Growing Carolina Reaper Peppers: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · October 1, 2026
Carolina Reaper is the red, wrinkled superhot with a pointed tail, bred in South Carolina by Ed Currie of PuckerButt Pepper Company. It once held the Guinness record for the hottest pepper, at 1.64 million Scoville units.
Heat and harvest
Pepper Joe’s rates it at 1,569,300 Scoville units and up, with 2 inch pods. It lists 110 to 120 or more days from transplant, so this is one of the slowest peppers here. Bonnie Plants, selling transplants, lists 70 to 75 days, which is the gap you buy back with a started plant.
Pods are ripe when fully red. Picked green they are far milder.
A big plant
Pepper Joe’s gives plants about 5 feet tall and Bonnie lists it as tall, 48 inches and up, spaced 24 to 36 inches apart. The Garden Designer gives it a 2 by 2 foot square and flags it as tall, so it goes on the north edge. Stake it early.
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: Pepper Joe’s, Carolina Reaper; Bonnie Plants, Carolina Reaper; NC State Extension, Saving Your Own Seed.
Companion planting guide for Carolina Reaper Pepper · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 4-5 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 Carolina Reaper pepper, by zone
Every zone Carolina Reaper pepper 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 | Oct 6–Oct 13 |
| 4a & 4b | Feb 27–Mar 6 | May 29–Jun 5 | Sep 21–Sep 28 |
| 5a & 5b | Feb 22–Mar 1 | May 24–May 31 | Sep 16–Sep 23 |
| 6a & 6b | Feb 7–Feb 14 | May 9–May 16 | Sep 1–Sep 8 |
| 7a & 7b | Jan 23–Jan 30 | Apr 24–May 1 | Aug 17–Aug 24 |
| 8a & 8b | Jan 7–Jan 14 | Apr 8–Apr 15 | Aug 1–Aug 8 |
| 9a & 9b | Nov 30–Dec 7 | Mar 1–Mar 8 | Jun 24–Jul 1 |
| 10a & 10bSummer window | May–Jul | Aug–Sep | ~115 days after transplanting |
| 11a & 11bSummer window | May–Nov | Aug–Feb | ~115 days after transplanting |
Harvest dates are about 115 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 Carolina Reaper Pepper plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: about 4 square feet per plant (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 4-5 ft.
Soil & water: pH 6-6.5. Needs well-drained soil. Amend with lime if soil pH falls below 6.
Good companions for Carolina Reaper pepper
- 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 Carolina Reaper pepper →
Where to buy Carolina Reaper pepper seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries Carolina Reaper 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 Carolina Reaper pepper" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Carolina Reaper Pepper: Ed Currie's wrinkled, tailed superhot, once the Guinness record holder for heat and one of the slowest peppers to ripen, so start it early and give it room.
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