chile

Seedling care

Peppers and chiles like warm weather and warm soil. So it’s best to keep your new seedlings in a sheltered spot until our nighttime temperatures are consistently 55 F or above.

Water them frequently, every other day if they’re in the sun. If the pots ever dry out, soak them in a bucket of water to make sure the potting soil gets thoroughly rewetted. Dry potting soil will shed water without absorbing it., so it can look like it’s wet when it’s not. A truly wet pot will be heavy; a dry pot will be light. Consider transplanting them into larger containers. It will let their roots develop and the larger pots won’t dry out as easily.

Check the seedlings regularly to see if any snails or aphids have found them. Hand-pick the snails. Aphids are soft-bodied insects that can easily be squished with your fingers or washed off with a hard spray of water. For a bad infestation, you can use insecticidal soap, but it’s seldom necessary.

Planting out

When you’re ready to plant your seedlings, soak them in a bucket of water to make sure the root ball is thoroughly wet. Remove them from the pot, handling them gently. If the plant is rootbound (when you take it out, you see a tight mass of white roots), gently tear them apart a bit or score the rootball with a knife.

Peppers can range from very sweet to very hot. The hotter types are often called chiles or chile peppers.

Our Chile Head Sampler is on sale now!

Whether your taste runs toward a fiery jam to warm up your toast on chilly mornings or a crusty cornbread with colorful seasonal pods, the Chile Head Sampler can be your kitchen companion.

This user-friendly guide to cooking with chiles features nearly 40 original recipes by Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County in categories such as main dishes, sauces, dips and preserves. The book, first published in 2002 and currently in its fourth printing, also includes tips on how to extend the season by drying, smoking, marinating, barbecuing and freezing chiles.

The Sampler includes a section on how to grow chiles. Packaged in holiday colors of red, green and ivory, the chile book will spice up holiday gift baskets and the creations cooks will conjure up will make guests merry and puffed up with mirth and glee.

In easy-to-follow style, the Master Gardener chile book team carries out the volunteer organization's mission of providing horticultural information and educating the public within its pages. As in previous years, the Master Gardeners grew nearly 100 varieties of rare chiles in their demonstration trials. Plants are sold, along with plenty of free advice, at our annual Spring Garden Market.