Last edited on 9 Oct 2019. View history

Capsicum Baccatum

A variety of capsicum

How to sow Capsicum baccatum: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off

Sun requirement for Capsicum baccatum: Plant in Full Sun

Capiscum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae that produces peppers. The Capiscum genus contains 20-27 species of peppers which vary in color, shape, size, and heat. 5 species are domesticated. Most peppers are green when unripe and change color as the fruit matures. The fruit of most species contains capsaicin, which gives hot peppers their spiciness. Bell peppers (Capsicum annuum) are an exception: they do not contain capsaicin due to a recessive gene, and are therefore not spicy. The Scoville scale is used to measure the relative heat of peppers. Bell peppers have a rating of 0-25 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), jalapenos are between 2,500-10,000 SHU. All peppers, regardless of species, prefer a long, warm growing season and well-drained soil high in organic matter. Seeds can be started indoors 8-10 weeks before hardening off and transplanting. In cooler climates, it can be preferable to grow peppers in containers indoors to extend the growing season and prevent frost from killing plants. Peppers have an upright growing habit and can benefit from staking to help the plant support the fruits.

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Growstuff is a free, community-run site for people who grow food. Keep track of what you plant and harvest, find seeds to swap, and see what is growing near you. Join to record your own Capsicum baccatum.

Capsicum baccatum facts

Lifespan

Annual living and reproducing in a single year or less

What are growing degree days?

A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.

Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.

For Capsicum baccatum, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 8°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 930 growing degree days to a first harvest.

Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Capsicum baccatum will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.