Mainly grown for it's decorative, super-hot fruits (which have a rating of 350,000-400,000 on the Scoville Scale), ‘Scotch Bonnet’ will produce plenty of tam o’ shanter-shaped chilli peppers throughout the summer. These can be eaten when they're green, pumpkin orange, or fiery red - although we'd always recommend wearing gloves when handling them. It's a good one to grow if you like your food spicy, and if you save the seeds from the ripe chillies, you can plant them up for another crop the following year.
Growing instructions:
Start off indoors, sowing seed 1cm deep into trays filled with good quality, multi-purpose compost. Alternatively, use small pots, sowing two seeds per pot and then selecting the strongest seedling to grow on. Plant out or pot up in a greenhouse from April to June and when plants reach 20cm in height, pinch out the tips to encourage more side shoots (and subsequently more peppers) to form.
Eventual height:
0.5m
Eventual spread:
0.5m
Soil:
Moderately fertile, moist, well-drained soil
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Humans/Pets: Irritant if eaten; skin/eye irritant