How to Grow Tabasco Peppers (Capsicum Frutescens)

by Matt Gibson

Did you know that you can grow tabasco peppers? Native to the Mexican state of Tabasco, the Tabasco pepper is a household name due to the famous hot sauce made in Avery Island, Louisiana. The compact, easy-to-grow pepper plant produces many clusters of tiny pepper pods nearly all year round, from late summer to early fall. The pepper pods start out yellow, green, or a pale yellow-green, then mature to shades of red, orange, or yellow.

During the Reconstruction period in the
Southern U.S. following the Civil War, American cuisine on the whole was rather
bland. In 1868, a man named Edmund McIlhenny set out to change the trend toward
blandness and created a recipe to spice things up that would quickly rise in
popularity. Tabasco sauce is now the most popular pepper sauce in the world and
is sold in more than 195 different countries and territories.

The tabasco pepper hits the; Scoville scale at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville heat units. It’s mega spicy compared to the popular jalapeno, which clocks in at 2,500 to 10,000 heat units and is much weaker than the tiny tabasco pepper. It’s closer to the heat range of the cayenne pepper, which is around 40,000 heat units. As you can see, there’s quite a range of heat differences between various chili pepper types.

So, want to try your hand at making your own
version of Tabasco sauce? Well, the official recipe is a closely guarded and
coveted secret. You can probably get pretty close after a few attempts though,
and it’ll only take a handful of ingredients (red pepper, salt, and vinegar)
and a little bit of patience. (McIlhenny ages their mash for the official
Tabasco sauce for up to three years in white oak barrels.)

The tabasco pepper plant itself is relatively
easy to care for and should do well outdoors in warm climate areas. If you live
in a cold climate area, you can still have a successful harvest of tabasco
peppers, as they also do very well indoors in container gardens.

This frost-tender perennial pepper plant can grow up to three feet high and wide, with a single pepper measuring, on average, one and a half or two inches long. Each little tabasco bush produces loads of peppers—way more than you need unless you are opening your own hot sauce business—in a range of hues spanning the spectrum from green to yellow, orange, and red. Often, gardeners may find their pepper plants producing a rainbow of different colors together on one plant.

Types of Tabasco Peppers

The standard tabasco pepper, known officially
as capsicum frutescens, is the only variety of tabasco pepper that is commonly
grown in North America. However, there are a few rare varieties of tabasco that
are grown around the world. You may want to add a few of these to your pepper
garden as well just so that you can compare and contrast the variety that’s out
there for yourself.

Tabasco
Pepper: This is the standard tabasco pepper that the
world has grown to love and the main focus of this article.

Tabasco
Greenleaf: This variety was created by Auburn
University in Alabama specifically to emulate the original tabasco pepper and
create a version that is resistant to the tobacco etch virus, which tends to
plague the original cultivar to no end in certain areas in the Southern U.S.
Other than being resistant to the common virus, there is not much difference
from the original to be found in the Greenleaf variety.

Tabasco
Hawaiian: The Hawaiian variety of tabasco pepper is
exactly what its name suggests—a cross between the Hawaiian hot pepper and the
tabasco pepper. These plants make one- to two-inch peppers in hues from pungent
yellow to fiery orange that pack a mean punch somewhat similar in flavor to the
habanero pepper.

Tabasco
Short Yellow: The short yellow tabasco pepper grows on
a very small pepper plant. This variety grows only one foot high and wide,
producing blunt-tipped, inch-long, yellow or orange fruit. Aside from the small
green flowers that the plant blossoms into during the spring, this variety can
easily be mistaken for the orange pekoe plant.

Growing Conditions for Tabasco
Peppers

The tabasco pepper plant is not very particular about the type of soil it needs to flourish as long as there is a good amount of organic matter present. Like most pepper plants, these guys require lots of heat from the climate, and a daily dose of bright sunlight. Full sunlight exposure is preferred, but in especially sweltering climate areas, if the leaves of the plant get scorched or start to dry up, provide some afternoon shade to take the edge off.

Tabasco pepper plants are not tolerant of
drought. In fact, they require consistent levels of moisture to survive. Due
mainly to their tropical origins, tabasco pepper plants also require high
levels of moisture to perform their best. In addition to being sensitive to
drought, these plants do not grow well in environments that get too cold. If
temperatures fall to 28 degrees Fahrenheit or below, your pepper plants will
start to show signs of damage. If you live in an area that is subject to cold
weather, you will want to plant your tabasco peppers in containers so that you
can bring them inside when the cold fronts come blowing in.

Photo by Gardening Channel reader Rebecca AkaBecky McLarty

How to Plant Tabasco Peppers

If you live in the northern United States,
cover your garden beds with a dark-colored mulch about a week before planting
your peppers to keep the soil warm. The mulch layer will also help with
moisture retention to provide an environment that is especially beneficial to
young plants.

Choose a sunny location to plant your peppers
or to place your pepper plant containers. If you’ll be planting in the ground,
dig a hole that is two times as wide as the pot you were using for the seedling
or transplant. Gently remove the pepper plant from its pot by loosening the
soil and carefully tipping the plant into your hand.

Place the transplant into the soil, and
position it about as deep into the ground as it was in the pot. Refill and
position, gently packing in new soil around the plant. Water your transplanted
tabasco pepper plant deeply to help settle the soil, and be ready to add in a
bit more filler after the soil settles to fill in the area.

Care of Tabasco Peppers

Small stakes tied with rubber bands to the longer fruit-bearing stems of the tabasco pepper plant may be necessary for support, as the small plants tend to produce a massive amount of fruit.

From the second you plant them in the ground or get them settled in their containers until the end of the season when they are finished producing fruit, tabasco pepper plants require a steady but moderate amount of water. Proper drainage is key, however, as the pepper plants will not tolerate saturated roots.

Amend with lots of organic matter, and top
with mulch to help improve drainage and water retention. A standard vegetable
fertilizer will work fine for tabasco peppers, but be sure to avoid
overfertilization, which will lead to lots of extra foliage and much less
pepper production.

Harvesting and Storing Tabasco Peppers

Allowing the peppers to ripen on the plant
before harvesting will enhance the flavor of your yields, but allowing this
extra time will also reduce the size of your harvest. Considering how many
peppers tabasco pepper plants can produce in one season, we recommend letting
them ripen fully.

When removing the peppers from the plant,
avoid damaging the plant or the fruit itself by using a sharp pair of garden
shears. Many gardeners feel compelled to remove the fruit by tugging on the
peppers themselves, but doing so can damage the plant in the process.

For the best flavor and overall quality, enjoy
your tabasco peppers on the same day they were picked. You can also let them
ripen for a few days on the kitchen counter. Because of the juicy quality of the
tabasco pepper, we do not recommend drying them out for storing, as doing so
would lose a lot of what makes tabasco peppers so tasty. Freezing the peppers
is really the only way to keep their full flavor intact for future use.
However, the peppers will no longer be crisp—they are softened by the freezing
and thawing.

Instead of eating these incredibly hot peppers raw off the vine or freezing them and losing the texture, why not create your own version of Tabasco sauce to keep around the house or give away to friends and family as gifts?

Health Benefits of Tabasco
Peppers

Like many other hot peppers, the tabasco
pepper has many worthwhile health benefits. It can help in the digestive tract,
promote heart health, relieve joint pain, encourage weight loss, fight against
cancer, reduce psoriasis, and even soothe migraine headaches.

Pests and Diseases of Tabasco
Peppers

Tabasco pepper plants typically have very few pest or disease issues—as long as the gardener provides the plants with the appropriate conditions. Try growing the greenleaf variety mentioned under “Types of Tabasco Peppers” to avoid the tobacco etch virus. Provide proper drainage to prevent issues with mold or rot, and make sure to keep pests away from your peppers.