Hybrid is one of the hottest peppers you can grow. Just 2½ inches long, these tubular, tapered little peppers begin green, then turn orange and finally red. They can be harvested at any color, though, for delicious heat that livens up any dish.
Bred for huge yields and compact plant size, Super Chili makes the ideal patio pepper for baskets and pots. It is bushy rather than tall, though you can also stake it and let it climb to about 2 feet high. Very well-branched, it sets simply hundreds of peppers in the summer sun.
In addition to its ornamental beauty and its delicious fruit, Super Chili is a great all-natural pest deterrent in the garden. Plant it near valuable flowering plants and tender vegetables to keep nibbling pests at bay. And when the weather cools down, take cuttings from your plants and root them for use as winter houseplants.
Sow Super Chili seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before last frost date, using your Bio Dome or other sterile, soilless medium. (If not using the Bio Dome, cover the seed lightly.) Germinate at 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit; it should sprout within 5 to 10 days. Grow the seedlings on at temperatures around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. They're ready to transplant when they have at least 2 sets of true leaves. In the garden, space the plants 18 inches apart. One plant fills a 10-inch basket or 6- to 8-inch container.
