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Trinidad Pimento Pepper
Capsicum chinense
Light green to bright red seasoning pepper with little to no heat. Very popular in Trinidad and throughout the Caribbean, seasoning peppers are tastier substitutes for bell peppers, and perfect for making heatless (or nearly heatless) yet very flavorful sauces and salsas.
Photo by Amirah Mitchell of Sistah Seeds.
Days to maturity: 75-90
Seeds per pack: 25
Germination rate: 70% on 12/27/2023
Planting / harvesting notes
Start seeds indoors 8-10 weeks before the last frost and transplant into the garden well after the danger of frost. Keep seedlings moist but do not overwater. Transplants should be initially watered in well, and plants will be most productive with regular irrigation and full sun. These abundant, lanky plants may have to be staked.
Seed keeping notes
Peppers are generally self-pollinating, though we isolate different varieties of the same species by at least 50 feet, in hopes that flying insects will not cross pollinate them unexpectedly. There are several important species of peppers, so check your scientific names! Pepper seeds are ripe when the fruits have turned their final fiery color - in this case, fiery-orange. Cut the fruit, scrape out seeds, and lay them out to dry on a labeled screen or paper product in a ventilated place away from direct sunlight for a week or two. Consider wearing gloves for your protection! Drying the peppers before seed extraction can slightly lower your germination rates, but works fine for home seed saving as long as the peppers do not rot.
