Last edited by shiny on 8 Nov 2026. View history
Fresno Pepper
A variety of chili pepper
How to sow Fresno pepper: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off
Sun requirement for Fresno pepper: Plant in Full Sun
The Fresno Chili pepper is a Capiscum annuum cultivar created by Clarence Brown Hamlin in 1952. The plant produces 5-7cm long conical fruit that grow pointed upwards. As they mature, they turn from green to orange to red and the fruit droops downwards. The peppers have a Scoville rating of 2,500-10,000 units and can be substituted for jalapeño and serrano peppers in sauces, salsas, chutneys, and stews. They have a more complex flavor than jalapeños and mature faster. Fresno Chilis do not dry well and are best used fresh. Young green peppers are less hot than fully mature red ones.
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Fresno pepper facts
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 Fresno pepper, 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 Fresno pepper 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.
Growing Fresno peppers
- Sow seeds indoors somewhere warm 10 weeks before planting out
- Pot on the seedlings 6 weeks before planting out
- Harden off the seedlings 1 week before planting out
- Set or refill beer traps for slugs and snails at planting out every week
- Stake the plants 2 weeks after planting out
- Water regularly at planting out every week
- Check for aphids 2 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Feed with tomato fertiliser 6 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Pick chillies regularly at first harvest every week
- Bring pots in before the first frost 3 months after first harvest
How members grow Fresno peppers
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant Fresno peppers with
ginger
Photos
PhotosFresno pepper plantings
Fresno pepper harvests
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Where Fresno peppers grow
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Who's planted Fresno peppers
- linuxstumbler 4x8 Raised Bed · Maine, USA
linuxstumbler
Fresno pepper harvests
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Capsicum annuum L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Solanaceae |
|---|---|
| Optimal temperature | 17 - 30 °C |
| Absolute temperature | 8 - 35 °C |
| Optimal rainfall | 600 - 1250 mm/year |
| Absolute rainfall | 500 - 1700 mm/year |
| Optimal soil pH | 5.5 - 6.8 |
| Absolute soil pH | 4.5 - 7.0 |
| Crop cycle | 60 - 180 days |
| Max altitude | 3000 m |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
| Optimal light | very bright |
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