Last edited on November 02, 2026. View history
Rainbow Cayenne Pepper
A variety of cayenne pepper
How to sow rainbow cayenne pepper: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off
Sun requirement for rainbow cayenne pepper: Plant in Full Sun
A cayenne pepper about 60 cm tall, perennial in warm climates and grown as an annual in temperate ones. The thin-walled, pointed fruit are 5 to 10 cm long and ripen in a mix of red, purple, green and yellow. Medium heat. Start indoors in trays in early spring; it needs an even 18 °C to germinate. Prick out at 2.5 cm, transplant at 10 cm, and plant out after frost risk at 30 cm apart on the diagonal.
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Rainbow cayenne pepper facts
Lifespan
Crop 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 rainbow cayenne 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 rainbow cayenne 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.
Plant rainbow cayenne peppers with
chives
ginger
Video
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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) |
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