Spring has sprung regardless and it's chili sprouting time in the hood. We are typically picking the native chilies by May.


First we have the mother ship sprouting leaves.


Noobs in the nursery waiting for transplant.


Some transplanted today.


Some last season transplants.


Some that were cut back at the end of last season.

Our propagation efforts with the native chili's have gotten better. One day, all our hedges will be chili's.

How do you create cuttings to root? I have about 50/50 luck with my transplants, currently have 2 that are about 4 ft but potted.

I tried cuttings once. New growth did best, but I've had better luck with seeds. Now that you mentioned it. I might try some clippings from those that were cut back at the end of the season, this would be the right time.

They don't like transplanting. The ones in cups above were planted last Fall. They have been outside, mostly shaded, for more than three months. That seems to work well. Also, planting where they will be shaded when small helps.

The best place to plant are areas well mulched. Some of the most productive grow up under other shrubs. They do like more sun when they are bigger. More sun means more chilis. .


That's a Thanksgiving Day Crop on the one we usually pick daily. It' probably three days worth and It had stopped flowering.

Do your potted chili's produce a lot? I might put one of those last three in a pot.

I get enough from 2 plants to fill 4 quart jars every year with fall producing in abundance. Tepins are the wild native plants not to be confused with pequins from what I understand.

I generally dry mine out and use the same as I would red pepper flakes. I was going to try to plant some of my leftover seeds but realized I was a little too gracious and didn't have much left. I do have a dried bag of pequins I used in chili this winter from the Mexican market and may try to germinate some of those.

I have a small grow light in my garage I used to winter some of my plqnts. Can I just moisten some of those in the cardboard jiffy pots or should I cover them in plastic to increase the humidity for the first couple weeks?

That's productive! Those cups pictured are in a plastic tub. I just put dirt in the cups, water generously, throw one chili of seeds in each cup on top of the dirt and put the lid on the tub, early October. After two or three weeks, I'll take the lid off the tub and place it near a window. A month or two after that, I put them on an East facing deck and at the end of March, into the ground.

I will definitely put some in a pot. I have some cayenne and serrano in a pot doing well.


You can also recycle spent water bottles. These were planted 3 or 4 weeks ago.