Datil Pepper - Heirloom Chile

Datil Pepper is one of the hottest chiles known to man. It's been grown almost exclusively St. Augustine, Florida since 1777, when the city was first settled by Spaniards. Seeds have been passed down from father to son for more than 200 years but are nearly impossible to find for sale.

Datil Pepper is vivid yellow and has a distinctive fruity flavor as well as blistering heat. It's used to make sauces, pickles, mustards, and dips. This shiny yellow fruit is an institution in St. Augustine, where there's a Datil Pepper Festival every year.

Seeds are almost impossible to find outside the region, but locals will tell you it's well worth growing. It can even be grown indoors. These seeds came directly from a gardener in St. Augustine and are guaranteed to produce the original Datil Pepper.

Germination:

Thoroughly moisten your seed-starting mix, and then fill your pots/containers to within 1/2" of the top.

Place two or three seeds into each small container or each cell of a seed starter. Cover the seed with about 1/4" of soil.

Water to ensure good seed-to-mix contact. You can use a plant mister or just dribble a stream of water over the top. You don't need to soak the soil, just moisten the top layer.
(You don't want to heavily water and "push" seeds to deep that they can't germinate.)

Keep the mix moist but not soaking wet. Lay some plastic kitchen wrap and a rubber band over pots to keep in heat and moisture.

Place the pots in a warm, sunny spot or on top of a heat mat. (Seeds won't germinate until the soil itself is 75-80 degrees.)

Check pots daily. As soon as you see sprouts, remove the covering and place the pots in a sunny window or under grow lights, keeping the lights just an inch or two above the tops of the plants.

10 seeds