Santa Fe Grande Chilli Pepper – 5 Seeds

Santa Fe Grande chilli pepper is an easy to grow, amazingly productive, early cropping and a well proportioned and attractive bush. The conical-shaped 7cm-long chillies that are normally harvested yellow, but will ripen to red if left on the bush. This plant is very quick to produce full-sized fruit (65 days from potting on) and keeps on fruiting as long as conditions are favorable.

Santa Fe Grande fruits are milder than Jalapenos at around 5000 Scoville units and the flavour is sometimes said to be similar to melon. These thick-fleshed chillies are good for salsa, pizza toppings and make great chilli poppers (stuffed with cheese and grilled or baked).
Heat: 5,000 Scoville heat units.

Growing Santa Fe Grande Chilli Pepper

Indoor Sowing: Mid Winter, Late Winter and Early Spring.

Direct Sowing: Not Recommended.

• Sow seeds indoors in Mid Winter, Late Winter or Early Spring.
• Soak your seeds overnight in warm water to help them germinate faster.
• Place the seeds on top of the growing medium and cover with a thin layer of soil.
• Mist the soil with water daily so that it stays moist.
• For best germination, keep the soil between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius.
• The pots won’t require light until the seeds sprout.
• Sweet Pepper seeds germinate in about 30 days and Hot Pepper seeds in about 60 days, but it can also take longer.
• After the seeds have germinated, place the pot on a windowsill or in a heated greenhouse.
• When they are 2.5cm tall prick out seedlings, moving each into their own 10cm pot. Make sure the roots are well covered and the leaves are just above the surface of the soil.
• Water and place in a light spot indoors.
• While plants are still growing indoors, move into 13cm pots filled with general purpose compost when roots begin to show through the drainage holes in the base.
• When plants are about 20cm tall, or before if they start to lean, stake with a stick.
• Pinch out the tops of peppers when they are about 30cm tall to encourage lots of branches.
• Plants are ready to be placed outdoors once all danger of frost has passed.
• Either plant directly into the ground, spacing them 45cm apart or transfer them to 22cm pots to give them plenty of space to grow.
• Peppers take a long time to grow large enough from seeds to produce mature fruit, and they require a fairly long growing season.
• Make sure you water regularly, especially in hot weather and feed every two weeks with a general purpose liquid fertilizer. Feeding should start when the flowers first appear and should continue until the fruit have been harvested.