Thai Super Chili Hybrid Pepper Seeds

Days to Maturity: 75 from transplant

Here's your edible ornamental for this season (and many more to come, once you fall in love with it): Thai Super Chili hybrid, bearing up to 300 delightful little 1¾-inch peppers pointing straight up all over the plant. 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.

Thai Super Chili hybrid is a Thai Dragon type, one of the hottest peppers you can grow. 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. They arise in clusters about 2 to 3 inches wide, providing bright pops of color all over the plant.

Bred for huge yields and compact plant size, Thai Super Chili makes the ideal patio pepper for baskets and pots. Perfect for containers of all kinds. It is bushy rather than tall, though you can also stake it and let it climb to about 18 to 20 inches high. Very well-branched, it sets generously in the summer sun.

In addition to its ornamental beauty and its delicious fruit, Thai 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 Thai 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 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.