Last edited on 29 Nov 2025. View history
Banana Pepper
A variety of chili pepper
How to sow banana pepper: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off.
Sun requirement for banana pepper: Plant in Full Sun
Banana peppers are Capsicum annuum cultivars that are curved like a banana and have a mild, tangy taste. They are often bright yellow, but can also be green, red, or orange. Mature, ripe peppers are sweeter than younger ones. Spicy varieties are called Hungarian wax peppers. Banana peppers are often confused with Pepperoncini, which are a separate cultivar of Capiscum annuum and Capsicum frutescens. Banana peppers can be eaten raw, stuffed, or pickled.
- 5
- plantings
- 7
- harvests
- 1
- seed packet
Banana pepper facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
60cm × 30cmRow Spacing
45cmGrown for
fruit harvested 7 timesCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
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 banana 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 banana 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 banana 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 banana peppers
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Plant banana peppers with
ginger
Photos
PhotosBanana pepper plantings
Banana pepper harvests
Video
Where banana peppers grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about banana peppers
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Who's planted banana peppers
- Cwilliamson Home Garden · Angleton, Texas
- snake 2023 · Moonville, OH
- dzada Garden
- shiny The Deck · Wellington, NZ
Cwilliamson
Banana pepper harvests
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shiny harvested not specified.
over 7 years ago
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shiny harvested not specified.
over 8 years ago
-
shiny harvested 7.
almost 9 years ago
shiny harvested not specified.
View all banana pepper harvests
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View all banana pepper seeds
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Capsicum annuum L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Solanaceae |
|---|---|
| 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) |
Learn more about banana peppers
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