Last edited on 16 Oct 2026. View history
Serrano Pepper
A variety of chili pepper
How to sow serrano pepper: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off
Sun requirement for serrano pepper: Plant in Full Sun
Serrano peppers are a type of chili pepper native to Mexico. They have a bright, biting flavor and are spicier than jalapenos with a Scoville rating of 10,000 to 25,000. They are often eaten raw, or used in pico de gallo, salsa, and soups. A plant can produce up to 50 peppers 3-8cm long. Like many other peppers, Serranos can be harvested when they are green and unripe, or red and ripe.
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Serrano pepper facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
75cm × 75cmRow Spacing
45cmWhat 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 serrano 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 serrano 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 serrano 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 serrano peppers
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant serrano peppers with
eggplant
ginger
Photos
PhotosSerrano pepper crops
Video
Where serrano peppers grow
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What people are saying about serrano peppers
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Who's planted serrano peppers
- Cwilliamson Home Garden · Angleton, Texas
- corvi stone hill plot · salt spring island
Cwilliamson
Serrano 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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