My balcony shishitos

peppers

Solanaceae/Nightshade Family

The pepper has deep roots in Colorado - in fact, in 2023 researchers at CU Boulder discovered fossilize evidence of peppers in Colorado as far back as 50 million years ago (3).

Colorado's long history cultivating the chile pepper is celebrated each year at the Pueblo Chile Fest in Pueblo, where the local variety, the Pueblo green chile, is roasted and fed to huge crowds of people traveling from far and wide (4).

To honor the traditions of the land we inhabit here in Colorado, as well as those of my dear co-farmer Stevie, we (Me, Stevie, and our friend Talia) plan to start a co-op pepper farm. From the Pueblo Chile Growers Association Website:

"Since the 1500s, chile has been cultivated in what we now know as the Southwestern United States; it has been a staple crop in the Arkansas Valley east of Pueblo for decades, if not centuries. Although its start in southern Colorado is murky, chile was well-established at Pueblo truck farms by the mid-1900s. Chile is a small part of Colorado’s agricultural industry but holds potential as a high-value specialty crop rooted in community culture" (5).

Sunday, August 24, 2025

BASIC PEPPER CARE

Recommendations

LIGHT
bright/direct/indirect

Not tolerant of late winter frost (1).

Peppers can get sunscald from intense and direct sun - provide scattered shade with screens or reemay to help with this issue in the height of summer (1). Another cool trick to shade peppers is to put stakes (or sticks!) in the ground around the plants to scatter the sun (1). Also consider waiting to mulch until the soil is super warm (1).

WATER

moderate

Pepper plants like even moisture - they dislike sitting in pooled water and prefer irregular, deep waterings (6).

FERTILIZER

light

From the Fort Lewis "High Elevation Growing Guide" on hot and sweet peppers:

"Peppers were originally adapted to low-input conditions but still benefit from a moderately-fertile field. An overlyrich field will lead to later flowering and fruit set, which is highly undesirable for short growing seasons. Signs of over-fertilized plants can be excessive vegetative growth, yellowing of lower leaves, leaf drop and browning on leaf tips. Slow growth, stunted plants, and light green or yellow leaf color, on the other hand, can indicate under-fertilized plants. Also, iron and manganese deficiencies are fairly common in alkaline soils; they can be identified respectively by yellowing leaves between veins and yellow spotting" (7).

SEEDING

In Colorado you'll want to start seeds indoors - about 8-10 weeks before the last frost date for sweet peppers and 10-12 weeks for hot peppers(1). "Shave 2-4 weeks off this time if using a heat mat."(1) Do not transplant for at least 2 weeks after the last frost date - they really hate being transplanted into cold soil (1).

Peppers are very slow growers and because of this, any root damage will really delay harvest. For this reason it's better to seed them in a pot that's big enough so the only transfer you have to make is from tray to ground (1).

You'll want to harden off the plants for at least a week before transplant so they can slowly get used to the sun and wind (1). To do so, leave them outside in a decently sheltered spot for increasingly longer amounts of time (1).

Peppers can grow roots all along its stem as long as it's submerged (just like tomatoes!) so plant them deep (up to the first "seed leaves") (1).

POLLINATION

Most peppers are self-pollinating but prefer to cross-pollinate with other plants (17).

PESTS & DISEASE

Because Colorado is hot and dry, pepper plants are less susceptible to disease (1). Nonetheless they are able to get the same diseases as any other nightshade plant (1).

Non-toxic to pets

My Experience

LIGHT

My shishitos started to pop off (make peppers) on July 20th (2025) only after I had moved them to a spot where their afternoon light was dappled by the tomatoes.

WATER

Mid-way through the season last year (2024) at DGS Farm, the row where we'd planted the hot peppers started flooding a few inches every morning. We never did find the source of that leak (we changed out all of the drip tape!) I had read that peppers don't like sitting in water so I wasn't surprised to find that those peppers most affected were those sitting in the most water. Their leaves were droopy and yellowed and they were significantly less productive. The plant itself was also stunted in height.

FERTILIZER

After producing their first bounty, my balcony shishitos slowed down so I added some more compost and in a week or two it started producing again. After reading about signs of over/under-fertilization I suspect they could use some more compost so I'll try that soon (Aug 24, 2025).

SEEDING

The shishito plant on my balcony (2025) I bought as a start and it's doing great. The peppers I seeded indoors, unfortunately, all are a bit stunted. Initially some of them were upset because I seeded them in an egg carton that sucked up all of the moisture and from there I'm still not sure what happened!

A few of them are soldiering on and making peppers none-the-less but they're pretty puny.

Woman in a pink floral skirt and pink bonnet harvests peppers at DeLaney Farm in Denver

Farmer harvests peppers at DeLaney Farm in Denver, 2020

Harvesting sweet peppers at DGS, 2024

OVERWINTERING

WHAT is overwintering?

Given the right conditions, pepper plants are actually perennials, we just happen to be growing peppers in an environment where they can't survive the harsh winters (8).

WHY overwinter?

Overwintering pepper plants gives you a head start on next year's crops: in the time that new seedlings will spend working on getting their true leaves, your overwintered peppers are already making fruits (8). Anecdotally, I've seen the results of people's overwintered peppers and it's impressive - creating big plants with lots of fruit.

HOW to overwinter peppers?

Click on this website and follow directions: https://gardenplanner.seedmoney.org/guides/improve-your-harvest-by-overwintering-peppers/.

Peppers at the DGS farm, 2024

Farm worker in Denver, Colorado picks peppers on a farm

Farmer harvests peppers at DeLaney Farm in Denver, 2020

PEPPER HEAT

What makes a pepper spicy?

Peppers get their heat from a chemical called 'capsaicin' which is found in a pepper's membrane, which holds the seeds (12). That explains why peppers are less spicy when you remove the seeds (at least jalapeños are, I wonder if this is true for all of them)! Peppers are the food with the highest concentration of capsaicin, which happens to have a number of health benefits including being an"anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, anti-obesity agent, (with) antioxidant properties," (13).

How is spice measured?

Another word for describing the amount of heat in any given pepper is "pungency" or "piquancy" (14). This is measured on the Scoville scale, a system created by Wilbur Scoville in 1912 based on pepper tasting experiments given to trained tasters (14). The Scoville scale starts at peppers with 0 Scoville heat units (SHUs), like the bell pepper, and goes up to 16 million, which is pure capsaicin (15). Check out the chart below for average SHUs for common peppers (ratings differ based on website so I just went with the information I found on pepperscale.com because that seems to be their main deal lol (16).

SHUS PEPPER

0 Bell

50 - 200 Shishito

500 - 2500 Padron

1000 - 1500 Poblano

1000 - 8000 Hatch

2500 - 3000 Big Jim

2500 - 8000 Jalapeño

2500 - 8000 Chipotle

10000 - 23000 Serrano

30000 - 50000 Cayenne

100000 - 350000 Habanero

855000 - 1041427 Ghost

1400000 - 2200000 Car. Reaper

3000000 - 3000000 Apollo

Purple pepper at DGS Farm, 2024

VARIETIES

There are over 200 varieties of peppers (9), so here I'll be initially focusing on the pepper varieties we're interested in growing on our co-op farm. Listed in order of least to most heat.

SHISHITO

heat: 50 to 200 with the occasional 1000 SHU

Ok so Shishitos are not traditional Coloradan peppers but they're my favorite veggie! Coat them well in oil and slow sauté them until they blister and collapse and sprinkle on some salt and OH MY!

Shishitos are a part of the capsicum annuum family (9). The word "shishito" means "lion's head' due to the bumpy tip of the pepper resembling a lion (18). Shishitos are a variety of pepper bred in Japan that grow to be about two to four inches long (17).

CULINARY USES:

I've only ever had shishitos pan blistered when ordered from a restaurant but I've also added them to soups and it's turned out great!

BIG JIM

heat: 500 to 3000 SHU

A hybrid cross between New Mexican chiles and a Peruvian pepper bred to create a larger and milder variety of New Mexican chiles (10). Named "Big Jim" after one of the co-creators of the pepper, these peppers are distinctive for their size - sometimes growing over a foot long (10). The heat is gentle, less than an average jalapeño (10).

CULINARY USES:

Chile rellenos: Big Jim is great for this because of their size and "the milder heat complements the cheese's richness without competing" (10).
Green chile sauce: Nice if you want a less hot green chile sauce
Stuffed and grilled: "Grilling enhances the Big Jim's smoky flavor," (10).
Sauces and salsas: Adds smoky depth, you can add it to tomato sauce for enchiladas or huevos rancheros base (10).
Add them to stir fry

MOSCO (from Pueblo Green Chiles)

heat: 5000 to 20000 SHU

AKA Hatch green chile. A man named Harry Mosco grew Pueblo green chiles and when he passed away the seeds passed to his nephew, Mike Bartolo. When Mike began growing these seeds he noticed that one plant was bigger and different than the others so he began selecting from that plant and after several years they had developed the Mosco pepper (4). It is now "the most common strain of Pueblo green chile," and the most predominant grown near Pueblo, CO (5). About as hot as a moderate jalapeño or a little warmer than cayenne (5).

Bigger
Thicker skin (better for roasting)
Grows well locally (Pueblo, and hopefully Denver lol)

"Mosco is the superior to the existing land races of the Mira Sol chile pepper in terms of total yield, fruit size, and fruit uniformity. Fruit wall thickness is also greater in this line, resulting in better roasting characteristics. Pungency is equal to or slightly greater than existing lines of the Mira Sol. Fruit are slightly harder to detach from the plant in Mosco than the typical Mira Sol pepper. As a result, harvest is somewhat more difficult. Mosco was tested for four years at AVRC (Arkansas Valley Research Center). Total marketable yields of Mosco were significantly higher than a commercially available source of New Mexico Chile Improved" (11).

CULINARY USES: