PlantFiles: Hot Pepper
Capsicum baccatum 'Hot Lemon'

Love this plant!!! It is extremely prolific and has a wonderful heat! What's most enjoyable for me is the heat coupled with the lemon grass like flavor. It is a very fresh tasting yet quite pungent pepper! I have been making hot sauce with it and lets just say my 6 plants are forcing me to make A LOT of hot sauce! I think will end up freezing some peppers to sauce later and drying the rest. I also plan to share some seeds with friends.

Salem, Mass - The City of Witches.

Slow to germinate; slow to start. Patience required.

But once established is actually a Perennial.

I started a half-dozen in 8in and 10in Containers last year. By late August there were plenty of bright yellow, tasty peppers.

I chop them up fresh, and sprinkle them onto almost anything. They are particularly good chopped fine and mixed into fresh, mashed Avocado. Those two ingredients alone, with no salt, or anything else, make a terrific dip or topping.

I brought the Pepper Plants inside in late October, and kept them by a window in a warehouse, where it was cold but never freezing. They produced occasional peppers right into the New Year before they stopped. The plants received subdued, and reduced direct light all Winter, yet by April all were still quite alive and ready to go outside.

Pepper production resumed in a small way by mid-June, and is just starting to take off now, in late July.

The 10in Container is doing twice as well as the 8in's are; no real surprise. I'm starting additional plants now, all in 10in pots. I'd try a 12in but I'm certain the plant would get too large to transport in my car to my overwintering location !

I am curious about the correct species. I have seen it listed as Capsicum annum, C. baccatum and C. chinense. From the photos, the fruit do appear similar to one of the Aji peppers. Does anybody really know?

I successfully grew this large plant in 2011. It was a great producer, but it took longer than I expected for the fruit to turn yellow. The fruit was hot even when green. I will grow the plant in 2012.

I've been growing this pepper for a few years now and have to say it's become one of my favorites. The heat level is close to a Habanero white but the blast of citrus is just, well, fun. Not only does it taste good, it's a good producer, Give it some room though, under the right conditions it'll grow tall, perhaps a tomato cage would be in order. As with any pepper, lay off the Nitrogen unless you want pepper leaf shrubs. Fish emulsion is perfect or something at 3-4-1.

I grow to sell starter plants as well as for myself. For those that are professional growers this is a good seller. I single sow 288 plug trays with these in seed starting mix and plan on radicle emergence in 7-10 days. Once cotyledons appear start feeding with 50ppm constant N for 2 weeks then continue with 100ppm N until transplant. 6 weeks to mature plugs. From plugs I transplant to 4" rounds and feed with 200ppm N for 4 weeks to sale. The 200ppm N results in a nice healthy plant with no flowers. Remember, you DON'T want flowers on a pepper when you sell it or transplant it. You or your customer will knock off 2 weeks on the growth cycle.

I get large, vigorous, attractive, bushy plants here in Duxbury, MA (zone 6, coastal). Plants grow up 3' to 4' high. The peppers are exceedingly hot, a bit citrusy, and abundant. Plants are usefully ornamental. I do a bit of pruning to maintain the shape -- here it wants to sprawl. Peppers have thin walls so are easy to dry -- you'll be glad to have them in the cupboard all year. Seeds are quite small and not abundant. Most will germinate, but they are slow. I suggest a warming pad under the seed tray. For just the fruit, one plant is ample. I grow 3 or 4 plants for ornamental use as well.

Great chilli! Easy to grow, yellow when ripe, pungency (0 -10) = 8. This is one chilli I sow every spring. In good light, it would live for several years, starting flowering much earlier the next year. Highly recommended! :O)

Very prolific and attractive plant - I get more peppers by far from it than any others I've grown, with the exception of Tabasco. Quite hot, although I only get a slight citrus taste. Attractive enough of a plant to use for decoration as well as for the fruit.

I love this chilli! Grows well in a container. Its a beautiful plant is loaded with pretty bright yellow chillis which are firey hot with a fresh lemon taste.

My plants were about a foot high, but very productive. This pepper is hot, but really does have a citrusy taste -- absolutely delicious. I will definitely grow these again. Ordered my plants from chileplants.com.

My understanding is that the "Lemon Drop" pepper that I am growing is actually C. baccatuum, not C. Chinense (has characteristic green-striped blossoms of baccatuum). I have it growing in a container with mid-day sun, probably around four hours or so. When I planted it (and other pepper transplants) I made the mistake of adding too much nitrogen, and this plant was most affected by that mistake. It rebounded after a few weeks and is now one of the most prolific peppers that I have - it is covered in approx. two inch long pods which are medium green and then turn bright yellow. The plant itself is sprawling - bushlike - extending outwards rather than upwards. Pods are relatively hot - too hot for me to eat raw but mellow out in cooking. Does have a slightly tangy flavor. It has produced throughout our summer and is continuing to bloom, although I have experienced mild pod-drop on hotter days (temps over 95). Haven't had any pest or disease problems with it. Will definitely grow again due to prolific harvest, hardiness in hot climate, and attractiveness of both peppers and plant.

My plants were fairly compact (12 - 18") but productive. The bright lemon yellow color of this chile is really special. The taste is cayenne-hot, but with an added fruitiness, almost a citrus flavor. I've seen this variety called 'Hot Lemon' and 'Lemon Drop' in seed catalogs, and the descriptions call it an heirloom variety from Ecuador.

An open pollinated cultivar introduced from the markets of Ecuador in 1999. Fruit begins green and ripens to a pure lemon yellow, 3-4 inches long fruit and has unique fruit aroma, pungency equivalent to cayenne.

Very productive and a great pepper to add to dried, crushed mixes. Produces later in the season, but continues until frost.

The heat burns in the back part of your throat instead of the front and tongue. Very pleasent taste and degree of heat for a chili head. These are hot peppers and should be used sparingly until you determine how much to use.