Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about ordering and growing peppers
Still have questions?
Our customer service team is here to help with any questions about our plants, shipping, or growing advice.
Is there a minimum order?
No minimum. Buy one plant or ten — mix and match any varieties you like. One Carolina Reaper, one Ghost Pepper, whatever you want.
I joined a future-drop alert. Will I be charged a deposit?
No. Alerts only email you when a plant is ready. You are not charged unless you place an order.
I'd like to change my order after submitting. How do I do this?
Email us. We can't guarantee substitutions, but we'll do our best to accommodate.
Can I find your plants cheaper somewhere else?
Probably. We are not a hardware store brand. We don't dope rockwool with epsom salts and send you a plant that is meant to die. What we offer is a healthy, well-established plant grown by people who actually grow peppers.
Are you a licensed nursery?
Yes. We're a licensed Texas nursery, and we grow entirely indoors in a climate-controlled space. Our plants are started and finished in clean soilless mix — they never touch outdoor ground at any point. That's how we stay free of soil-borne pests, and it's why we can ship to almost every state in the country. Texas sits inside the federal imported fire ant quarantine zone, which regulates any plant moved interstate in growing media. Because our plants are grown indoors and never contact outdoor soil, they're produced to the containerized-nursery standard that quarantine requires.
What states do you ship to?
We ship to most of the US — all states except California, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. See below for why.
Why can't you ship to certain states?
California, Arizona, Florida, and Hawaii have active regulatory barriers for Capsicum (pepper) plants from Texas — per-shipment phytosanitary certificates, state-specific shipper permits, and in some cases border inspections. Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are excluded due to USDA import restrictions and shipping logistics. The compliance cost makes it impractical at our current scale.
Do you ship year-round?
We don't respect the seasons. Our climate-controlled indoor nursery runs all four — and we ship every Monday, all year. Growing inside a climate-controlled nursery is how we keep plants pest-free and legally shippable to almost every state. When to move your plant outside is your call — you're your own sherpa there.
How long does shipping take?
Order any day you like — every order ships on a MONDAY. We hold shipments to the start of the week for the health of the plants, so they never sit over a weekend in a carrier facility. You choose the speed at checkout, and it leaves us that Monday either way: Overnight arrives Tuesday, 2-Day Air arrives Wednesday, 3 Day arrives Thursday. You'll get tracking the moment it's on the way. Paying for speed shortens the time your plant spends in the box — it does not change the day it leaves us.
Can you ship to a PO Box?
No. We ship UPS, and UPS cannot deliver to a PO Box. Please give us a street address. An order placed to a PO Box can't be delivered and we'll have to contact you for a new address, which delays the plant.
How much is shipping?
It depends on where you are, how big your order is, and the speed you pick. Inside Texas, Ground starts at $8. Everywhere else it's air service only and starts at $14. You choose at checkout and see the exact price before you pay.
Why isn't shipping free?
A live plant has to travel by air to arrive alive, and air service on a box is not cheap. We buy our labels through Shopify, which carries a substantial carrier discount, and we pass that discounted rate straight through to you. Building shipping into the plant price would just hide it, and we'd rather price the plants honestly.
How is my shipping price calculated?
Two things: how far the box travels from our Texas nursery, and how big a carton your order needs. UPS charges on the size of the carton, not only the weight of what's inside, so a larger order in a bigger box costs more to send. Established plants stand about a foot tall and need a taller carton than seedlings, so they cost a little more to ship.
Why does it cost more to ship to Maine than to Texas?
Carriers divide the country into zones by distance from the shipper. From our Texas nursery, a Texas address is zone 2. Maine is zone 8, the farthest zone there is. Same plant, same carton — the box simply travels a great deal further to get there. The difference is a few dollars on a single plant and grows as the order gets bigger. We price each order for the distance it actually travels rather than averaging it out, because averaging means Texas customers quietly paying part of Maine's freight.
Can I choose Ground shipping to save money?
In Texas, yes — Ground reaches any Texas address in one to two days, so your plant is still in hand by Wednesday, and it runs about $8. Outside Texas we don't offer it. Ground takes three to four days once it leaves the state, and four days sealed in a dark box is too long for a living plant. Every extra day in transit costs leaves and vigour. Air service is one to three days, and we'd rather you pay a few dollars more and open a healthy plant.
Does the season change how you ship?
The season changes which way the box hurts, not whether it does. Cold is the obvious one heading into winter — a night in an unheated trailer or warehouse can do real harm. But a sealed box in a Texas summer runs far hotter than the air outside, and heat is every bit as dangerous. Underneath both, every day in transit is a day in total darkness with no water, and that is what strips leaves in any month. There is no mild season for a plant in a box. It's why we ship Monday and only sell fast service: the fewer days in there, the better your plant arrives.
How are plants packaged for shipping?
Plants are carefully packed with moisture and support to survive transit. Every order ships on a Monday to minimize time in the box and avoid weekend delays.
Will my plant lose some leaves in shipping?
Probably a few, and that's completely normal — some leaf loss happens both in transit and as new growth comes in, especially older leaves toward the bottom of the stalk. It isn't damage. Once you container it up, water it, and ease it back into light, it recovers and pushes fresh growth. (A crushed or snapped plant is different — photograph it and contact us.)
What size are the plants when shipped?
Most plants ship at 4–8 inches tall, well-established, with the root ball wrapped in a moisture-retaining bag. Get them into a container or the ground within a day or two of arrival.
My box arrived damaged. What do I do?
Document everything before you open it. Take photos of the box from multiple angles, including any damage. Then open it carefully and photograph the contents. This protects you if you need to file a claim or contact us.
I don't want to damage my plants unboxing. What do I do?
Watch our unboxing video before you open the box — it walks you through the process step by step.
What if my plant arrives dead or damaged?
Contact us within one week with photos. Dead on arrival — we reship, no questions. We also offer a 30-day guarantee: if your plant doesn't make it within 30 days of arrival, you get 100% store credit toward a future order. We grow these things. We share the risk.
Do you accept returns?
Plants are living things, so we don't accept returns. But our guarantee covers you — see above.
Are you organic?
All of our inputs are OMRI listed. However, the organic certification process is a scam, so we are not certified. If you're looking for certified organic, we are not your huckleberry.
Are your plants kosher?
No. We mix Down to Earth Crab Meal into our soil — it's a mild organic fertilizer with a coarse texture that's excellent for early aeration. Unfortunately, that makes our plants decidedly not kosher. If this matters to you, we understand.
Can I grow peppers indoors?
Practically all of our peppers can be grown indoors — we grow all of ours that way. Chinense varieties (ghost peppers, Carolina Reapers, habaneros) prefer high heat and may need extra attention during cooler months, but it's very doable.
How do I care for my pepper plant when it arrives?
Browse our Knowledge section for care guides covering soil, watering, container sizes, light, and fertilizer, plus variety-specific notes.
Are your plants isolated? Will crossing be a problem?
Our plants are grown from seed and are not always isolation-grown, so we can't guarantee varietal purity for seed-saving purposes. For eating, cooking, and growing out for fruit — this doesn't matter at all. Your plants ship before significant flowering, so cross-pollination in our nursery is rarely a concern. That said, if you care about isolation: your plants will arrive with little to no flower or fruit development. Feel free to pinch off any flowers you see — they'll regrow, and it's actually better for the plant to size up and root into its destination container before setting fruit. Let it establish in the container you intend to keep it in before letting it produce.
Are your plants guaranteed true to variety?
We grow from seed supplied by a rotating roster of specialty seed sources, and which ones we use changes over time. Peppers are open-pollinated by nature, so cross-pollination — and the occasional honest mistake or mix-up — can happen anywhere upstream before a seed ever reaches us. Because of that, our seed sources don't warranty the plants that result, and we can't promise every plant will be 100% true to its named variety. If you want to be more certain, pinch off the flowers and peppers your plant arrives with and grow it out fresh from there. It's the nature of open-pollinated chiles.
What's the difference between all these pepper varieties?
Peppers vary in heat level (measured in Scoville units), flavor, size, color, and growing habits. Visit our Knowledge section or WikiPepper.org to dig in.
How hot is too hot?
We carry everything from sweet varieties (0 SHU) to superhots like Carolina Reapers (2+ million SHU). Start where you're comfortable and work up.
How many peppers can I own?
That's between you and your God.
Are your product photos real, or AI-generated?
Every product photo on this site is a real photograph of a real pepper plant or its fruit — taken either by us or by the seed supplier credited on the image itself. We never use AI-generated or AI-edited images for products. (In many of our own shots, that's the owner's hand holding the pods.) Where we do use AI, it's for obvious decorative artwork and graphics only — never for anything depicting a product for sale. What you see in a product photo is what we grow and ship: a real, live plant.
How long have you been growing peppers?
We've each been growing peppers as hobbyists for about 40 years. We've been doing it professionally for around 8. Our real specialty is exotic trees — peppers got interesting and here we are.
Why are you doing this?
I was already doing it. Now I'm doing it professionally because peppers got interesting and I have a son who needs to go to college. We grow things — that's the whole thing. If the heat from a pepper you grew yourself brings you some small satisfaction in an otherwise relentless world, we consider that a win.