Growing 7 Pot Douglah Peppers: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · October 1, 2026
7 Pot Douglah, also sold as Chocolate 7 Pot or Trinidad Douglah, is a Trinidad superhot whose pods ripen to a deep chocolate brown rather than red.
Heat and harvest
Sandia Seed rates it at about 1,200,000 Scoville units and Pepper Joe’s at 923,000 to 1,853,396. Sandia lists 95 days. Pods are ripe once fully brown; green pods are milder and do not have the flavor the variety is grown for.
Plant size
Sandia and Pepper Joe’s both give plants about 3 feet tall. One plant per square foot in the Garden Designer.
Start it early
Start seed indoors about eleven weeks before your last frost, the same as our other superhots, and expect slow, uneven germination. The Superhot Pepper profile covers bottom heat for germination, gloves for handling the fruit, and overwintering the plant indoors so you are not starting from seed every year.
The companion guide lists what to plant nearby.
Growing it next to other peppers
Different pepper varieties cross-pollinate easily, hot ones included. NC State Extension notes that when hot and sweet peppers cross, the heat shows up in later generations grown from saved seed, and suggests keeping varieties 20 to 30 feet apart if you plan to save your own. Baker Creek, which grows seed for sale, isolates varieties by at least 500 feet. If you buy fresh seed each year, you can plant different peppers side by side.
Sources: Sandia Seed, Trinidad Douglah / Chocolate 7 Pot; Pepper Joe’s, 7 Pot Douglah; NC State Extension, Saving Your Own Seed.
Companion planting guide for 7 Pot Douglah Pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot) · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 2.5-3 ft
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. It needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
When to plant 7 Pot Douglah pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot), by zone
Every zone 7 Pot Douglah pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot) grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a & 3b | Mar 14–Mar 21 | Jun 13–Jun 20 | Sep 16–Sep 23 |
| 4a & 4b | Feb 27–Mar 6 | May 29–Jun 5 | Sep 1–Sep 8 |
| 5a & 5b | Feb 22–Mar 1 | May 24–May 31 | Aug 27–Sep 3 |
| 6a & 6b | Feb 7–Feb 14 | May 9–May 16 | Aug 12–Aug 19 |
| 7a & 7b | Jan 23–Jan 30 | Apr 24–May 1 | Jul 28–Aug 4 |
| 8a & 8b | Jan 7–Jan 14 | Apr 8–Apr 15 | Jul 12–Jul 19 |
| 9a & 9b | Nov 30–Dec 7 | Mar 1–Mar 8 | Jun 4–Jun 11 |
| 10a & 10bSummer window | May–Jul | Aug–Sep | ~95 days after transplanting |
| 11a & 11bSummer window | May–Nov | Aug–Feb | ~95 days after transplanting |
Harvest dates are about 95 days after the sow or plant-out date, not after starting seeds indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many 7 Pot Douglah Pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot) plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2.5-3 ft.
Soil & water: pH 6-6.5. Needs well-drained soil. Amend with lime if soil pH falls below 6.
Good companions for 7 Pot Douglah pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot)
- Basil: Reputed to repel aphids and improve pepper growth nearby, but a controlled garden trial testing this same claim on a related crop found no pest-reduction benefit from basil, and found higher pest counts on the basil-companioned plants. Treat this pairing as unproven, not as a working pest deterrent.
- Onion: Reputed to deter many common pepper pests, though this specific pairing hasn't been tested the way onion/carrot pest-masking has. Treat it as garden tradition.
Full companion guide, including what to keep away from 7 Pot Douglah pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot) →
Where to buy 7 Pot Douglah pepper seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries 7 Pot Douglah pepper seeds right now. A local garden center or a specialty seed house is the place to look.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing 7 Pot Douglah pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot)" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing 7 Pot Douglah Pepper (Chocolate 7 Pot): The chocolate 7 Pot: a dark brown Trinidad superhot with a richer flavor than the reds.
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