Growing Datil Peppers: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · September 30, 2026
Datil is a small yellow-orange chinense pepper long grown around St. Augustine, Florida, where it goes into local hot sauces and relishes. Baker Creek describes its heat as comparable to habanero, with a sweeter, fruitier flavor.
A long season
Baker Creek lists 90 to 100 days after transplant before fruiting, and recommends starting seed indoors 8 to 12 weeks before your last frost. We schedule it at ten. In a short-season zone, give it the warmest spot you have.
Plant size and support
Baker Creek says plants typically reach 2 to 3 feet and recommends staking or caging to support branches heavy with peppers.
One plant per square foot in the Garden Designer. Wear gloves to handle the fruit. The Bell Pepper profile covers shared care, and the companion guide lists neighbors.
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 sweet and hot peppers side by side.
Sources: Baker Creek, Datil; Wikipedia, Datil pepper; NC State Extension, Saving Your Own Seed.
Companion planting guide for Datil Pepper · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 2-3 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 datil pepper, by zone
Every zone datil 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 21–Mar 28 | Jun 13–Jun 20 | Sep 16–Sep 23 |
| 4a & 4b | Mar 6–Mar 13 | May 29–Jun 5 | Sep 1–Sep 8 |
| 5a & 5b | Mar 1–Mar 8 | May 24–May 31 | Aug 27–Sep 3 |
| 6a & 6b | Feb 14–Feb 21 | May 9–May 16 | Aug 12–Aug 19 |
| 7a & 7b | Jan 30–Feb 6 | Apr 24–May 1 | Jul 28–Aug 4 |
| 8a & 8b | Jan 14–Jan 21 | Apr 8–Apr 15 | Jul 12–Jul 19 |
| 9a & 9b | Dec 7–Dec 14 | Mar 1–Mar 8 | Jun 4–Jun 11 |
| 10a & 10b | Nov 21–Nov 28 | Feb 13–Feb 20 | May 19–May 26 |
| 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 Datil Pepper plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2-3 ft.
Soil & water: pH 6-6.5. Needs well-drained soil. Amend with lime if soil pH falls below 6.
Good companions for datil 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 datil pepper →
Where to buy datil pepper seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries datil 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 datil pepper" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Datil Pepper: A habanero-hot, sweeter chinense pepper long associated with St. Augustine, Florida.
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