Last edited on 3 Mar 2024. View history
Shishito Pepper
A variety of chili pepper
How to sow shishito pepper: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off
Sun requirement for shishito pepper: Plant in Full Sun
Shishito peppers are mild, thin-walled, slightly sweet peppers native to East Asia. They are small, slender peppers, usually 5-10cm long, with slightly wrinkled flesh. They have a Scoville rating of 50-200, but about 1 in 10 peppers can be significantly spicy. Shishitos are usually harvested while still green and unripe, but they can be left on the plant to ripen and turn orange and red. Shishitos are popular in Japan and Korea and are often grilled, roasted, sautéed, or fried into tempura.
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Shishito pepper facts
Lifespan
First harvest expected
12 weeks after plantingHeight
75cmRow Spacing
50cmGrown for
pod harvested 1 timeWhat 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 shishito 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 shishito 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 shishito 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 shishito peppers
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Plant shishito peppers with
ginger
Photos
PhotosShishito pepper crops
Shishito pepper plantings
Video
Where shishito peppers grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about shishito peppers
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Who's planted shishito peppers
- milki SFG 4x4 · San Francisco Bay Area
- neotoma Left flowerbed · Silver Spring, MD
- corvi terrace garden · salt spring island
- bokunenjin Garden · Columbia, MD, USA
milki
Shishito pepper harvests
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milki harvested 2, weighing 0.016 kg.
about 3 years ago
milki harvested 2, weighing 0.016 kg.
View all shishito 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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