PlantFiles: Chile Pepper
Capsicum frutescens 'Tabasco'

Maryland. Aggressive grower, prolific fruit, truly drought resistant, brutal peppers, brutal flavor. Hard to kill. Ideal for pots and plant neglectors.

Bought a seedling. Produced fruit much later than my other peppers, once it got going it went crazy. Foolishly i had put it in a window box with a habanero and cayenne, it overwhelmed those. It put up one main branch that grew up two feet and then sideways three feet, until it became ridiculous and I had to prune it. Overwintered in a dorm room closet under cool white fluorescent. Did not water for 1 month during winter break. When i came back, Cayenne and Habanero were dead, Tabasco was fine. Next year, in the old box, even heavier production. Overwintered a second time and it was threatened by aphids, who were in turn threatened by mail-order ladybugs. Saw three summers before aphids finally killed it.

Pods are thin-skinned, full of juice, very few seeds. That's what makes it so good for sauce. When ripe, they are red-orange and the pod should actually easily pull out of the green stem cap. Flavor is bitter and nasty. Five or ten will liven up some chili but really not that pleasant eating alone. Viciously hot.

Story: move-in day, new roommate asks if it's hot. Yes. Asks if he can eat one. Yes. Says, "yeah, that's hot." Vomits. Brushes teeth. Drinks four glasses of milk. I ate one raw once. Only time i felt burning between my teeth.

Grows like gangbusters on a deck with full sun, southern exposure. I'm a rookie and am a little unsure as to what color to harvest peppers at, but I'll find out. Very hardy plant.

I grow these every year. They are quite hardy and easy to start by either direct seeding or reseeding by allowing a few of the peppers to fall to the ground. We use them in small amounts for cooking but mostly dried and ground as a spice or puree them fresh in the blender and add a little vingegar and just a pinch of salt for tabasco sauce. Do be careful when handling both peppers and seeds. Avoid any hand contact to your face as this can cause severe eye burning. Wash hands thoroughly after handling.

Grows with abandon and produces tons of hot little peppers here in West KY. Seems to tolerate drought better than some of the other peppers I've grown, but is content if it gets lots of moisture also.

A couple of plants will produce enough peppers to serve the needs of most families...it will cover itself in fruits until frost.

I've had a tabasco plant in each of tha past two summers- one very dry and little rain, one with rain practically every day- and had success both times. Enough, at least, to encourage me further. This will be my first time starting from seed- wish me luck!

We have grown these for years. My husband makes pepper sauce all of the time - he picks the peppers , puts them in jars, pours boiling vinegar over them, and then seals the jars. This pepper sauce is fantastic - much better than store bought.

Avery Island, Louisiana.

A 50,000-foot subterranean salt dome surrounded by marsh, swamp and a bayou. It is also where Edward Avery “Ned” McIlhenny’s Company had been growing the Tabasco pepper and making the fiery Tabasco pepper sauce since 1868.

Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders carried bottles of Tabasco sauce at San Juan Hill.

In World Wars I, II and the Korean War, bottles of Tabasco sauce were shipped to the soldiers from their loved ones.

During the Vietnam war, the McIlhenny Co. sent thousands of copies of the Charley Ration Cookbook with recipes for spicing up C Rations with Tabasco sauce, wrapped around bottles of Tabasco sauce in waterproof canisters.

By the time Operation Desert Storm ended in 1991, Tabasco sauce had become a staple in the Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE). Today US troops stationed around the world receive a 1/8-ounce bottle of the Tabasco sauce, made from Tabasco peppers, vinegar and salt, with each MRE.

The tiny bottles are filled with sauce shipped from Avery Island, Louisiana to a Brooklyn, N.Y., packer. From there, the bottles go to facilities around the country where MRE components, from Towelettes and Burritos to Matches and M&Ms, are assembled into MRE packets.