Peppadew pepper plants

The sweet piquante people know from a jar, sold here as a plant.

By Debra Austin

Species: Capsicum baccatum

A jar pepper, as a plant

Peppadew is the trade name for a sweet piquante pepper. Thick walls, a little tang, mild heat, usually met pickled. The species is Capsicum baccatum, which puts it with the ajis, not with the bell peppers it sometimes gets compared to.

Every piquante we list is at 1,177 SHU: Malawi Piquante, the orange, the golden, and the giant. That is mild. The giant is a size selection, not a hotter one. The orange and the golden are color selections.

Why they also sit on the aji page

Because they are baccatums. The aji page is every baccatum we grow, plus anything with aji in the name. A peppadew is both a piquante and a baccatum, so it belongs in both places. If you want the wider species, that page is the one.

Malawi Piquante is listed as a seedling and as an established plant when both are in the catalog. Same variety.

How hot a peppadew is

Every peppadew we list is 1,177 SHU. That is one number, not a range, and it is mild. The jar brine is sweeter than the raw pod. The raw pod is still the same pepper.

Growing them

Baccatums get tall and they branch wide. A peppadew is not the giant of the species, and it still wants more pot than a jalapeno. Five gallons is a fair start. Stake it once the pods pull the branches down. The wall is thick, so a loaded branch is heavier than it looks.

They take cool nights better than a habanero does. That is a baccatum trait, and it is why they are a reasonable indoor plant if the pot is big enough.

peppadew on WikiPepper

The Peppadew we grow

Questions people ask

How hot are the peppadew plants you sell?

Malawi Piquante, Peppadew Orange, Golden Peppadew, and Giant Peppadew are each listed at 1,177 SHU.